After losing more than $500,000 in federal funding, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has put on hold this year’s community food distribution of herring roe and salmon.
The Southeast tribal nonprofit’s Traditional Foods Security Department had planned to use the money to continue the program, which over the past three years has distributed more than 52,000 pounds of herring roe on kelp, 120,000 pounds of salmon and 31,000 pounds of black cod to the tribe’s 21 recognized communities.
Wrangell is among the communities affected by the stop.
Tlingit & Haida in January signed a grant agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for $513,000, which was allocated to purchase locally sourced seafood for distribution to tribal citizen households.
But on May 1, the tribe announced that the department had terminated that agreement. The department “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities,” according to the Tlingit & Haida announcement.
Without funding, the tribe does not have the money to pay commercial permit holders to harvest roe on kelp, nor the money to pay for shipping the seafood to tribal households “throughout Alaska and the Lower 48,” the announcement said.
“Tlingit & Haida will continue to search for funding to support our mission to promote food sovereignty by connecting tribal citizens with traditional foods,” Traditional Food Security program manager Aaron Angerman said in the prepared statement.
The program shared coho and sockeye salmon with tribal citizens in Wrangell last November.
In May 2023 in Wrangell, the program distributed 460 pounds of herring eggs in about 100 4.5-pound boxes for tribal citizens.
Angerman said the Traditional Food Security Department will continue to partner with local tribes and schools, looking for distribution opportunities.
“We partnered with the Head Start program and were able to deliver herring eggs to our tribal youth in several communities in April,” said Traditional Food Security Senior Coordinator Anthony Christianson.
The loss of the grant is among multiple program cuts and sovereignty challenges since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.
Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson, in his State of the Tribe address to the annual tribal assembly last month, cited the loss of $5.3 million in overall food programs funding affecting 35 tribal communities.
“That wasn’t just a budget cut,” he said. “It was a setback in a much longer fight, one we’ve been pushing to get for generations — and we’re not stopping.”
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