Аляска жергілікті халықтарының мұрасы мен экономикасы: Sealaska корпорациясы

Alaska Native corporation
Sealaska Corporation is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Headquartered in Juneau, Alaska, Sealaska is a for profit corporation with more than 23,000 Alaska Native shareholders primarily of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian descent. Sealaska was incorporated in Alaska on June 16, 1972. In 1981, Sealaska Corporation sponsored the creation of the non profit Sealaska Heritage Foundation, now the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which manages its cultural and educational programs. Sealaska’s primary economic drivers are natural resources, land management, environmental services and seafood.

The Sealaska Heritage Institute is a nonprofit organization established in 1980 by Sealaska, following its conception by clan leaders, traditional scholars, and elders during the inaugural Sealaska Elders Conference. It was founded to preserve and enrich the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska through various programs and services: language revitalization, the archival of ethnographic materials, early childhood literacy, art classes, subsistence living classes, and conducted research in the areas of Alaska Native history and culture. In June 2022 during the biennial Celebration festival in Juneau, Alaska, the Sealaska Heritage Institute unveiled the first 360 degree totem pole in Alaska: the 22 feet (7 m) Sealaska Cultural Values Totem Pole. The structure, carved out of a 600 year old cedar tree, "represents all three tribes of Southeast Alaska — Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian."

The Baby Raven Reads program was initiated by the Sealaska Heritage Institute in 2017 as a pilot project. Subsequently, it secured funding to extend the program for multiple additional years and broaden its reach to encompass nine communities throughout Southeast Alaska. The program was established to enhance early literacy skills by leveraging cultural strengths to promote home literacy practices. In 2017, the Baby Raven Reads program received recognition from the Library of Congress, being honored as a recipient of the 2017 Best Practice Honoree award.

Salmon Boy: Shanyáak'utlaax (2017). Edited by Johnny Marks, Hans Chester, David Katzeek, and Nora and Richard Dauenhauer. Illustrated by Michaela Goade. Raven and the Hidden Halibut (2020). Written by the 2014 2015 fourth and fifth grade Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy (TCLL) students at Harborview Elementary and illustrated by Nick Alan Foote. The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales (2021). Translated into X̱aad Kíl or Haida by Skíl Jáadei Linda Schrack and Ilskyalas Delores Churchill and illustrated by Janine Gibbons. Celebration! (2022). Written by Lily Hope. Illustrated by Kelsey Mata.