The Ketchikan Indian Community has acquired the 11-acre Salmon Falls Resort property about 15 road miles north of downtown Ketchikan for use as a year-round “integrated healing and wellness center.”

KIC’s acquisition of the landmark waterfront site on North Tongass Highway was announced Dec. 3 via a press release that hailed the development as starting a new era for the tribe — “one grounded in healing, cultural resurgence and unwavering tribal self-determination.”

“This effort directly reflects our strategic plan and advances the (KIC Tribal) council’s charge to establish a tribally led, tribally operated healing center that honors who we are as Indigenous peoples — rooted in our homelands, grounded in our values and guided by our responsibility to the next seven generations,” KIC President Ilsxilee Stáng Gloria Burns said in the prepared statement.

“And just as importantly, it will serve not only Alaska Native people, but also our non-Native neighbors who share this community with us. This is sovereignty in action; this is self-determination at work.”

Salmon Falls Resort has operated as a fishing lodge since being built by Steve Seley in 1986, with other entities having operated the lodge over time, including for the 2025 sportfishing season.

According to the KIC announcement, the site includes seven buildings with more than 50 guest rooms along with a “full restaurant, commercial laundry facilities, office and clubhouse space, bunkhouses, walk-in freezers, extensive storage and a fleet of marine vessels.”

KIC anticipates starting renovations, program development and licensing “immediately,” according to the announcement, “with phased openings planned for 2026.”

Details of the acquisition were not included in the announcement.

“Our people need a place to heal more than we need another hotel,” Burns said in the announcement. “The opioid crisis, the absence of detox services in Southeast, and the behavioral health needs of our community demanded bold action.”

In addition to a range of other programs, KIC operates the Tribal Health Clinic in Ketchikan that provides medical, dental and health care. It’s currently building the $16 million, Yi Gu.aa Xáx X’wán Permanent Supportive Housing facility, and on Nov. 1 opened an overnight warming center downtown.

The tribe’s Dec. 3 announcement noted that “families in crisis must travel long distances for treatment — or go without help entirely. In response, the KIC Tribal Council set a courageous vision: Ketchikan will become the premier place in Alaska where people can begin their healing journey, reconnect with culture, and reclaim their lives with dignity, support and belonging.”

Burns said in the announcement: “We are losing our future at the hands of addiction. Our children, our families, and our leaders, both present and future, are being taken from us far too soon.”

She added, “Salmon Falls gives us the space, the infrastructure, and the sovereignty to create something truly transformative — something rooted in our values, anchored in our land, and built for our people.”

Tiffany Tutiakoff, CEO of the Indigenous communications firm Future Elder and media contact for the KIC announcement, wrote that the planned programming for year-round health care includes in-patient and partial in-patient programs, including a 50-bed facility for Indigenous patients seeking recovery and healing.

The operation also will include “land-based healing, daily outdoor activities such as forest walks, sauna, red-light therapy, talking circles and cultural practice sessions,” along with “morning drum circles, cultural crafts, language learning, storytelling, and mentorship from elders.”

Graduates will be able to transition into “bridge-to-work” programs at Salmon Falls or other tribal entities, she said.

An undetermined number of hotel rooms will be converted to housing for visiting health care providers and clinical staff supporting year-round operations, Tutiakoff added.

Ketchikan Daily News staff writer Scott Bowlen contributed to this story.