It may not feel like winter is over, but “climatological winter” wrapped up at the end of February. That’s the three month season — December, January and February — that climatologists call winter in the northern hemisphere.

Brian Brettschneider with our Ask a Climatologist segment says defining a standard winter season is important for tracking big picture climate trends.

He says in Alaska, temperatures were significantly above normal for most of the state.

Interview Highlights:

Winter has been extremely warm in northern Alaska

If you look at the northern half of the mainland, many stations were 8, 10, even up to 14 degrees above normal up on the North Slope. Toward Anchorage, it was 3 to 4 degrees above normal, so notably above normal but not as extreme as the rest of the state.

Then down in Southeast, there were some places that were a little bit below normal. But on bulk the state was on average about 7 degrees above normal for the period.

Most areas around the state have plenty of snow

We’ve had a pretty good winter. On average, stations are running a bit above normal. In Anchorage, our snow depth is outperforming our snowfall, which is an interesting side note.

February was a really snowy month in Anchorage; we had about 25 inches. Fairbanks also had about 24 inches, and Juneau had a fair amount, so a lot of snow fell in February.

A Sitka woman is in prison, pending extradition to the United Kingdom to face charges that she abducted her children to the United States.

Listen now

Since her arrest in downtown Sitka last April, Indea Ford has been treated as a criminal. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will ultimately decide if Ford has to return to face abduction charges in the UK — and to face a former partner who assaulted her and abused their children. Family advocates say this case is not unique, and points to a huge gulf between the rule of law and the actions of women desperate to protect themselves and their families.

Grace Harbor Church is probably one of Sitka’s largest. It’s a bright space, with windows overlooking the wide expanse of Sitka Sound. A contemporary Evangelical congregation is led by a rock band, with lyrics projected on the gleaming white walls.

On a recent day in Sitka, they are praying for one of their own.

“We’re praying for Indea while she is in custody,” Pastor Paul McArthur said from the pulpit. “And we look forward to the day when this family can be reunited.”

“Well anyone who meets Indea Ford, and the Ford family realizes that Indea is not a criminal,” McArthur said in the church conference room. Ford is there with him. “The person who caused the harm isn’t going to jail, but she is.”

Ford is a 34-year-old British expat, now a legal permanent resident in the US. She bakes cakes for a living. There is a solemn feel in the room.

After eight months in supervised house arrest, Ford flew to Anchorage to surrender to U.S. Marshals and to enter prison. She has no idea how long she’ll be there. This church is her emotional sanctuary.

“I just know that there has to be a reason for all of this,” Ford I don’t know what that reason is — nobody knows what the reasons are, and He has plans for everybody. But I do know that I am not alone.”

A turbulent relationship leads to flight from home

Ford has lived in Sitka for two-and-a-half years with her husband Kenny Ford, a Coast Guardsman, and three children, Grace, Ava and Noah — this last is her child with Kenny. Before moving to Sitka she lived in Kent, England, where Grace and Ava were born. Her relationship with the girls’ father, however, was short-lived and turbulent. In frequent drug-fueled rages over several years, he physically assaulted her, prompting one British policeman to warn her that she was in danger of her life.

Although Ford encouraged her partner to seek help, nothing worked. She made up her mind to leave him.

“And it got to a point one day, when he was being particularly abusive — and both Grace and Ava were there — and I sat there and looked at my girls and realized that the only thing I’m doing is letting them think it’s okay to be treated like this by someone,” Ford said. “And that was the point I realized that, you know what? I’m done. And I ended the relationship.”

But ending the relationship did not end the abuse. The British courts awarded Ford custody of Grace and Ava and granted her former partner visitation — or “contact.”

The arrangement proved unsuccessful.

“Throughout 2012 to 2015 contact started and stopped. He was arrested for battery against Ava in 2014,” Ford said. “That was investigated for quite some time but dropped because there was not enough evidence despite my taking pictures and documenting with social services through the right channels. And, yeah, it just went backwards and forwards like that, and the children would come home terrified and begging me not to send them to him anymore.”

Spread out on the conference room table in Grace Harbor Church are Ford’s legal files. There’s also a large binder filled with records of all the social service and therapeutic interventions Ford obtained for her daughters during the three years they lived under the British court’s Child Arrangements. Despite her efforts, she could not get traction in the British system to wrest herself and her children from her ex-partner, as he grew even more violent and unstable.

Ford booked tickets for herself and Grace and Ava — then ages five and four respectively — to travel to Virginia in the fall of 2015, to visit her own father — a trip she had made often in the past. She says she was fully intending to return. But the plans changed. The girls’ last contact with their biological father was two weeks before their departure for the US.

“He was particularly upset and aggressive that day,” Ford said. “I asked him not to speak to me like that in front of the children. He said a few choice words to me, and then told me that he was going to kill me and take the children to another country. And at that point I was like, no one’s helping me.”

Ford travelled legally with Grace and Ava to Virginia on October 2, 2015. Ten days later when she did not return home, Ford became an international fugitive.

The law can punish victims who don’t act ‘reasonably’

“There is a misfit between the contours of the law, which is based on acting reasonably, and what can happen neurologically and emotionally if someone’s experienced trauma,”  David Voluck said.

Voluck has practiced family law for 21 years. He’s been a tribal judge for ten of them. While Voluck is not involved in this case, he has ample experience with situations where the law seems to disadvantage the people it’s designed to protect.

“Particularly in domestic violence relationships or batterer relationships, it could end up with results upside down: Where the victim of the battering and the power and the control ends up being on the end of punishment,” Voluck said.

There’s also this: A pattern-abuser may not stop just because his victims have escaped his reach. The father of the girls never submitted a petition to recover them with the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction; he’s only filed kidnapping charges. Ford feels he’s just trying to punish her — and facing an indefinite future behind bars, it’s working.

Author Lisbeth Meredith is a women’s advocate in Anchorage. In her book Pieces of Me, she tells a similar story. Although she ultimately recovered her daughters, Meredith says she was always a step behind her ex-husband, as he manipulated the legal systems of two countries.

“We have a lot more research that tells us the incredible, damning impacts domestic violence and abuse has on children — even infants,” Meredith said. “It’s debilitating to children’s futures. Their health — physically, mentally, all of that — is compromised. Knowing all that, we still are not able to make quite the adjustments I think we need to, to prevent victims from being exploited.”

In extradition proceedings, courts consider only the crime — not the ‘criminal’

And then there are those “victims” who lie, or experience a sudden religious conversion, to tease out an advantage in a domestic dispute. Paul McArthur has been pastor of Grace Harbor for three decades. It’s a job that often involves him intimately in family crises — including domestic violence. He parses the truth every day in his role as a counselor, and he doesn’t believe Indea Ford is posing. He and church secretary Betty Jo Moore (a former city paralegal who’s been helping assemble Ford’s defense and tracking her voluminous paperwork) have been writing letters and communicating with Alaska’s congressional delegation since last summer*. Their faith in Ford is absolute — it’s the legal systems of the United States and the United Kingdom which they find troubling.

“The more details that you learn of this story,” McArthur said. “Every one of them makes it even more of an amazing thing that such a thing should be happening in two countries sophisticated enough to understand basic justice.”

Ford has never been able to present the evidence of her or her children’s abuse to a judge in the United States. As far as federal courts are concerned, she must return to face the charges in the UK.

A humanitarian appeal before the U.S. Secretary of State

The only way to escape extradition now is to appeal to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the first person with power over Ford’s future who can fully weigh her story. If Tillerson denies the appeal, and Ford is extradited to stand trial, her girls will remain in the U.S. with her husband Kenny — whom she met at a Toby Keith concert in 2014, and around whom she has rebuilt her family. Grace and Ava are thriving in their new life in Sitka — a life Ford wants for them, even if she can’t have it for herself.

“I have had more support in Sitka in this very short time than I’ve had my whole life, where I’ve been anywhere else. And this place feels like home, and my children’s home,” Ford said. “My children are so happy here, and the difference in them is amazing. They’ve gone from timid, scared children that were just terrified of everything, to happy, outgoing, confident girls. The difference is just astounding. It’s truly astounding.”

Ford’s residency status if she’s extradited is uncertain. Consulted attorneys say that under the Trump administration, immigration is a wild card. The only certainty is that Ford will do anything in her power to keep her daughters away from the man who abused them.

“Because as a parent, that’s your main goal is to keep your children safe and happy at all times,” Ford said, holding back tears. “That should be the goal of any parent.”

Indea Ford surrendered to federal marshals on January 8, and remains in custody at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River.

*Note: McArthur and Moore report that Alaska’s congressional offices are sympathetic, but unhelpful. As a rule, Congress does not interfere with the functions of the Judiciary. KCAW confirmed this position with Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office. An aide directed reporters to the senator’s website, which states that due to the separation of powers “I cannot assist or intervene in any way with legal actions, including both civil and criminal matters.” 

Fairbanks Rep. David Guttenberg was taken to the hospital from the state Capitol building at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Listen now

Michael Mason, a spokesman for Guttenberg’s caucus, said the lawmaker had an “unknown medical emergency.” Mason said Guttenberg was conscious, talking and in “good spirits” before he was taken away.

The emergency interrupted hearings on the state’s operating budget in the House Finance Committee, on which Guttenberg sits.

The committee plans to resume work on the budget later next week.

Alaskan Tara Sweeney is President Trump’s pick to be the next assistant Interior secretary for Indian Affairs. But her nomination has been held up for months at the Office of Government Ethics, an independent agency in the executive branch. Alaska’s U.S. senators say the problem holding up Sweeney’s case would be a barrier for many Alaska Natives who might be appointed to high office.

Listen now

Back in October, Sweeney’s nomination was widely applauded around Alaska and among Native American groups. She’s Inupiaq and an executive vice president of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Sweeney is also one of the 13,000 shareholders in ASRC, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski says that stock seems to have stumped the government ethics office.

“I tell you, I am so just beside myself at what she has had to go through, for five months now,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski spoke with Sweeney in Alaska recently. She says Sweeney has had to put her life on hold while her case is “stuck in this dark hole of the Office of Government Ethics.”

OGE is charged with making sure administration appointees don’t have conflicts of interest. The office offered no comment for this story. Sweeney also declined to comment.

Normally, if nominees hold stock in an industry regulated by the agency where they’re hoping to serve, they can resolve that potential conflict by selling the stock. Murkowski says that’s not appropriate for shareholders of Alaska Native Corporations, whose stock is issued to eligible Native residents or inherited.

“No Native person should be asked to sell off, or give up their birthright in order to serve in the administration,” Murkowski said.

Another option is recusal, where Sweeney would agree to stay out of decisions that directly impact ASRC. Murkowski says the Ethics Office has been slow to come up with an agreement for Sweeney to sign. The senator says she’s heard an agreement is coming out shortly.

“But we’ve heard that before,” Murkowski said. “We heard that before Christmas. We heard that around Thanksgiving time.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan says Sweeney’s job – or the job she’s supposed to be in – is vitally important for Alaska. The assistant secretary for Indian Affairs maintains the government’s relationship with the tribes and oversees land held in trust. Sweeney would oversee, among other functions, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Office of Self-Governance and the Office of Indian Gaming.

Sullivan says he’s frustrated but has faith the ethics office will get things back on track with a recusal agreement.

“The precedent can’t be that at the end of the day they’re not going to allow an entire class of American citizens to serve in their government at high levels,” Sullivan said. “That can’t be the answer here.”

Murkowski says as far as she knows, the only other Alaska Native person appointed to a position requiring Senate confirmation was Morris Thompson of Fairbanks, who became head of the BIA. He was confirmed in 1973, before the Office of Government Ethics was established.

If Sweeney’s nomination is sent to the Senate soon, she’ll be among more than 100 still waiting for confirmation.

Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn

Listen now

Trump official says Interior aims to move ‘pretty quickly’ on Arctic Refuge oil development

Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

Bernhardt said in the next few weeks, the agency will kick off the regulatory process required before the administration can hold an oil lease sale in the refuge.

Sweeney Interior nomination in limbo

Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.

President Trump nominated Tara Sweeney for high office at the Interior Department. But Alaska’s U.S. senators say the nomination seems to be held up over her ownership of stock in an Alaska Native corporation.

State, hospitals seek funds to prevent payment emergency

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Whether the state pays health care providers on time for Medicaid recipients is in question. The state has requested that lawmakers include money for it in a bill making its way through the Legislature. But concerns over the amount the state has spent on Medicaid this year led to the funding not being included, so far.

Trump administration sued over Pacific walrus

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit because the Pacific walrus wasn’t granted an Endangered Species Act listing.

For this expat mom, raising healthy girls means going to prison

Robert Woolsey, KCAW – Sitka

After fleeing an abusive relationship with her two girls, a Sitka woman is in prison, pending extradition to the United Kingdom, to face charges that she abducted her children to the United States.

Rep. Guttenberg taken to hospital for ‘unknown medical emergency’

Aidan Ling, 360 North – Juneau

A spokesman says Guttenberg was conscious, talking and in “good spirits” before he was taken away.

As Iditarod has changed, so has its relationship with its Native roots, mushers say

Davis Hovey, KNOM – Nome

Less than ten mushers out of the 67 competing in this year’s Iditarod are Alaska Native. And the only Inupiat musher to win the Iditarod, John Baker of Kotzebue, is not racing this year.

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the Trump Administration for not granting an Endangered Species Act listing for the Pacific walrus. The environmental advocacy group filed the lawsuit on Thursday, March 8, 2018, in U.S. District Court.

Listen now

In October 2017, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service decided the Pacific walrus didn’t warrant additional federal protections. The agency said the population appeared “stable” and had “demonstrated an ability to adapt to changing conditions.”

But some conservation groups say the decision was politically motivated and not based on the best available science.

In 2008, polar bears were granted an Endangered Species Act listing under President George W. Bush. But the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says the two animals aren’t the same.

Polar bears face a host of challenges with declining sea ice — more than what’s been observed of walrus.

Friday morning saw Girdwood musher Nicolas Petit charge ahead leading the 2018 Iditarod to Anvik after passing teams resting in the ghost town checkpoint of Iditarod. As the first to reach the Yukon River, Petit is treated to a five-course meal. The main course is bison, which is an animal Whitehorse’s Marcelle Fressineau encountered very much alive and not on a dinner plate farther back on the trail. We talk to Fressineau about how she fended off the bison with an axe, as well as some of the Alaska Native mushers in the race.

Whether the state pays health care providers on time for Medicaid recipients is in question. The state has requested that lawmakers include money for it in a bill making its way through the Legislature. But concerns over the amount the state has spent on Medicaid this year led to the funding not being included so far.

Listen now

Since Gov. Bill Walker expanded Medicaid eligibility in 2015, it’s grown from 123,000 people covered by Medicaid and Denali KidCare before the expansion, to 200,000 today.

That has led to costs growing faster than projections. This year, the state added $100 million in additional Medicaid expense after the Legislature passed the budget.

If the Legislature doesn’t include at least $40 million of that money in a bill that the House is considering, then the state will suspend Medicaid payments to providers as soon as mid-April. And for smaller hospitals, that may prevent some from paying contractors or making payroll.

Becky Hultberg is president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.

“Many of our small hospitals rely significantly on Medicaid,” Hultberg said. “If Medicaid suspends payment, they will not have sufficient reserves to last until the end of the fiscal year. Some of them may only have sufficient reserves to last a number of weeks.”

Hultberg sent a letter to lawmakers last week telling them that some hospitals and nursing facilities have less than 30 days’ cash on hand. She wrote that providers were concerned at the lack of urgency around the issue.

“We don’t want to be alarmist,” Hultberg said. “But we felt an obligation to point out that there are very real consequences to suspending payments to Medicaid providers.”

The bill that could be used as the vehicle to make the payment is House Bill 321, known as the fast-track supplemental. It’s a bill that’s meant to provide funding that is more urgent than the rest of the budget.

Generally, the four co-chairs of the House and Senate finance committee must agree on what’s in a supplemental.

Senate Finance co-chair Anna MacKinnon said Medicaid is a source of contention because of the size of the request. She noted that the state is spending down its savings due to a gap of at least $2.5 billion between what it spends and what it raises in revenue.

“The Department of Health and Social Services is spending a lot of money on Medicaid and is not living within their means, so it’s a concern,” MacKinnon said.

MacKinnon said lawmakers are listening to health care providers.

“If we have a problem, as Alaskans, we will face that problem together, and we understand that there would be concern from organizations, general-practice providers, hospitals if the department did not have the ability to pay for the services that have already been utilized,” MacKinnon said. “So, we get it. But what does the Legislature do when the department is spending outside of its budget authority?”

State Department of Health and Social Services Assistant Commissioner Shawnda O’Brien said the need for additional funding has come from enrollment by those who would have been eligible for Medicaid before Walker expanded it.

“We believe that … the economy is the largest driver in why that is,” O’Brien said. “And so, we knew last year that we were going to have a need for additional funding and we were on record saying that last year, that the amount of money we were asking for in the budget wasn’t going to be sufficient for what we thought we were going to need.”

O’Brien said the uncertain direction of the federal Medicaid policies also made it difficult to budget for this year.

“Lots of discussions took place over this summer with our congressional delegates,” O’Brien said. “And so, we weren’t certain how some of those things would impact our budget in addition to what we were already seeing in growth.”

O’Brien said she expects that the state’s Medicaid projections for next year’s budget will be accurate and the state won’t need to ask for another large supplement next year.

This year’s Iditarod has hit what could prove the defining moment in who wins the race. Joar Ulsom pushed his 24-hour rest all the way to the Iditarod checkpoint, arriving Wednesday evening while his main competitors were posted up in towns further down the trail.

But yesterday, the competition caught up.

The weather around the Iditarod checkpoint the last few days has been gnarly: blowing snow and high winds. Snowmachiners and checkpoint officials say the trail was getting covered up with snowdrifts around the time Joar Ulsom was pushing toward his 24-hour rest at the spare camp – little more than two shelter cabins and some pop-up tents. Toward the end of the run, his speed slowed way down.

Ulsom was asleep for much of the afternoon, so he missed when one of his main challengers came blazing into Iditarod under a clear sky.

Nic Petit had just come off a long run, but his dogs had their tails up, leaping at their harnesses, looking like they could keep running all the way to the Yukon.

The run from Ophir to Iditarod is 80 miles – one of the longest legs of the race. Mushing through bad weather without a major rest, Ulsom did the junket in 15-and-a-half hours. Petit did the same run in just over 12 hours. That was about an hour faster than Mitch Seavey, the third musher to reach Iditarod on Thursday afternoon.

The weather had cleared up from the windy night before, and slightly lower temperatures had firmed up the trail a bit. The weather system that had impeded Ulsom’s progress didn’t stick around to hamper his two main rivals the same way. Seavey and Petit both rested about four-and-a-half hours before taking off for the Yukon. By the time Ulsom’s 24-hour hold was up, he was about two-and-a-half hours later in leaving Iditarod for the tight three-way race down the river and toward the coast.

Petit ultimately reached Anvik first.

Fewer than ten mushers out of the 67 competing in this year’s Iditarod are Alaska Native. The only Inupiaq musher to win the Iditarod, John Baker of Kotzebue, is not racing this year, so it now falls to other competitors to bring home the championship.

Listen now

Before the ceremonial start of the 2018 Iditarod on Saturday, veteran musher Ketil Reitan of Kaktovik remarked on how fewer Inupiaq people are dog mushing nowadays.

“One of my main motivations is to pass along the traditions to my sons,” Reitan said. “It’s not that many young Inupiaq people that are dog mushing anymore; it’s hard to get into it, so to keep our team going and keep the traditions alive, that’s very meaningful. And I think lots of people appreciate that we are trying to do that.”

Although Reitan’s son Vebjorn Aishanna Reitan completed the other 1,000-mile sled dog race, the Yukon Quest, in February, he is not racing in this year’s Iditarod. Yupik musher and longtime resident of Bethel, Pete Kaiser, figures it’s harder for some who live in smaller rural communities to afford the Iditarod.

“Well, it’s a really expensive sport, so you kind of have to have all your ducks in a row” Kaiser said. “It’s really not a hobby or anything else, it’s a lifestyle, and it requires my time 365 days a year. And when you have other things going on like family and kids, you kind of need a job to support this job. It gets very complicated.”

Mike Williams, Jr., of Akiak agrees with Kaiser, saying that the cost is prohibitive for some Alaska Native mushers. But despite that, Williams sees more and more native people mushing in his hometown.

“Back home, there’s more mushers starting teams and racing,” Williams said. “That’s a really good feeling and good to see, and as far as Iditarod goes, doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot of Native mushers.”

Traditionally, sled dog mushing was an activity many Native Alaskans enjoyed before it became a competitive sport, which Williams, a Yupik musher, knows better than most.

Since he was a boy, Williams has been training sled dogs with his father, Mike Williams, Sr., who has completed 15 Iditarods, his last one in 2013. As Mike Williams, Jr., departed the Iditarod checkpoint of Takotna at 11:45am Thursday morning with 13 dogs, he said he was happy with his position in the middle of the pack. The younger Williams has run six Iditarods and finished in the top ten once thus far.

Kaiser, on the other hand, has four top ten finishes in his eight Iditarods. When asked if he would be the next Alaska Native to win the Iditarod since John Baker, the four-time Kuskokwim 300 champ wasn’t very cocky.

“I don’t know, it’s hard to know; we are definitely giving it our best shot, but we’re only 300 miles into this, so it’s hard to know right now… we’ll do the best we can,” Kaiser said.

Wildlife are a common occurrence on the Iditarod trail, and they sometimes have chance encounters with mushers. Most notably was the 2016 incident between wood bison and DeeDee Jonrowe. Now, in this year’s Iditarod, one more musher can say they’ve come across bison along the trail.

Listen now

During Marcelle Fressineau’s third run of Iditarod, somewhere between Rohn and Nikolai, her dog team stumbled across a few large woodland creatures.

“I saw three bison in the middle of the trail, and I tried to slow down and stop the sled, thinking that they would go away,” Fressineau said. “But they stayed on the trail and I stopped my sled and it was difficult to stop because the dogs were excited. There were two big bison and one small one, and the young one decided to come near the dogs”

Fressineau said she was scared as she did not see any tracks and the bison caught her off guard. So to protect her dogs and herself, Fressineau grabbed the only tool she had.

“So I took my ax and I run to the bigger one, cause I know it’s dangerous to approach the young one and I yell ‘go away, go away’ and they go off into the bushes,” Fressineau said.

The veteran musher from Whitehorse says she has encountered moose on the trail before but not bison. Even though she did not have a firearm with her, Fressineau’s tactics prevented her team and herself from getting injured.

Now Fressineau focuses on getting to the finish line in Nome. According to she left Takotna after finishing her 24-hour layover at around 8:48am today.

A shamanic retreat in Juneau led by a Californian has caught Sealaska Heritage Institute’s attention.

Listen now

SHI learned about the Dance of the Deer Foundation’s retreat and asked them not to come to Juneau.

Despite Sealaska Heritage’s objections, the company’s owner, Brant Secunda, continues to advertise for the June retreat.

Part of the advertising includes a video on his website titled “Alaska: A Living Dream.”

In the video, Secunda, wearing his signature dark felted cowbow hat, leads his clients through Juneau: They’re sitting on a beach with the Chilkat mountains in the distance, hiking on fern-edged trails and visiting Nugget Falls at the Mendenhall Glacier.

In another video on his website titled “Shamanic Journeying,” under the Shamanism TV tab, Secunda explains part of his belief.

“By going on a shamanic journey, into the nierika, you find your life and you find your connection to a hidden universe, or what we might say, the sky world,” Secunda said. “Or we might say, you feel a connection to Mother Earth, and all that lives on Mother Earth.”

While he is originally from New Jersey, Secunda journeyed to Mexico, Carlos Castaneda-like, when he was 18 and met a man named Don José Matsuwa. Secunda said a 12-year apprenticeship followed.

“My apprenticeship involved working with him, living with him, laughing with him, but it also involved going on many many pilgrimages,” Secunda said in another video titled “Shamanic Apprenticeship.”

According to advertisements, the nine-day retreat will be the 24th annual one in Alaska, but it just hit Sealaska Heritage Institute’s radar a few weeks ago.

Since then, SHI President Rosita Ḵaaháni Worl sent Dance of the Deer two letters: one asking them not to come here, and another to end their commercial exploitation of shamanism.

“We are not averse to people wanting to seek religious enlightenment or teachings — we absolutely support that. But we do not believe in the exploitation of our spiritual beliefs and our practices,” Worl said. Worl is incredulous that she had not heard about him from his past visits to Juneau.

In addition to animism — the belief that all objects, places and creatures have spirits — shamanism is also part of Tlingit culture.

“In our culture our shamans go on a spiritual quest, they acquire spirits, those spirits then help the shaman protect the welfare of their clan,” Worl said. “And each clan has their own shaman.”

Charging for shamanistic practices is where Worl said the exploitation comes in.

Dance of the Deer is charging up to $3,865 for the retreat, depending on lodging and an optional whale watching trip.

In a recent letter responding to SHI, signed by Dance of the Deer’s management team, they cite Juneau’s cost of living as an explanation for the high costs, and add that they’ve made very little profit on this program, and some years it loses money.

Their website says proceeds from all their activities go to Secunda’s mentor’s people — the Huichols.

Dance of the Deer Foundation would not provide documentation to verify these claims or make Secunda — or anyone with the organization — available for interview.

We couldn’t find public tax documents showing that Dance of the Deer Foundation is a foundation, in the sense of an IRS-recognized tax-exempt charity.

A filing with the Santa Cruz County Clerk identifies “Dance of the Deer Foundation” as a business alias for Secunda, meaning he is the sole owner.

“We don’t need someone like him to speak on behalf of ourselves. We have a voice. We’re a people. We can speak for ourselves,” Cilau Valadez said. Valadez a Wixárika yarn painter from the region in Mexico where Secunda said he learned about shamanism. He uses the indigenous name of his people, Wixárika, rather than the colonial name, Huichol.

“I know a lot of the people might have the right intentions to go to these ceremonies. We need people that are conscious about these knowledge, and we need people to learn this knowledge,” Valadez said from his art studio in Sayulita, Mexico. “But I think it has to be on a proper way where the people, which is us, that are direct descendants of this tradition, should have a voice, and not just someone who is dressed up like us, trying to represent us.”

In addition to a non-indigenous person appropriating his culture, he agrees with Rosita Worl about profit.

“When you combine money in between healing, it might pollute the whole situation,” Valadez said. “Because you can never sell ceremonies.”

In other parts of Secunda’s promotional video for Juneau, we see aerial views of mountains, humpback whale flukes diving, eagles flying, the moon behind the Chilkats, lupine, skunk cabbage, a candle burning on a mossy mound near a stream, and Secunda and his clients in a skiff leaving Adlersheim Lodge at 33 mile, the retreat’s home base.

Worl does not like the idea of Secunda profiting from shamanism, but she is concerned about the lodge losing business.

“If there is that economic impact, what can we do to alleviate that,” Worl said. “We don’t want to hurt our own people here, and this is our town, and Juneau is our community, and we want to protect our community.”

But if Secunda does come?

“I suspect there will be people who will want to picket, or whatever you want to call that, demonstrate outside of that place,” Worl said. “I don’t think that I would do that. I can’t anymore, I’ve got a bum knee.”

In the meantime, SHI is working on a plan to bring Valadez up to Juneau to teach about his Wixárika culture.

In addition to locations in the Bahamas, Patagonia, New Zealand, Greece and Italy, Secunda continues to advertise his June retreat in Juneau, and has not responded to SHI’s latest letter.

This week we’re hearing from Richard Hensley in Kotzebue. Hensley lives in an assisted living facility now, but used to live with his sister and brother-in-law.

Listen now

HENSLEY: Kotzebue, I was born and raised around here 68 years ago. I could lie about my age (laughs).

Before I ended up in this facility, we were living in a trailer. I woke up. I hollered “Anybody home!” Nobody home. Hot cup of coffee on the table. I picked it up. Didn’t see my brother-in-law around. He wrote me a note. I picked it up. I put my coffee down. I read that note:

“Uncle Richard. I had to rush your younger sister to the hospital.”

As soon as I saw that hospital part, I dropped that note and I forgot all about my coffee. Out the door I went. I got so excited, I ran out in slippers. No jacket.

Then my sister Beverly, she told my brother-in-law, “Ron. Did you write your brother-in-law a note.”

“Yeah, I wrote him a note. He was just sleeping babe.”

My younger sister said, “Well. You better go check on him. He’s probably awake.”

I got about halfway between the hospital from our trailer. Then I saw a car coming down he road. I thought, “Oh gee. Here comes my brother-in-law.” So I stopped. (laughs) It was him.

He said, “Uncle Richard.”

I said, “What, Ron?”

He said, “Where’s your jacket and shoes?”

I said, “I woke up and hollered for you, ‘Anybody home?’ Nobody answered me. You wrote me a note. That’s what got me all riled up.” (laughs)

That’s when my younger sister Beverly had my niece Judy. Right on the 7th of January. Right on my birthday.

A bill to declare a state of emergency for Alaska Native Languages has moved out of one state House committee and into another. House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 19 saw widespread testimonial support from Alaska Native academics, Tribal members, and non-Native Alaskans as well.

Listen now

The House Community and Regional Affairs committee passed the resolution after two days of public testimony on Thursday.

Lance Twitchell, who is Tlingit, is an Assistant Professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast and a council member of the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council. He gave his testimony first in Tlingit, then English. In a report at the beginning of the year, Twitchell and the Language Advisory Council said that not only are a majority of the 20 recognized Alaska Native languages in danger of being lost at the end of this century, but direct action is needed on the legislative level.

Along with nearly 30 people testifying, not including numerous written testimonies, Twitchell wanted to share accounts left by elders.

“It is hard for us to hear, and I assure you the reason I share it is not to make anyone feel guilty, but this testimony must include the suffering of our elders and our ancestors,” Twitchell said. “This is a real thing, and must not be transformed into a metaphor or minimized into tough choices or the ways that things had to be.”

Twitchell then recounted survivors’ stories of twentieth century Alaska Native boarding schools, with one Tribal elder recalling being doused with kerosene, and other methods used at the time to discourage the use of indigenous languages and cultural practices for generations of Alaska Native peoples.

Some also recommended what sort of actions ought to follow the declaration, from building upon successful models of language programs such immersion schools, to creating a statewide Alaska Native School Board for “Alaska Native tribal and charter schools.”

The Resolution was amended. Representative Dan Saddler wanted to stress how important language is to Alaska Native culture as a whole, and he also wanted to add language about urgency.

“What I want to explicitly say is that we call for fast action,” Rep. Saddler said. “I think it behooves us to say that the state agencies, and Governor, and the legislature, and the Native Language Preservation Advisory Council should work expeditiously.”

HCR 19, sponsored by Representative Dan Ortiz, will now go to the House Rules Committee. Should it later pass in a House vote, Senator Donald Olsen, according to Rep. Ortiz’s staff, would introduce it in the Senate.

The governor’s office plans to meet with leaders from Bethel and Napaskiak to discuss the impact of legal alcohol sales on Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities.

Listen now

Governor Walker’s staff proposed the meeting in response to a resolution issued by Napaskiak’s Tribal Council this week, which urged the governor to declare a state of emergency in their region. According to tribal council members, Bethel’s liquor store has led to a sharp increase in alcohol-related deaths that they compare to the state’s opioid crisis.

Tribal Administrator Sharon Williams said that five Napaskiak residents have died in alcohol-related incidents since Bethel legalized alcohol sales in 2016. That’s a little over one percent of the village’s total population.

Williams said that she hasn’t heard from the governor’s office yet. Governor Walker’s Press Secretary, Austin Baird, said that they plan to iron out the details of a meeting with Bethel and Napaskiak leaders within the next two weeks.

“There’s been a lot of attention to the opioid epidemic, and that’s certainly an enormous issue, but alcohol has been a constant issue,” Baird said. “It’s a very painful and complicated issue, and that I would expect to be a part of the conversation.”

Baird added that questions surrounding Bethel’s liquor store specifically should be addressed at a community level.

In villages across Alaska, schools are the beating hearts of rural communities. Of course, that’s where kids are educated. But school sites also often provide the only basketball courts and meeting halls around. And, in the Kodiak Archipelago, at least half of the region’s villages are facing losing their schools.

Listen now

Over the last decade, the Kodiak Island Borough School District’s student population has shrunk by about 200 kids, and that has hit the region’s rural communities especially hard. This year, the district closed its school in Danger Bay because of low enrollment, and it’s almost certainly going to have to do the same for the communities of Port Lions and Karluk the coming school year.

But the village of Larsen Bay is in a particularly precarious spot. It has just enough students to keep its school doors open, but the loss of just one student could shut it down.

As you walk into the Larsen Bay school, some of the faces that make-up the community’s history are there to greet you.

“Look at this wall, this has elders. All the elders that contributed to how this place was built and grown. I mean, where else do you have that,” Sherry Harmes said, pointing to the photos with admiration.

Harmes has lived in Larsen Bay since the early 2000s and is on its city council. She says the community’s been shrinking for awhile and right now there are only about 60 full-time residents.

In the summer the community’s population swells because of commercial salmon fishermen and cannery workers who show up for the salmon season. But Harmes say those people don’t really contribute much to the community.

“Essentially we’re turning into a summer village,” Harmes said.

The town needs at least ten students enrolled in its school next fall to keep it open. If it’s short, the Kodiak Island School District will lose about $300,000 in state funding, and it will close the school.

The school’s current count is 11 students, but one is graduating. So, the community has no wriggle room. If one more student leaves, that’s it. Residents with and without kids are anxiously waiting to see what will happen.  Harmes says she doesn’t blame any parent considering leaving town.

“They don’t wanna have the school year start and then all of a sudden there’s no teacher or no classes or anything,” Harmes said. “And, they want to plan ahead.”

Alice Aga is the mayor of Larsen Bay.

“We need to keep everyone here. We need to reassure them that school will be open,” Aga said. “The decision of one person could sink us and that’s a scary thought.”

Aga is dedicated to keeping the school open. But she’s not very optimistic about the community’s future.

“I think if the school closed it really would be like the final blow to Larsen Bay that, you know, we’re really a dying community,” Aga said.

Larsen Bay’s population has been shrinking for decades and Aga, who was born and raised here, thinks that’s partly because the outside world is so enticing.

“The kids that grow up, they don’t want to come back to the village because there’s nothing here for them,” Aga said. “They want to go live in Kodiak or Anchorage, Seattle, you know, go to college and then stay there. They don’t want to come back because they like going to the mall, they like going to the theater, they like going to the grocery store, and, you know, there’s none of that here.”

In the Kodiak region, students in rural schools don’t have the same opportunities as students in more populated areas. Their class sizes can be tiny, and some kids have to take distance learning courses that don’t always allow them to connect with their instructors or peers.

Even though Aga wants the Larsen Bay school to stay open, she recently sent her oldest daughter to live with relatives in the City of Kodiak to go to middle school because Aga wasn’t satisfied with the quality of education her daughter was receiving at the village’s school.

Aga’s conflicted about this choice. On one hand, she’s happy her daughter is enjoying her new school. On the other, she’s worried that if the Larsen Bay school closes, the town will pretty much become a retirement home.

“You know the elders will be the last ones here,” Aga said.

In Aga’s mind, that will be the death of Larsen Bay and that haunts her.

“I’ve cried thinking about this so many times that I just feel like I’m all dried up,” Aga said. “I can’t cry about it anymore.”

The district’s Superintendent made a pledge to community members at a recent meeting that’ll he’ll do everything he can for Larsen Bay. He said right now he’s moving forward as if the Larsen Bay school is staying open. But if there are fewer than ten students next fall, the district will have to move fast to close the school.

The Kodiak Island Borough, which owns all of the district’s current school sites, is in the process of exploring ways communities that lose their schools can still use the buildings. Because around Kodiak, schools aren’t just schools, they’re the center of communities.

Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn

Listen now

Zulkosky takes seat as House District 38 representative

Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau

Tiffany Zulkosky took the oath of office today to become the new state representative for Alaska’s 38th district, which includes Bethel.

House bill to declare state of emergency for Alaska Native languages passes committee

Christine Trudeau, KYUK – Bethel

A bill to declare a state of emergency for Alaska Native Languages has moved out of one state House committee and into another. House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 19 saw widespread testimonial support from Alaska Native academics, Tribal members, and non-Native Alaskans as well.

Following alcohol complaints, governor’s office proposes meeting with Napaskiak leaders

Teresa Cotsirilos, KYUK – Bethel

The governor’s office plans to meet with leaders from Bethel and Napaskiak to discuss the impact of legal alcohol sales on Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities.

Larsen Bay residents fear losing school

Mitch Borden, KMXT – Kodiak

In villages across Alaska, schools are the beating hearts of rural communities. Of course, that’s where kids are educated. But school sites also often provide the only basketball courts and meeting halls around. And, in the Kodiak Archipelago, at least half of the region’s villages are facing losing their schools.

Bad weather all but shuts down critical Iditarod checkpoint

Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Bad weather is hitting a crucial stretch of the Iditarod trail along the Yukon River. And that’s throwing a wrench into the plans of some of the top teams.

Musher chases bison off trail, with an ax

Davis Hovey, KNOM – Nome

Wildlife are a common occurrence on the Iditarod trail, and they sometimes have chance encounters with mushers. Now, in this year’s Iditarod, one more musher can say they’ve come across bison along the trail.

AK: Juneau shamanism retreat leader’s financial, cultural and spiritual legitimacy challenged

Scott Burton, KTOO – Juneau

Sealaska Heritage Institute says the Dance of the Deer Foundation exploits shamanism.

49 Voices: Richard Hensley of Kotzebue

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

This week we’re hearing from Richard Hensley in Kotzebue. Hensley lives in an assisted living facility now, but used to live with his sister and brother-in-law.

Bad weather is hitting a crucial stretch of the Iditarod trail along the Yukon River. And that’s throwing a wrench into the plans of some of the top teams.

One critical checkpoint is all but shut down. And teams are reconsidering their strategies, as they figure out where they’ll take their mandatory rest on the way to the coast.

Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes is on the line from the checkpoint in Anvik.

Listen now

Tiffany Zulkosky took the oath of office Friday to become the state representative for the 38th district, which includes Bethel and 29 villages.

Listen now

Zulkosky said she will get to work immediately, noting that it’s the 53rd day of the session.

“This is my day one, so there’s a lot to catch up on,” Zulkosky said. “And it’s an honor to be here to represent District 38 and the friends and family and the communities that I’ve come to know and love since my youth. So, it’s a great honor to stand especially on the shoulders of giants and the women that have come before me, the Alaska Native women who have come before me.”

It is the first time this year that the Alaska Legislature has had its full complement of 60 members.

Zulkosky is Yup’ik, and a former mayor of Bethel. She has served as vice president of communications for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp.

Zulkosky is one of 19 women in the current Legislature, the highest number in the history of Alaska. She said she will be looking to get up to speed on different issues, including revising the Legislature’s sexual harassment policy.

“There’s a lot of history of women and women in leadership positions in our state and that number continues to grow,” Zulkosky said. “I think that brings a really powerful perspective on issues related to sexual assault and harassment and is a really important perspective when you’re having dialogues around policy and how that can be implemented.”

Zulkosky replaced Zach Fansler, who resigned after a woman alleged he slapped her in his hotel room in January. Zulkosky will be the co-chair of the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee and the vice chair of the House Health and Social Services Committee.

With the Iditarod leaders on the mighty Yukon River and through the village checkpoint of Grayling, we hear about how weather prevented flying supplies to Eagle Island and caused the checkpoint to be downgraded to a mere “hospitality stop.” That’s why mushers scrambled to get mandatory rest in earlier and why they had to load up on supplies before one of the most formidable overnight trips of the race. Plus, back in Takotna, the village reflects on why it’s been so steady as a checkpoint over the years, and we hear from KYUK’s Johanna Eurich about what it used to be like covering the Last Great Race.