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In 1986, two linguists, Ron and Suzie Scollon, drafted a proposal for the Sealaska Heritage Foundation to inaugurate a new kind of education, which they had developed with help from Tlingit scholars Nora and Richard Dauenhauer. It was an education that would prioritize building knowledge about the place you live in, the cultures you interact with, and the communication skills you need to flourish in an interconnected, media-saturated world. The Axe Handle Academy, as it was called, never became a physical school, but its curriculum and values...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: It feels like everyone in the Capitol is holding their breath as we count down the days until March 14, the deadline for the governor to sign, veto, or allow SB 140 to become law by taking no action. As a reminder, SB 140 is the bipartisan education bill that will increase the Base Student Allocation by $680, provide assistance and a faster timeline for charter school approval, adds funding for student transportation, internet speed increases in remote schools, charter schools, and the Individual Reading...
Pharmacy Corner To the Editor: We would like to thank the community of Petersburg, and especially our patrons over the past two weeks, for your patience in the backlog of prescriptions services. As some of you may know, pharmacies across the country were basically shutdown in billing third parties due to a cyber attack that affected Change Health. Change Health is the billing transmission platform we use to relay what we bill to the insurance to receive the copays or coinsurance you pay at the counter. Our ability to communicate that...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: Last week the House debated amendments to House Joint Resolution 7, which would add language to the Constitution that would obligate the state to pay out a dividend in the amount in state law. We will continue to debate the resolution this week. In order for this constitutional amendment to go into effect, it must pass the House and Senate by a two thirds vote and then be approved by a majority vote of Alaskans in a referendum. Bills that Passed the House last Week HB 148, AK PERFORMANCE SCHOLARSHIP, ELIGIBILITY...
It was a perplexing week in the Legislature. While the Senate Finance Committee was reviewing honest numbers about real budget needs hitting up against the limit of available state revenues, the House was debating whether the exalted Permanent Fund dividend belongs in the Alaska Constitution, putting the PFD above all else in life. The Senat committee last week was doing the math, realizing the state would not have enough money for a fat dividend this year, no matter what the governor and too many legislators may pledge, promise and promote....
Petersburg has been blessed with great Teachers To the Editor: Last Saturday, the town celebrated a prince of a man, an amazing and caring educator. He was a loving husband, father, and grandfather. Friends lined up to speak about Paul Bowen and his love of Alaska, LeConte Glacier, geology, duck hunting, trolling for salmon – especially those summers with his family. We personally enjoyed sharing stories with Paul of our own special memories of fishing as a family. We agreed – it just does not get any better than that. Not many of us knew of...
A crowd of hundreds marched through downtown Anchorage last month calling on the governor and the legislature to increase funding for public education in Alaska. A few weeks later, protestors gathered on the steps of the capitol in Juneau with signs and songs emphasizing that same message. And a few weeks after that, Governor Dunleavy proposed a piece of legislation that would create a new crime in Alaska: “obstruction of free passage in public places.” The proposed anti-protest House bill, HB 386, makes it a class A misdemeanor –with priso...
The recent dictate that our Governor sent to our legislature as well as the residents of Southeastern Alaska was clearly the wrong message. The Governor proposed replacing the Alaska Marie Highway System (AMHS) board with members of solely his own selective choosing. His action lacks a certain sensitivity that is clearly contrary to the advantage of having local community participation in advisory groups. It has been said that true leadership is not done by the one who proposes to do great things, but rather by one who motivates the people to...
The governor’s growing obsession with charter schools is frightening for the future of public education in Alaska. He talks as if charter schools are by far the best answer to the state’s low student test scores. He has told Alaskans he would not support an increase in state funding for public schools unless the Legislature also backs his proposal to bypass local school boards when parents want to start up a new charter school. At the same time, he resists providing adequate support for public school districts that have not seen any real inc...
Blind Slough King Salmon To the Editor: ADFG will not be opening Blind Slough freshwater king salmon sport fishery in summer 2024. They are expecting low returns based on the previous poor returns to the Crystal Lake Hatchery. What is most interesting is they will still allow the sport saltwater fishery to continue with no restrictions. First, closure of the freshwater king salmon fishery will not solve the problem. The vast majority of kings are harvested in the saltwater. Removing the handful of local freshwater anglers will simply provide...
Risky business not the state’s business The advice for Las Vegas gamblers is don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. It’s generally the same advice for investors: Don’t take more risk than you can afford, even when the riskier bets look like they could pay off the same as 21 at the blackjack table. The six members of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. board of trustees are not gamblers but they are getting a little too aggressive in accepting risk as they chase after higher investment returns. Most every investment is a gamble — company s...
Today, Feb. 8, 2024, the Petersburg Pilot turns 50 years old, and the occasion calls for some reflection on what it takes for a newspaper like ours to survive fifty years and what it takes to carry onward. In last week’s Yesterday’s News column we noted publisher Glenn Luckie’s description of the conditions in 1974 that brought the 62-year publishing run of the Petersburg Press to an end. He wrote about not being able to withstand “rising expenses outstripping declining revenue” and the fatal effect of local merchants reducing their local adver...
Alaskans often like to complain — a lot, and loudly — about national groups sticking their noses and opinions into the workings of the 49th state. So, it’s only fair to extend a “thank you” when a national group puts up its money and time into doing something Alaskans like. The National Forest Foundation, chartered by Congress in 1992 as the official nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service, is partnering with the federal agency to rebuild the popular public-use cabin at Anan Bay and, in an even bigger undertaking, building new cabins th...
It seems the governor’s office must like country music. Can’t argue with that choice. The lyrics speak of American dreams and heartbreaks. What makes the songs so popular is that they tell stories, believable or not, such as the famous line: “That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.” Sadly, that same line is essentially all the public is getting from the governor’s office to explain his decisions behind a dozen executive orders that will take effect unless rejected by the Legislature before mid-March. While some of the orders are not controver...
To Whom It May Concern: On Wednesday, January 17, 2024, at a meeting of the Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) Tribal Council, a new council president was sworn in, as were three new council members. At the point in the meeting when the floor was opened for comments from visitors, I addressed the council as a private citizen. Since snippets from that address may be entering the wider public domain, I have decided to share my comments in their entirety. “I would like to take this opportunity to address the four newly-seated council members a...
Thank you Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department! To the Editor: January 10th at 2:30 am, we were woken to a sound like a jet engine, only to see one of our outbuildings engulfed in flames. The building that housed our hot tub, sauna and large freezer caught on fire and burnt to the ground. In the building were 4 small propane tanks and one medium sized tank. Fortunately the tanks all vented at the top valve, so there were no explosions, just forge like heat. Even though everything in the building mostly melted from the intense heat, no one was...
Ranked-choice rankles the losers Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel Publisher It’s becoming an increasingly common tactic for election losers to blame anyone but themselves. In Alaska, that means several of the recent losers and their supporters blame their defeat on ranked-choice voting, which took effect for the 2022 elections after the public voted in favor of the change in 2020. But rather than learn from their losses and put up candidates who appeal to a broader range of voters, which is the smart way to win elections, the losers want to den...
The Future of Farming at Point Agassiz To the Editor: My wife and I own 17 acres at Point Agassiz and we’re starting a farm. It’s an amazing place and we love being there; maybe it’s the glacial rebound but something about it feels truly uplifting. A century ago eight families and one bachelor claimed homesteads there to farm. They produced good food, especially dairy from cows grazing the abundant grass. Socioeconomic trends of the 20th century pulled that first wave of farmers back to civilization. But some people still live at Point Agass...
Correcting the wrongs of the past To the Editor: As the Landless Native bill works through Congress and many Alaskans eagerly await its passage and others oppose it, a look at the past provides a broader perspective. In the years prior to Statehood when Alaska was a Territory, there was a movement to repatriate lands to Alaska Natives through the creation of a system of reservations throughout the Territory. At the time, the Governor of Alaska was Ernest Gruening, a wise and learned man who believed strongly in Native rights. He did not...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is starting his sixth year as the state’s top elected leader. Sadly, he’s not providing much fiscal leadership, other than beating the drums for his perpetual political bandwagon that trumpets the Permanent Fund dividend at the front of the parade, with public schools playing second fiddle. It’s sour music, off-key and off-base. The governor unveiled his proposed state budget last week, setting out a spending plan for the fiscal year that will start July 1 and which legislators will start working through when they recon...
The director of the state agency that manages the food stamp program for tens of thousands of Alaskans says the staff is again overwhelmed with work, delaying benefits for thousands of households by months. That’s months without the food assistance they need and that most are entitled to receive — all because the state has failed at its job for more than a year. That’s months relying on friends, family, food banks, or just going without adequate nutrition. It’s not because they did anything wrong. It’s that the state failed to maintain...
Please let all the children have a Christmas To the Editor: I’m writing this letter because The Salvation Army cut-off age is 13 years old for Christmas presents. I can’t believe they have it that way – there are a lot of families struggling that have 14 to 18 year-olds who I think deserve a Christmas too. This isn’t fair and the Salvation Army never did this before. This isn’t right. I’m asking the Salvation Army to rethink this decision. Please let all the children have a Christmas. Sincerely, Tonia Grant...
Clear-cut logging To the Editor: I thank Mike Schwartz for his thoughtful letter to the Editor regarding the Landless Native bill in last week’s Pilot. The point regarding the traditional Native philosophy of Native stewardship of the land was both beautiful and sad at the same time. Beautiful to read how the timeless principle of reverential respect for Mother Earth guided the stewardship decisions of the Native peoples on the lands of S.E.Alaska since time immemorial. Sad to think how that beautiful philosophy from the past played out in t...
To Whom It May Concern To the Editor: I am 82 years old now. My great-grandchildren are seventh generation of family residents growing up in Petersburg. Kay and I were adopted and given Tlingit names by elder Pete Marten, Senior, fifty years ago, into a Tlingit society that has been scientifically and indisputably proven to exist in S.E. Alaska for over 10,000 years and literally hundreds of generations. Thirty years ago, Spencer Israelson, who spent his youth at Point Agassiz, took me to the mainland and showed me many petroglyphs that he and...
Clear Answers to our Petersburg Medical Center, Part 1 To the Editor: Like many in Petersburg, I didn’t understand specifically why we needed a new facility and how it would be paid for. I addressed the facility problems in the previous two letters. Apparently the decision to build a new facility was made over twelve years ago. Our CEO, Phil Hofstetter, was hired almost six years ago to rebuild by the hospital board. The 2015 architectural report (8 years old) cites $43 million to repair the systems. This is not possible with patients there a...
