A former Metlakatla man previously charged with first degree murder has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against over 30 parties connected to the case. The lawsuit alleges that Isaac Henderson, who was 18 years old at the time of his brother’s death in 2021, was wrongfully indicted and prosecuted for murder.

It alleges that Henderson immediately described the shooting as an accident and self-defense, which evidence supports. Henderson was charged with murder following a mishandled investigation, leading to years of prosecution.

Last year, Ketchikan Superior Court judge Daniel Doty dismissed the case, barring re-filing of the same charges.

In the dismissal order, Doty said officers of the Metlakatla Police Department wrote false and misleading information on evidence logs, relied on false and incomplete witness narratives, destroyed evidence, withheld key documents from the defense, and lied multiple times under oath. Doty said that due to the severity of the discovery violations, there was “no hope of a fair trial.”

Former MPD Chief Bruce Janes said that the investigation was “very sloppy” and “probably the worst I’ve ever done.”

There are 35 defendants total in the complaint, including former Metlakatla Police Chief Janes, former MPD officers Austin McKeehan and Jason Henry, and Metlakatla Mayor Albert Smith. There are multiple other unidentified defendants, including “Metlakatla Indian Community policymakers” and “unknown governmental entity defendants.”

The lawsuit alleges that the harm from the public accusation of murder extended beyond the court. The tribal council permanently evicted Henderson from the Annette Islands Reserve citing safety concerns. It caused him to lose his tribal benefits and home community.

Henderson seeks both compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees, costs, interest, and all other relief available under federal and state law.

Henderson’s attorney, John Phillips, said in a statement that the case is not an attack on Metlakatla. “Metlakatla is a proud community, and its people deserve police work worthy of that pride,” he said. “They do not deserve a system where key evidence is ignored or destroyed, records cannot be trusted, and an 18-year-old is left to face a murder prosecution for years.”

The defendants will have the opportunity to respond in court and all allegations will be resolved through the judicial process, according to a statement from Phillips.

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On the last day of school at Point Higgins Elementary, stacks of cardboard boxes filled with school supplies were piled in every corner and classroom furniture lined the hallways. Hundreds of free books were on shelves and tables in the front entrance. Most of them were being donated to other schools. Many are staying in the district.

“Today is a chaos day,” said Point Higgins principal Todd Henke. “A lot of cleaning, you’ll see kids carrying the last things out of classrooms, manual labor, even the little ones will be carrying stuff.”

Henke’s been with the district for 12 years. Next year, he’s going to be principal of an elementary school down south. He’s not excited to leave Ketchikan, but when the district’s financial situation seemed to come to a head earlier this spring, he knew his future was uncertain. 

The Ketchikan school board voted to close both Fawn Mountain and Point Higgins elementary schools in April. It’s a decision that’s been looming for years —  the board restructured the district’s elementary schools last year to save money. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough. 

The district was forced to face over $5 million of debt on top of a $3 million shortfall this year. In addition to the school closures, they had to lay off over 70 staff members across the district. There’s now one elementary school, one middle school and one high school — all located in town and being called “centralized learning hubs.”

Henke’s been at Point Higgins for two years. He loves the sense of community at the school. He said even after some staff members were told they weren’t being retained, they still stuck together to help the rest of the staff wrap things up and move them out.

That kind of compassion is what he hopes to see at his new school. 

“It’s nice for people to just help people because they care, not because they have to,” Henke said. “I’ve seen that here so many times.”

There was still the lively, celebratory energy that’s always in the air on the last day of school. As kids stepped off the school buses and walked toward the doors of the historic building for the last time, staff members and volunteers smiled and greeted them with open arms. But most of them were also holding back tears — including Misty Hancock, a special education teacher. 

“I know it’s a cliche to say that we’re a family, but we’re a family, and it’s really hard to say goodbye,” Hancock said.

She’s been at Point Higgins for four years, and before that she was at Fawn Mountain. Standing in front of the school, she wiped her eyes and hugged her daughter.

“These kids are everything,” Hancock said. “Last year we got, you know, split, and now we’re split even more, and it’s just hard. Today’s hard.”

Inside, the morning started off pretty normal. Principal Henke told a joke over the intercom that seemed to go over the heads of the second graders in Ms. Shlaudeman’s class. Then, for the last time, he led the school in the Orca Pledge. 

The school chanted in unison: “As a Point Higgins Orca, I pledge to be safe, respectful and a learner in my classroom, in my school, and in my community.”

Many students were excited for summer break. Many of them will be going to Houghtaling Elementary School next year and look forward to being reunited with friends and siblings. 

Second grader Scarlett Adams had mixed feelings. She loves everything about Point Higgins, she said, like science projects and her teacher, Ms. Holly. Out of all the good memories she had at the school, it was too difficult to narrow it down to one favorite.

“I think my favorite day was all the days,” she said.

Twenty miles south, students were having their last recess at Fawn Mountain Elementary. There’s a big playground overlooking the ocean. Third grader Ariana Simpson, who has been at Fawn Mountain for four years, played with her friends. 

“I’ve been here for so long it’s just like, I know this place like the back of my hand,” she said.

She loves the friends she’s made. She said out of all her time at Fawn Mountain, her favorite day was the first day of kindergarten — because of one specific memory. 

“I remember being the new student,” she said. “I had this one friend, she is still in my classroom, she’s been here for a while in the classroom, she said, ‘raise your hand if you want me to be your friend.’ The whole class raised their hand, especially me.’”

For the teachers at Fawn Mountain, it’s crunch time. Some of them have been collecting classroom supplies for years, and they now have just days to finish packing it all up.

Janae Merrill has been at Fawn Mountain for two decades. She’ll be teaching second grade at Houghtaling next year, and she’s looking forward to meeting other staff members she hasn’t worked with before. 

“Change always isn’t a bad thing,” Merrill said. “So it’ll be different, but it’ll be okay,”

She’s going to miss going to the beach and having access to the Fawn Mountain field. But she’s going to miss the people the most. 

“Even though we’ve had some big transitions throughout the years. Like, it always just feels like family, no matter who’s here, and which has really been an important thing. We’ve always kind of called it the family school.”

“The family school.” That’s what third grade teacher Angie Taggart calls it, too. 

She will also be teaching at Houghtaling next year, but some of her colleagues were laid off, are retiring, and others are moving away. But she believes they had a lasting impact on the students. 

“I hope they take away the kindness that was shown to them,” Taggart said. “The support that they had here with just our parents and teachers, and just our, like I said, we’re just a big family. I think that’s gonna go with them, and they’re gonna remember Fawn Mountain for that.”

Teachers had to be moved out of their classrooms for good by the end of the day Monday. The district is asking the community for help moving out of both buildings in the next few weeks. 

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There is now a challenger in Alaska’s House District 1 race. Former Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly member Grant EchoHawk filed to run for the seat just ahead of the June 1 deadline. He’s running as a nonpartisan.

EchoHawk is up against Republican incumbent Jeremy Bynum, who was elected to the District 1 seat in 2024. District 1 covers Ketchikan, Metlakatla, Saxman, Wrangell, Hyder, and Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales Island. 

This is EchoHawk’s second run for the State House seat, having run against Bynum in 2024. If elected, EchoHawk says he’ll vote similarly to Bynum in a lot of areas, but wanted to offer voters an alternative.

“There’s lots of different things that our vote here in House District 1 does impact, not only our district but also the statewide future,” EchoHawk said. “And so I thought it was important that our voters had a choice in those areas where I think Jeremy [Bynum] might diverge.”

EchoHawk was raised in Metlakatla and lives in Ketchikan. He served on the Borough Assembly alongside Bynum. 

If elected to State House, EchoHawk said one of his top priorities will be education funding. He believes the state has not met its school funding obligations and thinks state legislators aren’t held to the same level of scrutiny as school board members. EchoHawk said that some state legislators are putting young people at a “disservice.” 

“If we spent even half the amount of energy coming down on our school boards, as we did coming down on the state legislators, things might be a little different,” he said.

EchoHawk said he’s also concerned about tax breaks and tax credits on out of state and out of country corporations. He said Alaska generates a lot of wealth, and that money should stay in the state. He believes that state legislators who advocate for giving Alaska wealth to the corporations are “doing harm to our communities.”

“We need that money to better – to give us our stronger marine highway service. We need that money to fund our schools. We need that money to help small businesses,” EchoHawk said.

Alaska’s primary election is on August 18. The top four candidates in each race will advance to the general election in November. 

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

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Ketchikan has one of the longest-standing Filipino populations in Alaska. And one woman is working to keep traditional dance practices alive for the city’s next generation.

Alma Manabat Parker is the subject of a new 24-minute documentary titled “Bridging Our Stories.” The short film follows Parker’s 2024 grant-funded journey across the Philippines to study dance with Indigenous groups. She then returns to Ketchikan to pass on what she learned to the next generation. 

Born in the Philippines, Parker moved to Ketchikan when she was eight months old. She’s the founder of the city’s Filipino folk music and dance performance group, Magsayawan Ketchikan, where she teaches traditional dance in shared gymnasiums and empty parking lots. 

And Parker says that’s important after Ketchikan’s most recent Filipino Community Center closed about a decade ago. She said the center was more than just a physical space – it was an institution where Filipinos could connect, speak in their own dialects, and dance.

She said without the space, some Filipinos in Ketchikan feel invisible.

“It saddens me to see kids not having that opportunity and losing that because of the loss of teachers and elders who have either passed on or who are unable to teach at the moment,” Parker said. “So taking on this opportunity just seemed like a natural fit for me, as I’m involved with other dance aspects of Ketchikan.” 

But Parker wanted to ensure that what she was teaching was culturally relevant. She hadn’t visited the Philippines in over 30 years and said the trip helped her to bridge the gap between her roots and Ketchikan’s disappearing Filipino culture.

“I think that is also an underlying theme of this film, of “Bridging Our Stories,” because it bridged us together, and now here we are elaborating and extending that bridge,” Parker said.

She said the country of more than 7,000 islands is diverse, with several languages and dialects. So, during her trip, Parker traveled to three distinct regions to learn dance from different cultural groups. 

And during Parker’s travels, she found that a majority of the dances the Ketchikan Filipino community had been teaching for generations were colonial-era performances shaped by Spanish influence. Parker said some of the dances and cultural practices parallel those of Alaska Native groups she grew up alongside.

“That’s what I found so compelling to connect with was how a tropical island of the Philippines is so much like the southeastern Alaska, of Ketchikan, that I grew up in,” Parker said.

The idea for the film came about in 2023 when director Rafael Bitanga came to Ketchikan to document Parker’s work with the local Filipino dance group, after she won a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts to enhance the organization. Bitanga, who is of Filipino descent and grew up in Alaska, soon noticed that Parker embodies the tension of keeping Ketchikan’s Filipino culture alive. He said the film uplifts the stories of Filipinos in Alaska, which he believes is underdocumented and may disappear if nobody tells them. 

“I guess it’s landing with a lot of people,” Bitanga said. “And that’s, I think, what matters most, is that it’s creating a legacy that Filipinos in Ketchikan and Filipinos across Alaska do matter, and people want to hear our voices as well.” 

The film has so far won two national awards and has been screened in several cities along the West Coast. It’ll soon be making its rounds on the East Coast, as well. It was also Bitanga’s first documentary film. 

Parker said “Bridging Our Stories” reflects the struggle of immigrants figuring out their cultural identity. 

“I hope it resonates with our younger generation of them really finding the time to plant that seed, make the time to learn our language, make the time to understand what our dances mean and why it’s important to celebrate and uplift our cultural presence,” Parker said.

The film will premiere in Ketchikan and throughout Alaska this fall.

Bitanga is now working on another documentary about the impacts of overcrowded classrooms in Zambia. 

Correction: Ketchikan’s most recent Filipino Community Center closed about a decade ago, not 40 years ago.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

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The draft environmental impact statement for the Twin Mountain II Timber Sale came out in April. One of the key findings: it could have substantial effects on the subsistence use of deer on Prince of Wales Island. 

The Forest Service was required to hold a subsistence hearing for the logging project under ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. A section of ANILCA requires the Forest Service to hold a subsistence hearing and allow public testimony if they find the proposed plan is likely to have a significant impact on subsistence uses. That testimony is then considered and incorporated into the final environmental impact statement. 

The Twin Mountain II Timber Sale would cover two separate areas on the north and west ends of Prince of Wales — the Red Bay area on the north end of the island, and the Staney Creek area just west of Thorne Bay. It’s expected to provide over 28 million board feet of timber — and it includes the harvest of about 1,655 acres of old growth.

Mike Jones, President of the Organized Village of Kasaan, opposes the project. He spoke on behalf of both himself and the tribe. A large majority of the island’s old growth has already been logged, he said, and the effects of that old growth logging never go away. 

“Nobody’s ever seen old growth come back,” he said.

Jones said the trees at risk aren’t a commodity — they’re non-human relatives. And healthy forests are necessary for healthy salmon runs.

“We’re salmon people and we’re totem pole people and we’re canoe people,” he said. “Once the last of these old growth red cedar are gone, where does that leave us in our culture and who we are?”

Jones said he meets with the Forest Service regularly for government to government consultations. He hopes that what he says is taken into consideration, and is more than checking boxes for federally required meetings and processes.

Clinton Cook, president of the Craig Tribal Association, also opposes the Twin Mountain II project. He said he wasn’t informed about the feedback period for the environmental impact statement. 

“Being a tribal government, it’s really painful to know that you didn’t reach out to us before you started having public hearings,” he said. “We didn’t know this was an ANILCA hearing, or we would have been way more prepared.”

Cook said there’s plenty of young growth trees in the area that could be harvested, instead. He wants to see the Forest Service transition to second growth logging and leave vital deer habitats alone. 

Arielle Halpern is the Forest Policy and Research Manager for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. She said their primary concern is that the draft environmental impact statement fails to disclose or mitigate impacts to tribal subsistence uses and cultural resources.

“There is no meaningful discussion of totem poles, canoes, paddles, baskets, or the living forest resources that make indigenous cultural continuity possible,” Halpern said. “This is not a minor gap. It reflects a structural failure to analyze the full scope of effects to tribal ways of life tied to homeland forests, encompassing and including the Tongass National Forest.”

She said that omission is despite tribal engagement and awareness of the cultural significance. 

Multiple people at the subsistence hearing, including those over the phone, had issue with the scale of the project. They said they would be more in support of smaller logging projects they see as sustainable. 

Don Hernandez lives in Point Baker, a town of around 15 people on the northern side of the island. He feeds his family almost exclusively through harvesting of meat, fish and wild plants. He said small, rural communities across Prince of Wales rely on timber for everything they do. 

“We need to be as self sufficient as possible, and reason that is so is because it’s really expensive to buy groceries in rural Alaska,” Hernandez said. “In these smaller communities in southeast Alaska, it’s really an economic necessity. We also have lesser opportunities for making a living, so reliance on wild harvesting for subsistence uses is critical to rural way of life.”

Some people shared concern that the project could affect the deer population and, in turn, harm the island’s wolf population.  

Only one person spoke in support of the project. Dan Hayes has lived on Prince of Wales for 50 years. He says in the ‘70s, during heavy logging projects, he saw the island’s deer population blossom. It’s back down now, he says, and he believes the Twin Mountain II project will help bring the deer population back.

Although the draft EIS found the timber project could greatly affect the island’s deer population, it also found that it would not have a significant impact on subsistence uses of fish, food plants, personal use timber, upland game birds, waterfowl, bears, or marine mammals.

Public comment for the project is open until June 8. Feedback will be used for the final environmental impact statement, which is expected in July.

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Ketchikan Indian Community tribal leaders officially opened the KIC Gift Shop and Artist Market, on the corner of Dock and Main Street, at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday. Tribal CEO Emily Edenshaw said that a store to support Indigenous artists, and get their work on the cruise ships, has been part of KIC’s strategic plan since 2018. 

“Tourism is education, education is tourism, and when you look at the nearly 2 million visitors that come through our community, we need more spaces like this that could help tell the story of not only the artwork that they’re buying, but of our community,” Edenshaw told KRBD.

The new shop sells everything from jewelry, to blankets, to dishware. All of it is either made or designed by Indigenous artists, some of which are KIC citizens. Creators can sell their work in permanent installments, or on their own time in daily vendor booths.

The shop is at the site of the tribe’s former seasonal warming shelter, which closed this spring. Edenshaw said the tribe will open another temporary warming shelter in a new location this fall. She said the location of the new shelter will be announced soon.

Edenshaw said artists who sell in-person at the new store will get to keep all of their profits. And while the goal is to be open year-round, she said the shop is a way to bring more tourism dollars to the community. 

“We’re supporting our artists, we’re providing workforce development opportunities for our youth, but also we’re helping to educate our tourists, whom I know are so hungry to get that firsthand knowledge from people who are of the land,” Edenshaw said.

On opening day, artist Diane Douglas-Willard sat behind a table splayed with abalone earrings, cedar bark and seal skin sewings. She normally sells her jewelry around the holidays, but heard about KIC’s new shop and decided to purchase a vendor table for the day.

Douglas-Willard said other cruise ship towns, like Juneau, have gift shops that prioritize Native-made goods, and is happy to see another come to Ketchikan. For those selling in-person, she said the new shop will allow tourists to meet the artists behind the work. 

“I have a feeling it’s going to go really good,” Douglas-Willard said. “I think it’s probably needed in this society, in our neighborhood, in our community. It’s good to see.” 

Edenshaw said she’s eager to explore the new store’s potential. She envisions it hosting pop-up shops and First Friday events, while also employing local youth and selling their art. She said the store provides another Native space to tell the story of Ketchikan. 

“I love the quote, ‘The greatest responsibility of an artist is to reflect the times,’ and I’m excited to see all the beautiful art that can come through here,” Edenshaw said. “Just knowing that there is a ripple effect, you’re not only supporting the artists, you’re supporting the person that harvested the materials, you’re supporting their families.” 

Edenshaw said KIC’s new gift shop will work to support other Native-owned businesses in town, too. There’s a map at the front of the shop highlighting those stores. 

Correction: This story was updated to clarify that products sold at KIC’s new gift shop are either made or designed by Indigenous artists.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

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A new public use cabin is now open near Ward Lake. The S’igedi Aas Hidi cabin is the first U.S. Forest Service cabin built on the Ketchikan road system — the only other public use cabin accessible by car, located at Settler’s Cove, is managed by the Department of Natural Resources. 

The name, which translates to Beaver House, was provided by the Ketchikan Indian Community Tlingit Language Program. 

The Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation partnered on the cabin in an effort to expand and improve recreation opportunities across the state. That initiative focuses on building accessible cabins in easy to reach locations.  It also aims to strengthen local economies. The cabin is made from Western Redcedar and Sitka Spruce harvested in Southeast Alaska and features a covered deck, picnic table and fire ring.

This is the third public use cabin in Southeast since the partnership launched in 2024. The National Forest Foundation said in a statement that plans are in the works for more cabins later this summer. A contract was recently awarded for a new cabin in Wrangell, and there are plans for new facilities near Petersburg, Hoonah, Yakutat, Sitka, and Ketchikan. 

The S’igedi Aas Hidi cabin is located at Signal Creek Campground and became available for rent on June 1. Reservations can be made online at www.recreation.gov.

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Gatgyeda Haayk, Metlakatla’s Community Garden Champion, recently strolled past a row of shrubs and small trees near the village’s boat harbor. She pointed to two cherry trees rustling in the wind along the shoreline. 

The soon-to-be budding trees were brought to Metlakatla as part of its Community Food Forest Project. That’s an initiative that incorporates fruit-bearing trees and bushes into the village’s public landscapes. So far, Haayk said about 50 plants have taken root around town, from the city’s ballpark to the boat harbor. 

“In like the next three years, we hope to be able to give fruit back to the community,” Haayk said.

The program comes after Metlakatla’s tribal council passed a resolution a few years back that required all beautification efforts in the community to be edible. Not long after, the village received a three-year grant from the U.S. Forest Service to fund the project. The grant is currently in its final year, but Haayk is looking for other funding. 

She said the project has primarily worked with apple trees, but they’ve also planted plum and nectarine trees. The initiative also deals with plants native to the region, like raspberries, gooseberries and saskatoon berries. Haayk has even experimented with plants not usually grown in Southeast, like hazelnut trees, which she said seem to be doing well. 

And increasing access to fresh fruit is important because it’s so limited in the village. There’s just one grocery store on Annette Island, and the vast majority of the produce comes from out of state. 

“I am hoping that the community utilizes this, and then it also inspires other communities to kind of do the same thing, so that we don’t have to rely on the Lower 48 so heavily on our food,” Haayk said.

While most of the program’s trees and bushes are still young and not yet producing, Haayk said she’s educating the village about the project. Once the plants bloom, she said community members can harvest the fruit, with the exception of those at the village’s community garden, free of charge. All she asks is that it gets eaten. 

“It’s astounding how much food gets wasted, and it’s really a shame, because that’s a lot of energy that goes into that little piece of food,” Haayk said. “From being plucked and then takes two weeks of a journey to get up here, it loses so much of its nutritional value.” 

To Haayk’s knowledge, there are no similar open harvest projects in Alaska. Bread Line, Inc., in Fairbanks, has a garden and food forest where people can harvest produce like snap peas, lettuce and raspberries, free of charge.

Haayk hopes that Metlakatla’s food forest will eventually be self-sustaining and inspire community members to plant fruit trees of their own. 

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

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The Ketchikan school district’s $5.4 million debt to the borough was discovered late last year after a district financial audit.

The debt was mainly attributed to an excess of health insurance claims and district overspending. The district and borough agreed in March to a three-year debt repayment plan of $1.9 million each year with 3% interest. That first payment to the borough was set for July. 

But the updated memorandum of agreement now gives the school district an extra year, until 2029, to repay its debt to the borough. School Board President Katherine Tatsuda at the Wednesday night school board meeting said reconfiguring the agreement was a group effort. 

“I just want to say a huge thank you to borough staff and the borough assembly for doing this for us and working with us, and recognizing the difficult work we have done and the very serious work we have done to bring us into a more stable financial position,” Tatsuda said.

According to the school district, modifying the debt repayment structure would allow it more leeway in planning for the next fiscal year. The borough says next year’s school district budget takes into account this new debt repayment structure.

This year’s school district payment to the borough is solely interest – about $160,000. After that, the district will pay nearly $2 million annually through the end of the repayment period. 

It’s not the first time the school district has suggested the idea of allowing it more time to repay its borough debt. It originally asked for a five-year repayment to allow more planning time for school closures and staff cuts, but the borough assembly voted 5-2 for a faster return.

The updated memorandum of agreement also includes an amendment to allow state approved education funding to the borough only be made available to the school district with borough permission.

Assembly member Rodney Dial voted in favor of the new repayment agreement at Tuesday night’s special borough assembly meeting, although he’s concerned about the accuracy of next year’s school district budget. He said that healthcare costs are increasing, and student counts in the district are likely decreasing. 

“So, to think that next year now, that they will be able to pay this, or that they’re going to ask us for a different modification, or that they won’t add more to the debt, or they won’t have a big deficit – those are all risks that we are taking with a smaller and smaller pot of money to fill these needs,” Dial said. “It really goes to the central premise of what so many of us are trying to do and get them to a balanced budget.”

The borough assembly also agreed on Tuesday to set aside an additional $5 million to the borough through the end of the fiscal year, June 30. To do that, the borough is moving $2.9 million from its housing development fund. According to a letter from interim superintendent Sheri Boehlert, the additional funds are needed to meet final payroll obligations, settle outstanding vendor contracts and ensure a balanced budget at the close of the fiscal year. 

Three people provided public comment on the funding increase before the assembly approved it. Paul Hook said he does not agree with extending the repayment plan or giving the school district more money, and believes the district lacks financial oversight. 

“Money doesn’t mean anything to these people anymore,” Hook said. “It’s lost its value because we just find another pile to shovel it into or out of. So, I really implore you to stop your glad hands passing out money to people who don’t appreciate it.”

The district will have to pay that money back, and is needed in part to keep its Local Education Fund above the minimum balance required under borough code. According to the code, the appropriation requires a “finding by the Assembly that extraordinary needs regarding the School District exist.”

Hook also expressed concern about areawide property taxes for schools, which are deposited into the district’s Local Education Fund.

But Caitlin Jacobson, a librarian at Kayhi, said she supported extending the school district’s repayment plan. She said the school district’s staff has needed help from the borough for “a long, long time.” 

“It is not an adequate education system,” Jacobson said. “By agreeing to this payment, we’re keeping us barely alive.” 

This is the third time the assembly has adjusted this year’s school district budget – once last year and again in March. The assembly earlier this month also greenlit dedicating a portion of the borough’s taxes imposed on lodging to the Local Education Fund.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

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President Trump signed a law last Tuesday that permits the transfer of approximately 180 acres of federal land to the Cape Fox Corporation. 

The Saxman-based Alaska Native Village Corporation says previous legislation prohibited it from owning land within six miles of Ketchikan’s city limits. That requirement made it so the land that could be claimed by Cape Fox through the Alaska Native Claims Settlements Act, or ANCSA, had little economic value due to the mountainous terrain, or was otherwise unavailable to them, like the Annette Island Indian Reservation. The bill allows Cape Fox to receive land in the Tongass National Forest that fulfills the remaining land entitlement set under previous legislation and consolidates the Corporation’s selection. 

The land that is now available connects plots that had previously been transferred to Cape Fox. According to a statement from the organization, the plan is to develop a road and transmission line linking the Mahoney Lake hydroelectric site to the Beaver Falls Power Grid. The goal for that project is to bring renewable power, jobs and energy development to the region. They hope to start conducting feasibility studies within the next year.  

The Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act was introduced by Representative Nick Begich and supported by Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.

This is the first time the House has passed the bill and the second time the Senate has passed it. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski first introduced the bill two years ago. In a press release, she said Cape Fox was at an “incredible disadvantage” with the land it was forced to claim under ANCSA, and she is grateful to her Senate colleagues who set aside differences to pass the bill. 

Thomas Harris, Board Vice President of Cape Fox Corp., said in a statement that reaching this long-sought after goal “represents the potential to create Ketchikan’s very first 40-mile tourism corridor loop stretching from downtown Ketchikan ports, along South Tongass Highway to Saxman and Mountain Point, alongside George Inlet to Beaver Falls, past George Inlet Cannery, up to Mahoney Lake, onto White River, up the Harriet Hunt Road, back down past Ward Lake, on through to Ward Cove and then along North Tongass Highway right back to downtown Ketchikan.”

Cape Fox is in the process of formalizing the selection notice to the Department of Interior and plans to have it submitted this summer.

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