From the opening remarks to the final hours of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention, talk of Western Alaska and the storm-impacted communities of the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta filled the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. That included federation co-chair and Bethelite Ana Hoffman’s sentiments in the convention’s welcome speech.
“Refugees are arriving here in Anchorage,” announced Hoffman. “These are dignified people that had livelihoods, homes with freezers full of fish, walrus, moose, berries, birds, seals.”
While the convention was underway, just a few miles down the road hundreds of community members from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok were evacuated into the city by C-17 plane. They made their way to two of the city’s other convention centers. But instead of craft fair booths and a stage, the Alaska Airlines Center and the Egan Center were filled with cots, bins of donated clothing, and relief volunteers as the spaces were converted into emergency shelters.
Doug Yates III, who has roots in Southeast Alaska and the Y-K Delta community of Tuluksak, attended the AFN convention. He said that thoughts of the evacuees permeated the gathering…