Every Alaska Federation of Natives convention is best remembered in moments that sometimes live on for years. And one of those came at the conclusion of the gathering on Oct. 19, when Ana Hoffman stepped down as co-chair of AFN and passed the torch to Gayla Hoseth, an AFN board member from the Bristol Bay region, who has served as chair of the board’s subsistence committee.
A crowd packed the stage at the Dena’ina Center convention hall as leaders gathered to thank her for her 12 years of service.
“We are so proud of you,” said Bev Hoffman, who is related to Hoffman by marriage. “I’ll try not to cry. But look at all these people. She represents all of us, in all the good that is in all of us. So quyana caknek for all your good work.”
Hoffman watched Ana grow up in Bethel, a Yup’ik community in Southwest Alaska, where she learned to speak Yugtun, so she could talk with her grandmother. Today, she is a wife, a mother and President and CEO of the Bethel Native Corporation, a job she’s held since 2006. She was elected an AFN co-chair in 2013.
The other AFN co-chair, Joe Nelson, calls her a “superwoman.”
“Hunting, fishing, gathering. Leading her church, her corporation, the Alaska Federation of Natives and being a mom,” Nelson said. “It’s an anomaly, but she does it all. Just a powerful role model for all of us to look up to.”
Hoffman’s leadership style is quintessentially Yup’ik – a quiet but steady presence, who prefers to work behind the scenes. But Nelson calls her a strategic thinker with the rare ability to step into the moment
And there have been some challenging moments at AFN conventions during Hoffman’s time as co-chair, such as in 2018, when Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott suddenly resigned and Gov. Bill Walker announced at AFN that he was suspending his campaign for re-election.
In 2023, the convention rallied to support Rep. Mary Peltola, who had just lost her husband in a plane crash.
In each of those moments, Hoffman moved swiftly to organize a fitting response. Sometimes it was as simple as calling for a moment of silence or assembling impromptu choirs from different regions to sing healing hymns. Sometimes she joined the singing.
This year’s AFN was another opportunity to see Hoffman’s leadership at work. The Western Alaska storm disaster made landfall only days before AFN’s convention was scheduled to start. AFN leaders moved quickly to mobilize the conference to organize relief efforts and collect donations.
“She is also the most grounded, most well-rounded human being I’ve ever worked with,” Nelson said, as the gathering observed Hoffman’s last convention as co-chair.
“And this entire moment is not about one person. This entire moment is about generations of ancestors that have done well to channel their best, and their best to bring forward,” said Nelson, who called the moment a celebration of what it means to be a Native leader.
Former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola led the tribute for Hoffman. She is a longtime friend.
“Ana’s really been a translator since she was born,” Peltola said.
Peltola says when Hoffman was in grade school, she would help translate English for children who could only speak Yugtun.
“And I’m really hoping and putting a prayer out there that all the kids who are moving to Bethel or Anchorage, or new locations from the typhoon, find an Ana in their classroom, someone to love them and take care of them,” Peltola said.
Hoffman’s name, Ana, which is short for Anastasia, sounds similar to the Yup’ik word for mother. When she was small, elders sometimes called her “Little Mama."
She told the gathering that she hadn’t thought of running for AFN co-chair until some elders approached her.
“It is a very Yup’ik and Alaska Native way to be called to these positions from your elders,” Hoffman said.
On stage, Hoffman received many parting gifts. Two were meant to bring comfort in the wake of the Western Alaska crisis, which affected coastal communities that Hoffman has close ties to. There was the salmon leather necklace from Peltola -- and a bracelet with a salmon design from Nicole Borromeo, a past attorney for AFN.
“And they know how much I’m worried for the people,” Hoffman said. “After she handed me the bracelet, she said, ‘Don’t worry too much. Like the salmon, they’ll find their way home to the Kuskokwim.’”
Borromeo reminded the gathering that Hoffman’s roots in the Kuskokwim region and AFN run deep.
“One of my favorite quotes come from her late mother, Margaret Cooke, who said during the Settlement Act, ‘Take our land, take our life,’” Borromeo said, “So, she comes from a very strong lineage of leaders.”
Hoffman’s last words to the convention as co-chair came in the form of a letter to her mother, Margaret, one of the founders of the Alaska Federation of Natives, formed to fight for Native land rights. She died not long after Hoffman graduated from Stanford.
“Your ability to get past regional and cultural differences in order to achieve the common goal of establishing this federation and securing land rights for Alaska Native people is a life lesson we are still learning to apply and emulate,” she said. “It's natural that this evolution fragments at times. But through your example, we work to repair, forgive, rejoin and resume our collective efforts to flourish.”
Hoffman’s remarks were likely a reference to recent splits from AFN, in which six groups pulled out of the organization over regional differences. So far, the Doyon and Aleut Native corporations have rejoined AFN, along with two major tribal organizations, Tlingit and Haida and the Tanana Chiefs Conference. The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and the Cook Inlet Tribal Council are still hold-outs.
Ben Mallott, who has just finished his first year as president of AFN, says he’s still working to bring these two groups back into the fold. He says Hoffman has been like a compass for AFN.
“Ana’s connection to her culture and the land is what guides her, and where I think AFN should be,” Mallot said.
In the final moments of the convention, Hoffman called family members to the stage to help her sing a hymn, her swan song as AFN co-chair – to depart amid sounds of harmony and continuity.
