ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Students and families gathered at Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School Saturday for the Indigenous Education Student Fashion & Vendor Show.
Many families ran vendor tables selling Indigenous clothing, jewelry, and other items as kids from elementary up to high school got a chance to take the stage and showcase their heritage.
“It really means a lot to me,” West Anchorage High School student and president of West’s Indigenous Culture Club Miley Kakaruk said. “My parents work really hard and my mom creates really beautiful works, so for me to be able to represent it at the best of my abilities, it means a lot to me.”
Performances included Indigenous music ensembles as well as a fashion walk for students to show off their regalia.
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“It’s an overwhelming feeling,” ASD Gui Kima coordinator Cindy Reeves, who helped many students make their own regalia, said. “You can literally feel your ancestors walking with you as you see students walking the stage.”
“It’s just great to share in our culture and we’re really happy to be here,” vendor Francisca Andrews said. “All of Alaska is here, there’s a little bit of everything.”
“It’s just something that makes us stronger because we’re together,” Kakaruk said. “Seeing not only our cultures being represented, but seeing everybody else representing their culture very confidently, it can do a lot for a kid’s self-esteem.”
Alice Rosecrow Maar’aq, who helped the event grow from its initial state of just a few tables at Romig Middle School into the show it has become, greatly values that connection.
“We’re a people of connection,” Rosecrow Maar’aq said. “We’re doing it for a community, for people to have friendship and family connections.”
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“It’s such a breath of fresh air,” Kakaruk said. “You see a lot of familiar faces, lots of smiling. I already know my cheeks are going to hurt from smiling at the end of this.”
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JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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A new home under construction in Potter Valley in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.
Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?
It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.
Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.
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A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.
Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.
Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.
That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.
Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.
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This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.
Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”
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