Juneau Independent

A group of skiers triggered a wind-slab avalanche Sunday just northwest of Mount McDonell in the Haines Pass, killing one person and injuring another, according to a preliminary report released by Avalanche Canada.

Atlin Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a Garmin SOS alert from a remote location near the Klehini River and Pleasant Camp, according to a news release. When they got the call, one person was reported unconscious and receiving CPR. Atlin Search and Rescue responded with a helicopter and flew out four people who were uninjured, and a fifth who had died.  

At least one Canadian brewery, Yukon Brewing, is skipping this year’s Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival.

Two Haines assembly members say their use of Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence engine could be a model for future local government use; others have raised questions about errors in the document.

A group of Princeton University students visited Southeast Alaska last week to learn about the Tlingit clans and federally-recognized tribal governments working to repatriate precious cultural objects that have been taken from this region.

Beginning Friday, Alaska Seaplanes and Island Air Express will add a 6% surcharge to customer fares, the company announced Monday in a media release. That surcharge will not apply to freight customers. 

Judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Alaska Forest Association, Alcan Timber and Viking Lumber to mandate more timber sales.

U.S. Forest Service leadership is in flux as the agency takes sweeping actions in managing the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest, and making regulatory and administrative changes at all levels, Alaska-based officials reported this week.

Tlingit clan leaders L’eiwtú Éesh Herman Davis and Aanyáanáx Ray Wilson will receive honorary doctorates of laws from the University of Alaska Southeast during the May 3 spring commencement ceremony at UAS in Juneau.

After three years as a finalist, the Haines Borough Public Library has won the 2026 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor for libraries. 

Aaron Jacobs, senior hydrologist for the National Weather Service, makes a presentation Tuesday morning during the Southeast Alaska Landslide Information and Preparedness Partnership Conference at Harrigan Centennial Hall. (James Poulson / Daily Sitka Sentinel) By Andrea Burtzel Daily Sitka Sentinel Community members, scientists, tribal representatives and government officials from across Southeast Alaska met in Sitka Tuesday and Wednesday for an event focused on landslide pl

Regulations and policies governing hunting and fishing on federal lands will be on the table at the Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council meeting in Juneau next week.

Haines newspaper reports package deliveries to town from Lower 48 range from three days for priority shipping to 18 days for ground transport from the Northeast.

It was windy and the temperature was in the single digits on Sunday as Nate Arrants stood on thin ice at Chilkoot Lake. 

The Wrangell borough assembly on Feb. 24 unanimously approved a three-year lease with JAG Marine Group, giving the company time to decide if it will proceed with development of a shipyard at the 6-Mile Mill property.

In a five-hour regular meeting Thursday, the Mt. Edgecumbe High School Advisory Board voted to recommend and request that the state re-open hiring for the superintendent position at the state-run boarding school, allowing for "a thorough, rigorous and complete hiring process with input from Advisory Board members and stakeholders."

A three-tiered raven hat. A life-sized wooden beaver bowl. A blanket with designs representing important locations like Basket Bay. These are a few of the items displayed on stage during a Sealaska Heritage Institute lecture on the history of the Angoon Tlingit beaver crest on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The Alaska Marine Highway System has been struggling with less than full staffing since 2019, with last month’s numbers showing the state ferries were short 59 workers to fill jobs as masters, mates, engineers, seaman and stewards.

Volunteers are working with Mt. Edgecumbe High School students, staff and administrators to enrich the quality of life at the school and support students’ mental health by way of Alaska Native art forms, traditional foods and community connections. 

James Sturm, 45, of Sitka was arrested Thursday and charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and felony assault in the deaths of two young men in a boat sinking near Sitka two years ago.

Over the past two months Minneapolis has seen a surge of federal immigration enforcement activity. The Chilkat Valley News spoke to Jasper and Skye Posey, and Sydney Mintz — three individuals with Chilkat Valley ties — about their recent experiences in Minneapolis. The Poseys, who grew up in Haines, now live in Minneapolis. Mintz, a rabbi and seasonal Haines resident, participated in clergy protests last month in Minneapolis. 

Tuesday’s Elizabeth Peratrovich Day celebration brought a new first, at least in recent memory: the Haines and Klukwan schools joining together to celebrate the Alaska Native civil rights pioneer. But by and large, much of the celebration has become familiar, and a yearly tradition for the current generation of students.

A distressed bald eagle was taken to the Alaska Raptor Center for care on Valentine’s Day Saturday fter a good Samaritan spotted it hanging upside down in a tree then falling to the ground, on Jarvis Street.

The Departments of Agriculture and Interior announced Thursday they're extending the deadline for public comments on changes proposed to the Federal Subsistence Management Program. The deadline to submit public comments was changed from Feb. 13 to March 30, six weeks away.

Sitka Magistrate Judge Pamela Stahla-Kernin sentenced Pietr K. Dabaluz to ten days in jail and three years of probation Wednesday, on the Juneau man's guilty plea to misdemeanor assault charges arising from his actions during an Aug. 30, 2025, protest rally at the Sitka roundabout.

A bill pitched by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration as a “paradigm shift” for state forest timber harvest will not be fast-tracked through the legislature as the governor has requested.

Legislature schedules hearings with state education leaders Wednesday about Sitka boarding school that has lost 25% of its students this year

About a hundred people crowded into the cramped Arrivals area of the Sitka airport terminal Saturday evening to welcome home three Kaagwaantaan clan hats held for more than 100 years in a Pennsylvania museum.

Four-ship company that offered weeklong voyages for 40 to 80 passengers halting voyages so parent company Allen Marine can focus on other operations.

Proposed changes to Haines State Forest management could roll back restrictions on logging across wide swaths of the Chilkat Valley. But some say economics — not just government regulation — is preventing large-scale logging returning to the area. 

Coven Petticrew believes dance can help a community heal after a death in the family, so he is organizing a new Native dance group in Wrangell.

Sitka organizations are celebrating local young-growth timber production while giving rise to an outdoor education shelter at Pacific High School that’s being built with Southeast second-growth timber.

The Alaska Board of Education is supporting a recommendation by the state education commissioner to form an ad-hoc committee to address student well-being at Mt. Edgecumbe High School.

Earlier this month, the city of Juneau issued official warnings advising hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes due to avalanche risk following heavy snowfall. 

Braves’ boys, Lady Braves’ girls run past Huskies, Lady Huskies.

Some residents say it may undermine subsistence harvest rights in the state; public comment period open until Feb. 13.

The Alaska Board of Game's 2026 Southeast Alaska regulatory meeting opened in Wrangell today with a proposal that could raise the bag limit for non-Alaska resident hunters in the Sitka-area Game Management Unit 4 among issues to be decided.

A recent stretch of cold weather, plus high heating oil prices, has been a recipe for budget crunch, residents say. Borough decision makers, however, disagree on what should be done. 

The borough has officially partnered with a growing cruise line to bring a new dock to the community. The borough assembly voted unanimously on Jan. 7 to approve a 40-year tidelands lease for American Cruise Lines (ACL), which will build the dock. 

JDHS earns state playoff berth with two wins over conference foe.

The Wild Fish Conservancy’s use of the Equal Access to Justice Act is alarming the small-boat fishermen who fought the conservancy’s lawsuit that sought to close the Southeast Alaska chinook troll fishery to preserve migratory chinook as prey for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales that feed in waters near Puget Sound.

Dybdahl, Huemann, Larson, Tompkins ball out at 19th annual adult basketball tournament.

Widespread fuel-gelling in the Chilkat Valley’s supply of diesel halted trucks, plows and a highway-project crew in December.  

A Superior Court judge issued an order Wednesday dismissing two felony assault charges and maintaining a felony robbery charge against Pietr K. Dabaluz, a 19-year-old Juneau man involved in a fight during an Aug. 30, 2025, protest rally at the Sitka roundabout.

A woman was rescued from her flooded car in a ditch along Sawmill Road early Wednesday morning.  Emergency responders headed to the road’s intersection with the Haines Highway just after 8 a.m. where they found the Subaru stuck in water up to its bumper. 

The town’s economic development board, which advises the assembly, has raised several questions about a possible borough land lease for a California-based company to build and operate a small-scale data center.

Record rainfall and warm temperatures coincided with a Friday afternoon avalanche that left rock, wood and other debris across a stretch of Green Lake Road, about a half-mile past the Medvejie hatchery.

Ben Matthys and Jeff Turner work on converting the Mirage this fall. (Photo provided) By Anna Laffrey Daily Sitka Sentinel Tradesmen are working around the clock at Sitka’s community boatyard to install a hybrid electric propulsion system on the F/V Mirage, and breathe life into research toward clean energy solutions and cost savings for Alaska's small boat fisheries. The conversion represents the first phase of an Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association initiative to fit thr

Crimson Bears lose to 3A state runner-up on the road Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé junior Logan Carriker (24) defends over a Monroe screen as senior Elias Dybdahl (20) reacts during the Capital City Classic on Dec. 30, 2025. Carriker and Dybdahl were noted for their defensive play in JDHS' game at Sitka on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent) By Klas Stolpe Juneau Independent The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears boys ba

State Department of Transportation has closed portions of the highway, and is not plowing Lutak Road or Mud Bay road due to deteriorating weather conditions on Friday.