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We stayed inside for days, the nonstop rain pelting the windows. We waited for the sun to come out to explore our new community. We were California girls. Little did we know the sun was not coming out; it can rain six to 12 feet a year in Southeast Alaska. I answered a knock on the front door to find two shy, Alaska Native boys. They had come to show my sister and me their island. We picked blueberries in the rain, hiked a steep winding trail through a dark, dripping rainforest to a waterfall, saw a beach where 3,000-year-old petroglyphs were...
Wrangell's famed Three-Frog Totem on Shakes Island is no more. The clans involved in the pole's history decided its purpose had long since passed. It was taken down in a ceremony on Sept. 6. Kiks.adi clan mother Katherine Geroge-Byrd said the pole's origins date back to the 19th century. A Naanyaa.aayí chief's three sons were slated to wed Kiks.adi women in a series of arranged marriages. Instead, the three women instead fell in love with - and ran away with -slaves. For the Naanyaa.aayí chief,...
The Oakland Museum of California has housed the Kadashan cane for the past 65 years. Now, with help from the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the five-foot cedar cane is due to arrive in Wrangell in the coming days. Lu Knapp, a direct descendant of Chief John Kadashan, was thrilled when she learned of the cane's imminent return. "It just gives me a really good feeling hearing that it's coming back," Knapp said. "It was my great-grandfather's!" While any...
T.J. Sgwaayaans Young, a Haida master carver from Hydaburg, arrived in Wrangell earlier this month to lead a team of Wrangell-based apprentices to carve a new Kadashan totem pole. When the work is finished, the Wrangell Cooperative Association plans to hold a pole raising ceremony on Shakes Island sometime next year, Wrangell's first totem raising in 38 years. The Kadashan pole - referring to the Tlingit chief of the same name - is the first of two the WCA team will carve this year. Next month,...
Bearfest this week provides an opportunity for people to try their artistic skills at making holiday ornaments. In the shape of bears, of course. But nothing ordinary about these ornaments — they will hang on the national Christmas tree on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The U.S. Forest Service has selected a tree from the Wrangell Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest — they won’t say which one yet — and the agency has called on Alaskans to create 10,000 ornaments for the big tree and multiple smaller trees that will be display...
Bearfest is returning for its 15th year on July 24 – 28. The annual event is dedicated to bears and the surrounding environment, where attendees can enjoy symposiums, cultural and educational activities, art and photo workshops, fine dining, marathons, a bear safety session and more. In two of the workshops, kids and families are invited to create bear-themed ornaments to decorate the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree and smaller companion trees that will represent Alaska in Washington, D.C., this holiday season. The trees are coming from the T...
In 2017, a delegation from the Tlingit and Haida tribes flew to Colorado to meet with officials from the Denver Art Museum. The dozen tribal members came to discuss the return of a 170-year-old wooden house partition, painted by a master Indigenous artist. The panels - 67 inches tall, 168 inches wide - illustrate the story of how a raven taught the Tlingit to fish. The delegation told the museum that this screen never should have left Southeast Alaska and belonged home with its people under a...
Commercial tour operators who take customers to the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site this summer need to get a state permit and pay a fee. In addition to buying an annual permit in advance, commercial operators are required to pay the state $6 per person for guided tours or $2 per person if they simply drop off customers at the site for an unguided tour. Operators can total up their paying customers and send in their payment after the visitor season is over, as long as they make the Dec. 31 deadline, said Preston Kroes, Southeast Region...
Throughout her high school years, senior Mia Wiederspohn has been very invested in "everything Tlingit," learning Indigenous studies and its history in Wrangell. She worked with mentor and teacher Xwaanlein Virginia Oliver to learn the language, then assisted Oliver to create the radio show "The Application of Learning Tlingit Language," 41 three- to five-minute episodes teaching words and phrases. She also created and hosted her own five-episode radio program called "Mia's Gift," sharing her...
The intent is to promote Wrangell’s unique attractions, its wildlife, culture and history, aiming to attract more independent travelers to town. “Our goal is to establish a steady stream of visitors,” Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director, said of the town’s new Travel Wrangell marketing plan. “It’s bringing in that independent traveler,” she explained in an interview last month. The objective is to have visitors “spend more money and more time” in town. The marketing plan has been under development since last May, a month a...
It appears that tour operators who bring visitors to Wrangell’s Petroglyph Beach will be required to pay a $350 annual fee to the state plus $6 per person starting next year. The fee for commercial use of a state park or historic site has been a provision in Alaska law since the 1980s but apparently never enforced for the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site, which was designated in 2000. The fee structure was updated in 2021. The State Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation realized it had not issued any commercial-use permits or collected f...
Members of the Tlingit community gathered outside the Wrangell airport last Friday while chests carrying four objects -a mudshark hat, a mudshark tunic, a blanket and a blanket with a killer whale stranded on a rock while hunting - were carefully lowered back into their hands after 91 years of separation. The objects, which belong to the Naanya.aayí clan, were taken by Wrangell police from the home of Mary Kunk, Eva Blake and Betty Carlstrom in the 1930s. In an effort to right past wrongs,...
Gary Albert Stevens, 53, passed away in June in his Las Vegas home of natural causes. His memorial service will be at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, at Chief Shakes House on Shakes Island in Wrangell, followed by a reception and potluck at the American Legion Hall. He was born to Gary James and Susan Georgina Stevens on March 28, 1970, in Wrangell. He was Tlingit and Haida of the Naanyaa.iee clan. His Tlingit names were Gush Tlein, Ts'eil and "Eagle Looking Out on the Ocean." He was the first gran...
Alaska tribes, including the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks will receive more than $350,000 in federal grants to use toward bringing objects of cultural significance back to the state and tribal clans. The National Park Service announced the funding on Aug. 7, as part of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. "It's very significant," Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson, president of the...
From mouthwatering berry pies and plant-based ice creams to Appalachian bluegrass songs and visual arts workshops, Wrangell’s BearFest will be a feast for all the senses. This annual celebration of one of Alaska’s most beloved mammals will offer a multitude of opportunities for attendees to learn about the natural world, share their talents and celebrate the state’s unique wildlife and environment. Here are some highlights from the packed event schedule: Georgia-based guitarist Matt Eckstine will keep festival-goers in a celebratory mood start...
From a “beary” pie contest to a cub-o-war, art workshops, live music and a usually sold-out dinner, BearFest is returning for its 14th year. The activities start July 26. The popular educational and cultural event celebrates bears and the surrounding environment. Along with the activities, educational opportunities and symposiums and a bear safety session are planned. One of the more popular features of BearFest is the dinner and fundraising auction held at the Stikine Inn and Restaurant, which will begin at 6 p.m. July 28. Tickets went on sal...
As tribal members lined the shore on the backside of Shakes Island, dressed in regalia from their respective clans, one of their voices rang out. "Where do these boats come from?" "We are the children of Hawaii. We come from Hawaii," came the response from a canoe in Reliance Harbor. "Aahá. It is good to see you again. Aahá. Come on our land. You are welcome." From the moment the sailing vessel Hōkūleʻa appeared on the horizon June 27 to greet the Tlingit tribe near Petroglyph Beach for an esco...
A nearly four-year sailing journey will launch on Thursday from Juneau - and Wrangell is part of the itinerary. The Polynesian Voyaging Society is setting sail in the Hōkūleʻa as part of its Moananuiākea circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean, touring Southeast before continuing on. It will tentatively arrive in Wrangell on June 26. Members of the Wrangell Cooperative Association are preparing for the arrival of the 16-member Hawaiian vessel which will stop in Angoon, Kake and Petersburg bef...
Many of Wrangell's totems have fallen into disrepair and need rehab work or replacement. Thanks to a $20,000 donation from the Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Community Council, the Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal council will be able to move forward with plans to carve two new totems while repairing older ones. Last Saturday, Sue Stevens, president of the WTHCC, presented Edward Rilatos, WCA tribal council president, with a check that will go toward the work. The funds came through a grant...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau is converting the town to digital. On May 24, the WCVB board unanimously approved spending up to $12,000 with a mobile mapping app provider to aid and encourage travelers and increase data analytics for marketing. At the monthly board meeting, Economic Development Director Kate Thomas and Matt Henson, the borough’s marketing and community development director, presented board members with results of their research into smartphone mapping software. “This is meant to be a software platform that serves bu...
Denny Leak slowly carves a killer whale totem out of a tree trunk last Thursday behind the Wrangell Cooperative Association cultural center. The totem will be one of two that will replace the old carvings that were mounted on posts around the Chief Shakes gravesite on Case Avenue. Brodie Gardner, who graduated high school on May 19, cleaned up the site by power washing and painting the surrounding fence and cleaning the stairs leading up to the site as part of her senior project. The previous...
As the first cruise ship of the season arrived in town last Thursday, the Wrangell Cooperative Association's new tourism coordinator, Brooke Leslie, gave visitors an informative presentation inside the Chief Shakes House. After performing a song, she taught the group about matrilineal Tlingit family structure, construction of the house, traditional communal living and canoe travel. The Tlingit traveled long distances by canoe, she explained, but "how would you know that the people arriving are f...
Whether it's the Naanyaa.aayí, Kaach.ádi, Taalkweidí or one of the six other Tlingit clans represented in Wrangell, each has a story of its origins, handed down over thousands of years. One organization is working to preserve those stories, as well as stories of all Southeast Alaska clans, as accurately as possible. About two years ago, the Sealaska Heritage Institute began researching and compiling information on an initial six Tlingit clan crests and how they came to be. The work was pu...
It is a voyage of 43,000 miles encompassing the Pacific Ocean, and it begins in Southeast. The Hawaiian canoe Hōkūleʻa and its crew will set sail from Juneau in June to circumnavigate the vast, blue body of water over the course of four years. On its way south, it will stop in Wrangell for a few days. The double-hulled plywood, fiberglass and resin canoe, which was built in 1975 and made its first voyage the following year, was lifted out of the waters of Honolulu Harbor and was scheduled to be delivered to Tacoma, Washington, last Friday. Fr...
Elias Decker wants to elevate the stature of the pep band drummer - literally. For his high school graduation project, the 18-year-old senior is building a platform to allow the band's drummer to play alongside the saxes, clarinet and cowbell. The idea for the platform came to Decker when he attended basketball regionals in Juneau in March. Two drum platforms were set up at opposite ends of the bleachers in the Thunder Mountain High School gym so that bands from competing schools could take...
