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- [00:00]
Casey Grove
Support for Alaska Public Media on demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
- [00:20]
Buggy Carl
Right now is just trying to convince everybody to go before the next storm hits.
- [00:27]
Casey Grove
Difficult decisions as two western Alaska communities are evacuated due to storm damage. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Wednesday, October 15th. Good evening, I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, a look at what's ahead for this year's AFN convention.
- [00:43]
Sven Haakonson
It's about brainstorming. It's about learning from each other and saying, hey, what do we need to do?
- [00:49]
Casey Grove
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. A mass evacuation is underway for Kipnuk and Quigilingok, where a thousand people were sheltering in schools after Sunday's huge storm, the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long. Kipnuk tribal administrator Buggy Carl said by phone around 1pm today that he was focused on one thing.
- [01:16]
Buggy Carl
Oh, right now he's just trying to get convince everybody to go before the next storm hits.
- [01:23]
Casey Grove
Kipnuk's cracked Runway is now fixed. Hundreds had been flown out by helicopter and airplane to Bethel as of this afternoon. Shelter conditions in the two communities were rough. The toilets weren't working at the Quingillingock school. Power and telecommunications were spotty in Kipnuk and fuel to heat the school was running low. Nearly all the homes in both towns were damaged. It's unsafe to stay, Carl says still, some people are reluctant to leave.
- [01:50]
Buggy Carl
I know their mindset that their heart is here. They don't know anywhere else to go.
- [01:56]
Casey Grove
It's more than just familiar, Carl says. It's where they know how to make a living as subsistence hunters and harvesters. Carl says he heard some say they were afraid to go somewhere else.
- [02:05]
Buggy Carl
And then there's a possible talk that we'll be able to come back for those who want to come back and still continue to help clean up and make way our own Kipnak to start cleaning up and get it up and running.
- [02:22]
Casey Grove
Carl says houses that were pushed off their foundations are scattered across Kipnock. He was in a house with 14 family members during the storm, six of them children, when the four bedroom house started drifting around 2am at one point he yelled at his family to brace when it looked like they were going to strike another house. He estimates his home traveled a half mile before it came to rest.
- [02:43]
Buggy Carl
We only floated down a few minutes. It felt like hours because the time was really slow and I was really my adrenaline was like out of the roof.
- [02:56]
Casey Grove
Kugalingok Tribal Court Administrator Bria Paul says a substantial portion of her town has already been flown to Bethel.
- [03:03]
Andrea Burgess
We're going to be one of the last families to leave so we can let the ones with no homes go first. But as of right now, we don't know where we're going to go.
- [03:15]
Casey Grove
The first evacuees were taken to the Bethel Armory, but that shelter quickly filled this afternoon. Evacuees were seen boarding a C17 transport plane at the National Guard Armory hangar in Bethel. A spokesperson with the Alaska National Guard says 300 people from both Kipnock and Quigillingoc were staged in the armory hangar to be evacuated to Anchorage. Local officials are continuing to search for two people missing after the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long left one dead and much of the region devastated by high winds and flooding. But large scale search and rescue efforts are largely on hold pending new information. The U.S. coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers and Alaska National Guard say they were unable to locate a floating house and its occupants before they suspended their active search Monday evening. Coast Guard captain Christopher Culpepper says the search covered dozens of square miles around the village of Kylongaq using helicopters, planes, drones and more.
- [04:17]
Buggy Carl
Suspending an active search is always a tough decision to make and it is especially difficult in this situation where the Quigellinga community is already suffering so much.
- [04:26]
Casey Grove
Alaska State Troopers identified the missing people as 71 year old Vernon Pavel and 41 year old Chester Kashatook and said they had located the body of 67 year old Ella Mae Kashatook. All three were residents of the hard hit village of Quigillingoc and members of the same family. Bria Paul knew them well. She says she saw their house floating off its foundation as floodwaters rose on Sunday.
- [04:49]
Andrea Burgess
They were the most kindest people I've ever met. They didn't have much but they always, always had a positive mindset and they always greeted anyone. They welcomed everyone to their home. They deserve to be searched. Their names deserve to be heard.
- [05:12]
Casey Grove
Village public safety officers and volunteers are continuing to search for the two men and half a dozen helicopter crews and other aircraft have worked since the weekend to move people and supplies where they're needed in the storm battered Kuskokwim Delta. KYUK's Samantha Watson spoke to Coast Guard first responders about the ongoing effort to evacuate the hardest hit communities.
- [05:34]
Samantha Watson
Early Sunday morning, lieutenant Blake David Brostorm and his Coast Guard helicopter crew flew from Kodiak to the Kuskokwim Delta coast to survey storm damage. Some Communities like Quinnehawk have been able to evacuate residents locally and make sure everyone had been accounted for. From the air, he could tell that Quin Gilinook had been hit hard.
- [05:53]
Sven Haakonson
And we immediately see a drastic difference between the other villages. It was very flooded. We saw a lot of damage. We saw homes that were as much as three miles away from where they should have been ripped off of their foundations.
- [06:10]
Samantha Watson
Communicating by radio, the crew worked with local searchers on the ground. They sent a crew member down in a harness to search for people in floating homes and offer medical aid. Brostorm says that many Quingalygook residents had been shuttled by boat or ATV from their homes to tiny areas of ground. The helicopter crew ferried groups from the little islands to the evacuation center at the school.
- [06:32]
Sven Haakonson
I remember looking back, and I saw one kid. He waved to me, and I was like, hey, buddy. And he just had, like this. He just seemed very, like. His face was both, like, happy, but at the same time, there was this huge sigh of relief that we were able to get people into a safe location.
- [06:50]
Samantha Watson
Between the villages of Kipnook and Quingilliguk. The state emergency operations center says 51 people and two dogs were rescued by the Coast Guard, Alaska state troopers, Alaska Army National Guard, and the Alaska Air Guard. Bro Storm says the way somehow houses had drifted, displaced so far from their foundations was to a degree he'd never seen before.
- [07:10]
Sven Haakonson
As we all know, our homes are like our sanctuary, right? You know, whether it's like your family photos, the house you grew up in, your family, all the love that you have inside that home gone overnight, it's. It is very tragic, and it is going to be a long and emotional process for this to have some sorts of normalcy afterwards.
- [07:35]
Samantha Watson
Tobias Crawley was on another Coast Guard helicopter crew out of Kodiak that flew on rescue and recovery missions.
- [07:41]
Casey Grove
There wasn't much to see for flying for a while, and there's not a lot out there. And then slowly we'd come upon this village, and we don't know what it was supposed to look like, but we used to see these. It started with just a few houses, and then we flew over those and quickly realized those aren't where they're supposed to be.
- [08:04]
Samantha Watson
On Monday, after people were moved to shelters in their communities, crews shifted to evacuating people in need of medical attention to Bethel. The Coast Guard helicopters also dropped hundreds of pounds of supplies, including food and water, medicine, batteries, and dog food, along with medical personnel to Kipnook and Quingilliguk. Before heading back with evacuees. The Coast Guard helicopters could fit about six community members at a time. In Bethel, I'm Samantha Watson.
- [08:35]
Casey Grove
Still to come on Alaska news nightly, meet Alaska's 2026 assistant principal of the Year. Just an exceptional person to work with. I mean, best person I've worked with probably my entire career. That's ahead. Stay with us. The former Juneau police officer who slammed a man to the ground during an arrest this summer will not face criminal charges. The state's Office of Special Prosecutions cleared former JJPD officer Brandon LeBlanc for his use of force during the arrest. The July incident, which was recorded by a witness, circulated widely online and prompted a public outcry. The man arrested during the incident, whose family has publicly identified him as Christopher Williams Jr. Appeared to lie unconscious for the remainder of the video. He was later medevaced out of town. Tuesday's statement from the Office of Special Prosecutions says after a review of the evidence and an independent investigation conducted by the Alaska State Troopers Alaska Bureau of Investigation, the office determined it would not criminally charge Officer LeBlanc for the incident. Following the arrest, LeBlanc was placed on paid administrative leave. He later resigned from his position just a day before JPD released the body worn camera footage of the arrest. Since then, Chief of Police Derek Boss says the department is taking action to reform its policies after conducting an internal investigation. He defended the department's hiring of LeBlanc during a presentation to the Juneau assembly in late September, saying he firmly believes that LeBlanc is a good officer who made a very bad mistake, end quote. Mental health providers in the state say unnecessary and burdensome regulations make it harder for Alaskans to access care, and they're hopeful. A recent order from governor Mike Dunleavy aimed at streamlining regulations across state government will help. John Solomon heads Alaska Behavioral Health Association, a trade group that represents most behavioral health provider organizations in the state. He says excessive regulations on behavioral health services contribute to a bottleneck of care in the state. We've asked our organizations what are the top three reasons you can't see more people? One, the past three years has been administrative burden, and that's what this is. It's just all the paperwork and the regulations and things. The executive order enacted last month requires all state agencies, departments and boards to reduce regulations by a quarter by the end of 2027, he says. One example of a regulation that may be unnecessary for some patients is that treatment plans must be updated every 90 days. Solomon says some regulations are important and the industry is already governed through licensing, accreditation and ethics, he says. Because behavioral health care has not always been seen as a part of overall health care, its regulations are more complex.
- [11:27]
Sven Haakonson
In the state, if you are having.
- [11:30]
Casey Grove
To follow seven pages of rules versus one page of rules, even though you do the same service, that means you're having to do more steps. You're having to submit more paperwork. The state is taking public comment suggestions for regulation cuts to behavioral health until the end of October. The state Department of Law and the governor's office will oversee the process. Well, all week long, the excitement for the start of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention has grown in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Native people from all over the state arrive early to take in the Elders and Youth Conference and the Tribal Unity Gathering. But it's AFN that draws the biggest crowd. Once this gathering gets underway tomorrow, 6,000 people will flow through the Denina center for the next three days. As KNBA's Rhonda McBride tells us, AFN is many things to many people.
- [12:18]
Andrea Burgess
Happy Native New Year.
- [12:20]
Rhonda McBride
Ada Coyle says she doesn't know when this phrase became popular at afn, but says it fits.
- [12:27]
Andrea Burgess
It's been a year since we all gathered, so it's a new year.
- [12:32]
Sven Haakonson
Big Native New Year Gathering Hug Fest.
- [12:36]
Rhonda McBride
Sven Haakonson says there is a rhythm to it all.
- [12:40]
Sven Haakonson
I love doing the AFN shuffle, step, step hug, step hug. It's just wonderful because I get to see everybody I haven't seen all year.
- [12:47]
Rhonda McBride
Hawkinson is an anthropology professor at the University of Washington, originally from Old harbor on Kodiak Island. He says the convention is much more than a big family reunion. It is also time to to do important work.
- [13:02]
Sven Haakonson
It's about brainstorming. It's about learning from each other and saying, hey, what do we need to do? How do we take care of each other? And that's why I love AFN. And you know, I've been coming for almost 30 years.
- [13:15]
Rhonda McBride
It was almost 60 years ago that the very first convention was held in a room above the Alaska Fur Factory on Fourth Avenue, a time when Alaska was a new state, when its indigenous peoples feared they would lose their land and way of life. So they fought for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement act and won. But the work goes on at afn.
- [13:38]
Casey Grove
The one unifying factor for us is.
- [13:40]
Rhonda McBride
Protecting our way of life, a way of life that AFN's co chair Joe Nelson says has been threatened by drastic federal budget cuts and new policies that affect native lands. AFN delegates had hoped to talk directly with Trump administration cabinet members who, along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, were scheduled to speak at the gathering, but the federal shutdown prevented them from traveling to Alaska. Their speeches will now be virtual, not the same as having FaceTime, but Nelson says the work will go on regardless.
- [14:13]
Casey Grove
But we're going to gather as we do, as Native folks start beating our drums, just working together, united.
- [14:20]
Rhonda McBride
This year's theme for AFN is Standing Strong, Standing United. It was Ben Melotte's job when he became president of AFN to rebuild a fractured convention. In recent years, six Native groups had left AFN upset over how it handled disagreements between different regions. Most have since come back into the fold, except for the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and the Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Milad is hopeful they, too, will return. He says the board has worked hard to improve how AFN deals with dissent.
- [14:58]
Sven Haakonson
A lot of it, too.
- [14:59]
Casey Grove
You gotta have that space to have those discussions.
- [15:02]
Sven Haakonson
AFN did have a structure to really allow for a very safe or constructive way to deal with disagreements between regions.
- [15:10]
Rhonda McBride
It's been said that AFN conventions always have an element of surprise, that some of the big developments are never on the agenda. This year, the convention has already been blindsided by events beyond its control, first the federal shutdown, and now the storm last weekend, which slammed coastal communities in western Alaska like never before. Now the convention is scrambling to address the devastation, but the theme was somehow prescient. If ever there was a time for unity, it's now. Roy Aglowen, president of the First Alaskans Institute, set the stage at the Elders and Youth Conference.
- [15:51]
Casey Grove
To those affected, we see you. We are with you. To those who can help, now is the time.
- [16:01]
Rhonda McBride
Throughout its history, AFN has managed to find ways to rise to the occasion. Both then and now, its superpower seems to be strength and unity. In anchorage, I'm Rhonda McBride.
- [16:18]
Casey Grove
The U.S. senate unanimously approved a bill last week that would allow Alaska Native people to continue sales of traditional ivory art in states that pass laws banning the ivory trade. The Alaska Beacon reports that the Artist act introduced by Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is intended to address state level bans that were instituted to limit demand for elephant ivory. Those bans have also affected products made with mammoth and walrus ivory, marine mammal bone or baleen produced by Alaska Native people. Harvesting and carving walrus ivory is legal under federal law. But Sullivan said that laws passed by different states have dissuaded tourists from buying ivory art when they visit Alaska. The Senate passed the bill without dissent, and it advances to the House for further action. In a speech on the Senate floor. Sullivan thanked his fellow senators for approving the bill, which was introduced in 2024 but did not pass into law. Before the new Congress began in January, Sullivan reintroduced the bill and it advanced through the Senate. Sullivan described states that instituted the bans as having cast too wide of a net. The bill has the support of the Alaska Federation of Natives, World Wildlife Fund and Eskimo Walrus Commission, plus various Alaska Native groups and corporations. From its inception in 2016, the Alaska Tribal Unity Gathering has sought to bring tribal leaders from across Alaska into the same room. Getting them to Anchorage is one thing. Getting them on the same page is another. Andrea Burgess was a panelist at today's session called Voting for Our Ways of Protecting Our Subsistence Rights. Burgess is the executive director of Native People's Action. When it comes to preserving subsistence rights, she says working together is imperative.
- [18:03]
Andrea Burgess
Things are literally shifting from beneath our feet, beneath our waters, that mindset shift that's going to require that we as Native people stop fighting amongst our own entities. We don't have any time to spare to be in disagreement amongst our own selves.
- [18:23]
Casey Grove
The four person panel discussed issues like the Katie John case, which established a rural subsistence priority to fish in navigable waters on federal land. A federal appeals court recently upheld the ruling that underpins Alaska's current subsistence fishing program. One thing tribes can start doing now, Burgess says, is support students through college so they can bring Indigenous voices to the legal process.
- [18:45]
Andrea Burgess
When we send our young people off to go be lawyers and attorneys and to go get your education, we need to make sure they have a position and they are respected when they return so that they can follow the mission that their elders put them on.
- [18:59]
Casey Grove
Panelist Nelly Unangik Jimmy says Indigenous voices deserve to be in the legislative process, too.
- [19:05]
Andrea Burgess
We need more representation and not people who come and move here for three years and say, hey, I'm ready to vote, to fix. They say we're going to fix you. But they don't know our needs, our way of life.
- [19:19]
Casey Grove
Jimmy urged the audience to vote for candidates that match their priorities as Indigenous people.
- [19:25]
Andrea Burgess
We are voters. We know we have numbers, but what's going on is there. People are trying to discourage us from voting, fighting amongst ourselves. We need to change the culture in incorporating that into politics, into voting. We need to talk with our families, our communities and bring them together.
- [19:48]
Casey Grove
The Alaska Tribal Unity gathering convenes each year before the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. The convention begins Thursday at Anchorage's Denina center and runs through Saturday. An iconic opossum who hitched a ride to Alaska on a shipping container from Washington State, died on Saturday, according to a statement from the Alaska Zoo. Grubby, named Ophelia by zoo staff, died from complications of old age. Tristan Thone is the zoo's executive director and helped rehome the stowaway to the Alaska Zoo.
- [20:29]
Andrea Burgess
I think we saw an opportunity not only to give her a second chance, but to also educate people. So I think it was an easy decision for us. The zoo exists to provide a home for animals in need, and that's what she was.
- [20:43]
Casey Grove
Grubby was three and a half years old when she died, surpassing the normal lifespan for the species by over a year. She was found in a shipping container that arrived in Homer in March 2023. And if you don't know, opossums don't live in Alaska, so Grubby was considered invasive. The marsupial was eventually taken into custody by the Homer Police Department. She then became a resident at the Alaska Zoo. Some people wanted her killed, though, when she came to Homer and others were fans and launched the hashtag FreeGrubby on social media. Allison Phillips used to live in Alaska but now lives in Maryland. She learned about the bandit through a social media post from the Homer Police Department. She says she often sees opossums run over on the side of the road where she lives, but she's glad that wasn't Grubby's outcome.
- [21:27]
Andrea Burgess
It was just so cool that that was her outcome. Like her outcome wasn't. They found her frostbitten in Homer. Her outcome was she had fans and she was loved by the staff at the zoo.
- [21:40]
Casey Grove
Grubby was named after Grubstake Avenue in Homer. Petersburg's middle and high school Assistant Principal Jamie Cabral is officially Alaska's 2026 Assistant Principal of the Year. Cabral was recognized at the Alaska Principals Conference in Anchorage last weekend, and as KFSK's Taylor Heckert reports, a celebration was waiting for him when he returned home.
- [22:07]
Taylor Heckert
Noise Parades aren't out of the ordinary in Petersburg. Usually, students pile into firetrucks, buses and cars and parade around town to celebrate academic and athletic success. Today's parade, though, isn't for any students. It's for someone who works with them. Jamie Cabral was recognized as Both the Region 5 Assistant Principal of the Year and the 2026 Alaska Assistant Principal of the Year. These awards recognize Cabral's work to support students in and out of the classroom. Cabral wears a lot of hats. So many it's hard for his co workers to keep track of everything he does.
- [22:42]
Casey Grove
He's the dean of students.
- [22:43]
Andrea Burgess
Jamie is in charge of our Indian education program. He.
- [22:46]
Casey Grove
He is a volleyball coach, athletic director.
- [22:49]
Andrea Burgess
He's been a coach of many inside the school and outside the school. Jamie is also on the Alaska School Activities association governing board.
- [22:58]
Casey Grove
He helps me with the handbooks. He helps me with discipline when necessary.
- [23:02]
Andrea Burgess
I believe he's also on a national board level as well.
- [23:05]
Sven Haakonson
He does a lot. He does everything.
- [23:07]
Andrea Burgess
He is on so many boards. I can't even do justice to explain which boards he is on.
- [23:12]
Casey Grove
I mean, there's just no way to list it all. It would take me a day.
- [23:16]
Taylor Heckert
Here's Midland High School principal Brad King.
- [23:18]
Casey Grove
He is just an exceptional person to work with. I mean, best person I've worked with probably my entire career. Best co administrator with me. Does everything well. More enthusiasm, more energy than you can possibly imagine.
- [23:35]
Taylor Heckert
Superintendent Robin Taylor says that Cabral leaves a big impact on the students he works with.
- [23:41]
Andrea Burgess
When I make my rounds to the schools in the mornings, every time I have observed Jamie, whatever student he is talking with, you can see their faces light up.
- [23:51]
Taylor Heckert
That impact extends beyond students. Dustin Crump is a Spanish teacher at the Midland High School, and he says that Cabral leaves everyone around him feeling better.
- [24:01]
Sven Haakonson
He is one of the only people I've met who can just, like, make you feel really good. On a bad day, you just go and talk to Jamie and you walk away and it's like, oh, I feel great now.
- [24:12]
Taylor Heckert
Elementary school principal Heather Kahn says it takes a lot of work to do all the things Cabral does for the district and his community. She says a lot of his time is spent helping others.
- [24:23]
Andrea Burgess
He sacrifices his own time for other families here in Petersburg, in our community. He'll do it all for the best interest of the students.
- [24:32]
Taylor Heckert
If you ask Cabral, he says he couldn't have gotten this far without a lot of support from the kids, the community, and his wife, Heidi. He's humble about his awards.
- [24:42]
Sven Haakonson
Yeah, that was not expected whatsoever, not even the region one. I like to try and just stay on the down low and keep working and make sure the kids got what they need at the school. But it is super, super amazing.
- [24:58]
Taylor Heckert
He says he's honored to have received these recognitions, and he's proud of the successes students show in academics and activities at the school district. For now, Cabral gets to be celebrated with a Petersburg noise parade in the same way he's celebrated so many students over the years. For kfsk, I'm Taylor Heckert.
- [25:33]
Casey Grove
And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're online@alaskapublic.org and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Evan Erickson, Eric Stone and Samantha Watson in Bethel, Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. clarice Larson in Juneau, Rachel Cassandra, Rhonda McBride, Ben Townsend and Ava White in Anchorage and Taylor Heckard in Petersburg. Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose as our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.