Alaska Mukurtu Hub Team
Amelia Wilson began working with Huna Heritage Foundation as the Archivist and was responsible for creating the Huna Heritage Digital Archives. She has overseen the development of the online archive and is the lead presenter and trainer for the Alaska Mukurtu Hub. Amelia’s Tlingit name is Tlagoonk, and she is a member of the Chookaneidí, Eagle/Brown Bear clan of Hoonah, Alaska. She is responsible for the planning, oversight, and implementation of grant projects in addition to administration of the Library and Archives, Huna Heritage scholarship program and Our Way of Life community programming. She is a motivated service-to-community oriented professional who enjoys volunteering at local and state levels including council member for the City of Hoonah, member of the Hoonah Liquor Board, and President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 12. Amelia is personally and professionally committed to the ongoing development of her cultural knowledge base and is dedicated to ensuring local traditional and cultural knowledge is passed on to current and future generations.
Rebekah Contreras is the Executive Assistant at Huna Heritage Foundation, and she is the main point of contact for the Alaska Mukurtu Hub. She is responsible for learning the needs and interests of organizations wanting to start a digital archive, coordinating logistics, and setting up training. Rebekah is of Yupik and Caucasian descent and has been adopted into the Tlingit culture as a member of the Shungukeidí Clan, Eagle/Thunderbird. Rebekah also works in various capacities with youth including Middle School girls' basketball coach. She enjoys volunteering on local and national levels and serves as the secretary/treasurer for the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 12. Rebekah also is a member of the Tongass Women’s Earth Climate Action Network, and a board member with the Tidelines Institute, a nonprofit focused on experiential, place-based and service learning. In addition to her passion for community service, she enjoys creating art in her free time. Rebekah is committed to the mission of Huna Heritage Foundation to perpetuate our way of life and enjoys helping others along the way.
Brett Dillingham serves as the Archivist for Huna Heritage Foundation and was the lead staff person for our Hoonah Veteran’s History project that included forty-four audio interviews of Hoonah Veteran’s to tell the story of their military experience in their own words. Brett has also served as digital archivist, audio interviewer and historian for Huna Heritage Foundation. A cultural anthropologist and internationally recognized educator/presenter on culturally responsive literacy, place-based education, and storytelling, he has published numerous articles in peer reviewed education journals, a children’s book, and a textbook. Brett was the Juneau Coordinator of the Alaska Communities of Memory Project, a statewide effort from 1994-1996 funded by the Alaska Humanities Forum to provide an opportunity for people in communities around Alaska to share memories of their community and to reflect on what made their community special. Since that time, he has gathered stories and taught storytelling in South America, Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. A Southeast Alaska resident since 1981, Brett’s focus at HHF is gathering the Hoonah people’s histories and stories of culture and place and sharing them across generations in Hoonah and beyond.
Jeff Skaflestad serves as the Community Specialist and worked under a Mukurtu Shared project with national repositories located in Washington, DC to share resources relating to our community held at the National Museum of the American Indian, National Anthropological Archives, and the Library of Congress. Jeff has been instrumental in creating descriptive narratives and enhancing metadata for Hoonah specific items held in these institutions. The newly developed metadata is shared back to the repositories and HHF shares images of the items on our digital archives. He is of Norwegian and Tlingit descent and belongs to the Chookaneidí, Eagle/Brown Bear clan of Hoonah. Jeff’s Tlingit name is Sei ya' eesh and he is an accomplished Tlingit carver and formline artist. He spent 20 years as a high school science and math teacher, won Teacher of the Year thirteen times at Hoonah City Schools, earned Biology teacher of the year for the State of Alaska, and on a national level was selected as Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers three times. Jeff has taught courses at the university level, community classes on Tlingit art, and has lectured internationally on critical thinking. He has a great love and respect for nature and has been an outdoor guide for over forty years.
HHF Team at Elders and Youth.jpg, by amelia