Ketchikan's Fireworks
A view of Saturday's July fireworks from Deer Mountain's summit.
Front Page Photo By KEN ARRIOLA

Southeast Alaska: Ancient Haida Canoe Found Near Kasaan - An ancient, partially carved Haida canoe has been found on forested land owned by the Sealaska Corporation near the Organized Village of Kasaan on Prince of Wales Island.

A surveyor working for Sealaska Timber Corporation (STC) spotted the 33-foot-11-inch canoe last winter under a heavy layer of moss. Steps were taken immediately by STC to protect the area from the scheduled selective harvest in order for a full investigation to take place. After the spring snowmelt, Sealaska leaders and tribal members from Kasaan visited the canoe and observed that at least five cedars at the site had been hand-harvested using traditional, non-commercial tools.

“Other abandoned canoes have been found in Southeast Alaska, but it is rare to find canoes crafted with traditional tools,” said Dr. Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Daniel Monteith, an anthropology professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, surveyed the site for Sealaska. Evidence was found, Worl said, that traditional tools, rather than modern saws, were used to cut the trees and hollow the canoe. The carving of the canoe was nearly complete, but it had not yet been steamed, a process used to give the craft its final shape. Another log that apparently split when it was harvested also lies at the site, and segments of its wood appear to have been salvaged for other uses.

Worl said the canoe could be partially dated by a known historical fact - that the present-day Village of Kasaan was founded in 1900, at which time tribal members had access to commercial tools. And STC President and CEO Wade Zammit said that the cedar forest that has grown up around the canoe site is around 500 years old.

Clarence Jackson, a Sealaska board member and chairman of the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Council of Traditional Scholars, said, “The Sealaska Board of Directors views this Haida canoe as a tangible tie to Haida ancestors, who made this canoe and who left their footprints on the land.”

Discovery of the canoe reinforces Sealaska’s decision to include historic and sacred sites as part of its land legislation (H.R.1408 and S.730) that is now before Congress.

“We believe sites like this one will be better protected and preserved under Alaska Native ownership,” Worl said.

For now Sealaska is keeping the canoe site private and secure. The Organized Village of Kasaan will make decisions about the care and use of the canoe and site. - More...
Tuesday - July 12, 2011

Southeast Alaska: Kake Man Sentenced To Six Months Imprisonment For Illegally Trafficking In Sea Otters – United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that a Sitka man was sentenced in Ketchikan, Alaska to six months in imprison for illegally selling two tanned sea otter pelts to an undercover officer in violation of the Lacey Act.

On July 8, 2011, Michael E. Smith, 36, a resident of Sitka, Alaska. was sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Leslie Longenbaugh. Upon completion of his sentence, Smith will serve one year of supervised release. While on supervised release, Smith cannot hunt, or in any way participate in the take, sale or manufacture of marine mammals or marine mammal products. Smith must also forfeit the firearm used in connection with the offense.

According to court documents, Smith, an Alaska Native, who was employed at the Sitka Tribal Tannery, illegally sold two whole sea otter pelts to an undercover agent for $800, in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The tanned pelts were then shipped outside of Alaska to the undercover agent in violation of the Lacey Act. - More...
Tuesday - July 12, 2011

Southeast Alaska: Haines Man Sentenced In Federal Court For Importing Ecstacy Into The United States - United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that a Haines man was sentenced in federal court in Juneau to 16 months of home confinement for his conviction of unlawful importation of a controlled substance.

On July 8, 2011, Dennim Craig Hagwood, 19, a resident of Haines, Alaska, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy M. Burgess. Hagwood must also perform 750 hours of community service and five years of probation for his conviction.

According to information presented to the court by Assistant United States Attorney Jack S. Schmidt, the defendant, on November 9, 2010, imported 802 pills of Ecstacy, otherwise known as MDMA, from Canada into the United States via the Dalton Port of Entry outside of Haines, Alaska. Hagwood was arrested by border agents at the time of the offense. Hagwood has been detained since that time. - More...
Tuesday - July 12, 2011

Alaska: Scientists Say Brown Bear was Ancestor of Polar Bears - An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of the last ice age -- 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.

An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of the last ice age -- 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Photo Credit: Daniel J. Cox
NaturalExposures.com

Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders, explained that climate changes affecting the North Atlantic ice sheet probably gave rise to periodic overlaps in bear habitats. These overlaps then led to hybridization, or interbreeding -- an event that caused maternal DNA from brown bears to be introduced into polar bears. The research, which is led by Shapiro and Daniel Bradley of Trinity College Dublin, is expected to help guide future conservation efforts for polar bears, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The results of the study was published on July 7, 2011 in the journal Current Biology.

Polar and brown bears are vastly different species in terms of body size, skin and coat color, fur type, tooth structure, and many other physical features. Behaviorally, they are also quite distinct: Polar bears are expert swimmers that have adapted to a highly specialized, arctic lifestyle, while brown bears -- a species that includes Grizzlies and Kodiaks -- are climbers that prefer the mountain forests, wilderness regions, and river valleys of Europe, Asia, and North America. "Despite these differences, we know that the two species have interbred opportunistically and probably on many occasions during the last 100,000 years," Shapiro said. "Most importantly, previous research has indicated that the brown bear contributed genetic material to the polar bear's mitochondrial lineage -- the maternal part of the genome, or the DNA that is passed exclusively from mothers to offspring. But, until now, it was unclear just when modern polar bears acquired their mitochondrial genome in its present form." - More...
Tuesday - July 12, 2011

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