Ketchikan High School. (KRBD file photo by Leila Kheiry)

Ketchikan’s school district released on Friday key findings of its weeks-long investigation into allegations of racial insensitivity by some fans at a recent basketball game against a high school on the state’s only Native reservation.

Some Ketchikan student fans hurled “racist remarks and sounds” at players from Metlakatla during a Feb. 5 high school basketball game. That’s according to an investigation conducted by Ketchikan’s school district. Interim Superintendent Melissa Johnson released a statement summing up the results of the probe on Friday afternoon.

The unnamed Ketchikan students who the district says made the racist remarks and sounds violated the high school’s code of conduct, and the behavior has “been handled according to the District’s student disciplinary policy,” according to the district’s statement.

Johnson did not respond Friday afternoon to an interview request seeking additional details, but the district has in the past cited a federal law barring schools from disclosing student records.

The district’s statement makes no mention of any action against school district employees.

The school district launched its investigation after photos circulated of Ketchikan High School pep club members dressed in cowboy hats, boots, plaid shirts and other Western wear at a basketball game against Metlakatla High School. Eyewitnesses also reported that they heard stereotypical war cries and barking from the Ketchikan crowd.

The incident sparked an outcry in the community and around the state. Tribal leaders and community members from Ketchikan, Metlakatla and elsewhere said in interviews and statements that they took the students’ country dress as a “cowboys and Indians” theme. They said they felt it was an offensive reference to the trauma endured by Indigenous people.

Ketchikan High School’s pep club issued an apology after the incident. But pep club members have denied hearing racial slurs or war cries. Club members acknowledged barking at players during free throws — but they said that was a common technique they’d used to distract players from various schools throughout the season and was not an attack on the Metlaktala players’ race.

“Our pep club could be jerks, but we’re not racists,” sophomore pep club member Stevie Kamm said in a Feb. 10 interview with KRBD.

Though the three-page statement released by the school district acknowledges that there was “no intention by the school or pep club student leadership to be racially provocative or insensitive” with its country theme night, the school district says the effect of the theme was predictable and should have been prevented.

The district offered a lengthy apology along with the investigation’s findings.

“In reflecting on these events, KGBSD recognizes that we must apologize in a meaningful way and take full responsibility. We must acknowledge that, even if not intended, the actions of our students were hurtful to our guests from Metlakatla. We sincerely apologize to the Metlakatla students, coaches, parents, school district and community as a whole for creating an environment that did not honor you as our valued neighbors, friends, and family. We did not demonstrate the kind of hospitality and respect that we would want extended to our own students and community members, and for this we are deeply sorry,” begins a section of the statement labeled “Apologies.”

The school district also apologized to Native communities in Ketchikan and around the state.

“Whether or not there was intention to harm is immaterial; harm was caused nonetheless,” the statement reads.

The school district said it would immediately institute a new plan for selecting future pep club themes, implement a new sportsmanship agreement and consult the First Alaskans Institute for racial equity training. The district said it would also conduct a “racial equity audit” of district policies and develop a long-term racial equity strategic plan alongside key stakeholders.

“Racism, in all forms, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. As painful as this incident and ensuing repercussions have been, it presents an opportunity to learn, heal, and grow as a community that supports the thriving of ALL students,” the statement says.

The superintendent of Metlakatla’s school district, Taw Lindsey, said in an email Friday afternoon that he was reviewing the investigation’s findings and is “pleased that the process is moving forward.”

The post Ketchikan school district apologizes for ‘racist remarks’ by student basketball fans appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s school board meets in closed session in the Ketchikan High School library in March 2021. (Eric Stone/KRBD)

Ketchikan’s school board will review the district’s investigation into allegations of racism in the stands at a high school basketball game against the Metlakatla Chiefs. Interim Superintendent Melissa Johnson says the school district recently completed its investigation into the Feb. 5 basketball game against Metlakatla High School on the state’s only Native reservation.

“The KGBSD (Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District) administration is evaluating the findings of the investigation to determine next steps, including whether any disciplinary action is warranted,” Johnson said by email.

A probe was launched following complaints of Ketchikan pep club members  dressed in western wear. Some accused the Ketchikan fans of antagonizing their longtime rivals by stereotyping themselves as cowboys and their opponents as Indians.

The pep club apologized last week. In an interview, senior pep club member Kollin Houthoofd said the club meant no harm and regretted the pain the incident had caused.

“We are sorry for what’s happened, and if we could go back and change the country theme and anything that happened that was any sort of offensive or known as racism, then we would,” Houthoofd said.

Some in the audience alleged they’d heard stereotypical war cries during the game. Houthoofd and other pep club members interviewed by KRBD said they didn’t hear anything of that nature.

But the pep club has acknowledged barking during free throws. Senior pep club member Dylan Nedzwecky said it’s something they do to distract the opposing players. He says it had nothing to do with the country theme or their opponents.

“We’ve done it the whole season — no malicious intent. It’s just a noise we can all do, that we know how to do, to try to throw off the other team,” Nedzwecky said.

Ketchikan’s interim superintendent, Melissa Johnson, told KRBD in an email that she will brief the school board on Feb. 23 behind closed doors on the district’s probe of the incident. Johnson said personnel and disciplinary matters are confidential. It’s unclear whether any findings of the district’s investigation will be made public. Johnson declined to immediately answer questions.

The controversy has opened a conversation about racism in the wider community. Tribal leaders in Ketchikan, Juneau and Metlakatla have denounced the Ketchikan High School fans’ antics.

The post School board will review investigation into Ketchikan-Metlakatla high school basketball game in closed session appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s school board meetings take place in the White Cliff building at 1900 First Ave. (Maria Dudzak/KRBD)

Students spoke out Wednesday about allegations of racism in the stands at a recent Ketchikan High School basketball game.

The school district launched an investigation into what it described as “racial insensitivity” after photos circulated of Ketchikan High School students dressed in cowboy boots, cowboy hats and other western attire at the game against Alaska’s only Native reservation.

Emotions ran high in a packed Ketchikan school board meeting Wednesday. Students shared their thoughts on Saturday’s high school basketball game between Ketchikan and Metlakatla during a portion of the meeting set aside for public comment.

Ketchikan senior John Bullock said he was playing in the band during Saturday’s game. He’s a member of Ketchikan’s federally-recognized tribe of Tlingit and Haida descent and says there were outbursts from his high school’s fans that troubled him.

“There were what looked like and sounded like Indian war cries while the other team were going up for free throws, and bird calls and barking at the other team, and this made me feel really uncomfortable at the game,” he said to Ketchikan’s school board.

He paused briefly to compose himself.

“I’d like to ask: What are we planning to do about this to make sure it doesn’t happen?” he said.

Federally-recognized tribes including Ketchikan Indian Community, Metlakatla Indian Community and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska have all issued statements condemning the Ketchikan basketball fans’ cowboy dress, as has the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

John’s sister, Kristall Bullock, also a member of Ketchikan’s tribe, was also overcome with emotion as she testified to the board on Wednesday. She says she was also at the game, and it’s been tense at school with some non-Native students dismissive of their feelings.

“It has been — the past few days where things have been pointed towards myself and other Natives in the school, that we’re sensitive about everything and about all this,” she said. “Kids have been telling me that nothing was said.”

The Ketchikan pep club’s student president was in attendance at Wednesday’s school board meeting but didn’t address the school board and declined to be interviewed

But other pep club members did speak. Braydan Heath says his club’s “country” theme was not meant to reopen historical wounds by riffing on old cliches of cowboys and Indians.

“I can say with complete honesty, there was no intent to offend anyone. Since it was brought to our attention, we’ve all talked about ways to avoid this in the future. We all feel badly that some people felt like we were attacking their race, as that was truly not the intent. I apologize,” he said to the school board. “I hope we can all work together in the future to prevent this type of misunderstanding.”

Ketchikan sophomore and pep club member Stevie Kamm said in an interview that she was at Saturday’s game. She reiterated that they were rooting for their basketball team and got competitive but insisted they didn’t cross any lines.

“Our pep club could be jerks, but we’re not racists,” she said.

She says in the days since the game, as word spread across the state, the backlash has been intense.

“It’s really chaotic. Especially with everyone coming at our throats — mostly adults. We had a few adults from Met (Metlakatla) compare us to the KKK,” she said.

Kamm says she didn’t hear any hateful language from her side.

“No racial slurs were even said, but even if it was one person, it doesn’t make your whole town racist, or even your whole pep club,” she said.

But even so, Kristall Bullock says Saturday’s basketball game has reopened old wounds.

“Even if it was just a few kids this weekend, it was so offensive,” she said.

She said she was speaking out because she said her mother had taught her to stand up for what she believes in.

“Something she has told me is that you have a voice — and use it,” she said.

The school district says its probe into the basketball game is expected to wrap up by the end of the week. Ketchikan’s superintendent told the board she wouldn’t comment on the incident until it does.

In the meantime, the district has apologized on behalf of the high school.

The post Students speak out about allegations of racism at Ketchikan-Metlakatla basketball game appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan High School. (KRBD file photo by Leila Kheiry)

Ketchikan’s school district says it’s investigating allegations of racism in the stands after some of its high school students dressed up as cowboys during a basketball game against its rivals from Alaska’s only Native reservation.

Tensions flared after photos circulated of student fans dressed in western wear in the stands at a varsity high school basketball game at Ketchikan High School on Saturday. Students in the school’s pep club wore cowboy hats, cowboy boots, flannel shirts, and the like.

India Hudson says she was at the game. She has ties to both communities — she lives in Ketchikan, and her sons play for Kayhi’s junior varsity basketball team, but she’s Tsimshian from Metlakatla and a member of Metlakatla’s federally-recognized tribe.

“I’m related to a lot of the (Metlakatla) basketball players, and I think that they are also really awesome kids, too,” she said by phone Tuesday. “So it was extremely hard for me to see what was going on.”

Hudson says she was taken aback by the pep club’s attire.

“When the Juneau-Douglas Bears play, they (the Kayhi pep club members) dress up as hunters, and it’s kind of funny, you know?” she said. “And I thought, Are they trying to be cowboys and Indians?”

The school district announced shortly after the game that it had launched an investigation into the incident. Ketchikan High School apologized on its Facebook page the next morning.

“Ketchikan High School would like to extend a sincere apology to our community and to our friends, family, and neighbors in Metlakatla for the cultural insensitivity shown at last night’s basketball game. It is our desire to make Ketchikan High School a safe and welcoming environment for all. We will continue to work to hold ourselves to those highest standards of sportsmanship, respect, and hospitality,” the statement said.

The posts from the district and Kayhi were later taken down. Ketchikan’s interim superintendent, Melissa Johnson, said in a text message Wednesday night that the school district stood by its statements and had removed the posts after social media users left comments targeting individual students.

Johnson says as she understands it, the pep club had dressed up for a “country” theme night.

“But then it looked like cowboy night, and so it looked like it was a cowboy-versus-Indians theme. And so the people from Metlakatla, rightfully so, felt like we were being culturally insensitive,” Johnson said by phone Tuesday.

Johnson is Alaska Native herself and serves on Ketchikan Indian Community’s Tribal Council. She’s in the running to be the district’s first permanent superintendent of Alaska Native descent.

The student president of the pep club did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday. Johnson did not respond to an emailed request to speak with pep club leaders.

Metlakatla’s superintendent, Taw Lindsey of the Annette Island School District, says he’s been in touch with his counterpart in Ketchikan and is awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

“It, to me is definitely insensitive. It brings out some historical trauma on how Native people have been treated in the past, and it’s concerning,” Lindsey said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Our students don’t deserve that.”

Ketchikan’s school board president, Stephen Bradford, was at the game. He chalks up the insensitivity of the theme to carelessness rather than racism.

“The adults probably should have thought that through a little more carefully, when the themes were announced, that it might be inappropriate for the Metlakatla game,” Bradford said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Ketchikan’s full school board has yet to publicly address the issue.

Hudson, the Metlakatla tribal member in Ketchikan, says it may not have been malicious. But even so:

“No matter what the intent was, that was the message that came across. And I think that maybe they didn’t think about the past — all of the past that cowboys and Indians entails to Native people,” she said. “That’s not a good history that comes up when you say that to somebody Native, you know?”

Ketchikan’s superintendent says the investigation is still underway. But she says the school district has accepted some responsibility for a lack of staff oversight of the pep club’s country and western theme.

“That is a fault on the adults’ part — it’s a fault on our policies and procedures, which won’t happen again, and we will make sure that whatever theme that we choose is culturally sensitive and appropriate. So moving on, we will definitely have a plan moving forward on what the kids will dress up like,” Johnson said.

Anger is simmering among some parents from Metlakatla who attended Saturday’s game, including Latonya Galles, the mother of a Metlakatla Chiefs point guard.

“Shame on them,” she said. “Racism at its finest.”

She insists the offensive conduct went beyond what the Ketchikan students were wearing.

“Those kids were like literally barking and making weird noises when our kids were at the free throw line — like, what is that?” she said by phone Monday.

Hudson says she, too, heard barking from the Kayhi fans. She said it brought back painful memories of discrimination and institutional racism.

“It’s a personal reason — It’s actually the first time I realized that racism was a thing. I was a little girl walking with my (Alaska Native) grandfather over here (in Ketchikan),” she said. “We were walking downtown and the food smelled really good. And I said, ‘Let’s go in there to this restaurant.'”

She says she recalls her grandfather saying no — that he never went to that restaurant.

“And I said, ‘Why not?’ And he said, ‘Because there used to be a sign up that said no Indians or dogs allowed,'” she said. “That was what I was thinking about when they were barking.”

But Ketchikan school board president Stephen Bradford suggests another explanation for the rowdy Kayhi fans.

“Kayhi’s pep club, I think, has been barking at the opponents shooting free throws for years — whether it’s Petersburg, or Juneau or anybody. So I didn’t associate it with anything improper,” Bradford said by phone Tuesday.

It’s still unclear whether any racial slurs were voiced. That, Johnson says, is something the school district is trying to establish.

“But I will find that out,” she said. “And if we have situations where people were not using appropriate behaviors, then we will take action on  that.”

Darcy Booth, a member of Metlakatla’s school board, said in a lengthy statement that the incident represented not cultural insensitivity, as it was described in Ketchikan High School’s apology, but outright racism.

“It was aimed at our players, our students, our children, and I publicly denounce and rebuke it unequivocally. Like every other parent in Metlakatla, I want to see accountability after the district’s investigation.”

India Hudson, the Tsmishian parent in Ketchikan, says she hopes this will be a teachable moment.

“As a Native, it is difficult to live in Ketchikan a lot of times,” she said. “I mean, every single member of my family has experienced racism here — you know, racial slurs, name calling, that kind of thing. It’s not something that we’re making up in our heads.”

Johnson says the investigation is expected to wrap up by the end of the week.

This story has been updated with additional details.

The post Ketchikan’s school district is investigating allegations of racism at a basketball game against Alaska’s only Native reservation appeared first on KRBD.

Monday is the last day that Ketchikan’s web-based COVID-19 dashboard will be updated. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any online information about COVID-19 in Ketchikan — it’s still out there, just in a different place. KRBD spoke with a local public health nurse for a lesson on how to use the state’s website to drill down on what’s going on in Ketchikan.

Most of the familiar pandemic statistics — new cases, hospitalizations and deaths — are available on the state Department of Health and Social Services’ Alaska COVID-19 website, says Ketchikan-based state public health nurse Jen Bergen.

“It’s already being shared there, and it has been for quite some time,” Bergen said in a virtual interview last week.

There are a few ways to get there — but maybe the quickest is by typing data.coronavirus.alaska.gov into your browser’s address bar. That presents a few options: pages for information on vaccinations, regional hospital capacity, and cases. Another option is covid19.alaska.gov.

“Most of this information that’s being posted here is going to be under this ‘cases’ dashboard,” she said.

On that case dashboard are several tabs — a statewide summary, pandemic alert levels by borough, demographic info, and one labeled “cases, deaths and hospitalizations.”

“Most of the information that’s on that local dashboard is under the ‘cases, deaths and hospitalizations’ tab,” Bergen said.

That gets you to a page that shows the total number of — guess what — cases, deaths and hospitalizations across the state. With a few clicks on the left-hand side, that can be narrowed to a particular part of the state — say, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough or the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census area. It can also be narrowed by date, so you can look at, for instance, how many cases have been reported in the past week, two weeks, 30 days, and so on. You can also select whether to include residents, nonresidents or both.

“The other thing is cases by onset date versus report date. So the dashboard locally is (based on the) report date, and that means the date that they were actually told to us,” Bergen said.

The “cases, deaths and hospitalizations” tab can be customized to show data for Ketchikan, the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, or any other borough or census area. (Screenshot by KRBD)

That’ll adjust a chart in the center of the page. Mousing over each day’s bar brings up the number of cases reported on that particular day.

So: for a quick-and-dirty substitute for the local COVID-19 dashboard, go to the cases dashboard, select “report date” the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, click “all” under residence, and then narrow it to whatever timeframe you’re looking for.

Or, you can go to the “alert levels by borough/census area” tab and click on Ketchikan, which brings up a quick summary.

A quick summary of Ketchikan’s COVID-19 situation is available on the “alert level by borough/census area” tab — just click on the Ketchikan area. (Screenshot by KRBD)

There are also charts for hospitalizations and deaths. Hospitalizations are shown cumulatively by week — as of Monday, a total of 40 Ketchikan residents have been sick enough to require hospital care. Deaths are broken out by month.

Bergen says the hospitalization figure is not meant to indicate local hospitals’ patient load — for that, there’s a page on PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center’s website.

“So that is going to continue, and that is definitely where you get the most up to date information is that PeaceHealth Medical Center (site),” she said.

Now, there are some limitations: First, the state cases dashboard does not work especially well on mobile devices. The page crashed repeatedly on two iPhones tested for this story.

It’s also missing some key pieces of information about the number of people actively infected with COVID-19 and where they’re believed to have caught it. But Bergen says those metrics aren’t as useful as they once were.

“So (it was) really, really important in the beginning of the pandemic, to track the active cases,” she said. “As we see community spread, it’s harder to know when people recover.”

As for how people caught the virus, as the state reduces contact tracing, there simply won’t be as much data to report. But Bergen says nurses are still keeping track of who gets sick and where.

“We still in the background will notice if there’s some kind of cluster — meaning for some reason, there is an outbreak locally at say, a food processor or a school or a congregate setting. Public health will still be aware of that. It just won’t be posted on the dashboard,” she said.

And the state and local dashboard numbers don’t totally match up — when KRBD spoke with Bergen late last week, local numbers for the past week were about 4% higher than the state’s numbers.

“That difference does exist because there is a little bit of a lag between cases reported locally versus cases reported to the state,” Bergen said.

But still, Bergen says the state dashboard gives a good overview of pandemic trends — whether cases are high or low, rising or falling — that can be useful as residents make decisions about what measures to take to protect themselves and their community.

The post Here’s how to find Ketchikan’s COVID-19 data on Alaska’s statewide dashboard appeared first on KRBD.

Front Street in downtown Ketchikan. (KRBD file photo)

All-terrain vehicles became street-legal in Ketchikan on Jan. 1 after a new state regulation from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration took effect in many parts of the state.

New state regulations allow properly-equipped ATVs on roads with speed limits of 45 miles per hour or less. The vehicles must be registered with a license plate and have working lights and other safety equipment. The driver must be licensed and insured.

But some officials have expressed concerns about whether off-road vehicles are safe on city streets. Ketchikan’s city manager and police chief each said they were worried four-wheelers and side-by-sides aren’t safe enough to share the road with cars and trucks. They recommended the council keep ATVs off city streets. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission says ATVs are “extremely dangerous” on paved roads. City governments in Juneau, Anchorage and Sitka have banned them on city streets.

But Ketchikan’s City Council voted 4-3 last month to allow ATVs to remain street-legal when the new regulation went into force on New Year’s Day. Council Members Janalee Gage, Mark Flora and Judy Zenge were opposed.

Council Member Lallette Kistler asked the City Council to reconsider last week. But in a unanimous vote on Thursday, the council decided not to. There was no discussion.

It’s not clear whether Ketchikan’s borough could ban ATVs — in a statement, Ketchikan’s borough attorney, Glenn Brown, says it’s not a settled legal question.

“If it were tested, I believe second class boroughs would be empowered to prohibit them. Second class boroughs have statutory powers to regulate the licensing and operation of motor vehicles to the extent that it does not conflict with state law,” Brown said.

But so far, the borough hasn’t considered a ban.

Ketchikan’s decision comes as communities across the state are considering whether to allow four-wheelers and side-by-sides on local roads.

Craig’s City Council has temporarily banned ATVs until at least March 31. City Administrator Brian Templin says a working group is studying the issue.

“We’re going to be putting out a schedule for public meetings over the next several weeks, and my expectation is that the working group will be ready to make some recommendations or provide comments back to the City Council by the end of February,” Templin said by phone.

ATVs are allowed on city roads in Thorne Bay, but they must be inspected by the city annually and meet additional local requirements like visibility flags. That’s according to city code.

Klawock’s City Council will consider opting out at a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, Jan. 18, the mayor told KRBD.

And Metlakatla’s police chief told KRBD that ATVs have been road-legal in that community by tribal ordinance for about the last two decades.

Disclosure: Ketchikan Borough Attorney Glenn Brown is a member of KRBD’s nonprofit board of directors, which does not direct news coverage.

The post ATVs are road-legal in Ketchikan after City Council declines to ban four-wheelers from city streets appeared first on KRBD.

The Prince of Wales Island community of Craig. (KRBD Staff photo by Maria Dudzak).

Record COVID-19 numbers are being reported as the omicron coronavirus wave pounds onto Southeast Alaska’s ragged shores.

“Case counts on Prince of Wales are rising. In the past seven days we have had 68 confirmed cases on Prince of Wales Island. This count does not include self reported home antigen tests,” said a recorded message dated Monday from Craig Public Health on Prince of Wales Island. That weekly total of 68 is roughly twice the previous record set during the delta variant surge in August.

Health officials say they’re no longer able to investigate all cases and are asking positive individuals to reach out to their own contacts. The recording notes that the Craig Public Health office was closed Monday because of weather and “staffing shortages.”

Public schools in Craig are in distance learning through at least Friday because of the spike.

Free at-home tests are available from Craig Public Health. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and PeaceHealth clinics are offering free flu and COVID-19 vaccines as well. Booster doses are encouraged for anyone 12 and older.

Meanwhile, in Metlakatla, tribal authorities there raised the community’s COVID-19 risk level to its highest mark, level 3, on Sunday.

Masks are mandatory, businesses must abide by mitigation measures or face closure, and the Annette Island Service Unit clinic is only seeing “urgent/emergent” patients, according to a notice posted by Metlakatla Indian Community officials.

At least 53 people have tested positive since Jan. 1, according to the notice. Those account for approximately a quarter of all cases detected in Metlakatla since the pandemic began. That count also excludes at-home tests.

Metlakatla officials said roughly two dozen cases were active on Sunday. The Annette Island School District has moved classes online through the end of this week in response.

COVID-19 data for Ketchikan was not reported Monday — the local public health office says it shut down due to icy weather.

But over the weekend, officials with Ketchikan’s school district began reporting the number of COVID-19 cases associated with each school. As of Sunday, 71  staff and students had reported testing positive in the past week. Just under 30 had attended school while infectious, including 15 at Ketchikan High School.

The dashboard is based on self-reported test results from parents as well as the results of in-school testing programs.

The post Prince of Wales Island and Metlakatla report record COVID-19 numbers appeared first on KRBD.

The 32-foot gillnetter F/V Deja Vu sails on Aug. 3, 2020 near Metlakatla. (Photo: Johon Atkinson)

Alaska’s sole Native reservation has taken a fishing dispute with state authorities to a federal appeals court. Metlakatla Indian Community is asking the 9th Circuit to rule that its tribal members don’t need state permits to fish in their traditional waters.

Congress created the Annette Islands Reserve in the late 19th century as a self-sustaining home for the people of Metlakatla.

Now, the Metlakatla Indian Community tribal government argues the 1891 law also gives its modern-day members unfettered rights to commercially fish around Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island.

Its tribal members are the only people authorized to fish within 3,000 feet of the reserve’s shores. But in other parts of the southern panhandle, the same rules apply to them as anyone else. And the tribe took the Dunleavy administration to court last year to force the issue.

But a federal judge dismissed Metlakatla’s case. That brings us to Monday’s oral arguments.

“The district court erred in three main ways that are interrelated,” said Metlakatla’s attorney, Julie Weis, addressing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California.

She said established precedent and longstanding principles of Indian law provide a legal basis for Metlakatla’s interpretation of the 1891 law creating the reserve: namely, that Metlakatla’s tribal members have a right to fish the southern panhandle.

The problem for Metlakatla’s case is that the 1891 law doesn’t explicitly mention fishing. The 101-word statute says only that the reservation was set aside “for the use of the Metlakahtla Indians.”

A 101-word section of an 1891 timber law created the Annette Islands Reserve. (U.S. Code)

But Weis cited a 1996 9th Circuit opinion that found that when reservations are created by fiat — as opposed to by a negotiated treaty — important rights and privileges are often left out of the text.

“The court indicated that we should look at the circumstances of the reservation’s creation and the history of the people for whom the reservation was created,” Weis said.

And she said Metlakatla’s fishermen had long harvested in waters within a day’s travel from their home. She said that was proof enough that they did not believe they were bound by the reserve’s waters extending out 3,000-feet.

“The facts alleged in the community’s complaint and the inferences drawn therefrom demonstrated that an Indian and Southeast Alaska more than a century ago could not have conceived of an invisible line around the reserve beyond which it could not fish,” Weis said.

Weis argued that the U.S. Supreme Court had recognized the importance of fishing to Metlakatla’s citizens more than a century ago.

“The court stated, Congress must be held to have known that without the food yield of the sea, these Indians could not survive there being a little or no agricultural land on the islands, or for that matter, in all southeastern Alaska,” she said.

That 1918 Alaska Pacific Fisheries case upheld Metlakatla members’ exclusive right to fish in waters near Annette Island. But Weis said the tribe was not a party to the case back then, so they weren’t able to argue for the wider interpretation they’re seeking in 2021.

Weis asked the three-judge panel to reverse a lower court judge’s dismissal and instruct the District Court to define Metlakatla’s fishing rights off the reservation.

But the state’s attorney fired back that Metlakatla’s demands would give their tribal citizens an unfair advantage over other Alaskans. Alaska Assistant Attorney General Laura Wolff said Alaskans have to follow uniform fishing rules and  regulations.

“They’re not asking just to share fishing,” she said. “They’re asking for a priority.”

She emphasized that the 1891 law doesn’t say anything about fishing, and the Congressional Record doesn’t indicate that was ever a consideration.

“And these facts don’t add up to the legal conclusion that the act created an off-reservation right when the act is completely silent,” she said.

Wolff argued that the state’s fishing permit system, which in most cases only allows a limited number of vessels to commercially fish in state waters, was the state’s primary method to prevent overfishing. Wolff argued that allowing otherwise would undermine that.

“Opening up the limited entry program would derail the conservation purposes,” she said.

Judge William Fletcher, part of the three-judge panel, seemed to question that last point.

“It may derail this particular program, but I don’t think it would disable the state from regulating for purposes of conservation,” the judge said.

He said prior cases had held that tribal fishing rights are subject to state regulations aimed at conserving fisheries. Metlakatla’s attorney agreed.

A ruling is expected next year.

The post Metlakatla takes a fishing rights dispute to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals appeared first on KRBD.

A view of Metlakatla on Annette Island, Alaska’s only native reserve. (File photo by Leila Kheiry)

A man is in jail facing felony charges after allegedly shooting his brother during an argument over the weekend in Metlakatla.

Court documents allege 18-year-old Isaac G. Henderson shot his brother with a .40 caliber pistol outside their mother’s home around 3 a.m. Sunday.

His older brother, Tyler Henderson, was wounded in the head and rushed by boat to PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center and transferred to Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage that same day. He later died of his injuries.

Prayers streamed in via social media with community members saying they planned fundraisers for the family.

Both brothers were players for the 2A state champion Metlakatla Chiefs basketball team featured in the award-winning documentary Alaskan Nets. In 2018, Tyler Henderson scored the final three-pointer to seal the Chiefs’ first-ever state championship, according to a recap of the game by the Anchorage Daily News.

His younger brother, Isaac Henderson was jailed in Ketchikan in lieu of $100,000 bail in connection with the shooting. He’s facing charges of attempted murder. He’s scheduled to appear in court next week. His attorney, a public defender, had no immediate comment.

This story has been updated

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The Metlakatla Longhouse. (Eric Stone/KRBD)

Metlakatla elected a new mayor, Tribal Council members and other senior officials Tuesday.

Albert Smith won a two-year term as Metlakatla Indian Community’s mayor. He’ll replace incumbent Reginald Atkinson, who did not seek another term as the reserve’s elected leader.

In an interview Wednesday morning, Smith said he believes he can make his hometown a better place.

“I’d like to build on the successes of previous mayors and councils, work with the council to develop an economic development strategy to bring more good paying jobs and strengthen our island economy, (and) find creative solutions to difficult challenges while maintaining financial discipline and living within our means,” Smith said.

It was a close race: Smith defeated challenger Keolani Booth by just 22 votes — that’s a margin of less than 4 percentage points. He thanked the community for their support.

Judith Eaton will remain secretary after besting a challenger. Darcy Booth defeated incumbent Nathan Fawcett for treasurer.

Six Tribal Council seats were up this year. Desi King, Joseph Ridley, Mark Gunyah, David R. Boxley, Zachary Mills and Christina Martinez emerged victorious from a field of 11.

It’s a markedly younger group set to govern Alaska’s only native reserve. Outgoing mayor Atkinson is 73. Mayor-elect Smith is three decades younger — just 43.

“I think our generation has heard the call. It’s our turn to step up, and I’m very proud to say that our generation has,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with them, and I think we’re going to do great things for our town.”

The newly-elected tribal officials take office next month. Officials say just shy of 600 of Metlakatla’s 2,000-plus tribal citizens voted in the election.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the winner of the race for treasurer. Darcy Booth defeated incumbent Nathan Fawcett.

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