Six nominees are running for four seats on the Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal council. In-person voting is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2, at the WCA Cultural Center on Front Street.

A meet-the-candidates event is scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at the cultural center.

The terms are for two years. There are eight seats on the council.

This year’s candidates for the four open seats are Frank Churchill Jr., Christie Jamieson, Dustin Johnson, James Leslie, Richard Oliver and Ethan “Coven” Petticrew. Churchill and Oliver currently serve on the board.

Christie Jamieson

“My goal will always be to take care of our elders,” Jamieson said. Other goals include introducing new WCA services such as classes in Native culture, regalia, traditional foods, the Tlingit language — and financial skills, particularly for young people.

Fiscal stability for the tribe is on her work list, too, focusing on the decreasing flow of federal funding to tribal programs.
Transparency in the tribe’s operations is an important issue for Jamieson. One of her primary goals “is to enhance tribal members’ engagement … to keep members involved so that they feel like they are part of the process.”

She said of the council: “We are our tribal members’ voices.”
Jamieson served briefly as WCA tribal council president in 2014 and as vice president 2019-2021. She currently serves as Wrangell delegate on the community council of the Tlingit and Haida Central Council, and she has been active in longstanding efforts to win congressional approval of a lands claim for Wrangell Native people.

“I’ve always been passionate” about getting involved in issues important to tribal members.

She said she takes to heart WCA’s mission “to support the cultural, ceremonial and subsistence lifestyle … and to promote the safe use and availability of a healthy environment for present and future generations.”

Dustin Johnson

“The board position is something I’ve thought about for quite a few years,” at least the past 10 years, Johnson said.

But he’s been pretty busy, raising a family and working as manager at Johnson’s Construction and Building Supply, serving as a member of the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department, and coaching middle school basketball for the past 14 years.

“Those kids have kids,” he said of some of the middle schoolers from the start of his coaching career.

Johnson said he kept telling himself he would run for the council “later in life,” but then he decided nothing is going to change anytime soon in his busy life and he will make time to help the tribe and its members.

He especially wants to help improve the town’s economy. “My kids are growing up in Wrangell,” and he wants to help craft new initiatives so that future generations can live and work in the community.

That means not just creating jobs but also ensuring that the subsistence lifestyle can continue.

“With all of my experience and volunteering … I have a decent pulse on the town,” Johnson said. “I want to give what I can.”

James Leslie

Leslie wants to help build a stronger economic future for Wrangell. He said residents are concerned about the town’s shrinking population and the financial strains that it creates on services and businesses.

“They want their kids to grow up in Wrangell,” he said. “There has to be jobs. … Wrangell has to do something.”

Leslie is president of Alaska Waters, which offers Anan Wildlife Observatory, Stikine River, LeConte Glacier, wilderness and cultural tours of the area.

The tourism industry is growing, with more cruise ships coming to town and the borough making a strong effort to attract more independent travelers to the community.

Visitors bring money to town, and residents need to figure out a comfortable number for how many tourists Wrangell can handle each day, he said.

“I can lend my assistance and knowledge to WCA to work with the cruise ship industry.”

Leslie, 34, said he particularly wants to bring younger generations’ voices to the tribal council.

His grandparents on his mother’s side were active in the Alaska Native Sisterhood and Alaska Native Brotherhood, and he wants to carry on their family tradition of getting involved.

Richard Oliver

Oliver has served on the council on and off for at least the past 15 years, he said, and is a past president. “I have a lot to offer.”

He has worked on several WCA projects over the years: rebuilding the Chief Shakes Tribal House, which was completed in 2013; helping to put up the WCA cultural center and carving shed on Front Street more than a decade ago; converting a duplex into WCA’s offices on Zimovia Highway; and constructing the tribe’s new transportation services building next door.

“I really want to get our tourism enhanced,” he said of his next project, adding, “the tribe is just getting the scraps of it.”
A smart expansion would include getting into the tour bus, guided and walking tours business, he said. “We can get some real money going.”

Revenues from tourism businesses would be particularly useful, Oliver said, in that it would be unrestricted and the tribe could spend it as it wants, as opposed to a heavy reliance on federal grants that come with spending restrictions.

He would like to see WCA open a gift shop for Native-made, locally crafted art and other goods.

Coven Petticrew

“My interest has always been deeply rooted in the community,” said Petticrew, who was born and raised in Wrangell, left for various jobs across the state, and last year returned to town. He serves as senior director of early education for Tlingit and Haida Head Start, living in Wrangell as he manages the program across Southeast.

Head Start expanded its Wrangell operation this school year, moving into new classrooms to make space for more children.
“When I worked up north and in Western Alaska and the Aleutians … what impressed me in those communities was how they cared for their elders.” Petticrew would like to see the WCA provide more services for elders and more programs to connect young people with their culture.

Though federal funding is important, “true sovereignty means standing on your own,” he said. “I would like to see the tribe invest in revenue-making businesses,” such as tourism-related operations and partnerships.

“I would like to see a bigger tribal footprint.”

In addition to growing tribal businesses and income, he believes the tribe needs to share more information with its members. “There needs to be more transparency in the tribe with finances.”

Frank Churchill Jr.

The Sentinel was unable to reach Churchill for an interview.