Klukwan Library goes from 35 hours a week to 4 following federal funding loss; Alaska's News Source, June 15, 2025

Justin Mattson , Alsaka's News Source; Klukwan Library goes from 35 hours a week to 4 following federal funding loss

"Along the Chilkat River in Southeast Alaska lies a small, ancient Alaska Native village, Klukwan. The village of Klukwan is in the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area and has a population of around 100. It has one library that serves the community. Following the termination of their federal grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the needs the library met are underserved.

“With that funding, we were doing workshops such as drum making, paddle board carving, we’ve done moccasin making in the past, we were also using it to pay stipends for presenters,” Co-Director of the Klukwan Library, Jamie Katzeek, explained.

Other programs that have been cut are designed to help keep the community engaged in reading.

“Our summer reading program has been cut,” Katzeek said. “The library is the hub of our community, and so without it, there’s just a lot of intergenerational learning and activities that have been eliminated because we just don’t have the funding.”...

“We went from two staff people, part-time, we were working. The library was open 35 hours a week, and now we’re down to just myself at 4 hours a week,” Katzeek said. “The two ILMS grants that we got funded most of our staff time.”

For now, the future of the Klukwan library is uncertain, but nothing is set in stone. They have appealed the decision to attempt to have the grants reinstated and are working with the State of Alaska to help fill the void left by the loss of the federal grants."

Pope Francis had the moral courage to stand up for the Earth and its people; National Catholic Reporter, April 21, 2025

CHRISTIANA FIGUERES , National Catholic Reporter; Pope Francis had the moral courage to stand up for the Earth and its people

"The significance of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's choice of "Francis" as his papal name cannot be overstated. It was a deliberate evocation of St. Francis of Assisi, who saw all of creation as a sacred manifestation of God's love. This choice was no mere symbolic gesture — it was a declaration of intent, signaling the pope's recognition that our relationship with nature is intrinsically connected to our spiritual well-being. In choosing this name, he aligned himself with a tradition that views nature not as a resource to be exploited, but as God's inalienable creation to be cherished and protected."

Search for missing Native artifacts led to the discovery of bodies stored in ‘the most inhumane way possible’; NBC News, September 4, 2022

Graham Lee Brewer, NBC News; Search for missing Native artifacts led to the discovery of bodies stored in ‘the most inhumane way possible’

"Since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990, federal law has required institutions that receive federal funding to catalog their collections with the National Parks Service and work toward returning them to the tribal nations they were taken from. But the University of North Dakota has no entries in the federal inventory, even though its administrators acknowledge it has possessed Indigenous artifacts since its inception in 1883.

The discovery at UND is illustrative of a wider, systemic problem that has plagued Indigenous communities for centuries. Despite the decades-old law, more than 100,000 are still housed in institutions across the country. The action and apology by North Dakota administrators points to a national reckoning as tribal nations are increasing pressure on public universities, museums and even libraries to comply with the law and catalog and return the Native American ancestors and cultural items in their possession."

Indigenous Knowledge Databases: Is It Something To Be Concerned About?; Intellectual Property Watch, June 28, 2018

Adithi Koushik, Intellectual Property Watch; Indigenous Knowledge Databases: Is It Something To Be Concerned About?

"Almost all information today ends up in a database. It is organised and made readily accessible. While it sounds positive, for indigenous communities, it can be crucial. Databases of their knowledge, culture and genetic resources, if misused, can undermine generations of community effort and maybe even their sustainability. A panel of indigenous peoples’ representatives presented their concerns about databases this week to governments attending a World Intellectual Property Organization meeting on genetic resources.  

The discussion in the Indigenous Panel at the 36^th round of the Intergovernmental Committee at WIPO, held between 25^th and 29^th of June, centered on the collection of material for, administration and use of databases and contracts."