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SEARHC's announcement last week that it was shuttering the 21-year-old Alaska Crossings program in Wrangell, a wilderness therapy program for at-risk children that the health care provider took over in 2017, disappointed much of the community. The news release cited rising costs. Spokesperson Maegan Bosak, senior director of lands and property management at SEARHC offices in Sitka, said Friday she didn't have an operating cost for Crossings but would ask the finance department for the...
Gilbert Gunderson passed away on Dec. 22, 2021. He was born June 24, 1930, in Wrangell on Shakes Island, as was his sister Nellie Torgramsen, to Margaret Shakes and Gunnar Gunderson. Their grandparents, Chief George and Mary Shakes, cared for Gilbert and Nellie until Gilbert was 5 years old, at which time Mary passed away. From there they were sent to Juneau, where their dad worked at the AJ Mine. There Gilbert started school, which didn't go well because he couldn't speak English, only Native...
Tom Gillen Sr. and Glenda Gillen met at a teen dance one weekend in Ketchikan. It was either the end of 1957, or the beginning of 1958, he said. He remembered when they married - that was 1959. Their life in Wrangell has lasted a lot longer than the dance. The couple has been married 62 years and have five children: Three boys, two girls; 13 grandchildren; "I've got 27 great-grandchildren," Glenda said. "Twenty-eight," corrected Tom. "Twenty-eight great-grandchildren," Glenda amended. "I missed...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association blessed a tree harvested from ancestral Native land on Etolin Island and headed to the Governor's House in Juneau for Christmas display. The blessing in front of the Chief Shakes Tribal House on Thursday, Nov. 18, was a partnership of the WCA, U.S. Forest Service Wrangell Ranger District, and U.S. Coast Guard, which provided the Elderberry, a 65-foot buoy tender, based in Petersburg, to transport the 14-foot-tall lodgepole tree. The Elderberry left for...
The U.S. Forest Service got to most of its Wrangell-area work projects this past summer, with one big job pushed into next spring. The Anan Wildlife Observatory- which has reached the end of "its structural lifetime and needs replacement," the agency's website says - was supposed to be torn down in October, Corree Delabrue, U.S. Forest Service information assistant at the Wrangell Ranger District, said. Tory Houser, the recreation, lands, minerals and heritage staff officer for the Wrangell and...
Wrangell's annual Bearfest opens Wednesday and will feature symposiums by bear experts, art and photo workshops, children's games, pool time and more - even a demonstration by a Seattle sushi chef, adding a seafood entrée to the five-day festival menu. This year's Bearfest will run to Aug. 1, returning in full force after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a scaled-back celebration in 2020. The schedule also includes children's events, live music, the annual Bearfest run, a golf tournament,...
Most of a half-mile of slippery boardwalk trail at the Anan Wildlife Observatory is being replaced with gravel this summer, but that's just one of several U.S. Forest Service projects planned and proposed for the Wrangell area over the next several years. The agency is accepting public comments on another project proposed at Anan - a new deck at the viewing platform. "The existing viewing platform has reached the end of its usable life and needs to be replaced,"according to the Forest Service...
Snow-covered trees framed the view of Chief Shakes Tribal House last Sunday....
Minnie Evangeline (Larsen) Kalkins, 88 Minnie Evangeline (Larsen) Kalkins, Yéil Tláa (raven mother), 88. a lifelong resident of Wrangell, Alaska, and member of the Tlingit Shtax'héen Kwáan (Stikine River People) walked into the forest peacefully surrounded by her children on September 7, 2020. Minnie was born in Wrangell on November 20, 1933, to Emma (Shakes) Larsen and Svere Larsen. Following her matrilineal heritage, she represented the Kaach.ádi (Raven Frog Clan), hailed from Kaalch'al aan,...
Last March was Women's History Month. To recognize several women who have made contributions to the cause of protecting the environment, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council hosted a teleconference town hall meeting on March 31. Of the women who were highlighted in the meeting, there was one Wrangell resident: Tis Peterman. "While we planned this event a few months ago, like everyone else we had no idea that our lives would be so upended by the coronavirus health emergency, and that tools...
The Nolan Center held its final Chautauqua speaking event of the year last week. Wrangell resident Virginia Oliver gave a presentation on her 2017 trip to Washington D.C. where she got to take an up-close look at about a hundred different Tlingit artifacts held by the Smithsonian. Oliver said she was invited on the trip near the very end of 2016, as a part of the Smithsonian's "Recovering Voices" program. Recovering Voices, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, the local organization dedicated to supporting Alaska Natives, held an election for new tribal council members last Monday, March 25. The WCA oversees cultural events, supports subsistence lifestyles, assists with transportation, and does much more for Wrangell's native community. Board members are elected by tribal members of the WCA. Five people have been chosen for the council this year, according to results released on the WCA's Facebook page: Christie...
March 27, 1919 A nation-wide campaign is being made this week for 1000 tons of old clothing for the relief of the most serious need of millions of men, women and children of northern France, Italy, Czecho-Slovakia, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Greece and other allied countries. Wrangell’s share of this amount is 2000 points and a committee consisting of Mrs. Carlson, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Grant, Miss Woods and Mrs. Walker is canvassing the town. While garments should be strong and durable, they need not be in perfect condition. The committee w...
Chief Shakes Tribal House was filled with curious visitors looking to learn about the Tlingits, a Native Alaskan people indigenous to Southeast Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Wrangell is home to many people of Tlingit descent, some of whom came together Saturday afternoon to share stories and pieces of their culture. John Martin, who organized the event, said that he and several other participants wanted to share part of their native heritage. Tlingit culture is filled with stories, some of which can be found in people’s names. Martin’s Tli...
events next week, the ninth Wrangell has hosted. The five-day series of events has been organized each year by Sylvia Ettefagh, an outfitter with Alaska Vistas whose work frequently conveys visitors southward to the Anan Wildlife Observatory, a mainland enclosure overlooking the Anan Creek lower falls and its robust bear population. As Alaskan a sight as the salmon they come to feed upon, the festival highlights these black and brown bears inhabiting the area surrounding Wrangell. Chock full of...
The Friends of the Museum will be hosting a reception next Tuesday to celebrate Wrangell's eponym, in a sense, and welcome a group of his descendants. The island is one of the namesakes of a prominent Russian explorer, the Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, who in the early 19th century explored the Siberian Arctic and was appointed governor of the empire's holdings in Alaska in 1829. While an explorer, administrator and admiral for the Russian Empire, Wrangel was himself of German descent, part of th...
During Sealaska Corporation's annual shareholder's meeting, held this year in Wrangell late last month, the Native organization bestowed ownership of an important local landmark to its hosts. In remarks made during the meeting, corporation director Richard Rinehart explained he had recently put forward a proposal to the board to transfer ownership of Kiks.ádi Totem Park to Wrangell Cooperative Association, the community's federally-recognized tribal government. The Totem Park lies at the...
For the first time since 1995, Wrangell will be hosting the annual shareholders’ meeting for Sealaska Corporation this weekend. Formed in 1972 after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act had been adopted the previous year, Sealaska has become the largest of 13 regional corporations subsequently created in the state. The corporation represents 22,000 Native shareholders from among the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples, of which 254 live in Wrangell. Headquartered in Juneau, Sealaska manages 650,000 acres of tribal lands and makes i...
A group of visiting AmeriCorps volunteers have been leaving their mark around Wrangell the past month, with the community being their last stop in a 10-month tour of service. Ten volunteers coming from all corners of the country have already been doing an assortment of projects for the community. They are part of a wider program which operates one of its five campuses out of Sacramento, California. "The program that we are in is the National Civilian Community Corps," explained Kara Riley, the...
Carol Alice Feller-Brady, Koodeilgé, 91, passed away surrounded by those she loved in Juneau on May 2, 2018. She was born on Jan. 1, 1927, the youngest of twelve, born to Elizabeth Kadashan of Wrangell Naanya.ayíi,who was the first ANS Grand Camp President and Raymond James Sr. of the Sitka Kiks'.adí. Her grandfather was Chief Kadashan of the Wrangell Kasqwa.kweidi and her grandmother was the sister of Chief Shakes VI. As a child, she lived in Sitka. By the age of twelve both of her parents, as...
Wrangell Cooperative Association began work on renovating new office space last week. Workers began knocking down walls and pulling up old materials from a multiplex apartment at the corner of Wood Street and Zimovia Highway last Tuesday. Sale of the two-acre lot had been finalized in December 2016, and architects have since designed what will be about 2,500 square feet of office space for the Wrangell tribe. President Richard Oliver of the WCA Council explained offices will be provided for the...
Carol Lynn Snoddy (Aa k'wát'i of the Kaach.ádi clan) passed away after a long illness on December 18, 2017. She was born at Wrangell General Hospital on November 17, 1950 and was the 4th of eight children of Marcus and Mae Dailey. She met and married the love of her life, Harold Snoddy, on July 29, 1969. She was the great-granddaughter of the last Chief Shakes, Charles Jones and his wife Susie. One of the many great accomplishments of her life was working with her sister Tis and Todd White on t...
Carol Lynn Snoddy, 67, (Aa k'wát'i of the Kaach.ádi clan) passed away after a long illness on Dec. 18, 2017. She was born at Wrangell General Hospital on Nov. 17, 1950 and was the fourth of eight children of Marcus and Mae Dailey. Carol met and married the love of her life, Harold Snoddy, on July 29, 1969. She was the great-granddaughter of the last Chief Shakes, Charles Jones and his wife Susie. One of the many great accomplishments of her life was working with her sister Tis and Todd White o...