Here is a picture of my brother Tom working hard during the herring spawn a couple of years ago. This is a subsistence harvesting method that has been practiced by Tlingits and other Alaska Natives for generations upon generations. The herring roe are collected on hemlock branches weighted down with rocks in various inside waters of Sitka Sound. Herring lay their eggs on the branches. They usually spawn in Sitka in the early Spring. The eggs are a traditional food cooked with light seal oil that Tlingits have enjoyed for thousands of years.

An issue that has been and will continue to be hotly debated is that of the Sitka Sound Herring Fishery. This is a multi-million dollar fishery shared by 51 permit holders yearly. The first commercial fishery was held in 1878. Initially, the herring were mostly prepared for consumption. Then a plant near Angoon started selling the product as a "reduced" version of meal and oil. This industry grew in the 1920's and 1930's and threatened the herring population from overfishing. Competition from other markets eventually closed the plants in Alaska. Then Japan helped spark demand once again for Alaska's herring fishery because the herring roe is a delicacy in their country.

The controversy surrounds the shortage of herring eggs collected for subsistence in last year's harvest. It has showed signs of decline in recent years. According to surveys for 2005, only 72,000 pounds of herring were taken for subsistence from a target range of 105,000 to 158,000 pounds. This range has been set by Natives as the acceptable "quota" for a successful subsistence harvest. The Board of Fisheries has been meeting for the past week in Ketchikan to discuss and vote on proposals. Their decisions are important because they only meet every three years.

As stated in this document, Proposal 81 would "create a susbistence-only zone" that restricts the inside waters from the commercial fishery, thus protecting traditional harvest areas for subsistence. The proposal was voted down unanimously. The Board of Fisheries contends that reasonable opportunities were given to us for subsistence.

Another proposal was to make the commercial fishery an equal share model vs. the competitive model that it is now. Under current conditions, the fishery is opened for short periods of time to reach a certain quota. So conceivably out of the 51 permit holders, a small number of boats can take the majority of the quota and the rest are out of luck. Proponents of the equal share model say there is less chance of accidents and a better chance at higher quality roe if the equal share model proposal passed. And none of the permit holders gets left out. Approximately 80% of the fleet were in favor of the proposal, however it too was voted down by the board.

Proposal 81 represents a common battle between Alaskan Natives (in this case, Tlingit people) and commercial interests. The issue of subsistence has been ongoing since the first European entrepreneurs arrived in Alaska. In many cases, if an agreement cannot be reached between Native governements and the State of Alaska, the federal government threatens to step in to manage the issue.

The herring harvest is one of many traditions threatened by commercial interests. Alaska has become a popular tourist destination in large part because of the abundance of fish and game available. Nearly every tradition is affected by the growing numbers of people wanting a piece of the action. Though subsistence, by law, is not just for the Native people, it has been our way of life since time immemorial. I will continue to document our plight on these pages.

Last Thursday night, I sat in on a Beginning Northwest Carving class, which started that night. The class is being taught by Tommy Joseph, a well-known Tlingit carver residing in Sitka. This picture was taken at that first class and I thank Tommy as well as the class participants for allowing me to mingle with them.

I do have relatives in the class, which kind of provided inroads for me, but Tommy also knows my family and was nice enough to put up with my quizzing. I took several pictures as well as recorded some audio. The class is offered by one of our local colleges, UAS, and will run until May 6th.

Tommy Joseph is a great carver. He, along with Edward Beltran, was commisioned in 1998-99 to carve the Kiks.adi K'alyaan Memorial Pole which stands in Sitka's Totem Park at the Battlefield Site. As stated at that website, there are generally four purposes of totem poles:

• Crest poles give the ancestry of particular family.
• History poles record the history of a clan.
• Legend poles illustrate folklore or real life experiences.
• Memorial poles commemorate a particular individual.

I will follow the progress of his class to its conclusion.

So yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The picture here shows Sitka's Peace Rally in honor of the great man. I meant to post this quite a few hours ago, referencing the Tlingit civil rights leaders. However, I got so caught up researching one in particular, Elizabeth Peratrovich, that time got away from me.

Another important Tlingit leader in this area is William Paul. I want to forgo a lengthy post on my research for these two people. Instead, I will post my research on February 16. That is officially Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. I will honor her as well as William Paul with much research at that time as they are very important to present day Alaska Natives.

I heard on the news this morning the Sitka Tribe is working toward repatriation of Native Alaskan cultural material sold to Harvard's Peabody Museum. They were given $75,000 by the National Park Service toward beginning this process.

If successful, the Tribe will document its origins and cultural significance of the artifacts. They were housed at the Baranof Castle at their Museum and Archive of Russian American. When the transfer of Alaska took place in 1867, much of the Tlingit artifacts were taken by the Russians. Those that were left were claimed by Edward G. Fast. He then sold his collection to the Peabody Museum. This collection comprised of his own personal purchases from Sitka as well as the remnants from Baranof Castle.

The hope is the collection will be reclaimed under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act and returned to Sitka. Ultimately, they would like to house the artifacts in a new museum. One tribal employee (click link for audio) mentioned the idea of having a museum on Castle Hill, which is one of the most prominent landmarks in Sitka. Thanks to Raven Radio for the story they ran this morning.

This town, Sitka, can be a challenging place to live. This is especially true in the late Fall and early Winter time. The days are very short; it doesn't get light until around 9am and gets dark as early as 2:30pm on some cloudy, rainy days.

But that's the sacrifice we're willing to make for the abundance of wildlife, pureness, culture, and character we get for living here. Those are only a few things to describe where we live. It is a peaceful and comforting lifestyle that is rare to find anywhere.

And so, being Kiksadi and living here I feel is an honor and a priviledge. If you are Kiksadi, that means you are Tlingit, from the Raven clan, Frog sub-clan, and are from the Clay House. We are the Tlingit people of Sitka (Shee Atika).

Hello again from Sitka, Alaska. We made Good Morning America this morning. What a surprise. This is at least the second time we've made that show.

The topic this time was Barbara Corcoran's take on investing in real estate. Sitka was ranked number 5 and she described it as one of the most beautiful places in America. I'd have to agree.

Still, it's sad to see no mention of the Tlingit culture here or of the Russian history. The misrepresentation of the Tlingit people in Sitka is precisely the reason why I started my website and called it kiksadi.com. This town is part of the Tlingit Nation. I'll be citing this fact on my website in the future.

Next topic. I'm trying to be nice. I deleted a previous post where I cited Alaska Airlines. I thought, 'Maybe I'll advertise for them on my site.' But hours after editing them out of my blog, I hear of yet another safety issue concerning the company. Now, I hate bashing businesses (mostly). But this is getting to be alarming. This may be a minor incident regarding the lights, but there seem to be more frequent occurrences involving their safety issues. It would be nice to see them get back to their position as one of the top carriers in the world. Mostly, it would be nice to feel safe with them again as we used to.

Continuing from my previous post, the Sitka Hotel caught fire early this morning. As of this post, the cause is unkown. It is believed to have started in the basement of the building. Of the approximately 30 occupants of the hotel, noone was injured and they were all evacuated to a nearby hotel owned by Shee Atika, Inc.

Sitka Hotel was built in 1939. The original structure had been expanded over the years, and it was this expansion that was destroyed as seen in this picture. Apparently two-thirds of the building survived the fire, albeit with much smoke and water damage. Nevertheless it is salvageable thanks to the Sitka Fire Department, volunteers, and a local construction company who helped contain the fire with an excavator. Neighboring buildings suffered little if any damage.

This hotel is located in downtown Sitka. It reminds me of the fire of 1966 that destroyed the Russian Orthodox Church and several other structures. Though I was only a toddler at the time, I grew up hearing about the devastating fire and how the church was rebuilt with an outpouring of donations.

Unfortunately, on my way to work this morning at 7am, I saw the old Sitka Hotel was on fire. I was hoping it was a false alarm but there was definite smoke coming from the historic building. I took a few pictures, it appeared to be a room on the second or third floor. I'll post more later today when I have some details.

Rose and I have been in Anchorage the last two days. It's cold here. Alot colder than Sitka usually is since we live in a rain forest on an island in the Pacific. Anchorage is further north and you can tell. Things are pretty frozen out here. Alot of locals here would like to see more snow. I guess they kind of rely on it for their economy.

We'll be back in Sitka late tonight. I hope to get the latest from the grapevine this weekend and will post anything interesting. This will be my ongoing effort to give the visitor a taste of Sitka. Plus, I'll find some good photos to show on this page. As I said before, feel free to comment on something you might want to know or see.

Happy New Year to everybody! Along with the new look of my site, I wanted to add a blog to it since that's basically what my old site was. This should make it easier to update for me too.

What I've decided to do with this space is keep people updated on what's happening in Sitka. Not necessarily with Rose and I, but with what the community is doing. This is a great way to do it without being too formal about it. But, I can't say everything posted here will be 100% accurate. I'll be as truthful as possible. Also, I will miss some important things so feel free to send me some email about important events happening in Sitka or in the general area.

I'll post stories as often as I can with my work schedule and everything else going on. Right this moment, I can only summarize the things that come to mind.

Regionally, I can site the big win (or loss depending on who you are) by those opposing drilling ANWR. George W has been unsuccessful so far in winning this for his oil buddies. I guess I sound like I'm against it. I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's good for Alaska in general. For the Gwichin people, they must be happy their livelihood will be undisturbed for at least a while longer. There must be a better way to make money than disturbing the natural resources. One thing we love about Alaska is it isn't overdeveloped.

Locally, one of my interests this time of year is high school basketball. Mt. Edgecumbe Braves basketball to be specific. They had a tournament to begin the year up in Anchorage last week. I don't know the outcome, but they lost to powerhouse Juneau by only one point. Edgecumbe is a boarding school with students from all over Alaska which makes their competitiveness even more surprising. That's a great way to start the season off. Hopefully by the end of the season they will be able to win it all. Last year, they had a good showing at the State tournament. One person to watch is Damen Bell-Holter. He's the big guy for Edgecumbe and I believe he's only a sophomore.

So, in the future, I will try to post what's going on here to give the out-of-towners a feel for life in Sitka. It's a small, isolated town with a large Tlingit population. We locals love it here. If you're a local reading this, once again, please let me know about current events you'd like to see here.