KNBA Morning Newscast for Monday July 13, 2015
Calista Shareholders vote to enroll afterborns
By Ben Matheson, KYUK
Thousands of so-called ‘afterborns’ will be eligible for shares of Calista Corporation after shareholders voted Saturday. The preliminary results from the annual meeting in Kasigluk dramatically reshape the ownership of the YK Delta’s regional Alaska Native Corporation.
It extends the shareholder base beyond people born before a cutoff date of December 18th 1971. Prior to passage of the binding resolution, younger people could only receive shares through inheritance or gifting.
The company estimates that the number of shareholders could initially increase from 13,000 to between 38,000 and 43,000. With a tripling of shares, each individual shareholder would, on average, receive one-third of the value of shareholder dividends relative to the company prior to expansion. Last year’s dividend averaged $380 dollars.
The corporation in a Saturday news release did not indicate the breakdown of votes for descendant enrollment. The certified tally will available in the next few days. Just under 58% of the company’s shareholders voted this year, many through online proxy votes.
Calista officials they will spend the next 18-24 months developing a plan for enrollment.
Calista joins other Alaska Native corporations like the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Doyon, and SeaAlaska that have issued shares to descendants.
Metlakatla tourism sees increase
By Ruth Eddy, KRBD
Metlakatla, the Annett Island town of about 1,400 has recently seen more visitors through the community’s tourism department. This year may be the first that tourism pumps some noteworthy money into the Tsimshian community, in Alaska’s only Native reserve.
Boarding the tour boat from Thomas Basin in Ketchikan, cruise ship passengers are offered cushioned seats, each with a map and a pair of binoculars. The tour is called “Cultural Treasures of Annette Island” and in its second year, it is still developing. The binoculars were a suggestion implemented from a comment card taken seriously.
A lot goes into planning a niche tour: What tourists will see and do, what snacks to offer and what to call it.
“The name is very important. You have to be very careful about the name you select. And the first one we had to tweak quite a bit, because the first one was ‘Tsimshian Island’ but people had trouble pronouncing Tsimshian and didn’t know what it meant anyway," said Amanda Painter.
Amanda Painter is operations manager at Allen Marine Tours, which offers the day trip. She says Holland America suggested the name change.
Metlakatla has seen cruising tourists before. Small-cruise-ship company Cruise West sent ships regularly. But the numbers dropped off in 2010, when Cruise West went out of business.
Lacey Wilson is the Metlakatla Indian Community Director of Tourism. She began in 2009 and right away she got to work revamping and realigning the tour with MIC’s goals. The new tagline for the tourism department is ‘Culture. History. Authenticity.
“Highlighting our culture but not exploiting it in any way. Cultural protection and integrity is something that we take very seriously," said Wilson.
The first major stop of the tour is the Duncan cottage. The 124 year-old building served as the town’s clinic, pharmacy, library and school. Everything is labeled in both the English and Tsimshian languages, something Wilson says she is proud of, and is the only curated collection she knows like it. Wilson says a lot of her job is working against preconceived notions.
“There has always been a really unfortunate misconception, especially in Ketchikan, that you can’t come here unless you have an invitation," said Wilson.
She says is not true and she hopes the growing tourism industry can show that the people of Metlakatla are hospitable and willing to share their lives.
The dancers aren’t the only residents benefiting financially from tourism in Metlakatla.
“While we are not a non-profit, all of the money we make from this directly supports our community and community members," said Wilson.
The profits feed into a general fund, which is redistributed to programs, such as social services and preschools. Fishing has long been the biggest industry, but the community has been trying to diversify its economy, including building a gaming hall in 2001.
Wilson hopes that tourism can be a real player in the financial support of her community. This year may be the first in a long time where tourism brings in solid profit. She says besides money, tourism offers opportunity.
She wants to support her community, and she believes a growing tourism industry can do that. The highlight of the trip for most is the dance performance at the end.