Cultural Activities and Learning

Mount Sanford Tribal Consortium’s programming team coordinates community activities and projects honoring and in celebration of culture, history, people, and place.

Dogsled Digital Stories Website

Dogsled Digital Stories

Historically, dog teams served the Taa’tl’aa Denaé (“Headwater People”) as their main source of transportation through the Upper Copper River region and beyond. Over time, racing dog teams became an important form of friendly competition and community gatherings. These digital stories and the accompanying downloadable guidelines on how to create a digital story were created as a tool to reconnect Alaska Native youth to their dog mushing heritage.

Gathering of Alaska Natives (GOAN)

For three days in January 2024, community members of Chistochina and neighboring villages gathered to share and work together on community-identified issues. The information we learned together is being used to guide current and future community programs.

GOAN Summary Document

Twin Lakes Camp

Each Summer MSTC, in collaboration with Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, celebrates culture and learning about the natural environment on the traditional spring camp lands of family matriarch, Daisy Kendesnii Nicolai.

Kendesnii Campground

Upper Ahtna Traditional Knowledge Series

5 films

Featuring

Elder Lena Charley, Elder Ruby Sinyon, Elder Jerry Charley, and Elder Katie John

Upper Ahtna Athabascan Indians live on their traditional lands, near the headwaters of the Copper River, in the eastern Interior Region of Alaska. In the 1990’s community leaders began supporting ethnographic videography.  Interviews were conducted with members of the last generation who were raised traditionally in the upper Ahtna region. Recognizing that their children and grandchildren were living with more modern world distractions in their lives, these Elders decided to speak to the future by sharing their Traditional Knowledge through this video series.
 

Over 25 years later, this unique 7 hour series presents their Traditional Knowledge in 5 episodes.

Featuring: Elder Lena Charley

Elder Lena Charley demonstrates how to take a moose apart with just a knife, with additional audio on Tanning, Hunting Stories, and Upper Ahtna words for tanning tools and moose anatomy.

Featuring: Elder Ruby Sinyon

Elder Ruby Sinyon demonstrates beading and sewing techniques for moccasins, with additional material with her sister, Lena Charley, who demonstrates tanning moose hides and discusses beading designs.

Featuring: Elder Ruby Sinyon, Elder Lena Charley, Elder Jerry Charley and Wilson Justin

Traditional Knowledge was gained by hard work during childhood. Elder Ruby Sinyon (1928-2019), Elder Lena Charley (b. 1930), Elder Jerry Charley (1931-2013), and Wilson Justin (b. 1950) teach through life history, speaking about traditional child rearing in the first half of the 20th century and the cultural impact of social change in the second half.

Featuring: Elder Ruby Sinyon

Excerpts from Culture Camps, filmed between 1996 – 2004, address the successful struggle to regain fishing rights in the traditional fish camp at Batzulnetas, and offer Elders Katie John, Emma Northway, Ruby Sinyon, Lena Charley and Jerry Charley to teach youth about processing traditional foods and the traditional arts, crafts, and building technologies necessary to live off the land in bush Alaska.

Featuring: Elder Katie John, Elder Lena Charley, Elder Ruby Sinyon, Elder Jerry Charley, Elder Robert Marshall, Elder Fred Ewan, and Elder Ben Neeley

Cultural practice and social protocol are demonstrated in this overview of the Upper Ahtna’s most public ceremony, the Potlatch. Filmed in 2006, this episode features Jerry Charley’s Potlatch for his wife’s recovery from a stroke, his formal introduction of his half-sister to his community, and the recognition of a child’s First Kill.

We gratefully thank our Elders, without whom this series would not exist.

We rely on their support and wisdom.

Ruby Sinyon

Jerry and Lena Charley

Katie John

Upper Ahtna Traditional Knowledge Series

Funded by DOE: Alaska Native Education Program. Produced by Alaska History Projects, LLC. Directed by Cynthea L. Ainsworth.

Photo of Katie John © Bill Hess.

Community Resource Guide

View & Download the community resource guide

This guide was put together by Mount Sanford Tribal Consortium and contains resources for:

  • Health Care, Wellness, & Social Services
  • Safety & Protection
  • Tribal Connections
  • Learning & Education
  • Business Development
  • Activities & Events
  • and more.

Photo taken at the 2024 GOAN event in Chistochina