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Alaska Federation of Natives joins feds in case against state over subsistence rights

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Alaska Federation of Natives joins feds in case against state over subsistence rights


The state’s largest Alaska Native organization this week intervened on the side of the federal government and other groups in a battle with the state of Alaska over subsistence rights and salmon fishing on a Southwest Alaska river.

The federal government brought the case against the state last year, following a dispute with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game over which entity has management authority of 180 miles of the Kuskokwim River as it flows through the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

AFN and other groups that have intervened in the case on the side of the federal government have argued that the implications of the case extend well beyond the Southwest Alaska river.

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They say the state is threatening the legal underpinning of federal subsistence fishing rights that give priority to rural subsistence families in times of shortage.

The case is playing out in U.S. District Court in Anchorage before Judge Sharon Gleason, who approved AFN’s intervention request on Thursday in an 11-page decision.

AFN represents 160,000 Alaska Native members, and next week will hold its annual convention that draws thousands of residents from around Alaska to help chart the group’s political course.

The dispute between the federal and state government arose in 2021 amid devastated king and chum salmon runs.

The federal government had allowed limited salmon-fishing openers for rural Alaska subsistence fishermen, as required by federal law. On those same days, the state had authorized subsistence fishing openers for all Alaskans, not just rural residents, in accordance with the state constitution.

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[At fishery council meeting, tribal groups and pollock industry at odds over how to limit trawl bycatch of chum salmon]

The state argues in the case that the Kuskokwim River as it flows through the refuge is not “public land” under federal law and therefore the state has management authority over the river, including for subsistence purposes, according to a motion it filed early last month.

The state also argues that the court should not follow the precedent established in Katie John cases that ended in 2014. In those cases, federal courts upheld the federal subsistence priority for rural users on waters associated with federal lands. The late Athabascan elder Katie John, who died in 2013, had fought for the right to fish on her traditional lands along the Copper River.

Instead, the state argues the court should apply the ruling of the Supreme Court used in the 2019 decision in the so-called Sturgeon case, when the court found that the Kuskokwim River is not “public land” under federal law. In that case, the high court unanimously approved John Sturgeon’s right to use a hovercraft to hunt moose on the Nation River in the Yukon-Charlie National Preserve.

The Supreme Court said then that the Katie John decisions were “not at issue” in the Sturgeon case, leaving the rural subsistence fishing priority intact on what are called “navigable waters” in federal areas.

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But the Alaska Federation of Natives said in a statement on Thursday that the case, called U.S. vs. Alaska, could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, raising questions about how the court will rule on the federal subsistence priority, according to a statement from the Native organization on Thursday celebrating the ruling that they can intervene.

“We’ll defend the legal rights of Alaska Natives to engage in subsistence hunting and fishing anytime our ways of life are threatened,” said Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, in the statement.

The Alaska Federation Natives has argued in the case that the state wants to “entirely destroy” the federal subsistence rights that it says have been central to Native communities’ survival, according to its intervention request last month.

The case on the Kuskokwim involves the federal subsistence priority on waters in federal areas, but not on the physical land owned by the federal government.

[FEMA under civil rights investigation after ‘unintelligible’ disaster relief application information was sent to Alaska Natives]

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Attorney General Treg Taylor said in an email from his office on Friday that he “strongly disagrees with AFN’s mischaracterization of its position and goals.”

Taylor said it’s inaccurate to frame the litigation as pitting the state against the interests of Alaska Natives.

“Critically, the State is not attempting to ‘destroy the federal rural subsistence priority,’ ” he said, emphasizing the word ‘not’ in bolded, italic letters.

The rural subsistence priority, in Title VIII of the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, applied to public lands only, he said.

“The state is simply asking the federal court to limit the reach of the priority to ‘public lands,’ consistent with the language of ANILCA,” Taylor said. “Public lands include all land owned by the federal government — which is more than 60 percent of the state. That is not the equivalent of ‘destroying’ the priority.”

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“Moreover, the priority applies to ‘rural’ residents, not Alaska Natives,” he said. “Tens of thousands of Alaska Natives live in urban communities and are excluded from the federal subsistence priority and therefore are not legally able to return to their home communities to participate in subsistence activities under the federal priority.”

The state in the Sturgeon case had argued that the National Park Service’s authority over hovercraft use was a separate and distinct legal issue from the federal subsistence priority addressed in the Katie John cases, the Alaska Federation of Natives said in its intervention motion.

But now, the state is reversing its position on the validity of the federal subsistence priority and is “clearly attacking the statewide interests of AFN and its members,” AFN’s motion says.

Gleason has allowed other groups and two individuals to intervene on the federal government’s side in the case, including the Association of Village Council Presidents, representing 56 tribal governments in Southwest Alaska.

The defendants in the case, the state and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and its commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang, have not been joined by intervening parties.

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Heather Kendall-Miller, who litigated the Katie John cases, is a part-time attorney with the Native American Rights Fund. The group is representing the Association of Village Council Presidents in the case.

Kendall-Miller said the case could be consequential because it could impact the federal subsistence priority on vast amounts of waters associated with federal lands.

“What’s at stake in this case is the entire subsistence priority as contemplated by Congress in Title VIII, because the status of the law is that the priority extends to federal waters, and those waters have been interpreted as waters that are adjacent to or run through all federal parks and refuges,” she said in an interview on Friday.

“So it includes great swaths of waters where rural residents currently have a priority to fish when the resources are not sufficient to provide for all other uses,” she said.

“It’s a huge deal because fishing constitutes about 60% of the diet of most rural residents,” she said. “And that’s why you see that most villages in Alaska are on rivers, to take advantage of fishing.”

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Alaska

3 Trump officials meet with resource industry leaders in Anchorage to launch Alaska energy trip

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3 Trump officials meet with resource industry leaders in Anchorage to launch Alaska energy trip


Doug Burgum, Interior secretary and National Energy Dominance Council chair, speaks during an Alaska Resources Roundtable at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage on Sunday, June 1, 2025. U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) are at left. (Bill Roth / ADN)

Alaska’s governor, its two U.S. senators and three Trump administration officials gathered Sunday in an Anchorage hotel to extol an executive order meant to boost the state’s resource development industry.

The order at the heart of the meeting was signed by President Donald Trump in January, during the first day of his second term. It laid out several provisions aimed at smoothing the path toward more drilling for oil and gas; more logging; more mining; and more hunting on federal lands.

In attendance in a cramped ballroom at downtown Anchorage’s Hotel Captain Cook were Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Alongside them were several dozen invited resource development industry leaders, state lawmakers and Dunleavy administration officials who were in a jovial mood as they spoke about the potential of Alaska’s resource industry under Trump’s leadership.

Sullivan, whose office organized the event, called the visit by Trump administration officials “a seminal event.” He referred to Burgum as “Alaska’s landlord.”

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Governor Mike Dunleavy (R-Alaska) speaks during the Alaska Resources Roundtable at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage on Sunday, June 1, 2025. (Bill Roth / ADN)

The roundtable was the first of numerous events that the Trump officials planned to attend during a multiday visit to Alaska. Burgum, Wright and Zeldin were expected to travel to the North Slope early in the week to meet with residents and oil field workers. They were also scheduled to participate in a sustainable energy conference organized by Dunleavy in Anchorage.

Sunday’s two-hour roundtable was not open to the press. But after its conclusion, journalists were ushered in to listen to closing remarks by participants.

“There’s a lot of alignment amongst Alaskans behind this executive order,” said Rebecca Logan, chief executive of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance.

Sullivan began his remarks by pulling out a pamphlet his office had designed when former President Joe Biden was in office, which listed several executive decisions taken by the Biden administration that Sullivan has said were meant to “lock up” Alaska. Sullivan proceeded to rip up the pamphlet and throw the pieces in the air.

“We got a new sheriff in town,” he said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, (R-Alaska) ripped up and tossed a graphic illustrating the previous administration’s 70 executive orders and actions targeting Alaska during the Alaska Resources Roundtable that he hosted at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Doug Burgum, Interior secretary and National Energy Dominance Council Chair, is at middle. (Bill Roth / ADN)

Sullivan said the meeting was meant to facilitate the fast implementation of Trump’s January executive order, which as of yet has not led to the realization of new resource development in the state.

“We have the need for speed,” said Sullivan.

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Murkowski, a Republican who has spoken frequently against actions and priorities articulated by the Trump administration, thanked the Trump officials for their “unique” visit to the state but left the event before the roundtable concluded.

“To have them here in our state, to be listening to industry leaders, to be listening to Alaskans — this is a newsworthy takeaway,” said Murkowski. ”It is instructive, I think, for those of us here in Alaska to realize the partnership that we have with this administration. The Trump administration has looked at Alaska’s potential as an asset, instead of a liability.”

The comments offered by meeting attendees were replete with grand statements but sparse on details.

Both Sullivan and Murkowski said they emerged from the meeting with a renewed interest in permitting reform that would make it easier for private industry to launch new resource development projects in the state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) speaks during an Alaska Resources Roundtable at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage on Sunday, June 1, 2025. From left, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-Alaska). (Bill Roth / ADN)

“It shouldn’t take 20 years to permit an old mine in Alaska. That hurts people, when you delay things for so long,” said Sullivan. “The radical far left groups that do it, they don’t care about our state, they don’t care about the communities, like in Western Alaska, with their poverty that they have. They just want to shut down everything.”

“We just need the federal government to help us, and this is the team that wants to do it,” said Sullivan.

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Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said “there is nowhere more important for the three of us to be right now than right here,” referring to himself, Wright and Burgum.

“I am extraordinarily confident in knowing that once this very productive visit to Alaska is done and we head back to Washington, D.C., that this team is able to work with your governor, with your congressional delegation, to be able to work with all of you to make sure this wasn’t just some ideal on a Sunday morning of an amazing future ahead for Alaska. It’s not just a dream,” said Zeldin.

Wright, the energy secretary, said that Trump got elected on the promise to deliver “not handouts to Alaskans” — rather, “freedom to develop the underground materials and turn them into resources.”

Interior Secretary Burgum said, “Alaska has an opportunity to allow us to do one of the mandates of the Trump administration, which is to sell energy to our friends and allies, so they don’t have to buy it from our adversaries.”

“The potential of this state is unbelievable,” said Burgum. “It can really become a powerhouse of a state.”

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“But we’ve got to get the federal government out of your way. That’s what the three of us are here to do” said Burgum.

LNG discussion

Chief among the resource development priorities emphasized by Trump during the first months of his second term has been a liquefied natural gas pipeline project that has been long sought by Alaska politicians. For decades, the project has remained far from realization, in large part because it is expected to cost a staggering $44 billion.

Sullivan acknowledged Sunday that “we get Alaskans who roll their eyes” at the LNG project, but he said there has been “really historic progress happening” both with interest from the private sector and with Trump’s stated commitment to the project.

“A lot of tailwinds there, exciting times. We’re not there yet, but it’s exciting,” said Sullivan.

The high-level meeting offered no new details on developments with the project.

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Dunleavy recently went on a multi-stop trip to Asian countries to promote Alaska’s LNG. Burgum said Sunday that “there are huge implications for national security for the United States to be able to export energy to our Pacific allies — South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan.”

“We just have to be able to do math in this country and understand that the impacts are so low,” said Burgum.

Sullivan said that the Trump administration would “work with us on federal loan guarantees for the Alaska LNG project,” but the officials in attendance did not offer new details on how the project would be financed.

“The Alaska pipeline, if we get off-take agreements, if we sell energy to our Pacific allies, there will be people lined up to finance it,” said Burgum. “It won’t take foreign capital to build the pipeline. There may be foreign interest in wanting to be part of it, because it’s going to be a great project, but what we really need is customers.”

Renewable energy

Even as the Trump administration has championed Alaska’s energy potential, it has taken steps that could thwart several ongoing renewable energy projects throughout the state.

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Alaska utilities in recent years have been turning increasingly to renewables as costs for fossil-fuel electricity have increased. Those projects were enabled in part through tax credits approved in Biden-era legislation. Now, the Trump administration is freezing grants for some energy projects, and with the passage of the latest tax and spending bill, Republicans in Congress are looking to undo those tax credits — with support from Alaska’s U.S. Rep. Nick Begich.

That could mean that several projects with the potential of lowering Alaskans’ energy bills will be halted.

Those impacts were not on the agenda for the public portion of Sunday’s meeting.

Murkowski is one of four Senate Republicans who have spoken in favor of preserving the tax credits that have paved the way for renewable energy projects in Alaska.

Asked Sunday about the Trump administration’s impacts on Alaska’s renewable energy projects, Sullivan was noncommittal.

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“We’re an all-of-the-above energy state,” Sullivan said Sunday. “We’re looking at the different elements of what’s in the House budget reconciliation bill … but we’re still studying the bill and trying to figure out what’s the best way to balance what’s in the budget reconciliation with the overall goals of that bill.”





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Alaska Sports Scoreboard: May 31, 2025

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Alaska Sports Scoreboard: May 31, 2025


Runners near the finish line in the boys’ DI 110 meter high hurdles during the Alaska State Track and Field Championships at Dimond High on Saturday, May 31, 2025. (Bob Hallinen Photo)

High School

Soccer

Girls

Thursday

South 4, Chugiak 0

Monroe Catholic 5, Grace Christian 0

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Soldotna 1, Ketchikan 0

Colony 2, Service 1

Dimond 5, West Valley 0

Kenai Central 7, Redington 0

Homer 4, Palmer 1

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Wasilla 2, Lathrop 1

Friday

Grace Christian 6, Redington 2

Service 5, West Valley 1

Chugiak 4, Lathrop 1

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Palmer 1, Ketchikan 0

Soldotna 3, Homer 1

Kenai Central 2, Monroe Catholic 1

Dimond 1, Colony 0

South 3, Wasilla 0

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Saturday

Palmer 1, Grace Christian 0

Monroe Catholic 4, Homer 3

Kenai Central 2, Soldotna 0

Colony 1, Wasilla 0

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Service 4, Chugiak 1

South 4, Dimond 0

Boys

Thursday

West 4, Wasilla 0

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Kenai Central 3, Monroe Catholic 0

Palmer 5, Homer 0

Ketchikan 5, Houston 0

West Valley 2, Dimond 1

Soldotna 3, North Pole 0

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Juneau-Douglas 2, Service 1

Colony 2, South 1

Friday

Wasilla 3, Service 1

North Pole 3, Monroe Catholic 0

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South 3, Dimond 2

Homer 4, Houston 2

Palmer 4, Ketchikan 3

Soldotna 4, Kenai Central 0

West Anchorage 3, Juneau-Douglas 2

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West Valley 2, Colony 0

Saturday

Kenai Central 2, Ketchikan 0

Homer 2, North Pole 0

Wasilla 2, South 1

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Palmer 3, Soldotna 2

Colony 5, Juneau-Douglas 0

West v. West Valley (late)

• • •

Softball

Tuesday

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Monroe Catholic 7, North Pole 4

Monroe Catholic 11, North Pole 7

Wednesday

Delta 8, Monroe Catholic 2

Delta 7, Monroe Catholic 2

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Dimond 15, Service 1

South 10, Bartlett 1

Chugiak 15, West 2

Service 14, Bartlett 13

Thursday

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East 9, Dimond 6

South 7, Chugiak 1

Dimond 10, Service 2

Chugiak 12, West 0

Friday

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Colony 11, Wasilla 0

Colony 10, Juneau-Douglas 2

East 1, South 0

Chugiak 11, Dimond 1

• • •

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Baseball

Tuesday

Dimond 13, East 3

West 12, Bartlett 1

Wednesday

South 9, West 1

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Dimond 10, Chugiak 2

Thursday

Service 10, Dimond 1

Eagle River 6, South 1

Wasilla 11, Lathrop 1

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Colony 9, West Valley 3

Juneau-Douglas 10, Ketchikan 5

Houston 7, Kenai Central 4

Palmer 13, Redington 7

Soldotna 12, Grace Christian 1

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Kodiak 2, Homer 0

Palmer 8, Houston 1

Soldotna 13, Kodiak 4

Friday

Sitka 6, Juneau-Douglas 2

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Juneau-Douglas 4, Ketchikan 3

Colony 5, Wasilla 2

West Valley 4, Lathrop 3

South 7, Dimond 4

Eagle River 4, Service 3 (10)

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Monroe Catholic 17, Delta 1

Kenai Central 7, Kodiak 3

Homer 8, Houston 3

Soldotna 10, Palmer 0

Saturday

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Wasilla 2, West Valley 1

Sitka 14, Juneau-Douglas 12

• • •

Track and field

ASAA State Track and Field Championships

Day 1

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Friday

Division I

Girls

3200 Meters Finals

1. Hannah Shaha 11:19.93, Chugiak

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2. Hailee Giacobbe 11:23.22, Wasilla

3. Rosie Conway 11:35.46, East

4. Ella Hopkins 11:46.73, Colony

Discus 1kg Finals

1. Mona Koko 119’01.00, West

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2. Layla Hays 115’09.00, Wasilla

3. Ailafo Fautanu 106’09.00, Dimond

4. Alessa Scott, 106’03.00, Dimond

High Jump Finals

1. Nevaeh Watkins 5’6.00, Dimond

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2. Autumn Larson 5’4.00, Chugiak

3. Avery Johnson 4’10.00, Palmer

4. Hallie Fischer 4’10.00, Soldotna

Triple Jump Finals

1. Izzy Kizer 37’00.25, North Pole

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2. Izabela Sullivan 36’02.50, West

3. Amelia Dempsey 34’08.75, Chugiak

4. Maya Tirpack 34’00.00, South

Boys

3200 Meters Finals

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1. Vebjorn Flagstad 9:59.04, South

2. Katahdin Staples 10:00.68, East

3. Owen Woodruff 10:00.85, Juneau-Douglas.

4. David Penfield 10:01.51, Chugiak

Shot Put – 12lb Finals

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1. Deuce Alailefaleula 53’01.00, Bartlett

2. Luke Miller 51’09.50, Soldotna

3. George Lane 51’03.50, East

4. Benjamin Hiestand 48’05.50, Chugiak

High Jump Varsity – Finals

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1. Trey Colbert 6’0.00, Ketchikan

2. Corbin Gerkin 6’0.00, Palmer

3. Cameron Anderson 5’8.00, Service

3. Deontae Cromer 5’8.00, West Valley

Triple Jump Varsity Finals

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1. Isaiah Douyon 43’02.75, South

2. Kenneth Motton 42’09.50, Colony

3. Johnathyn Kestel 42’00.75, Juneau-Douglas

4. Corde Bates 41’02.50, Dimond

Division II

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Girls

3200 Meters Finals

1. Clare Mullin 11:49.35, Sitka

2. Iris Haas 11:55.96, Delta Junction

3. Marina Dill 11:59.96, Sitka

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4. Claira Booz 12:08.88, Homer

Discus 1kg Finals

1. Jieaya Siatini Williams 122’00.00, Mountain City Christian

2. Alexia Pik 108’00.00, Redington

3. Emma Dohrn 95’09.00, Haines

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4. Madison Dill 93’08.00, Sitka

High Jump Finals

1. Jessie Wentworth 5’0.00, Su Valley

2. Abby Sampson 4’10.00, Hutchison

3. Emma Walsh 4’10.00, Monroe Catholic

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4. Maura McDaniel 4’8.00, Su Valley

Triple Jump Finals

1. Mia Bukala 34’02.00, Redington

2. Caroline Klebs 34’01.50, Grace Christian

3. Reilly Sue Baker 32’01.50, Homer

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4. Selah Coots 31’05.50, Kenai Central

Boys

3200 Meters Finals

1. Robbie Annett 9:47.95, Grace Christian

2. Connor Hitchcock 9:48.57, Sitka

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3. Colton Merriner 9:49.39, Grace Christian

4. Johannes Bynagle 10:02.21, Homer

Shot Put – 12lb Finals

1. Zach Martel 43’05.50, Redington

2. Kyle Petersen 41’11.25, Valdez

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3. Gage Hawes 41’04.75, Houston

4. Kaden Duke 41’03.75, Petersburg

High Jump Varsity – Finals

1. Olin Liljemark 5’10.00, Seward

2. Austin Barnard 5’10.00, Su Valley

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3. Royce Borst 5’8.00, Skagway

4. Luke Elhard 5’8.00, Seward

Triple Jump Varsity Finals

1. Gage Ivy 41’00.25, Kenai Central

2. Joshua Woko 40’02.00, Mountain City Christian

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3. Jaidhen Oyao 39’07.25, Mountain City Christian

4. Cole McLaughlin 39’02.75, Sitka

• • •

2025 Twilight 12k/6k

12K Male Overall

1: Riley Howard, Anchorage, AK 37:21; 2: William McGovern, Anchorage, AK 37:28; 3: Noah Laughlin-Hall, Anchorage, AK 39:46; 4: Scott Patterson, Anchorage, AK 40:22; 5: Conor Deal, Anchorage, AK 41:30; 6: Andy Peters, Anchorage, AK 42:17; 7: Brian Sweeney, Anchorage, AK 42:26; 8: Connor Marth, Anchorage, AK 42:42; 9: Allan Spangler, Anchorage, AK 42:49; 10: Michael Rabe, Anchorage, AK 42:56; 11: Chad Trammell, Anchorage, AK 43:57; 12: Ryan Beckett, Anchorage, AK 44:11; 13: Dash Dicang, Anchorage, AK 44:18; 14: Eric Mortensen, Anchorage, AK 44:28; 15: Isaac Landecker, Anchorage, AK 44:39; 16: Nick Mendolia, Anchorage, AK 44:44; 17: Andrew Pounds, Anchorage, AK 44:52; 18: Trygve Solomonson, Eagle River, AK 44:58; 19: Mike Garvey, Anchorage, AK 45:08; 20: John Cosgrave, Anchorage, AK 45:25

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12k Female Overall

1: Anna Dalton, Anchorage, AK 43:57; 2: Julianne Dickerson, Anchorage, AK 47:24; 3: Molly Walli, Anchorage, AK 47:38; 4: Breanna Day, Eagle River, AK 48:21; 5: Sam Longacre, Anchorage, AK 49:32; 6: Hannah Souders, Anchorage, AK 50:33; 7: Sarah Cosgrave, Anchorage, AK 51:00; 8: Kyra Walter, Eagle River, AK 53:10; 9: Carolyn Stwertka, Anchorage, AK 53:11; 10: Rylee Ruggles, Eagle River, AK 53:11; 11: Allison Macy, Chugiak, AK 53:25; 12: Trophe Brandt, Anchorage, AK 53:47; 13: Anna Smith, Anchorage, AK 54:00; 14: Jillian Gavalya, Chugiak, AK 54:09; 15: Haley Gilman, Anchorage, AK 54:11; 16: Brooke Gottmeier, Anchorage, AK 54:26; 17: Iris Samuels, Anchorage, AK 54:54; 18: Annika Dollick, Levelock, AK 55:06; 19: Sofija Spaic, Palmer, AK 55:07; 20: Lia Slemons, Anchorage, AK 55:31

6K Male Overall

1: Eduardo Orozco, Anchorage, AK 19:31; 2: Hoka Ben, Kent, WA 20:15; 3: Amadeus Semo, Anchorage, AK 21:36; 4: Pedro Ochoa, Homer, AK 21:48; 5: Malachi Stamoolis, Wasilla, AK 22:49; 6: Will Graham, Anchorage, AK 22:57; 7: Mark Fineman, Anchorage, AK 23:48; 8: Cyrus Rader, Wasilla, AK 23:58; 9: Emerson Michaud, WasillaWasilla, AK 24:00; 10: Miles King, Anchorage, AK 24:07; 11: Tyler Berliner, Anchorage, AK 24:37; 12: Reyce Lee, Anchorage, AK 24:45; 13: Kaden Brown, Anchorage, AK 25:00; 14: Joel Stamoolis, Wasilla, AK 25:02; 15: Dylan Chalifour, Anchorage, AK 25:16; 16: Parker Hadley, Eagle River, AK 25:56; 17: Ashley Schultze, Chugiak, AK 26:11; 18: Ed Leonetti, Anchorage, AK 26:12; 19: Zane Hopewell, Anchorage, AK 26:13; 20: Jonathan Moran, Anchorage, AK 26:45

6K Female Overall

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1: Emily Moore, Eagle River, AK 23:22; 2: Karina Packer, Anchorage, AK 24:13; 3: Liv Kullberg, Anchorage, AK 25:00; 4: Holly Martinson, Anchorage, AK 25:58; 5: Gigi Leonetti, Anchorage, AK 26:06; 6: Jennifer McGrath, Anchorage, AK 26:31; 7: Nicole Kimball, Anchorage, AK 26:37; 8: Heather Poe, Anchorage, AK 26:41; 9: Meghan Saramak, Anchorage, AK 27:34; 10: Hailee Stepetin, Eagle River, AK 27:37; 11: Estelle Johnson, Eagle River, AK 28:07; 12: Ashley Shaw, Eagle River, AK 28:10; 13: Jane Jackson, Provo, UT 28:39; 14: Alexandra Miller, Anchorage, AK 28:56; 15: Elsa Sternicki, Anchorage, AK 29:05; 16: Cameron Otte, Eagle River, AK 29:33; 17: Amanda Peters, Anchorage, AK 29:35; 18: Akari Kawamura, Komaki, AK 29:50; 19: Brittany Cross, Palmer, AK 30:31; 20: Suzanne Ward, Anchorage, AK 30:44





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Her husband is getting deported. She plans to leave Anchorage to meet him in Peru

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Her husband is getting deported. She plans to leave Anchorage to meet him in Peru


Paola Jimenez attends a protest outside the Department of Homeland Security office in Anchorage on May 29, 2025. Jimenez’s husband, Cristian Ibanez Velasquez, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last week. (Marc Lester / ADN)

In the past week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have detained two men in Alaska. At least one will be deported back to Peru, according to his wife, who is an Anchorage resident and U.S. citizen.

The recent ICE arrests in Alaska — totaling at least 11 since January 2025, according to state Department of Corrections statistics — paint a picture of what local immigration attorneys are calling a “shocking” uptick under a presidential administration that’s working toward its quota of deporting 1 million immigrants. Not yet halfway through the year, ICE has detained almost the same number of people — and placed them in Alaska jails before sending them to detention centers out of state — as it did in all of 2024, according to state data.

But that number doesn’t account for all ICE arrests, said Alaska immigration attorney Margaret Stock. Some detainees are flown directly out of state, and thus are not counted by the Department of Corrections, which contracts with ICE to temporarily house detainees. A spokesperson from ICE said they could not answer specific questions about total arrests in Alaska this year.

The wife of one of the detained men says in the wake of the arrest, she’s spent hours on the phone fighting for information about her loved one from both state and federal officials.

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In an interview Thursday, Paola Jimenez, 30, said she was just settling into her work at an Anchorage dermatology office last Friday morning when her husband, 32-year-old Cristian Ibanez Velasquez, called her. He’d just dropped her off 30 minutes beforehand.

She picked up like normal. “He said: ‘I got detained. It’s with ICE,’” Jimenez said in an interview nearly a week later. “‘I’m in handcuffs. They want to talk to you.’” Ibanez Velasquez, from Peru, only speaks Spanish, and the ICE officer arresting him didn’t have an interpreter when they handcuffed him in the couple’s driveway.

An ICE officer told Jimenez the news: Her husband was being detained — or effectively arrested — and would be held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. He would be taken to the nearest ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, she was told, where he’d be deported by plane to his home country of Peru.

[Ukrainian refugees begin planning departures from Alaska ahead of expiring statuses]

Ibanez Velasquez entered the United States through Arizona illegally in 2022, but was in regular contact with immigration officials about his whereabouts ever since, his wife said. He reported changes in address — first to Chicago, and then Anchorage — and uploaded weekly photos of himself through a federal application that monitored his whereabouts, according to Jimenez. He doesn’t appear to have a state or federal criminal record, based on a search of publicly available data.

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In Peru, Jimenez said her husband was a motorcycle mechanic. He came to the United States to seek better opportunities, she said.

But a missed a court appearance in New York in 2023 ultimately led to an order for removal that year, which Jimenez said her husband was unaware of. Local immigration attorney Nicolas Olano, who Jimenez contacted for help, broke the news when he looked up Ibanez Velasquez‘s immigration case using the Peruvian’s Alien Registration Number assigned by the Department of Homeland Security. At that point, with a deportation order and a missed court appearance, Olano said there wasn’t much he could do.

The couple’s situation was first reported by Alaska Public Media.

Jimenez questions why ICE officials didn’t notify her husband of his deportation order sooner.

“That same (ICE) officer that was doing his check-ins, was the same officer that detained him,” Jimenez said. “So if there was an order for removal back then, why did no one ever say anything to him?”

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The couple met in 2023, and married in fall 2024. Jimenez, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico, said that financial constraints kept them from getting a lawyer to help get her husband the proper paperwork.

Now, her greatest wish is for her husband’s safe and swift delivery to his country, where she plans to eventually meet him.

“The only thing that we want right now is for him to go back home to Peru,” she said. “I would love it if he could stay here, but it’s not going to happen.”

Over the last week, Jimenez has visited her husband at the Anchorage Correctional Complex several times. She said he was wearing a yellow jumpsuit, and they spoke through a glass panel. He complained about a lack of interpretation service at the jail, she said, which prevented him from getting medication. “He said, ‘Nobody tells me anything here.’”

Asked about legal obligations for language interpretations and medication access, Alaska Department of Law spokeswoman Patty Sullivan said, “DOC provides the same level of care for federal inmates and detainees that it does for state inmates. This includes medical care and translation services, as needed.”

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On Thursday morning, an online detainee locator showed Ibanez Velasquez was in Anchorage, his wife said.

[Amid immigration crackdown, Anchorage leaders push back at city’s inclusion on federal list of ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’]

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections confirmed that both detainees were out of their custody as of Thursday evening. The other man, identified as Leobardo Cardona-Rivas, a Mexican citizen, was detained May 25, according to department spokesperson Betsy Holley.

By Friday afternoon, Jimenez said her husband’s online detainee locator showed he arrived in Tacoma. She hadn’t heard from him yet that day.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Jimenez said, choking up.

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In Anchorage, the couple loved to go to La Michoacana for treats, take drives to Wasilla, go on dates to Texas Roadhouse, stay home and watch TV with their two cats, and fulfill InstaCart delivery orders together.

Now, Jimenez said, she comes home from work to an empty house, and doesn’t know when she’ll next see — or hear from — her husband.

“When he gets sent to Peru, then I am going to go right behind him,” she said. “Because, well, he’s my husband.”





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