Buju and welcome to the 21st season of Native Report.

I'm Rita Carpin.

Production for Native Report is made possible by grants from the Blandon Foundation.

The generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp and viewers like you.

The Alaskan Native Heritage Center was created by Alaskan Native people for Alaskan Native people.

A place where culture is lived, taught, and celebrated.

As Anchorage continues to grow as the state's largest village, the center plays a vital role in preserving tradition and strengthening identity.

We meet Kelsey Wallace to learn how this cultural hub continues to evolve and serve its community.

The mission of the Heritage Center is to preserve and strengthen the traditions, languages, and arts of Alaska's native people through collaboration, celebration, and education.

And this was really at the hearts of our co-founders and those who are culture bearsers who came forward and really identified a need for a place here in Anchorage, Alaska's largest village to be able to celebrate all of our Alaskan native cultures.

I first introduced myself in my name is Kelsey Juven Wallace.

I am originally from Mesa or Bethl, Alaska, but I currently live and work here on Denina lands near the native village of Alutna, otherwise known as Anchorage.

I first started out here at the Alaska Native Heritage Center as an intern.

This was about over a decade ago, um, and have since worked in almost every level of management here at the Heritage Center.

It's important and it's critical to be able to have a place here in Anchorage that celebrates the Alaskan Native peoples and our cultures and our continued ways of life because like many know Alaska or Anchorage is Alaska's largest village.

So, we have the highest concentration of Alaskan Native peoples here in Anchorage.

And it's really important for us to be able to create spaces where we can open our doors to our Alaskan Native peoples to have a place where they're able to strengthen their identity, celebrate our cultures and our peoples, but continue to practice our ways of life.

In the summertime, we operate 7 days a week with programming here at the Heritage Center.

Um, and we employ over 50 youth and um, Alaskan Native interns and ambassadors to really drive and lead that programming to be able to share, you know, the beauty of Alaska's first peoples and to be able to create spaces of shared understanding that Alaskan Native peoples are not history, right?

We are still here living and breathing today.

The Alaskan Native Heritage Center first opened its doors in 1999 and we celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2025.

So we're in the 26th year of operations here at the Heritage Center.

But the real need to be able to create this space was brought forward by the late Paul Tolana and other incredible co-founders who identified a a real need to be able to share the story of Alaska's peoples to be able to highlight our peoples and our cultures in a good way and to be able to break down stereotypes that you know were prevalent among the community over you know 2530 years ago.

The Alaskan Native Heritage Center was also um established through a unanimous vote of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

And not a lot of people know that that our history um and the Heritage Center was really born out of the need and want and desire by our community for our community.

The Heritage Center is a global leader in cultural tourism for Alaska.

And what I mean by cultural tourism is really creating these spaces where visitors can come and learn about Alaska's native peoples.

They're able to hear our songs and our dances.

They're able to hear our languages being spoken.

They're able to see our culture bears in action.

They're able to um really have an immersive experience wrapped around the the love of our cultures and our regalia and our stories.

So, the Alaska Native Heritage Center is open year round.

In the summertime, we open our doors 7 days a week from 9:00 a.m.

to 5:00 p.m.

for summer season programming.

So, we have uh storytellers live on stage.

We have Alaskan Native dance performances.

We invite dance groups to come and perform here at the Heritage Center for visitors from across the world.

We offer short films in our theater and private and public tours around our village sites which are replicas of each of the different regional structures or the homes that our people have always or did always live in.

Um and then we also offer tours throughout our hall of cultures and demonstrations like a gudok demonstrations um and traditional medicinal plant tours.

We offer cultural tourism apprenticeships where our young adults are able to learn directly from our staff regarding cultural tourism and how we are able to um continue providing programming that is really geared towards our Alaskan Native youth.

The future of the heritage center is really exciting because in my opinion we are living in a time of intersection of technology and ceremony, technology and language, technology and ancestral knowledge.

And so through the leadership of those here at the Heritage Center, I'm really excited for the next iteration of the center to explore innovative ways that we're able to utilize technology to advance our Alaskan native peoples and cultures.

And so being able to build this space where our um our people can come and have that informal transference of ancestral knowledge is incredible.

More than a museum, the Alaska Native Heritage Center is a living space where culture breathes, stories are shared, and the next generation steps into leadership.

As the center expands its programs and facilities, it continues its mission to honor, protect, and uplift Alaska's first peoples today and into the future.

A fracture is a break or a crack in a bone.

A fracture is usually caused by injuries such as car accidents, falls or sports injuries.

There are seven common types of fractures.

Fracture types are classified by the way the bone breaks.

Some are incomplete breaks and others are complete and some break through the skin.

Some fractures are a crack in a bone with the pieces still together.

Some fractures coil around a bone and often are caused by a twisting force.

Some break into multiple pieces and those often require surgery.

An open fracture means bone fragments stick through the skin and that carries the risk for infection.

Most fractures take about 6 to 8 weeks to heal.

That can depend on the fracture type and location as well as age and overall health.

Fractures in younger people tend to heal faster, while more complex or severe fractures can take months to heal.

This is especially the case in older adults or fractures in areas with poor blood flow.

Non-traditional tobacco use can very much slow down healing time.

That's another reason to quit smoking.

The human body is amazing and begins to repair fractures right away.

The first few weeks involve a blood clot forming at the fracture site.

The next few weeks are when new tissue begins to form.

This creates a callus of cartilage and fibrous tissue.

The next phase is replacing the callus with strong organized bone.

Full bone strength can take longer than the 6 to 8 weeks required for basic healing.

Physical therapy is often important in fracture healing.

This can help regain strength and function in the injured area.

Sometimes you cannot bear weight on a fracture as it's healing.

It's important to listen to your medical provider during that process to avoid problems down the road.

We've been given the ability to heal from fractures and other injuries.

With guidance and help, you can hopefully return to your previous level of function.

Remember to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr.

Arie Vineo and this is Health Matters.

From summer spent in remote Alaska to her studio in Anchorage, ceramic artist Lauren Stanford transforms personal stories into powerful animal sculptures.

Rooted in her upic heritage and shaped by the natural world, her work blends imagination, memory, and healing.

Today, she shares how clay became her voice and her way of finding hope.

My name is Lauren Stanford.

I'm an artist, an Alaskan.

I'm a fourth generation commercial fisherman and I'm part up and I'm a ceramic artist primarily and so I tell human narratives using animals as a vehicle.

Uh they're all very personal human stories but I find that when they're told through the bodies of animals they're a little bit more approachable.

So, I I like to say I was born and raised here in Anchorage, but I spent my summers out in the wilderness.

So, I kind of got the best of both worlds.

Uh, as a small child, uh, my parents and my grandparents commercial fished and so every summer we would always go out to Bristol Bay.

And when my grandparents retired from fishing, they had a homestead.

You can only get there by bush plane.

And so, uh, when they retired from fishing, my brother and I would go out there where, well, my mom fished.

It was incredibly important to spend time out there, not only with my grandparents, but to be in a place that is so remote where you really rely on your imagination.

Uh, there's something really special about just being out in nature and just having an appreciation for the plants and wildlife out there.

I think at times when I was younger because I spent so much like summers are when kids go and have fun and they have kind of these uh moments of I don't know getting to know one another and playing sports and things and I didn't really have that and so I tend to relate to people like a few generations ahead of me cuz I spent so much time with my grandparents and at times it made me feel kind of isolated.

escalated and I couldn't relate to a lot of my peers.

Uh but it really shaped who I am and how I approached the world.

I was able to I think retain a sense of childlike wonder that unfortunately I feel like a lot of people let go of or let it diminish.

Uh my grandmother was half Eupic and half Scottish and um she definitely instilled an appreciation for the natural world, watching animals in their natural habitat of just them passing through by the cabin.

um just, you know, being in their element um was really special, but also I was able to just run around uh and be whatever animal I wanted to be.

And so now when I sculpt these animals, it kind of takes me back to those moments of embodying these creatures and telling these narratives that are so personal, but also tapping into that childlike wonder and that freedom of just one running through the woods.

I love the tactile quality of clay.

um it is kind of an unforgiving medium.

You really have to kind of learn how to push it and it'll it'll kick back.

And so I think I'm a person that is always up for a challenge whether it's commercial fishing or working with clay or this summer learning to mountain bike.

So just really um there's a challenge that I find extremely intriguing with clay.

So when I was a student here uh going through the BF BFA program uh my mentor was Steve Godfrey who is now my colleague and boss which is funny but um I had a meeting with him one day and we were talking about my artwork and he said Lauren your artwork is getting really dark.

You got to find the hope in it.

And that is like the one phrase that sticks with me every time I make a piece that you have to find the hope.

And my work is very cathartic.

And so I think there's ways of telling a sometimes tragic story in a way that still emotes beauty and hope.

And so this particular moose calf is a piece I made a couple winters ago.

And a few years ago, I had uh met someone that I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with and we were going to have a family.

We had all these plans and I thought I had found my person.

And when he decided that was no longer the case and ended our relationship, there were so many different aspects of the grieving process.

And part of that was grieving the children that we would never have together.

And so I had to find a way to kind of get a lot of that out so that I could heal and move forward.

And in the springtime when the moose dropped their calves, they're so precious and so new and so beautiful.

They're just this this rich warm brown color.

They're so velvety.

They're so innocent.

And so when I was trying to kind of work through this grief, this image of a of a of a loose cap that could never be came to me.

And so thinking about a moose that, you know, the only way that they can escape is with their legs.

The only way they can defend themselves is with their legs.

And so what happens in this moose calf, its legs are just bone.

it it can never be.

It's sleepy and it's peaceful, but this this little moose will never survive.

But then where is the hope in that story?

And so for me, the blueberry has become this motif of family and heritage and fertility and hope.

And so I incorporated the plants growing over the the bones of this moose.

And when I first came up with the idea, I wasn't I wasn't teaching yet.

I knew I was about to start teaching.

And I had been teaching a couple of years before I was able to get around to making this piece.

And while I was making it, and I think it was starting to kind of creep in, but I realized that that these blueberries on this moose are all my students.

because if I was a mother, I I right now I would not be teaching and my students are so incredibly important to me.

And I teaching them the medium that I love so much and and cultivating their voice with this medium.

um even if it's just for a semester and they never touch clay again to have that moment of creating an environment where where people feel welcome and accepted as they are and and I do have like a a small coh cohort cohort of students that you know started really getting into the material and so to kind of pass that on to them this this this medium that I love so much the storytelling that I love so much is incredibly powerful and hopeful.

You know, I didn't always think I was going to be a ceramic artist, but it kind of was a material that captured my imagination because it can mimic just about anything.

I have this thing that is literally putty in my hands and it can dissolve in water.

But when I sculpt it and I put it through that kilm and I ask a lot of that material, it's going up to like close to 2,000°.

It's a very traumatic experience, but it comes out to this permanent object.

It will last long after I'm gone.

And so there's kind of this healing process that I feel within myself of, you know, I'm just this malleable clay.

But with each story I tell, there's a little better, more distinct version of myself, a better understanding of who I am, a more permanent version, a stronger version.

Lauren's sculptures capture the imagination, but they also capture something deeper, the journey of becoming.

From childlike wonder to adult healing, from malleable clay to enduring form, her art stands as a testament to transformation.

As her stories continue to take shape, so too does that legacy she passes on to the next generation.

When I was 16, I was so proud because I had made my first Indian costume.

And at that time it was common to say costume.

Well, you know, then people started think, well, it's not a costume because costumes are more connected like with Halloween and stuff like that.

But that's where it comes about our either traditional regalia or attire.

So, when I was 16, I felt so proud because I was able to make my um start of my traditional regalia and with the help of my mother, she did the sewing like a the vest, but I did like the bead work and things with that.

So, it was a start of something and um over the years um I've changed it.

I've added to it.

So, what you see me wearing now is what I what I personally made over the years.

Um, and it goes back to um trying to I guess re-emphasize that our um native artwork, our native way of expressing ourselves was through the um woodland designs.

And so what you see a lot of people that follow that way in their regalia, they'll have things that connect back to the naturalenness like in the woods and the flowers and the trees and the animals and and honoring those.

It's been a 60 plus year process of doing that.

And um even like with the moccasins um there was a time when we would just go and order from this one store called Tandy and they would have these kits, general little moccasin kits.

And then um probably around 49 years ago now I started looking at and experimenting on how to make the anishab or ojiu style moccasin.

One of the things that you can tell by the tribal affiliation is the type of footwear that they use.

And so for the Anishaabi or the woodland kind of people, we have this puckered toe that's that's very much a part of that.

And from what I understand, the word for Ojiway relates back to the puckering of our moccasin.

So somewhere 49 years ago I started learning how and watching and looking in different places looking at people's moccasins to learn how to do these.

So that um again it's more of an affirmation or a way of remembering you know part of our culture part of our teachings what makes us Oji way is um one part is by the kind of footwear that we use cuz it is different from the plains Indians and it is different from the Indians that are out in the uh southwest because it's based on you know the the terrain that's there.

It's even different between us and the Ho Chunk or Wnebago, the um Onidas or the Irakcoy people.

So again, it just kind of depends, you know, what tribe and where they come from and their teachings.

Alaskan native artist Jacece Frankson Branson found his way to carving through the guidance of elders, the strength of cultural programs in prison, and the support of a sober native run art community.

Now carving for over 30 years, he uses his gift to stay grounded, provide for his family, and inspire others on their own healing journeys.

I always loved my elders when they did their carvings and they were actual animals of what we hunt back in the day and um it gave me it inspired me to want to to to do it.

My name is Jace Frankson.

Uh my in name is Kyto and um I come from a little village called Panto.

I'm a hunter and provider first and then I'm also a carver which was inspired by my elders, but I was taught by good friends that that was willing to teach me.

And now I'm an artist.

I I carve uh I do intricate stuff.

I do big stuff and little stuff.

Our whole intent is to do this Alaska Art Alliance is to have our artists sober when they're here.

You know, maybe it'll open up their eyes and say, "Look, I can live without it.

I've I've done it over 30 years.

I've been I've been alcohol free for over 30 years.

I was incarcerated for a while and um that's what got me to start doing this.

Um but mainly it was uh my grandparents and dad and uh the people in my village.

But growing up, you know, I I I uh didn't know where to start.

And um I always told myself as a kid, man, I will never learn how to do this.

You know, I don't know how they do it.

and and sadly enough, it took me to go to to get incarcerated to to see what what my potentials are.

This is where the magic happens and um it's giving me my financial needs as well as the stuff that I love doing.

This is my passion.

It's been my passion for over 30 years.

So when I when I get done with a piece like like this one, people will praise it and um I goes, "Well, uh it was my creator that did it and he did it through me."

So I don't do it because of the money.

I do it because um he's gifted me with a with a vision that a lot of people don't understand.

I'm very grateful that Leon had took over this place which is run by all natives.

If you look at all these spots, they're natives from all over Alaska, um, Yukon area, North Slope area, Nana area, um, uh, Southeast, you know, it has all the tribes in here, you know, doing their thing.

We don't allow the natives to come in here intoxicated or on drugs or or any of that.

We make sure that they're sober and then if they want to stick around, you have to be sober.

And you could never learn enough.

You know, there's different artistes that'll teach you different traits or different tricks of doing certain things.

And you know, it's never too late to learn.

I I was really blessed through my time and I I got a second chance in life.

Jason's story shows how culture, artistry, and community can transform a life.

In carving, he finds joy, purpose, and a way to honor his ancestors while helping others see their own strength through sobriety and tradition.

His work is more than art.

It's a reminder that healing is possible and that every person deserves a second chance to become who they truly are.

If you missed a show or want to catch up online, find us at nativereport.org.

And don't forget to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for behindthescene updates.

Drop a comment on social media if you enjoyed the show.

Thank you for spending time with our friends and neighbors from across Indian country.

I'm Rita Carpin and we'll see you next time on Native Report.