Blog

The induction of an ancient Alaska Native tool into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame during this week’s Innovation Summit in Juneau highlighted a theme echoed by multiple speakers: traditional Native knowledge can greatly enrich discussions about innovative thinking in Alaska. (The ancient halibut hook engineered by northern Northwest Coast people was inducted into the [...]

  Elders and linguists have spent decades developing a method for spelling our Native languages, which historically were oral languages and not written. It’s important that the orthography is recognized and adhered to in scholarly papers, news stories and books. It is disheartening to see Native words misspelled in public materials and it does a [...]

Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Klawock City School District have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to help develop the district’s existing elective Northwest Coast (NWC) art courses for high school students into a career pathways course over a three-year period. The effort is funded through a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, [...]

Sealaska Heritage sponsors Baby Raven Reads, an award-winning program that promotes early-literacy, language development and school readiness for Alaska Native families with children up to age 5. The pilot program in Juneau ended in 2017, and SHI received funding to offer the program for another three years and to expand it to nine other communities [...]

By Rosita Worl President, Sealaska Heritage Institute Nearly 100 years ago, the small town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, held its first Santa Fe Indian Market. The market, though humble at first, has grown into an economic goliath for the town, drawing an estimated 100,000 people from around the world every year.  Over four days each August, the [...]

In commemoration of Veterans Day, we offer this roundup of videos honoring Alaska Native veterans, including Tlingit code talkers, and traditional warriors. Thank you veterans for your honorable service and for all you have sacrificed to protect our peoples and our land.  "Hunting in Wartime" This video features a screening of an excerpt of the [...]

Navajo code talkers have long been recognized for the crucial part they played in World War II. But until very recently, no one knew that Tlingit code talkers also used the Tlingit language as a code that the enemy was never able to crack. Even the families of the Tlingit code talkers did not know [...]

Sealaska Heritage held its first of two November lectures Wednesday in recognition of Native American Heritage Month. Dr. Steve Langdon, professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Anthropology, spoke about the powerful Tlingit leader Ḵaal.áx̱ch, who lived in Klukwan at the time of the assertion of jurisdiction by the United States government [...]

The renowned master artist Robert Davidson has agreed to allow Sealaska Heritage to post occasional teachings on Facebook. Here is our most recent installment, which Robert wrote after SHI’s sponsored a roundtable discussion in July with Northwest Coast artists. The major issues facing artists today and possible solutions include patience—taking time to learn from the [...]