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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...
What started out as merely a way to show support for her best friend ended up being a life-changing experience for high school senior Brodie Gardner. Last June, she was asked by Mia Wiederspohn to go with her to the Sealaska Heritage-organized Celebration in Juneau, which led to Gardner becoming more involved in the Tlingit culture and restoration of the Chief Shakes gravesite on Case Avenue. "I went to Celebration with Virginia (Oliver), and I'm not part of her Tlingit class but my best friend...
Zeke Yéeskáa Young always enjoys meeting new people, traveling to new places and learning about different cultures. But he had no idea when moving to Wrangell last year from Port Angeles, Washington, that he'd be helping to sustain a culture. Young's high school senior project is to create five new signs in Tlingit and English to direct residents and visitors to five Native points of interest. "When I came up here last year, I needed a fine arts credit," he said. "I was put into Tlingit for m...
For many years now, Google Maps street view allowed travel planners to tour cities in a realistic, 360-degree-view platform. But not people planning to visit or those living in Wrangell. One teen decided to fix that. Senior Killian Booker photographed all of the borough's streets and popular tourist attractions to upload to Google Maps, allowing people to use the street view option. He chose the undertaking for his graduation project. Booker began taking photos and editing them on Sept. 12 last...
Alaskans will elect a U.S. senator, a member of the U.S. House, a governor and several dozen state legislators on Nov. 8. It’s an important vote, with real consequences for the nation, the state’s future, school funding, the ferry system, civil liberties and social justice. And yet, judging from past turnouts in non-presidential election years, maybe half of Alaska’s registered voters will cast a ballot. Which means the other half stayed home — unconcerned, uninterested and unmoved in how their state and country are run. Really, 50% is a good b...
A century ago on Nov. 7, 1922, Tlingit translator and civil rights advocate Tillie Paul Tamaree helped Charlie Jones, the seventh Chief Shakes, vote in a Wrangell municipal election. Her actions led to a court case that would secure the right to vote for Alaska Natives two years before the federal Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 extended citizenship to Native people across the United States. When she was 12 years old, Tamaree entered the Amanda McFarland Home for Girls in Wrangell to avoid an...
