Julie Kitka, who has served as president of Alaska Federation of Natives for 33 years, is retiring, the board announced on Friday.
The board of directors of the highly political Alaska Native organization has developed a succession and search committee “and will be casting a wide net to seek diverse candidates with strong commitments to serving the Alaska Native community”
The position will be announced and open for application in March, with the new president in place by the time the 2024 AFN convention convenes Oct. 17-19 at the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center in Anchorage.
AFN was started in 1966 to address Alaska Native land rights, and was formally incorporated in 1967. Over the past few years it has become stridently leftist and anti-development, to the point where some Alaska Native corporations, such as Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Doyon, and Aleut Corporation withdrew from the organization. Tlingit and Haida Tribal Central Council and Tanana Chiefs Conference, which represents 39 Alaska Native villages and 37 federally recognized tribes in the Interior, also left in 2023. The village of Barrow also withdrew.