Students and mentors look for sea lions at sunrise on St. Paul Island, Alaska. Justine Kibbe photo.
City and tribal-government employees on Alaska's St. Paul Island get Oct. 28 off each year for a holiday you might not have heard of: St. Paul Aleut Independence Day.
It marks the day in 1983 when Saint Paul islanders gained their freedom from the federal government. Various U.S. agencies had been running the island's fur seal harvest and economy for decades, leaving the locals as little more than wards of the state.
St. Paul elder Gregory Fratis, Sr. KUCB/John Ryan photo.
Hundreds of Alaska Natives will meet over the next three days at the 32nd annual Elders and Youth conference in Anchorage. This year’s theme is “Not in our smokehouse!”
On the conference's first morning, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Alaska Gov. Bill Walker declared the day Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day.
The conference’s elder keynote speaker is Aleut (Unangan) elder Gregory Fratis, Sr., of St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs.
President Obama picked up a silver salmon on the beach in Dillingham. Photo: Hannah Colton/KDLG.
In the wake of President Obama’s visit, Alaskans are still sorting out the significance of new climate initiatives, cultural recognition, and more. But there’s lingering frustration among journalists, who found that the President was so shielded from scrutiny that the public was left poorly informed on what the trip will really mean for Alaskans.
Obama was in Alaska for two-and-a-half days. In that time he made an important speech on the imminent threats of climate change, announced new programs on Arctic research and community relocation, and sped up the timeline for a new ice breaker. During that same stretch of time he did not take a single question from the press.
President Obama wants to beef up America’s fleet of ice-breaking ships.
He made the announcement Tuesday before stepping on a non-ice-breaking tour boat to see the glaciers of Kenai Fjords National Park.
Obama proposed to speed up construction of a heavy icebreaker by two years. He wants the new ship to be polar-ready by the year 2020, rather than 2022.
Obama also said he plans on working with Congress to expand the nation’s fleet of icebreakers.
The U.S. Coast Guard released video of a man and a pregnant woman spinning up from their Yo Yo and onto a Coast Guard helicopter Sunday. The engine of the Yo Yo, a 29-foot fishing boat based out of Dillingham, was disabled and operating at low power in Bristol Bay off of Togiak.
The Coast Guard Cutter Sherman had to return to Dutch Harbor a few days early this week. The cutter and its crew were forced to turn back from a regular patrol in the Bering Sea when one of the ship’s diesel engines malfunctioned.
The Sherman has a long history. It was first launched in 1968.
“So the ship’s very, very old,” said Alex Oswald. He is a Junior Officer on board. He serves as the ship’s Public Affairs Specialist.
Two men have been sentenced in U.S. District Court to serve 21 months in federal prison for burglarizing the post office in Sand Point.
21-year old Sheldon Wilson Shuravloff, and 19-year-old Keith Lee Wilson, Jr., both of Sand Point, previously pled guilty to burglarizing the Sand Point post office in the early morning hours on December 28, 2014.
The burglary caused more than $15,000 in damage to the post office and shut down the facility for a week while the investigation and repairs were completed.
About a thousand people are expected to disembark from the 781-foot Crystal Symphony cruise ship in Unalaska this weekend -- the most the town has ever seen. (Courtesy: Crystal Cruises)
Unalaska will get a big population boost this weekend, with the first cruise ship of what’s shaping up to be a busy summer.
On Sunday, the 781-foot Crystal Symphony will tie up at the Coast Guard dock and offload the most passengers Unalaska has ever seen -- around a thousand people, as many as a quarter of the town’s residents.
Normally, the state ferry marks the start of summer in the Aleutians. But this year, the aging ferry Tustumena is in shipyard for repairs -- its first scheduled stop in Unalaska is now May 23. And state budget cuts could mean fewer sailings overall after that.
