Sorted by date Results 1348 - 1372 of 7954
A total of just 15 salmon were caught and entered the past two weekends for Wrangell’s 68th King Salmon Derby. The top three adult entries won cash prizes, as did the top three kids ages 12 and under. In the adult category, John Fernen caught the biggest king at Point Ward on June 25, weighing in at 42.5 pounds. Second place went to Mark Soeteber with his 30-pound king, caught at Burg Bay on June 17. Neal Soeteber landed in third place with a 27-pound king caught at Kindergarten Bay on June 25. The prizes were $800, $400 and $200, r...
Delayed a day last week for COVID testing after leaving Juneau, the Polynesian Voyaging Society vessel Hōkūle’a was scheduled to arrive in Wrangell for a traditional Tlingit welcome and community reception on Tuesday, June 27. Wrangell Cooperative Association and clan leaders planned to take the visitors on Wednesday aboard charter boats to see Old Town, WCA Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese said Monday. The original Tlingit village is about 13 miles south of downtown. The 65-foot, twin-hulled sailing craft left Juneau on June 18,...
Southeast legislators said they were disappointed that Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of the one-time increase in state money for K-12 public schools, but will try again next year to address education funding needs. “We heard from school districts around the state that needed the money,” Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz said June 21. The $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for the 2023-2024 school year was a compromise between House and Senate members, Democrats, Republicans and independents, he explained. The money, which Dunleavy cut...
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is set to become the new owner of Juneau-based Alaska Seafood Co., the tribe’s president said. “We’re finalizing the deal right now and we will probably take ownership by the first of the month,” Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson said Thursday, June 22, in a phone interview. The Alaska Seafood Co., established in 1987, is a seafood processor that sells Alaska salmon, black cod, halibut and salmon caviar including fresh, frozen, canned and smoked products. Its seafood can be found...
The cruise ship with about 1,000 passengers anchored off Nome, too big to squeeze into the city’s tiny port. Its well-heeled tourists had to shimmy into small boats for another ride to shore. It was 2016, and at the time, the cruise ship Serenity was the largest vessel ever to sail through the Northwest Passage. But as the Arctic sea ice relents under the pressures of global warming and opens shipping lanes across the top of the world, more tourists are venturing to Nome — a northwest Alaska destination known better for the Iditarod Trail Sle...
A Ketchikan man agreed to plead guilty earlier this month to federal charges in conjunction with a long-running scheme to sell fake Alaska Native souvenirs manufactured in the Philippines. Travis Lee Macaset's plea deal follows several other guilty pleas this summer that stem from a scheme to sell mislabeled products out of two businesses in Ketchikan. "It occurs more often than we would like," said Jack Schmidt, the assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the cases. With tourism rebounding from...
The state ferry Columbia, after a week in the shop to repair leaky pipes and its bow thrusters, was expected back at work starting Wednesday, June 28, with its regularly scheduled run from Ketchikan to Bellingham, Washington. The vessel was pulled from service on June 20, missing two southbound stops and one northbound stop in Wrangell. The 50-year-old Columbia left Haines that day — without any passengers — and headed straight for the Vigor shipyard in Ketchikan for repairs, canceling all stops along the way. “There’s a manifold down in the...
A federal grant of nearly $3 million over five years will enable Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage to vastly expand its nursing-education programs, the university announced. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Labor, was one of 25 given to public-private partnerships across the nation to expand nursing training, APU said. While the entire nation is struggling with nursing shortages, Alaska’s situation is particularly dire. A 2022 report by the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association found that Alaska has the nation’s lowest pre...
Angoon students led a procession of regalia-clad residents down the village's Front Street on June 19. Elders and family members looked on as they sang and drummed Tlingit songs in the afternoon sun, then joined in dances - the killer whale song, the dog salmon song and the Haida "tired paddler" song. Children spun on playground equipment above the sparkling water of Chatham Strait, and visitors recorded videos on their phones. It was a celebration of enduring culture - the students were...
(AP) - A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar last week, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday, June 22, to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video...
Migrating birds have returned to Alaska, and so has the highly pathogenic avian influenza that began to sweep through global bird populations in 2020. That means Alaskans should continue to be vigilant about the strains that have arrived in the state from across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, experts said during a webinar June 6 hosted by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Symposium’s Local Environmental Observer Network. Alaska’s geographic position, at a point on the globe where different avian flyways converge, makes it a transmission zo...
The commissioner of Alaska's Department of Fish and Game has urged the organization that certifies seafood harvests as sustainable to revoke its endorsements for Russian-caught fish. Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang is calling on the Marine Stewardship Council to stop certifying Russian harvests. "It is nothing short of outrageous that over the last 15 months the MSC has observed Russian actions in Ukraine, assessed the implications for its Russian client fisheries, and chosen a path of...
The borough-owned hospital property on Bennett Street has been vacant since March 2021 and on the market for about a year. Though the borough has received one development proposal for the land, it is contracting with a realtor to attract more buyers and expand its options. At its June 13 meeting, the borough assembly approved a contract with Petersburg-based real estate agent Anchor Properties to try selling the 30,000-square-foot building and 1.94 acres of land. Assembly Member Jim DeBord was the only opposing vote. The appraised value of the...
UPDATE: The vessels have been delayed in Angoon and their arrival in Wrangell is postponed. The new tentative arrival date is Tuesday, June 27. Next Monday, a nearly four-year journey continues when the Polynesian Voyaging Society lands on Wrangell's shores, bringing the Hawaiian culture to Southeast. The sailing vessels Hōkūle'a and Hikianalia are scheduled to arrive at approximately 11 a.m. on June 26, coming to the north side of the island. After three days in Wrangell, the boats and crew w...
Sealaska Heritage Institute has honored 10 educators from throughout Alaska and Washington for their culturally relevant lessons. Among those is Wrangell's Virginia Oliver, who teaches Tlingit language in the Wrangell School District. She was one of seven given the Distinguished Educator Award, "which recognizes educators who intentionally weave cultural knowledge throughout their lessons and classroom and use approaches that reflect Native students' identity and values through place-based and...
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 15 rejected a challenge to a federal law aimed at keeping Native American children within the foster care system in Native American homes. The Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which established federal minimum standards for the removal of Native American children from their homes. The law also prioritized placing children into homes of extended family members and other tribal homes — places that could reflect the values of Native American culture. ICWA was enacted in an e...
After an uptick in thefts at Wrangell harbors in recent years, the borough is moving to install security cameras and improve lighting at all the facilities to help keep users’ property safe. At its June 13 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved a nearly $500,000 contract with Juneau-based Chatham Electric to install security cameras at the eight port and harbor sites around Wrangell. Starting around 2020 and 2021, there has been an increase in theft at the harbors, explained Harbormaster Steve Miller. About five boats were hit d...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday vetoed half of the $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for school districts across Alaska — cutting back the first boost in state funding for K-12 public schools in more than six years. The Wrangell School District had expected to receive an additional $425,000 in state aid for the 2023-2024 school year under the Legislature’s budget plan. The governor’s veto cut that by 50%. State funding covers about 60% of the district’s roughly $5 million operating budget, with the rest from the borough and fed...
After launching salmon people into the skies, Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl is hoping to fill Alaska's roads with whale tails. Worl, a Juneau artist who earned national fame for her "Salmon People" artwork featured on an Alaska Airlines jet unveiled last month, is among six semi-finalists in the state's 2023 Artistic License Plate Competition open for the public to vote on until July 31. In an interview June 15, Worl said she's observed the license plate competition the past couple...
Paint, used cooking oil, pesticides and more can be safely disposed of on Thursday. The borough is sponsoring a household hazardous waste event from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the transfer station on Evergreen Avenue on the north end of the island. Fees are waived up to 200 pounds in materials and will cost $18 per load for anything over that weight, said Tom Wetor, Public Works Department director. Only household waste can be brought to the collections event; no commercial waste. The site will be closed for lunch from 11 a.m. to noon. It’s t...
Alaska Native leaders and the state of Alaska have hailed the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. The ruling preserves a 35-year-old law intended to address the harm caused by the federal government’s boarding school program by prioritizing the placement of Alaska Native and American Indian children into tribal homes. “Like most Alaska Native and American Indian tribes from across the country, we have been anxiously awaiting this decision,” Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Feder...
Rooney Schafer, 6, sits in a Caterpillar TH83 Telehandler - a forklift with a 41-foot boom in back - at the Touch-a-Truck event last Saturday. Horns blared, sirens wailed, lights flashed and children giggled and smiled as they were able to experience what it's like to be inside different heavy equipment and emergency vehicles. Organizer Devyn Johnson said the event is the sixth one that's been held in Wrangell, with one year as a parade due to COVID-19 precautions. She began holding the event...
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church may be a small building, but it played a large role in Wrangell’s history. Founded in 1903, the unassuming structure tells the story of the Klondike gold rush and the fight for Alaska Native rights. On June 29, historian and podcaster Ronan Rooney will share his research on this nationally recognized historic landmark with the Wrangell community. Though he will be speaking at the church, the talk won’t be a sermon — history buffs of all denominations or no denomination at all can enjoy the story of St. Philip...
After a multiyear effort to develop the site of the former Wrangell Institute for residential lots, work is slated to start later this summer. Bids are due to the borough by June 27 for an estimated $700,000 to $750,000 in groundwork at the future Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision. Once parcels are ready for purchase, the 134-acre property will constitute the borough’s largest land sale in decades. In its first phase of development, the site will make 20 new lots available about five miles from town, complete with utilities and...
Volunteers are still being sought for Fourth of July events scheduled July 1 to 4. The chamber of commerce needs people to assist in setting up, running and taking down the 17 events that are set to take place over the celebratory weekend. Chairpersons for all the events except the log rolling competition have been recruited, but those chairpersons need help. Meanwhile, a past event that wasn’t held last year is returning much to the delight of its volunteer chair, Adrienne McLaughlin. She will oversee the greased pole competition, something h...
