Wrangell Cooperative Association’s tribal members nominated seven candidates to run for four, 2-year term seats on its Tribal Council.
WCA members nominated three current Tribal Council members, including Sandy Churchill, Tim Gillen Sr. and Luella Knapp.
The other four nominated candidates seeking a seat are Jennifer Davies, Ken Hoyt, Christie Jamieson and DaNika Smalley.
Voting hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday (Feb. 27) at the Cultural Center. Absentee ballots are available at the WCA office during normal business hours.
Wrangell Cooperative Association Tribal members aged 18 years or older are qualified to vote.
Anyone with questions can contact WCA at their tribal office at 907-874-4304 or email wcatribe@gmail.com.
KSTK did not hear back from candidates Jennifer Davies and Tim Gillen Sr. when requesting an interview.
Churchill said her motto has always been, ‘‘We are working for our future generation.’
Hoyt said he’s always been at the intersection between his traditional culture and health, especially with cultural resurgence.
Jamieson said she will always remember Elizabeth Peratrovich’s quote, ‘Challenge discrimination whenever we see it and confront prejudice head on.’
Knapp has contributed a lot to the Council. She’s been on it for 10 years, through COVID and many celebrations.
Smalley said she started off on what she thought was a spiritual growth journey. Later she realized it morphed into cultural curiosity.
The author lightly edited the interviews for brevity and clarity.
Will you tell us about yourself and your experience?
Churchill
I’ve only been on for two years. Actually, it’s gone by so fast that I said I’m not up for reelection. (I thought) I’ve only been on the Council for a year. I’ve been having so much fun.
We’ve got a lot of projects going on right now that I’d like to stay on the board for. One of them is we’re planning, of course, the totem pole raising, more than one pole. And then we’ve got other things that we’re working on, like a new ANB Hall. You know, we’re buying property to build a new cultural center, also another education campus. I’m retired from Head Start. After all these years of working with children, they’re still on my front burner to get an education campus going for them with early childhood daycare and Head Start.
Hoyt
My name is Ken Hoyt. I have plenty of Tlingit names, I was born in Anchorage and grew up mostly in Bellingham, but we kept in touch with Wrangell and our family here. And then as a grown up, as soon as I could, I moved back. Stayed here for three years. I was on WCA Council during that time, and in 2013 or 2014, we rebuilt the Shakes House. And then for about 10 years we’ve been on the road while my wife became a lawyer. She went through law school, and she’s been a public defender, and then we just moved back in 2023, so we’ve been back almost two years. And in that time we’ve been finally back on the project of the totem poles, and there’s been a few cultural undertakings, but that’s why we moved back – to participate in our culture and the cultural revival here.
I’ve always been at the intersection of our traditional cultures and health, and especially cultural resurgence. This lethal irony that our food was such an important part of our culture and who we are and kept us healthy for millennia. Then that habit was swapped with the adaptation to the Western lifestyle. It’s so sedentary and full of empty calories, and then we have all these health issues because of that. I worked on that issue professionally for six or seven years, and then the last few years, it’s been more about behavioral health and mental health, and of course, substance use and having our culture alleviate those pressures.
Jamieson
My ancestral name is Daskawah, which is my Tahltan great grandmother’s name. Her name was Susie Quock, born and raised in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. She was married to my Tlingit grandfather, Charles Jones, the last and seventh Chief Shakes of Wrangell from 1940 to 1944. My parents were Marcus and Mae Dailey of Wrangell and my English name is Christy Jamieson. I was born and raised here in Wrangell in 1958 and I belong to the Kaach.adi Clan. My moiety is Raven. My house is Frog. We are the Shtax Kwaan people from the Shtax’heen, which is the Stikine River. We are the People of the Bitter Water,
I presently serve as a delegate and Community Council Member for Tlingit and Haida Central Council for the community of Wrangell for 2024 to 2026. With that, I serve on two Tlingit and Haida committees as a delegate of Wrangell – the Finance Committee and the Health and Human Services. I am presently a member of the Alaska Native Sisterhood ANS Camp One of Wrangell. Additionally, I had a long career in local and state government, from 1980 to 2015. Furthermore, I was president of the WCA Council back in 2014 for a short period of time while working at the Capitol in Juneau for Senator Steadman. I served again on the WCA Council as their vice president for a two-year term from 2019 to 2021. I presently serve on the Landless Natives of Wrangell, Inc. as vice president, and have been since 2015.
Knapp
I’ve grown up and lived in Wrangell all my life. I’ve been on a tribal council for at least 10 years and since I’ve been on the council, we’ve hired a Tribal Administrator, who’s Esther (Aaltséen) Reese Ashton, and she has been a big plus. She helped us immensely since she got on.
The thing that comes to my mind first after that is COVID. When COVID started, we had a lot of meetings. We have a regular monthly meeting. During that time, we probably had two meetings a week, just trying to figure out how we were going to help our tribal members get through COVID. We worked on mitigation plans for our office and how the staff would be involved with that. We also had a lot of help for our tribal members, and it was to help them be more self-sufficient . With COVID money we ordered for each household a pressure cooker and vacuum sealers and bags. Each family got a smokehouse and a garden. We hired tribal members to help make those.
I think about that time and how we had worked hard on what we could do to help our tribal members. As a council member, we vote on things, and one of the things that we do is we vote on who we’re going to be hiring for the different positions.
We are also currently trying to get our tourism up and running. We’ve got youth interested to work summertime jobs.
WCA is now able to carve the totems, which is part of our economic development – putting tribal members to work and trying to raise up our own carvers. This summer, we’re going to raise several totem polls on Shakes Island, that’ll be happening July, 18 through the 20th. In the past, we’ve hosted the Hōkūle‘a, and they were from Hawaii. Last year in the fall, we blessed the Capitol Christmas tree before it headed cross country to Washington, D.C. And when we were there, one of the people that helped get that done was so thankful that we did that blessing. They said that they almost had an accident while they were bringing the tree across, and thankfully, nothing bad happened. There’s just so much that we do. We’re always busy.
I’ve always been involved with the children’s group, the Johnson O’Malley program, since my children were all little. When they grew up, I continued to stay in that area, working with children. I worked in the Indian Education Program at the Wrangell Public Schools and helped get Tlingit language into the school.
Smalley
It started off as a spiritual growth journey, and it led me to becoming an herbalist, and then it led me to becoming the IEA (Indian Education Act) director and applying for that job with the school, which then led me to being a Baby Raven Reads liaison. At that point in time, I was still a member of ANS (Alaska Native Sisterhood) and JOM (Johnson O’Malley Kaats’litaan Dancers and Elders), because my kids have been dancing with JOM for their entire life, and mine as well. Then I took a break from being the IEA director and stepped down and became the museum attendant.
What I thought was a spiritual growth journey has actually morphed more into a cultural curiosity, thriving for information about it and to learn more about my grandparents and my great grandparents and what they fought for my generation to have and seeing everything that I want for my children.
There’s nobody else that’s going to fight for my kids. So it’s led me to being vocal and verbal with the WCA Council at times in the community. Like the transboundary, the mines, like wanting to get that information out there. I was just excited, because, from my understanding, everybody is starting to see that there’s certain things that I want in the future for my children and for the next generation to have. JOM needs a consistent home that can’t be taken from them again, because that’s happened many times throughout my lifetime, where JOM’s had to move and it would be amazing for WCA and the city to coordinate together to be able to provide that for them.
The other thing is tribal cards. I love that I’m a Tlingit & Haida community member, but Wrangell’s my home ancestrally. So when it’s been brought up multiple times that WCA has been recognized as a federally recognized tribe, we should have our own cards. That’s been something I’ve been working on behind the scenes of where we could get the grants to go for it, having somebody work up a design that’s going to incorporate the WCA seal. Pretty excited what we’re doing behind the scenes.
What are your priorities if you get elected?
Churchill
For the next two years, those projects that I named are my goals. But I’m mostly there (on the Council) because I want to hear what the community needs, and see what I can do to help get it. So I’m there for the people. And I do have people coming to me saying things like, ‘We need this,’ or, ‘We need that.’ I just see what I can do to help the people in the community. That’s what I’m there for.
Hoyt
To me, this is just another route to go about loving my people, like that’s what motivates me in all my big decisions and in a lot of my small decisions, is just to be motivated by love. I’m just madly in love with the Wrangell Native community. If they would like me to be useful in this position, then I’m willing, I’m available and ready.
I’ve been training professionally and then educationally for some time now. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Native Studies and Community Development. So that’s kind of an emphasis on local governance and a lot of the questions that would come before Council. We always think about it being a cultural thing, but it’s also a financial thing, a political thing, brass tax economics. I think we think it’s cultural because that’s who we are as Tlingit people – big proponents and participants in democracy. Like, we have a precontact idea of democracy, and then once American democracy got here, we took to that like it was not imposed. It was embraced. So in that respect, it is a cultural thing and it would be neat to pick up on this legacy from those ancestors.
Jamieson
I would bring back the newsletter to keep our tribal members informed as to what our tribal government has done in the past and what they are working currently, and what future projects and businesses we have in the works. I would like to see a job fair created for Wrangell that would help out our decreasing population in our community.
WCA plans to build a cultural center, which is very exciting news. This is one of the reasons why I want to be on the WCA Council – to help assist in the planning of a new cultural center. I think we are in need of a larger building where we can have a gift store and classes for cultural projects. For example, the making of vests, blankets, drums, cedar hats and headbands, Raven Tail items, which can include headbands, skirts, purses, octopus bags and much, much more. This building would be a place to hold meetings, dances, gatherings of our people and visitors. It’s very exciting. I grew up with the ANB Hall years ago and we had all those functions where our people would collaborate and meet.
Some other reasons why I want to be on the WCA Council is to help bring items to the table that I hear from our fellow tribal members. Maybe it would bring our tribal members to be more involved. For example, get more youth tribal members more involved in cultural learning classes, whether that be learning our language, making regalia, learning all about leadership, issue tribal cards for all tribal members, invite and welcome all tribal members to meetings, have a larger meeting place, include tribal members comments, concerns and their questions in the decision making process of tribal business and share out the five-year comprehensive plan to all our tribal members. Also hold Zoom meetings for those who cannot attend in person.
Knapp
Continue to work on our totems, keep that going and just working with the clans. We do things together, that makes it a lot stronger. We’re one of the only tribes that does that, and it really seems to have good results.
And fishing, sport fishing and subsistence fishing for both sockeye and halibut is important to me, and I believe that needs to continue. Another thing on our wild rivers, the Stikine, the Taku and the Unuk, the Canadian government is putting a lot of mines and they have plans to put up more. So that’s something that I would like to to see, to get involved with, try to keep our rivers pristine and controlled, so things can be kept in balance.
Smalley
The cultural center that Esther has already started working on is a huge thing. The tribal cards is another huge thing. And then really making sure that the website is up to date and that it is more open for the Native community to come, the citizens, to come to the council meetings, to be more active. I’m seeing it with my generation a lot, unless you’re constantly being a part of it, you’re not informed. And we want to make it so that it has a platform where it is more open, it is more accessible as well, like virtually. Being able to have the website up to date with the minutes. And that’s something, there’s two websites right now online for WCA, and both of them are extremely out of date.
What makes you a good candidate for the Tribal Council?
Churchill
I have a lot of connections, a lot of resources, my education background, my social connections are mostly what they are about.
When I traveled to D.C., I was able to talk with our legislators. I know Lisa (Sen. Murkowski) from WrangellI. It’s all about networking, meeting people, keeping in touch with the different things that we’re doing. One of my priorities is, like you mentioned earlier, cleaning up that beach where the landslide was, and I met a bunch of people from FEMA, and just keeping those conversations going and getting the work done. I love it when there’s projects that need to be done. I like the challenge of getting them done and all the volunteering and all of the teamwork that it takes. If we have a board that doesn’t get along, nothing gets done.
Hoyt
It’s not a paid position, it’s a volunteer spot, and it requires so much energy and time and diligence, and as part of that, having a sense of humor, rolling with the punches and working as part of a team. I bring those traits to the job. But mostly energy, enthusiasm and to be excited to pitch in on what’s been happening and what’s ahead, all those challenges ahead.
Jamieson
I played an important part back in 2019 and 2020, when I was on the WCA Council as their vice president, I attended the Tlingit and Haida broadband workshops. We had many tribal leaders from all over Southeast Alaska attend those workshops, and it was already known back then that Wrangell might be the first community to be tested for broadband. It was exciting, and I was glad to be part of that project. I want to be a part of the Council so I can be part of the decision making of the upcoming totem pole raising to be held July 18, 19th and 20th of this year. I would like to play an important part in the future creation of a childcare daycare project that is being developed as we speak.
Knapp
I always try to keep in the front of my mind what we can do to help our tribal members. I believe I make good decisions and I have had a lot of experience on what we do.
Smalley
This next generation does need to start stepping up and being more actively involved, and I feel that all of the experiences I’ve had in the last five years alone puts me in a position to where I can listen to the community and their needs and relay that information in a way that the board can hear, and also with solutions or ways to go about getting what the tribal citizens want as well. I feel like I am a good bridge for the age gap alone.
Anything else you’d like to say?
Churchill
My motto has always been, even when I was in Head Start, is, ‘We are working for our future generation.’
This morning, I was talking to my granddaughters and I was telling them that, ‘You know, Grandma’s a leader, and that I’m leading the way for people like you guys, when you get bigger, that you can be leaders too.’ I think it’s just something that you know is born in you. You’re naturally a born leader.
Hoyt
It’s absolutely none of my business who people vote for, but if they would want me or need me in there, I’m here, and I’m more than willing to help out.
Jamieson
I will always remember Elizabeth Peratrovich’s quote, ‘Challenge discrimination whenever we see it and confront prejudice head on.’ She was such an amazing woman, and we will always remember her on February 16 each day. That is her day.
Knapp
I would like people to get out and vote. I’d like to let them feel like their voice is being heard. And they can do that by going down there and voting on the 27th on Thursday, between 10 and 7pm down at the carving facility. So WCA members, please get out and vote Gunalchéesh hó hó.
Smalley
Good luck to all of the other candidates. I’m excited to see what the results will be.
