Roadside Refreshment

A Light Touch

he news became official on the last Friday of June 2019. The college hockey landscape would never be the same, and the UAA and UAF hockey programs were caught in the crossfire. Officials from both universities were surprised—stunned, really—to learn that seven of the ten schools they partnered with as members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association were leaving the WCHA with hopes of creating their own conference without UAA, UAF, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the third WCHA men’s hockey team that was left behind.

Our community’s greatest resource is our people.

With a mission to unleash the full potential of every neighbor, United Way of Anchorage unites caring people to give, volunteer, and take action to remove barriers to opportunity and help local families access the building blocks of well-being – education, financial stability, and health.

How can you help?

Be a part of United Way’s Community Campaign.
When families are strong, our whole community is stronger and more vibrant.
Connect with us today to get started, 907.263.3800.

John Sims, President
ENSTAR Natural Gas Company
United Way Community Campaign Chair

hether it’s a baby shower or the Super Bowl, it’s still an event. All events may be different, but what do they have in common? And how can you be sure you have your bases covered?

First things first: if you think because you have planned one event you’ve planned them all, you are sadly in for a rude awakening. At Toast of the Town we have been producing events for a combined forty-plus years, and our experience is that no two are alike. Each has its own distinct identity, look, and feel, which is what makes them something to remember. Your event’s identity is important to understand and have fully fleshed out at the beginning of your planning process. Nailing down what the highest value of your event is and who that value targets as attendees is essential.

s a growing company with locations across a wide geographical area, Alaska Rubber Group (ARG) thrives on employing top-of-the-line technology. The Anchorage-based business has made a huge, successful push with digital transformation over the past few years. Having a solid and secure IT infrastructure allows ARG to give customers access to services when, where, and how they need them. It also enables the company’s remote employees to connect and communicate consistently across teams scattered throughout Alaska, Washington, and Oregon.

Undergraduate Patty McCall works with Fisheries Professor Trent Sutton, right, and master’s candidate Nick Smith collecting live samples from the Chena River for their research on the life dynamics of Arctic brook lampreys.

omer has its halibut, the Kenai its kings, Bristol Bay is famous for its sockeye, and Southeast harvests herring. Far from Alaska’s 6,640 miles of coastline, though, anglers find plenty of opportunities for sport fishing. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) counts an average of nearly 102,000 resident angler days each year in the Arctic/Yukon/Kuskokwim region, plus more than 44,000 non-resident angler days. And they’re not snagging salmon—at least, they have plenty of other options. Region III, which encompasses about 80 percent of the state, is home to thirty-seven freshwater and brackish water fish species, of which several are targeted as sport fish.

he Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed late in 1971 and paved the way for Alaska Native regional, village, and urban corporations to organize. While 2021 saw the 50th anniversary of the act itself, many of the corporations that were the result of the legislation date their creation anywhere from 1972 to 1974—and a few even later, as some early corporations merged to better meet the needs of their shareholders.

Considering the time and energy devoted to crafting the landmark act, it’s fitting to celebrate it and the corporations for more than one year.

One of the corporations celebrating half a century of operations in 2022 is Calista Corporation, whose land entitlement in the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta comprises 6.5 million acres, approximately 10 percent of Alaska’s entire land area and roughly equivalent in size to the state of New York. Most of this land is “split estate,” an arrangement in which Calista has rights to the subsurface estate and each of the fifty-six villages in the region has rights to the surface.

une 2022 was a big month for golden anniversaries. All twelve Alaska Native regional corporations marked their 50th birthdays, six months after they celebrated the anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that authorized them. The past half-century has seen all twelve—and a few village corporations—grow into the largest Alaskan-owned companies, mostly outpacing the revenue of the richest Lower 48 tribe (the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota, though it splits earnings among less than 800 members). Heading into the next half century, the corporations are exploring new ways to increase revenue, fill top positions, and ensure that they protect their lands, their shareholders, and their descendants.

n addition to twelve regional corporations, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) allocated lands and funds to more than 200 village corporations. As with their regional counterparts, the village corporations are mandated to make a profit and use it to benefit their shareholders and villages. It’s no surprise that, among hundreds of corporations, no two have chosen the exact same path to meet that mandate. Below are highlights and updates for a handful of the village and urban corporations.

e used to say—this is something we used to say—that we don’t have a word for art,” says Rosita Worl, emphasizing her own Tlingit heritage. Even though she has a PhD in anthropology, the president of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) was surprised when she learned the Tlingit language can in fact convey the concept.

It happened at a council of traditional scholars. Worl recalls, “Our meetings are all held in Tlingit and we have simultaneous translation, and the translator came running out and said, ‘What is that word, At.nané?’ It was actually the chair, Ken Grant, who said, ‘It refers to an iconic event between a supernatural being and a human being.’”

laska Native people have faced social and cultural harm that includes epidemics, dislocations, language loss, boarding schools, and more. For decades, communities in every region of Alaska have held culture camps to preserve and restore their cultural heritage and language. The need for these opportunities has grown greater as Elders, who are community experts in language and customary practices, have passed away.

Language is a core foundation for Indigenous cultural identity and heritage, so the loss of Indigenous Elders has been extremely troubling, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The damage to Indigenous communities and language revitalization efforts has been devastating. In Kodiak, for example, from 2020 to early 2022, half of the first-language speakers of Kodiak Alutiiq passed away, leaving no speakers of the northern Kodiak dialect and approximately seventeen speakers of the southern dialect.

hen times are hard I tell myself, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” I am a Tlingit-Gwich’in-Koyukon Alaska Native woman who owns a deep-sea fishing charter, Surreel Saltwaters. After twenty years in the Operating Engineers union, thanks to Local 3 in Hilo, Hawai’i, I have been built to work in an industry dominated by Caucasian males.

I have never felt accepted by many social arenas as a Native woman, and like my parents and their parents, I have been challenged.

laska Native corporations are tied to the land in a very tangible sense. All twelve of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) regional corporations own companies that move the earth, lay foundations, erect structures, or provide construction materials. Construction is just one flake in a blizzard of business activities, but it is an important one. There are millions of dollars to be made in private sector building projects, plus billions more in public works.

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onocoPhillips set some major milestones in 2022, producing its first oil from the Fiord West Kuparuk reservoir and setting a new drilling record from a land-based rig. The company’s optimization of new technologies and commitment to sustainable development has enabled it to reduce its footprint in the environment by extending drilling from fewer well pads, providing increased revenue and employment opportunities in the state.

The company has even bigger plans, including continued investment in Alaska and a goal of achieving net zero on its operational emissions by 2050. But there are challenges as well, according to Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska.

remier Alaska Tours built its business on providing Lower 48 and international tour companies an Alaska-based army of employees, vehicles, and expertise. Because Premier markets almost entirely to the national and international wholesale market versus the individual traveler, many Alaskans have never heard of them. That’s about to change: Premier is stepping up in a big way with an ambitious development at Denali National Park & Preserve.

The planned development will unfold across 50 acres on the shoreline of Otto Lake, just outside Healy, west of the Parks Highway. From the site’s 1,788-foot elevation, the lodge-like boathouse and 300-room hotel will offer views of mountain scenery and, in the winter, blazing displays of aurora. Rounding out the complex: paved vehicle access, boardwalks for nature strolls, an on-site restaurant, employee housing, a bus maintenance facility, and more.

he community wants a recycling program,” says Matt Pearson, recycling manager for the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB). “There has been a long-time push from community members for a centralized location where they could bring materials and electronics.”

Pearson says people have many reasons for recycling, from stewardship of resources to reversing climate change. For the FNSB, the reason is more quantifiable. Each borough resident produces around 5.8 pounds of trash per person per day, above the national average of 4.4 pounds. Without recycling, every waste product ends up in the FNSB landfill on Sanduri Street in southwest Fairbanks, decreasing the lifespan of the 250-acre facility. As it stands, the landfill is designed to last until 2070. Once it’s filled, the borough will need additional acreage for a new dump site.

rom top-notch burger joints to upscale fare, fresh seafood to fusion cuisine, Alaskans have no shortage of fantastic dining options—even outside of cities and larger towns. From roadside diners to intimate taverns and small cafés nestled in the woods, these small, locally owned restaurants along Alaska’s road system provide a dining experience so big, they are a destination unto themselves.

osita Worl’s Tlingit name, Kaaháni, means “woman who stands in the place of a man.” During her life, Worl has made the place where she stands her own.

As an enthusiast for cultural survival with an eye toward changing institutions, Worl studied anthropology at Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University) and then earned her master’s degree and doctorate from Harvard. She now leads Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit arm of the regional Native corporation for Southeast, preserving and promoting the traditions of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people.