Credit: Bryan Mutkoyuk Jr., Michael Dirks and Guy Tuzroyluk play the drums as part of a performance on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, by the Iñugialiŋmiut Dance Group of Tikiġaq. The dance group from Point Hope was one of many that performed at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. (Photo by Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon)
Yereth Rosen Alaska Beacon
The largest Alaska Native organization gathered this week in Anchorage, filling the downtown Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center with meetings, speeches by high-ranking federal dignitaries like Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, dance performances, an arts and crafts fair and impromptu hallway reunions.
The occasion was the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention, typically the largest annual gathering in Alaska.
Major Native organizations have dropped out of the federation in recent years. Those groups include the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Tanana Chiefs Conference and the Aleut Corp.
Still, the convention was packed, with attendees who included some members of organizations that are no longer part of the federation. Also packed were events that immediately preceded the convention, including the annual Elders and Youth Conference held by the First Alaskans Institute and a daylong Tribal conference hosted by the Tanana Chiefs Conference.
Credit: Rochelle Adams, an educator and fisheries advocate who grew up in the Upper Yukon River communities of Beaver and Fort Yukon, points on Friday to earrings she made with old salmon skin. Adams, selling her work at the arts and craft fair held at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage, said she had not fished for salmon in four years. She was saving the skin for a special occasion, she said, “which is now.” (Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon)
Credit: Ilskyalas Delores Churchill, Haida, served as the keynote speaker of First Alaskans Institute’s 40th Annual Statewide Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage, Alaska, on October 16, 2023. (Photo by Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, ICT)
Credit: Curt Chamberlain, an attorney who grew up practicing subsistence fishing in Aniak, argues at Friday’s Alaska Federation of Natives convention for changes to federal law to protect Native subsistence harvests. Chamberlain was one of the speakers participating in a floor session on the subject. (Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon)
Credit: Quannah Rose Chasinghorse-Potts in the audience at BLM-USFWS hearing on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge SEIS, Oct. 16, 2023. (Alaska Beacon)
