Spruce Root

Summer is the time to plan for winter. If you're a Prince of Wales resident and you've been curious about how a heat pump might help heat your home, POWER may be able to help!

The POWER initiative helps Alaska Native or Native American Tribal citizens get heat pumps installed in their homes and buildings for little to zero cost. If you are Alaska Native or Native American, and you live on Prince of Wales, you may be eligible.

Fill out this form, and our team will reach out within two weeks to discuss options.

[https://forms.monday.com/forms/71af0dad4310cc25bac0eee946560979?r=use1]

This summer, Carter Lewis has been a wonderful addition to the Spruce Root team as our Philanthropy and Development Intern.

Carter’s Tlingit name is Xuká, of Daaginaa Hít, Lúknax̱aádi. He grew up in Corinth, Mississippi, and is currently studying finance at Mississippi State University.

Carter has spent the last month with Spruce Root learning about philanthropy, sustainable business practices, and the work we do to support communities across Southeast Alaska.

Carter has brought so much positive energy to our team, and has been thoroughly enjoying all that Southeast Alaska has to offer.

“Personally, coming out here to work for the summer has been a wonderful journey. From the food to the people, it has been an eye-opening experience. The scenery is beautiful, connecting with my heritage has been incredible, and I’m diving right in!”

We’re so glad you’re here Carter!

It’s Finalist Friday! This week, we’re featuring Salty Tlingits, a hide tanning start-up based in Yakutat.

Salty Tlingits is co-owned by Brandon Brown and Reine Pavlik, who aim to provide hunters with a local alternative to Alaska’s limited tanning services while supplying crafters with high-quality, home-tanned moose, seal, and sea otter hides.

Brandon explains that Salty Tlingits would provide Yakutat hunters with more options:

“Yakutat harvests about 60 moose every fall, and not one of those hides are used. And that’s a lot of good material that could be used by native crafters or non-indigenous crafters for a lot of different crafts. We’re hoping our business, Salty Tlingits, will open up another avenue for people to process hides that maybe they usually would discard.“

Brandon and Reine imagine that the traditional tanning approach and local service would be appreciated by hunters and artists:

“We want to make tanning more accessible and have a quicker turnaround rate. When you send hides out, it can take an over a year to get them back, because there’s such limited access to tanning. Traditional tanning is also a lot more durable than commercial tanning.”

Brandon is looking forward to the four-day Entrepreneur Camp in October for the opportunity to hone his entrepreneurial skills:

“We’re looking forward to learning about a business structure that could be profitable and also sustainable. We both have small businesses that are not our full time jobs, that need to be supplemented with other jobs, and so our ultimate goal is to be our own bosses, and do this full time.”

Congrats, Salty Tlingits! We can’t wait to see your business continue to grow!

Alaska Mary's 3-day Native Foods Challenge starts this Saturday, July 25th!

Shaelene Grace Moler, SSP Communications Catalyst, has signed up to participate.

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Shaelene’s favorite wild food to harvest..?

“BERRIES! They are slow to arrive this year, and I suspect this is due to cooler weather, but salmonberries are beginning to pop up with wild strawberries and thimbleberries on the horizon.”

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“I am an avid berry picker because it is what my mom raised me to be. Since I moved to Sitka, it has been a way for me to continue to feel connected to home and my childhood memories.”

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“I have been OBSESSED with this salmonberry, spruce tip dessert shared last summer made with salmonberries, spruce tip jelly, spruce tip shortbread, and Cool Whip. It is zippy, sweet, and tangy— it tastes like summer. I look forward to making that when salmonberries are in full season.”

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“Mary’s 3-day Native Food Challenge is an opportunity to expand our knowledge of and relationships to the world around us in this region. I look forward to all I will learn in participating.”

Want to join Shaelene by signing up for the Food Challenge? Register for free here: https://www.alaskamary.com/group-events

Welcome to our first Finalist Friday! Each week, we’ll introduce one of the 12 finalists in this year’s Path to Prosperity Business Competition.

We’re kicking things off with Disney Williams-Breen, founder of Native Roots Digital Learning.

Native Roots develops culturally responsive online training for Tribal governments and Native-serving organizations, providing scalable compliance, HR, leadership, and supervisory courses grounded in Indigenous values. Disney is creating this resource to help retain talent within Southeast Alaska’s Native organizations.

Disney says the biggest challenge of her business journey so far was taking the first step:

"The biggest thing for me has just been to just start. I’ve been ruminating on this idea for the past year, but once I finally moved past the imposter syndrome and started putting out the idea to different organizations, I heard ‘Yeah, we need this, and we need it to come from Southeast Alaska.’ I think just getting over that hurdle of putting the idea out there, was a huge step for me.”

Native Roots is guided by Disney’s Indigenous values and knowledge of Southeast Alaskan communities:

“Because I’m Tsimshian and Tlingit, I harness the values that were taught to me and that I continue to live out today. I want to make sure that the courses that are created reflect not just our overarching Native values, but the values that are true to each community that these courses will be implemented in.”

To learn more about the Path to Prosperity Business Competition: https://spruceroot.org/programs/business-support/business-competition/

Mary Goddard’s 3-Day Native Foods Challenge kicks off soon (July 25–27), and a few of our wild food-loving Spruce Root staff have signed up to participate.

Val Massie, our Community Planner, is one of them. We asked Val what her favorite wild food to harvest is, and she quickly identified herself as a beach asparagus gal!

“I love that it’s crunchy and salty. I also love being by the water and how often you can find it all around Southeast.”

“I like adding it to pasta at home or in a camp dinner.”

“I signed up for the ALASKA MARY 3-Day Native Food Challenge because we can all benefit from better understanding and taking part in local food systems. We live in one of the healthiest places and most intact ecosystems left on earth.Carefully harvesting and sharing food is part of living here reciprocally.”

Want to join Val by signing up for the Food Challenge? Register for free here: https://www.alaskamary.com/group-events

Our judges have reviewed the applications, the scores have been tallied, and the results are in!

Congratulations to the 12 finalists who have moved on to Round 2 of the Path to Prosperity Business Competition.

Next stop, Entrepreneur Camp in Anchorage! This four-day intensive training will prepare these entrepreneurs to develop business plans, pitches, and financials to accelerate the growth of their businesses and compete for a $20,000 award.

The finalists are:

ABC Coastal Excursions LLC
Jeren Schmidt • Sitka

Aya Joon
Rochelle Smallwood • Juneau

Carle Forestry LLC
Jon Carle • Craig

Haa Shuká Builders
Burt Jackson • Kake

Native Roots Digital Learning LLC
Disney Williams-Breen • Juneau

Salty Tlingits
Brandon Brown • Yakutat

Slacktide Cafe
Karrina Bell • Yakutat

Spirit Bear Seafoods
Bear Yates • Craig

Tlingit Fire & Ice Wellness
Danielle Knudsen • Kake

Trout & Timber Co.
Kyle Kitka • Sitka

Tsiin Designs
Jeremy Barrett • Ketchikan

Weav’n
Eliasica Timmerman • Ketchikan

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Over the coming weeks, we will introduce each of these finalists and their businesses through our Finalist Friday social media series. Stay tuned!

Southeast communities are suddenly buzzing with active construction sites, float planes, cruise ships, and hopeful commercial fishing boats streaming out of the harbor.

There’s a lot of money in all of this activity, and many of us are depositing fat checks into our bank accounts.

In the long light of summer, it might not be that much fun to think about what this same checking account will look like come February, but if you're tired of running out of money (and maxing out your credit) in the spring, here’s a different approach. This strategy is ideal for commercial fishermen and other seasonal workers who make ~ 80% of their income in the summer months.

Get real about your monthly expenses:
Figure out what your monthly spending is across the year. Groceries, rent, phone bill, moorage, insurance payments, Netflix account, avocado toast… tally it all up.

Create a high-yield savings account:
Put all of your summer paychecks into a high-yield savings account (HYSA).

Set up regular paychecks:
Set up your HYSA to automatically transfer the amount you need each month to your checking account. You can set up that automatic transfer for every two weeks (just like the paycheck schedule for those of us working a nine-to-five!).

Making more than your monthly needs for the year?

Create a vacation fund:
Got a trip you want to take this winter? Set a budget, and put that money into a separate high-yield savings account so you can enjoy a guilt free vacation in the dark days of winter.

Photo: Bethany Goodrich

Resilience Circles Practitioner, Kaasei Naomi Michalsen is Tlingít, Wooshkeetaan Eagle. A cultural and community leader living in Ketchikan, she is dedicated to the health and wellness of families and communities. 

Naomi brings her knowledge of respectful harvesting, and social-emotional plant teachings to RC retreats. 

At the recent gathering, Naomi guided participants in harvesting over a dozen plants, including goose tongue, fiddleheads, yarrow, usnea, and spruce tips. After harvesting, participants prepared a dinner featuring Dungeness crab cakes, dandelion biscuits, and herring egg salad with forest greens. 

Getting outdoors and connecting with traditional foods and medicines is a gift that Naomi loves to share with RC participants. But her work as a RC practitioner has brought Naomi many gifts in return. 

“I feel like every time I come to an RC retreat, I leave with something that was gifted” 

She says that one of the most precious gifts came at the last RC retreat.

“I didn’t grow up learning songs and language, so at my age I’m still trying to learn some of that. At our last RC retreat, the most precious gift of a song was given to me by one of the participants. To receive a song is like filling this emptiness, like starting to fill up that hole in your heart. And it’s like you wait your whole life for just one song, and then it happens just like that.” 

Naomi says that the relationships that have grown through her work as a RC practitioner have been important for her. 

“It’s like this community of friends that just keeps growing. Amazing people, and so talented. Southeast Alaska is so small, and staying connected to people is like growing our family.  

Who would’ve ever thought. Business and wellness. But it makes so much sense” 

Photos: GEMINI WALTZ MEDIA

We loved sharing our Financial Wellness curriculum with Sealaska and Goldbelt, Inc. interns as they explore career opportunities in SE Alaska and beyond!