Spirit houses, dollhouse-sized structures that blend Dena’ina tradition and the Russian Orthodox faith, are seen on Oct. 16, 2025, at the church cemetary in Eklutna. The houses are part of a tradition to honor and shelter the spirits of the dead. In the background current St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and, to its left, the original Orthodox church that was built in the 1870s and is being restored. Eklutna has hundreds of years of history that predates the Anchorage’s founding. A new grant could support more preservation work in the Native community on the municipality’s edge. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Before Alaska’s largest city was founded, there were well-established small communities in the area.
Now the municipality of Anchorage has received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. National Park Service for historic preservation, tourism development and economic revitalization in three distinctive communities within its sprawling borders: The Dena’ina village of Eklutna, which has several centuries of history, and the communities of Girdwood and Indian, which have histories of mining…