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Cultural institutions all over Alaska are scrambling to figure out what a wave of cuts to federal grants means for their programs and staffing. Over the past few weeks, museums, libraries and cultural organizations across Alaska have received notice that federal funds are being terminated. The federal government is making the cuts to align spending with a recent Trump administration order and the Department of Government Efficiency’s goals. Wrangell’s Irene Ingle Public Library has for at least the past 10 years received an annual federal gra...
From a prison cell in California, federal prosecutors allege, a 56-year-old inmate directed an Alaska drug trafficking ring that in recent years smuggled huge quantities of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine to some of the state’s smallest villages through a network of postal shippers and drug couriers. In Alaska, meanwhile, a woman incarcerated at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center recruited a fellow inmate on the verge of release to join the drug ring, federal prosecutors wrote in an indictment unsealed in October. That woman, the U.S. A...
With colder months approaching, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson said July 24 that the city likely will not use a municipally owned sports arena as a large-scale homeless shelter again this winter, and to prevent people from freezing to death on the street, his administration wants to purchase plane tickets for people who want to travel to communities within Alaska or warmer climates out of state. “I am not going to be responsible for people freezing to death on the street. … I’m doing everything I can to keep that from happening,” Bronson said du...
A mother and her young son died Jan. 17 in an extremely rare attack by a polar bear in the Northwest Alaska village of Wales, the state’s first fatal polar bear mauling in more than 30 years. Alaska State Troopers identified the victims as 24-year-old St. Michael resident Summer Myomick and 1-year-old Clyde Ongtowasruk. Troopers said reports of a polar bear attack came in around 2:30 p.m., with initial accounts describing the bear chasing several people before a Wales resident shot and killed the animal “as it attacked the pair.” Myomick was wa...
A procession of emergency vehicles traveled through Anchorage with the body of Court Services Officer Curtis Worland on Dec. 14, a day after the 36-year-old died in a rare attack by a musk ox in Nome, where Worland worked for the Department of Public Safety for 13 years. The fatal incident happened on Worland’s property during a paid break in the work day, and as such the state considers his death to have happened in the line of duty. According to the Department of Public Safety, Worland “is the 69th Alaska law enforcement officer to die in...
Leaders in the Western Alaska community of Kipnuk say the principal of nearly a decade bullied Native school staff members, put residents in jeopardy by ignoring COVID-19 restrictions and oversaw a decline in education quality. That’s why in October, according to documents obtained through a public records request, they voted to banish her from the community. School officials and tribal leaders involved in the banishment order and subsequent search by tribal police officers at the Chief Paul Memorial School at the end of last month have largely...
The principal and several school staff members left the community of Kipnuk in Southwest Alaska two weekend ago in two chartered planes following reports of a banishment order, occupation of a school building and a brief blockade during a visit by Alaska State Troopers. As of Nov. 1, the Chief Paul Memorial School in Kipnuk remained closed for the second day in a row, with plans to switch to remote learning Nov. 2, according to the Lower Kuskokwim School District, which cited “the concern for the physical safety for students and staff” in a w...
Alaska’s Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she plans on ranking Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola first in the U.S. House race on the Nov. 8 ballot, where Murkowski’s own name will also appear as she runs for a fourth term. Murkowski broke the news after delivering remarks to a packed room of Alaska Federation of Natives convention delegates at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Center, where she was greeted with a standing ovation and frequently interrupted with rounds of applause. Her remarks focused on what she sees as reasons for optimism for the...
As a young teenager growing up in Bethel, Nikki Corbett got her first paid gig from Mary Peltola. "I babysat her oldest," said Corbett, who took care of Peltola's eldest son. Corbett, who lives on the Kenai Peninsula and is raising children of her own now, was one of the many Indigenous Alaskans from around the state who flooded social media with exuberant messages, reflections and recollections in the hours after Peltola's victory in Alaska's special U.S. House election was announced. The...