Stories

No one spotted Santa Claus or his reindeer, but it began to feel a lot like Christmas at the Tyotka’s Elder Center – in September.
That’s because tribal Elders and members of the Youth Council, Gganiłchit Dena’ina, spent three days at the center making ornaments for the U. S. Capitol Christmas Tree. The tree will anchor the front lawn of the White House come December.
“It’s a chance to share our culture,” said tribal member Sharon Isaak, Read More

Ask Estelle Thomson how she became the Traditional Healer at the Dena’ina Wellness Center, and she shares a defining story.
A few years ago, Thomson was running a massage-therapy business in Anchorage and wanted to learn about alternative medicine. Problem was, no schools in the area offered the curriculum she sought.
So she called the Southcentral Foundation, hoping for any kind of lead – and landed a meeting with the director of the wellness department. Read More

Estelle Thomson wants to honor the people whose land she lives on. Danielle Self wants to share knowledge with her children. And Bunny Swan Gease wants to make up for lost time.
Thomson, Self and Swan Gease are participating in Kenai Peninsula College’s introductory Dena’ina language course for their own reasons. But the participants share at least one common belief – that Dena’ina, the indigenous language of the Kahtnuht’ana Dena’ina people, Read More

Wearing latex gloves, Dr. Ripan Malhi opened the cardboard box and peered inside.
There was the human skull, brown, yellow and worn from years in the soil, yet largely intact.
“We could try to extract a tooth, carefully,” Malhi said, looking up.
Malhi, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who specializes in tribal DNA studies, visited the tribe in May to collect DNA samples from ancient human remains discovered in the Kenai area. Read More