Alaska Waters celebrates re-opening

Wilma Stokes Leslie (right, on ladder) and Wilma Stokes place a red handprint in the east corner of the Alaska Waters gift shop Saturday. The native-owned shop had its grand re-opening Saturday, and three generations of the Stokes family conducted a traditional blessing. As part of the blessing, an elder’s handprint is placed in each corner of the house in red paint to symbolize the binding of the house. The blessing ceremony fused old and new when at one point, family members used smart phones to determine which corner of the shop faced east.