Tribal land managers wind up conference in Sitka

Nicole Filipek, Sitka Tribe of Alaska resource protection environmental lab analyst, shows water sampling equipment, used in STA's traditional food safety monitoring, to attendees of the 2026 Alaska Regional Conference of the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society, today in the STA Resource Protection Building on Katlian Street. The theme of this year's conference is "Asserting Sovereignty through Science." (James Poulson / Daily Sitka Sentinel)

By Cole Haddock

Daily Sitka Sentinel

A traditional feast will be hosted by Sitka Tribe of Alaska tonight to celebrate the end of the 2026 Alaska Regional Conference of the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society. The annual conference of tribal land managers from across Alaska is being held for the first time in Sitka.

The meeting began Tuesday, organized by the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society, a national group that supports and connects tribal land managers from around the U.S.

The theme of this year's conference was "Asserting Sovereignty through Science." Hope Roberts is one of two regional directors for Alaska. She said that the theme has many meanings, but for her, the theme reminded the members of the mission to incorporate traditional knowledge, whose holders "didn't always know if there was a place for them" into management practices of tribal lands and beyond.

"There is more and more places for traditional knowledge keepers to share; people want to learn and respect them...It makes me really happy," said Roberts.

On Tuesday, participants went through marine mammal training, which included the necropsy of a California sea lion and a panel discussion about traditional hunting practices. A young hunter asked a Bivers Gologergen, a tribal elder and subsistence hunter from Nome, for advice on hunting in a world affected by climate change. Gologergen responded with sympathy for the difficulties faced by younger hunters. He said that hunters must lead with respect and consult their elders, asking the youth, "Who saw the sun rise first?"

On Wednesday, presentations from tribal scientists highlighted different programs tribes are managing across Alaska. The Sitka Tribe presented on their weir management at Redoubt, and representatives from the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council presented on their efforts to restore salmon populations. One presentation by Sterling Spilinek, wildlife biologist for the Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission, highlighted his project, the tagging and monitoring of wolves.

Today, participants were to tour Sitka Tribe's Biotoxins Lab and the Sitka Sound Science Center before having the feast.

Across the United States, tribes manage 140,625 square miles of land and lakes, including more than 10,000 miles of streams and rivers. This land combined would constitute the fifth-largest state in the United States. Private land owned by Alaska tribes constitutes nearly half, or 45 million acres. Tribal land managers must balance "traditional management practices with the cutting-edge of biological management," explains the NAFWS website, while also meeting the "needs and concerns of Native Americans."

Most of the attendees are tribal scientists and land managers who are members of NAFWS.

Ashley Mueller, education and advancement director for the national office and an enrolled citizen of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, said the founders of NAFWS started the organization after going to Wildlife Society and other non-exclusively tribal conferences that "weren't connecting with them very well." The NAFWS conferences, she said, provide spaces "for us, where we can learn from each other."

Hope Roberts said it's crucial for representatives from different regions to come together and learn from each other because the landscapes are so different. She said, for example, that people here hunt otters, while there are walrus up north.

"The spring herring season here is a really big deal. People in the north probably don't know about that — somebody from the north did ask, 'Do you have a fall season too?' That's why they're here. We're in the same state, but we don't know everything about each other," Roberts said.

At the conference, 69 registered attendees came from across Alaska from nine different tribes, including Sitka Tribe of Alaska, Native Village of Eklutna, Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, Central Council of Tlingit and Haida, Healy Lake Village Council, Organized Village of Kake, Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska, Hydaburg Cooperative Association, and the Knik Tribe.

"The diversity is expanding for the NAFWS organization. There's so many people at this meeting that I haven't seen before, and I'm so excited about it," Roberts said.

Six other regional NAFWS conferences are held annually; this week, there's a Great Lakes regional conference. Members also are invited to attend national conferences down south, where representatives from across the nation take part. Common topics that aren't prevalent in Alaska include habitat fragmentation, hunting lotteries, reservations and tribal conservation law enforcement.

At one national conference, Roberts, a citizen of the Sitka Tribe, remembers seeing a woman from the Miccosukee Tribe in Florida hold and manage alligators. She said it reminded her of the relationships that Tlingit people have with marine mammals. "I was so happy. I was reminded that there's more of us. There's more people."

• This story originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.