“Our food is our medicine,” says Lgeik'i Heather Powell, leader of the Gaawt'ak.aan Dancers of Xunaa (Hoonah). On this stormy Saturday, she’s surrounded by her regalia-clad “kiddos.” One hundred plus community members, including several out-of-town volunteers from nearby Icy Strait Point, jam together in a huge tin-roofed shed and under July-fourth-style tents loaned by the City of Hoonah. The dancers in their bead and button decorated robes are the only ones without layers of sweatshirts and jackets. In fact, during set up an hour earlier, the wind temporarily transformed one tent into a rollicking red, white, and blue tumbleweed. But now it’s been firmly re-attached to the ground, the tables are laden, and everyone smiles.

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Read more at The Juneau Empire, October 18, 2023, or at www. sustainablesoutheast.net.