Photo: Nahaaygm Łagyigyedm (Spirit of Our Ancestors) sits ashore One Tree Island outside of Metlakatla, Alaska. (Hunter Morrison / KRBD)

Wildlife across southern Southeast Alaska is emerging from wintertime hibernation, but in Metlakatla on Annette Island, animals are not the only things waking up.

Canoes are hitting the water again, marking this year’s start of a Tsimshian tradition that is tied to the village’s history.

KRBD’s Hunter Morrison tagged along for a recent canoe journey, and has this story.

About a dozen people are holding cedar boughs in a driveway on the outskirts of town. Seated atop a nearby trailer is a long, white canoe.

David Nelson grabs his drum and begins singing.

As the drumbeats echo through the subdivision, the mixed-aged crowd cleanses and awakens the vessel by brushing the cedar along its sides.

The song’s lyrics honor the canoe and welcome its paddlers.

It has not been performed in three years.

“We believe they’re like a living, breathing thing, so we treat it as such. We say ‘hello’ to it, and when we put it away, we tell you ‘it was good to be you,’ and we thank it for doing everything.”

The ceremony marks the start of the canoe’s spring and summertime journey.

The 40-foot long Nahaaygm Lagyigyedm (Spirit of Our Ancestors) has navigated Metlakatla’s waters and traveled to neighboring islands since 2013.

Johon Atkinson, president of the nonprofit Liwaayda, says the organization’s goal is to share Tsimshian culture and bring Metlakatla back to its canoeing roots, which dates back over 130 years.

“So the whole reason why we got this canoe was to get our people in Metlakatla out on water.”

While today’s canoes are often used to educate people about Tsimshian culture, Atkinson says they are still important to traditional practices.

Later this month, the Spirit of Our Ancestors will be used in Metlakatla to harvest seaweed from neighboring islands.

“It’s that feeling of we’re going to be on the ocean, on the highways of our ancestors. And just that feeling is so comforting. I feel complete when it is canoe season.”

Minutes after its blessing, the canoe is towed to a boat launch, from which they will paddle to nearby One Tree Island.

Johon Atkinson, right, and family members cleanse the Spirit of Our Ancestors with cedar boughs before the canoe’s first journey of the season. (Photo: Hunter Morrison / KRBD)

Atkinson, who is joined by his son, niece, and nephew, hopes fun opportunities like these can help keep Tsimshian traditions alive for the next generation.

“Having them experience this now is something that many of us adults have not experienced at their age. So the fact that they are here, learning and leading – there’s just no words on how amazing that is.”

Atkinson says folks from all over the country visit Metlakatla each summer to experience the village’s canoe journeys firsthand.

(Courtesy Robert Nick family)

Robert Nick was a man of the Southwest Alaska tundra – and much more. He died last month at the age of 84.

His memorial service was at St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage last week where, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, he was remembered for a lifetime of public service.

Robert Nick’s Russian Orthodox service was fitting for a man who loved the harmonies of the Slavonic choir. He was known to pass out recordings of his favorite hymns to friends and fellow singers.

For Andrew Guy (Yup’ik), president of the Calista Native Corporation, Nick represents the end of an era.

“He’s part of that group that came from having no electricity, no outboard, to where we are today.”

(Courtesy Robert Nick family)

Nick helped bring electricity to villages throughout Southwest Alaska through his work with the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, an organization he helped found.

He also ran a store in Nunapitchuk, a village near Bethel, Alaska where he grew up.

Richard Jung (Yup’ik), who owned Jung’s Trading Post, in the neighboring village of Napakiak, said Nick’s leadership grew from the values he was raised in.

“One of the things you’re taught is to help people. You try to do what you can for your village and your region. And he was one of those guys that did that./ He knew that he could get things done and was one of the ones that knew he had to do it. He was just a fine person.”

Robert Nick was very proud that he was the first in his family to receive a Western education and graduate from high school.

That achievement became a foundation for decades of service on boards and commissions that focused on a wide range of causes: health, education, housing, economic development, job training, and protecting the Yup’ik subsistence way of life.

(Courtesy Robert Nick family)

His niece Karen Cooke Phillips (Yup’ik) says he was tireless.

“Attending meetings, after meetings, for days and hours, and for continued years.”

And yet, Phillips says, his home was filled with love, a reflection of his early life.

Nick was the eldest of nine children. After his father died, he took over his father’s store and helped to provide for his younger brothers and sisters – an experience Phillips says shaped his lifelong role as a father figure – not just within his family but across the region.

“He has been in those arenas, leading in lots of different organizations and providing a voice for people from our region, or the lifestyle of the people of our region.”

Nick had two twin passions, housing and education. He dedicated many years of his life to improving housing conditions in rural Alaska.

Eventually, he became a national advocate for federal Indian housing programs and brought attention to the Third World conditions in Alaska villages.

He also served on the Lower Kuskokwim School Board for two decades and became its longtime chairman.

Steve O’Brien, a former school principal, remembers giving Nick a copy of Robert Rules of order to help him.

“And he laughed, and he said, ‘Oh, I already have that book.’ And he reached behind from the bookshelf, and he pulled down this very worn and earmarked copy of Robert’s Rules with sticky pages and stuff. He was an expert about this stuff.”

O’Brien says it is no surprise that Robert Nick was eventually asked to chair almost every board he served on.

In 2014, Nick received an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

(Courtesy Robert Nick family)

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