The Alaska Federation of Natives convention, which is scheduled for this week, always focuses on issues most pertinent to local Indigenous communities. This year, a catastrophic storm that battered predominantly Alaska Native villages in Western Alaska is already the center of the conversations.
The remnants of Typhoon Halong over the weekend left at least one woman dead in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Two people are still missing.
“As we gather for this sharing and this collective convening, let us keep in mind those that are in harm's way and those who are out there to be with them and to help them,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said at the beginning of the Elders & Youth conference, the traditional prologue to the main AFN event.
The storm has displaced more than a thousand people, who are sheltering at their local schools. Meanwhile, AFN and other local Indigenous organizations were looking for ways to help.
AFN was one of twelve mostly Indigenous organizations that formed the Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund to provide assistance to villages. On Thursday, AFN planned to hold a blanket dance fundraiser for the disaster. And on Friday, the group said they will host a donation drive to accept water, food, hygiene products and other necessities.
Roy Agloinga is president of the First Alaskans Institute, which hosts the Elders & Youth conference. He opened the conference with a speech about the destruction from the storm. He told the gathering that the whole state must come together to help.
“It’s easy to feel distant, but I ask you to lean in, because while the storm may be hundreds of miles away, the people affected are our neighbors, our friends and our family.”
Marilyn Attla, a healer from the Interior who participated in the Elders & Youth conference, encouraged people to pray and acknowledge the stress of the situation. She also invited attendees – especially young people– to talk about what they feel and consider visiting a healing station.
"The youth could learn a lot and get a lot of healing from these people here,” she said. “You have to make up your own mind to be resilient. Any type of loss that you're going to go through in your life, any type of happening problem, you have to make up your own mind to overcome it."
The Elders & Youth conference is running at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage through Wednesday. AFN is scheduled there from Thursday to Saturday.
Rhonda McBride contributed to this report.
