Feature Articles

A closer look at Sitka businesses, artists, events, topics and more!

Food For Thought: Carbon Fees

We are in dire straits from global warming – with fires in the Pacific Northwest; Hurricane Ida hitting the Louisiana coast and then killing people in New Jersey and New York; flooding in the South and Midwest; and drought in the Southwest. All these climate-exacerbated misfortunes are already here, and most of us know someone in the Lower 48 who is affected.

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Food For Thought: Indoor Cats

If you have both a cat and a closed door in your home, it’s likely the former has tried to get through the latter — either by begging you with plaintive meows to open it, trying to scratch straight through the wood, or slipping through as soon as the door’s left ajar.

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Artist Profile: Rico Lanáat’ Worl

On July 30, 2021, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing “Raven Story” – a new “Forever” stamp designed by Southeast Alaska Tlingit artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl. Sitting at his computer in Sitka’s Sheldon Jackson Museum (he was artist-in-residence in mid-July), Worl shared how “Raven Story” came to be. A few years ago, Antonio Alcala, an…

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Sitka Eats: The Fresh Fish

Having just spent time with family in California, I realized that (especially in the heat) we often found ourselves “going out for poké.” Imagine my surprise when I returned to Sitka and discovered that a new mobile food cart was advertising “poké bowls.”

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In The Spotlight: Anna Prussian & The Medvejie Solstice Run

SHS sophomore Anna Prussian is looking forward to the 2021 Medvejie Solstice Run. While she’s been running track in Sitka since the sixth grade, Anna actually began running in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in the second grade.

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In The Spotlight: Armchair Travels May 2021

In 2013, Sitkan Michael Mausbach traveled to Thailand and spent five months there, during the “hot season” from January to May.

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Food For Thought: 51st Earth Day

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970. Roughly 18,600 trips around the sun later, we see the vast effects of climate change. Just in the past year, we’ve seen hurricanes, forest fires, landslides, heat waves, coastal floods, a freeze in Texas, and human climate migrations – all heightened in an environment of Covid-19 and racial & economic injustice.

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Artist Profile: Jerrod Galanin

Jerrod Galanin was born in 1977. These days he lives with his wife Brit, nine-year-old Arya, ten-year-old Ruby and their four-month-old son. Their full house looks out over the ocean and other creatures who make their home on the ocean. That water and that wildlife are where Galanin gets much of his inspiration.

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In The Spotlight: Sitka Tells Tales

When I spoke recently with filmmaker and documentarian Ellen Frankenstein, she explained, “Normally we do Sitka Tells Tales live in a small space in Sitka.” But in the Covid-19 environment, this local staple, like so many forms of art and social interaction, has had to adapt.

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In The Spotlight: The Sitka Spelling Bee

I recently spoke with Jeff Budd and Kari Sagel about the long and distinguished history – and 2021 reincarnation – of the Sitka Spelling Bee. The 2021 Bee will take place on Thursday, Feb. 24th, and Bee organizers are actively looking for contestants.

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Artist Profile: Tyler Eddy

What would the holidays be without Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? That’s the question Tyler Eddy asked himself early in this unusual year. His answer was to create Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in miniature in Legos for the front window of Harry Race.

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Artist Profile: Traz Hill

The winning design for the new Seal of the City and Borough of Sitka was announced Tuesday night, October 13th at the Assembly Meeting. The design was created by Aaron Traz Hill. Hill – who goes by “Traz” – is a 30-year old tattoo artist who grew up in Sitka and now lives with his wife and two kids in Oklahoma.

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