The Wrangell Cooperative Association was told last month it will receive $620,000 in federal funding from the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, a $25 million U.S. Forest Service investment to diversify the economy of Southeast communities.
The tribe plans to spend $500,000 on a project to carve new totem poles, $60,000 on a cultural symposium and $60,000 toward cultural preservation, such as promoting traditional, healthy foods and adding the Tlingit names to signs around town.
WCA plans to hire a master carver and obtain the logs to carve totem poles in Wrangell, tribal administrator Aaltséen, Esther Reese said on Feb. 18.
“It’s anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 per linear square foot,” she said. “We’re hoping the $500,000 will go toward carving multiple totems, or toward other community members who are interested. It would be an amazing opportunity for people to come learn. We’re envisioning this as a totem raising.”
Reese said after deciding when to start, the tribe estimates it would take 18 months to complete the project.
A cultural symposium slated for September would consist of three to four days at the Nolan Center with Native speakers, artists, academics and researchers, Reese said. The symposium would also bring together linguists, archeologists and musicians. Topics would include Native history, museum studies, cultural anthropology, Indigenous law, clan protocol, fishery and ecological knowledge.
The tribe also plans to hire a videographer for $30,000 (half of the symposium budget) to document the teachings.
The $60,000 for cultural preservation funding would go toward sharing traditional knowledge and awareness, such as adding an additional sign onto existing signposts with a Tlingit name.
“We also received funding for cultural signage, to have all the road signs in English and Tlingit. We will utilize the rest for interpretive signing at Totem Park, Chief Shakes Island and the Chief Shakes grave site.” Having cultural signage “instills that we’re on the land of the Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan,” she said.
Cultural preservation includes traditional food sovereignty to “support the physical and mental health of our tribal citizens,” Reese said, and help them “cultivate their own healthy, fresh food.”
The tribe plans to organize a culture camp at Old Town, a former Tlingit village site down on the south end of the island, consisting of elders teaching children about traditional foods, and also have the elders “train the trainer” — pass on the knowledge to adults so it lives on.
WCA plans to construct two additional smokehouses near the existing smokehouse at the community garden adjacent to City Park, including a cement pad for the smokehouses, and providing all three for community use.
Reese announced the federal funding during a Feb. 18 borough planning and zoning commission meeting, where the WCA requested transfer of ownership to the tribe from the borough of a gravel parking lot across from Chief Shakes Island, which it plans to resurface and clean up. WCA plans to reconstruct a shorter bridge from the parking lot to the island and take down the current bridge, which has reached the end of its 10-year lifespan.
The commission approved the request, which will go before the assembly at a future meeting.
The U.S. Forest Service launched the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy last summer to help promote “a diverse economy, enhance community resilience and conserve natural resources.”
The agency last fall sought input from communities and tribes for projects that could fulfill that strategy. Applicants submitted 240 project proposals for the $25 million, according to the Forest Service website.
The borough and WCA both submitted lists. The borough received $100,000 for wild blueberry management and $103,000 for trail upkeep.
The blueberry management project would establish a plan to enhance wild blueberry production by thinning out overgrown trees along Nemo Loop Road to give the berries a better chance to grow, according to the borough’s funding application in October.
“We are still learning all the ins and outs of the contract agreement,” Carol Rushmore, the borough’s economic development director, said last Wednesday. “U.S. Forest Service can assist but (it) will not be directly their project.”
How the project will be implemented is still unknown, Rushmore said. The borough is waiting for additional information and clarification.
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