Kendra Langford Shaw moved away from Sitka when she was eight years old, but Southeast Alaska has never left her imagination. This month, the Montana-based city councilmember published her first novel, The Pillager’s Guide to Arctic Pianos. Set in the fictional “Territory of the Arctic” the story follows a family as they search for a relative’s piano from over 200 years ago, while rising sea levels threaten their home as they know it.

“My parents moved up to Alaska in the early 80s… My dad was a music teacher, and one of his first jobs was delivering musical instruments to all these kind of bush schools across Southeast Alaska,” says Langford Shaw. “And one of the first short stories I wrote, I was just kind of playing around [with] ‘What would have happened if his plane had gone down, or like 1000s of these planes had gone down, and there were these instruments that were littered all over, and then people found them and were restoring them, and it became this like whole economic driver?'”

Langford Shaw began writing the story a decade ago when she was in graduate school. With the support of a research grant, she returned to Sitka for the first time since she was a kid to conduct research for the novel. Her eyes sparkle behind bold yellow glasses as she describes key differences she observed in Sitka on her return trip, and how that inspired the setting of her story. 

“So in the book, there’s these trees that I call the singing spruce, which I really patterned after a Sitka spruce, and they’re like 300 feet tall in the book, which is definitely the kid version of what trees are now, that most of them don’t actually grow that tall, but that was still very much in my mind,” says Langford Shaw. “Everything is so much bigger and more vibrant [as a kid] than when you see it as an adult, and so that’s still very much in my mind when I think about Sitka.”

Langford Shaw says she set the story in a fictional place in order to not overwrite Alaska Native histories. She says she wanted to imagine a world where Indigenous communities’ land autonomy was respected by settlers. She also hopes that Alaskans are able to see the resiliency and boldness that she admires from them reflected in the story. 

“I tried to put it into each of the characters [that] they’re taking chances, they’re doing things that are risky and challenging, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t work out as well as they want,” says Langford Shaw. “But they’re out engaging with the environment constantly, both because they have to and because they want to.” 

While the story deals with challenging themes, like what it means to define home and family in a changing environment, Langford Shaw was inspired by her own family’s ability to use humor to work through problems together. 

“If you’re not finding moments of making each other laugh in the midst of even really difficult things, that’s a huge loss,” says Langford Shaw. “I think it’s a better life if you can try and find those moments together.”

Langford-Shaw has been thrilled with the positive reception of her book so far. Last week she hosted a launch reading in her home of Billings, Montana, and will soon host readings across the lower 48 and Alaska, stopping in Sitka this July. 

More than 50 Sitkans attended a training hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union last Wednesday (5-13-26) on how to best support community members if detained by ICE. 

Lisa Sadleir-Hart is one of the organizers for the event. She says she and her fellow organizers wanted to educate Sitkans on what to do should ICE officers arrive on the island following the surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minnesota earlier this year. While there has only been one confirmed ICE arrest in Sitka at the time of reporting, Sadleir-Hart says that hasn’t eased the worries of community members she has spoken to. 

“Seeing what has happened elsewhere and thinking [that could] also happen here, and especially given the kind of division we’ve seen, not only in our nation, but it’s here in Sikka as well,” says Sadleir-Hart. “Maybe if you’re a person of color in Sitka, that might be something that would be more concerning than it was previously.”

The ACLU of Alaska has held several trainings throughout Southeast this year. The civil rights organization sent senior staff attorney Cindy Woods to Sitka to lead the local training and break down immigration law and its relation to ICE. While Woods says Alaska has not been hit as hard by ICE as many communities in the lower 48, increased ICE presence has made an impact on the state, most notably with a Soldotna family detained back in February. Woods says there’s been a 662% increase in the number of Alaskans detained by ICE in the first year of the Trump administration’s second term, from 13 detainees in 2024 to 99 in 2025.

“We have a small immigration bar, so we have few attorneys that practice immigration here in the state, and seeing that jump from 13 arrests to 99 is massive,” says Woods. “We could potentially be on track if arrests continue to increase proportionally for over 375 Alaskans to be arrested this year, and so that’s a huge, huge number.”

Woods also advised attendees on how to best support somebody being arrested by ICE and how to contact legal resources if someone feels their rights were violated. 

Attendee Rachel Worthey says it was infuriating to learn in the session how ICE has engaged in racial profiling of Americans and immigrants across the country (earlier this year the ACLU sued the Trump administration, arguing that federal agents violated citizens’ constitutional rights, and disproportionately targeted Somali and Latino communities). But she says she feels empowered with the new knowledge she’s gained and feels hopeful seeing the strong event turnout.

“I feel encouraged when I come to places like this and see other people who I know feel the same way I do and aren’t going to accept being pulled backwards,” says Worthey.

The ACLU also hosted two more trainings last week focused on developing safety plans for families should ICE detain them. Sadleir-Hart says if anybody is interested in learning more or getting safety planning resources to email her at 3akharts@duck.com

Odess Theater typically draws in Sitkans for celebrations big and small, from barn dances to concerts and weddings. Last Friday (5-8-26) is no exception – over 200 Sitkans are packed together for the first ever graduation ceremony for Outer Coast, a two-year liberal arts program honoring its inaugural undergraduate Class of 2026. 

“What this group of students have done, whether they knew what they were getting themselves into or not, was to step into a two-year experiment, which was and remains absolutely and unequivocally impossible to predict or optimize,” says Caroline Daws, the Chair of Environmental Science at Outer Coast. She stands behind a podium in her academic regalia, addressing the crowd. 

“This group of students in particular, in a way that no class that came before or will come after, stepped into the unknown here and have had the grace to live in uncertainty, in the real every day, in between messy moments,” says Daws, through tears. “Our relationships are forged in moments of conflict, monotony, joy and grief. Each of them has shaped the whole. Our spirits and lives are interwoven.”

The 13 graduates, who hail from across the United States and even Canada, sit in the front row, beaming up at their beloved professor. Their graduation garb is customized to reflect their individual cultures, with regalia vests, kilts, and kimonos peeking through their black graduation robes; yet all are connected with their white Outer Coast stoles. 

The two-year undergraduate program’s home is on the historic Sheldon Jackson Campus, which was from 1878 to 1967 home to a Presbyterian mission school that worked to erase Indigenous cultures and language in Sitka. With that history in mind, Outer Coast was founded in 2015 with the goal of creating a college model that centers Indigenous histories and knowledge alongside Western academia. And this goal was reflected throughout the graduation ceremony, from students and “staffulty” performing various Tlingít songs and dances throughout, to speaking the Lingít that they learned throughout their time at Outer Coast. 

Sitting among the staffulty on stage is elder L’eiwtú Éesh Herman Davis, the clan leader of the L’uknax.adí Coho People. After the graduation ceremony concluded, the class of 2026 gathered around him to hear his gratitude for their efforts to learn the language. 

“Just when it was the sound of the Tlingít language was going away from us. But now all your students and all the teachers that [are] bringing it back to us. It’s time to come back [to] our language,” says Davis. “Our language is coming back. It’s getting louder and louder and louder.” 

As she put together her graduation outfit, Cathy Li knew she wanted to represent the communities that have been most impactful for her. She wears a cap made out of the Daily Sitka Sentinel newspaper, where she worked as a reporter while attending Outer Coast. The hat is adorned with freshly-picked dandelions and bits of paper curled up to look like fiddleheads, a nod to the various musical groups she joined in Sitka as a violinist. During the reception break, Li takes pictures with community members she befriended during her time in Sitka. She says she has been deeply touched by their support, and has worked to thank them in the best way she knows how. 

“I’ve been using baked goods as my method of gratitude. So far, I made a crepe cake and I divvied up every single part of it as a vessel of gratitude,” says Li. “I feel so honored that they came out to support me, and I have no idea what I did or how I earned their willingness to befriend me. I feel really grateful.”

As many members of the Class of 2026 prepare to transfer to other colleges and universities across the country, Outer Coast’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, Bryden Sweeney-Taylor, hopes that students hold on to the intrepidness and sense of humor that helped them navigate the rough patches and uncertainties as the school’s first ever class. 

“[The students are] going to go on to lots of places where failure is really something to be avoided at all costs. And I think here at Outer Coast, we are encouraging students to embrace failure, to try things and see if they work and if they don’t, then to pick themselves back up and dust themselves off and go at it again,” says Sweeney-Taylor. “And that is really something that I hope that they carry with them into the rest of their lives, the rest of their educations, and where that will take them.” 

The ceremony concludes with the staffulty performing an original Tlingít song in response to the graduates’ earlier song and dance performance. The graduates and other attendees stand up and dance along, smiling as they bounce their upward-turned hands. As the Class of 2026 prepares to enter the unknown once again, many feel that Outer Coast and Sitka have given them the tools they need to make anywhere they go feel like home.

This past Tuesday (5-5-26), communities across Alaska and the country observed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Day. The day commemorates the lives of Alaska Native and Native American people, and demands accountability for the high rates of violence against Indigenous people. 

In Sitka, over 60 attendees dressed in red gathered at Totem Square to honor loved ones lost to violence and raise awareness. After they learned there was no scheduled MMIP event in Sitka, Outer Coast first-year students Robin Smith and Andrew Cranston Simmons organized the vigil. For Smith, the history of their college on the former Sheldon Jackson campus is a stark reminder of why the day is important to observe.

“Us at Outer Coast live on an old residential school… so  we have to acknowledge what has happened at that school and what has happened to our grandparents,” said Simmons. “It is not just a few decades ago that something like that has happened to us. My own A’pa had to go to a residential school disguised as a church, and he does not know much of his native language because of it.” 

And it’s a crisis that’s rippling through Alaska communities today. Last month, the body of 19-year-old Kelly Hunt of Shaktoolik was found after going missing in January. Smith also says this year’s MMIP day is especially timely given that the Trump Administration removed the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s report from the Department of Justice website last November, as part of a larger initiative to eliminate what the administration considers “DEI content.” 

Numerous attendees gave speeches commemorating loved ones who have been murdered or missing, including Outer Coast Dean of Faculty, Matthew Spellberg, who was literally carrying the memory of the person he shared a dedication to.

“In memory of Sísele, a Salish woman who vanished up the Sto:lo River in the early 20th century, whose granddaughter used to wear this vest,” said Spellberg.

Gene GuuyYaau Tagaban was visiting from Washington state, and heard about the event from a friend. He invited his fellow men to stand up with him and promise together to be allies for Indigenous women who are disproportionately affected by violence. 

“Are we as men here willing to take that stand? To call in other men and to call them out [and] say ‘That behavior is bad. It’s not good, it’s wrong. Come in. Let me teach you a better way.’ Are you willing to do that?,” said Tagaban. “I’m asking you, in front of the women who are witnessing it, because in order to stop this, men need to be a part of this.”

Speaker Kh’asheech Tláa (Louise Brady) spoke about her own experience healing from sexual assault and domestic violence. She said spaces where she could openly talk about her experiences with others made her feel like she wasn’t alone. 

“There was a time, and it’s still difficult, as you can see, for our people to talk about all these things,” said Kh’asheech Tláa. “But the only way that we can heal is to talk about it, is to bring it out in the open and to say that these are our problems. Because if we don’t identify the problem, we aren’t going to be able to identify the solutions.” 

Kh’asheech Tláa offered to share her contact information with any survivors in the crowd, along with support resources in Sitka for anyone who may need them. 

The event concluded with a minute of silence, followed by a performance of the song Yak’ei Haa Yatee Yeisu to end the vigil on an uplifting note and celebrate the perseverance of Indigenous communities.

Wielding a pair of large scissors, Sitka High School biology teacher Stacy Golden, encouraged by University of Alaska Southeast mascot Spike the Whale, cuts a ribbon made of paper circles. 

Over 100 attendees file into the atrium of UAS’ Sitka campus and crane their necks to look up at its newest permanent resident. Suspended from the ceiling is a skeleton of a baby humpback whale (sorry, Spike).

Golden co-led the process of rearticulating the whale’s skeleton alongside marine biologist Lauren Wild, an Assistant Professor of Applied Fisheries at UAS Sitka. The project began in the spring of 2023, when Wild told Golden about a dead humpback whale that washed ashore on Brent’s Beach.

“I just happened to mention if anybody was ever going to re-articulate a humpback whale, this would be a good one to do, because it was a small whale, and her eyes got really big. And I was like, oh no, that’s a lot of work,” says Wild. “And then standing next to her, Alex McCarrel, who was at the time at the Sitka Sound Science Center, her eyes also got really big, and she was like, ‘Oh, let’s do it!'”

Over the next few years, more than 700 volunteers, from whale experts to Golden’s own high school students and even tourists from the lower 48, assisted in assembling the whale’s skeleton. Experts helped guide the bone placement process, but first, the volunteers had to brave the whale’s “pungent marine oil smell” as they cut out the baby’s fragile bones and boiled the oil out of them.

“And we went through, let me look at my number here, 124 gallons of propane that we used to get all of the boiling done on the bones. Several different boilathons,” says Golden.

The baby won’t be alone in the atrium. Its skeleton is suspended in front of a mural of a mother humpback whale, swimming alongside a school of herring and giant kelp under the ocean waves. The mural was completed by Traz Hill, who was approached by Golden to take on the project. It was the first mural for the painter and tattoo artist. But, with the encouragement of his former teacher, Hill was eager to take on the challenge.

“It was a little scary. Honestly, it was definitely different. I’m used to just sitting in a chair with my easel in front of me painting, so getting up in a scissor lift, I think at the tallest point, I was about 36 to 37 [feet] in the air, which was a little nerve wracking the first few times,” says Hill. “But after that, it would just become a lot of fun, honestly.”

While the project is a huge accomplishment, there is one piece of the puzzle that’s left to be done. In a nearby empty classroom, the bones of the whale’s flipper are spread out on a piece of cardboard, with smaller pieces inside a neighboring cardboard box, waiting to be assembled. At least, most of them are bones.

“All the 3D-printed bones are just almost exact replicas of the other bones, and a lot of the other bones sitting here are damaged and couldn’t be put up.”

That’s Sitka High School senior Calder Prussian. After learning how to 3D print from a class at Sitka High, Prussian was game to contribute his skills to the project.

“And so I use this program called Polycam to scan the bone and then the small ones,” says Prussian. “I used the 3D printers at Sitka High School, and the big ones are too big to print here, so we used a company online that prints them, and then they shipped here.”

Prussian says that he has recently printed about 10 bones at Sitka High School, and only has five more bones to print. 

Surrounded by enthusiastic community members and former volunteers, Golden is optimistic about what’s in store for the project. 

“It’s super exciting, because in some ways I struggle with the fact that it’s not totally done, or that it’s not totally all there, but in other ways, I’m excited because this is the first massive part, and we have ideas for other bones and other projects,” says Golden. “We’re going to do a display at Sitka High. I’d like to get some art done on some of the things. So it’s fun to think about what can come next, and how we can continue to use the bones from the whale to educate in other ways.”

While it’s not alive anymore, the project leaders hope that the whale skeleton inspires a spirit of awe and curiosity as the latest ambassador for our underwater neighbors. 

Sitka Police Chief Mike Hall said the department received numerous calls reporting the accident shortly before 4p.m.

“[The] vehicle was traveling on Halibut Point Road towards the SeaMart and had swerved a few times,” said Hall. “Before they can call about the swerving, he ran off the road and lost control of his vehicle and went down in a ditch.”

Shortly after 4p.m. two police officers arrived at the scene. In an interview with KCAW, Firefighter EMT Paul Norwood said that the Sitka Fire Department sent an ambulance and fire engine to the scene, alongside 11 firefighter personnel.

Hall said the driver, a 75-year-old man, was found conscious, clutching his chest and complaining of chest pains. He was coherent, but sustained minor injuries in the crash. He was transported to the hospital, and a blood sample was collected. 

“At this point, we don’t suspect any intoxicants,” said Hall. “But anytime we have a wreck with injuries, it’s protocol for us to get a warrant for blood so that we can rule out that there’s any type of drugs or alcohol that influenced the event.”

Hall said the accident remains under police investigation. 

Two candidates for the city’s top job advanced to a second round of interviews last week. In two public interviews, the Sitka Assembly dug deeper into the backgrounds of municipal administrator candidates Steven Dahl and Jenny Alber to consider how they would fit in with the city government team.

Dahl, who has worked as a city administrator in Oregon, said he has conducted more research on Sitka since his first interview. He said, if he gets the job, he would want to collaborate with Sitkans to develop a solution to balance tourism and the needs of locals, but he’d have to learn more first.

“What exactly [is it] that people who don’t want tourism [in Sitka], what they really don’t like about it? Is it more people invading their town? They don’t feel like they can go shopping on a Saturday, or they feel limited about that, or they feel like their hometown is being invaded?,” says Dahl. “I need to understand that part of it before I can come up with a good solution for that.”

Collaboration was also a recurring theme in Alber’s interview. Alber, who currently works as the deputy director for the City of New Orleans department of safety and permits, said harnessing local institutional knowledge is essential to best plan for emergencies like natural disasters. 

“Probably being as isolated as Sitka is, I’m sure FEMA can’t just show up tomorrow with trailers. So I think it is very much all hands on deck. Here’s the community. Who’s essential?,” says Alber. “I think those are all things that you really have to take the time and prepare for, and have the hard conversations, and get the right people in the room, and then go to your community and say, ‘Okay, do you have a plan?'” 

Over the course of each two-hour interview, assembly members took turns asking the candidates questions from how they would approach the job’s responsibilities, to solutions for issues like housing, education, and navigating city budgets. 

The assembly convened behind closed doors in executive sessions after both interviews to discuss each candidate. After the final interview on Friday (4-24-26), Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said the assembly will take more time to consider Dahl and Alber, before getting back to both of the candidates in due order.

Neish Ken Hoyt guides over 200 attendees in blessing the newly-completed medical center on Japonski Island. Elders and speakers are seated in rolling chairs stationed in front of the building’s entrance — the rest of the attendees are packed like sardines behind them in the cool shade. A white ribbon with green and blue designs blocks the glass entrance, alongside the podium where Neish speaks from. 

For Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium CEO, Charles Clement, the completed hospital is deeply meaningful. 

“My board knows that I was reflecting this morning… and I actually got a little teary eyed,” says Clement. “This is a pretty emotional thing for me. This has been a 10 year endeavor.”

What’s most exciting for many of the speakers and attendees about the new hospital is the ability for Sitkans and residents of surrounding villages to access necessary medical care closer to home. Amidst concerns over limited transportation between villages, Sitka Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz addresses how the city plans to work with the hospital to resolve that. 

“We know that the ferry service is diminishing. We all see the effects on that,” says Eisenbeisz. “But on the plus side, the community of Sitka is investing heavily in their airport. So those citizens that need to get to health care from the larger planes can. And we’re investing in a float plane base as well. So those from the smaller towns that don’t have large plane access, they can fly in basically at the doorstep [of the hospital].”

SEARHC took over the World War II-era Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in 1986, and has been the only hospital in Sitka since it purchased Sitka Community Hospital in 2019. The new facility was built with support from the Indian Health Service, a federal agency within the department of health that supports Native American and Alaska Native patients. The organization’s deputy director, Ben Smith, says he’s thrilled with the finished product. 

“The Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center stands as a powerful example of self determination and action, where partnership empowers local leadership to design and deliver care that is responsive, culturally grounded and centered on patient families,” says Smith.

After the ribbon is cut, the wide-eyed attendees enter the new building for the first time, following the Sheet’ka Kwaan Dance Group and Gajaa Heen dancers, documenting every moment while they perform an entrance song.

Bill Spivey is the administrator for the Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. He stands proudly as he looks up at the hospital’s tall ceiling as visitors wander around the facility and photograph Mt. Edgecumbe volcano seen through the glass walls. He says there are already set plans to bring in patients and medical staff. 

“It’s very [exciting] that we’re going to be bringing two pieces of the medical center here,” says Spivey. “We’re going to bring our behavioral health team and our physical rehab team here to start on May 4, so that will for us be the first patient day.”

Spivey says that the rest of the facility will open on June 27th.

The Sitka Legacy Foundation has awarded local organizations with a one-time grant to support food security projects in Sitka and Port Alexander. 

Chris Kowalczewski is the Chair of the Grants Committee for the local nonprofit. She says the Alaska Community Foundation, which helped fund the grant, gave them a lot of freedom in determining which projects would be eligible. 

“They gave us leeway in defining what food security meant,” says Kowalczewski. “So there was a discussion in the committee about that, and we came up with these two categories of either increasing food production locally and hopefully sustainably, and distributing food more in the community.”

Five Sitka organizations, including the Sitka Food Coalition and Sitka Homeless Coalition, were awarded grants ranging from $1500 to $3000. The funds will support projects ranging from a food pantry to providing free community dinners. The City of Port Alexander was also awarded $1500 to support community garden plots. 

These projects are incredibly exciting to Robin Sherman, who is the chair of the Legacy Foundation’s advisory board. 

“One of the things that I think is great is that we funded a number of different solutions to the problem of access to healthy food in our communities,” says Sherman. “And that’s always good.” 

In an email exchange with KCAW, foundation Program Manager Jennifer Mac Donald says that the grant distribution checks have already been mailed to grantees. She says that each recipient has a year to complete their project and report outcomes to the organization. 

Kowalczewski says they were unable to sponsor three proposed projects due to lack of funds. But she says organizations shouldn’t lose all hope. 

“Based on the fact that we got quite a few applications, there is a need out there for this kind of support,” says Kowalczewski. “So it’s very possible that we would set that as a priority for funding in the future.”

The Sitka Legacy Foundation’s regular grant cycle will be starting in late August. Kowalzewski anticipates there will be a larger pot of funds to issue grants from due to additional City of Sitka funding. 

Amidst a sea of 11 other Republican gubernatorial candidates, Shelley Hughes argues that she stands out as not “Anchorage-centric.” At a campaign event in Sitka last week [4-8-26], she said she’s lived in several communities across the state, including Hoonah, Bethel, and her current home in Palmer.

“Part of my heart is in every region where I’ve lived, and I’ve heard from people in southeast and the different communities I visited [say] ‘We get forgotten by the governor. The governor gets in, they come down here and campaign, and then they forget about us.’ I will not forget about you,” says Hughes. “I’ve got family in this area, and you’re important. Every region of the state has something to contribute, and is important, and I’m ready to step up and offer my skill set to Alaskans.” 

Hughes has served four years as a state representative and over eight years as a State Senator for the southern Matanuska-Susitna Borough. She says that her decade-plus of experience in bipartisan collaboration makes her a suitable leader to collaborate with a president as “pro-Alaska” as Trump. 

Hughes is currently vetting Lieutenant Governor candidates, hoping to have them take on more responsibility in helping lead her initiatives in a way that she says “hasn’t happened since territorial days.”

One of her top priorities as governor would be to diversify Alaska’s economy away from oil, and lean into alternative energy sources like geothermal and hydroelectric power. 

She also says changes are needed for the Alaska Marine Highway System, which has uncertain funding and declining ridership. Hughes says local partnerships could help.

“I think if we did a private partnership, and maybe had restaurants or bands or things like that on the ferries, people might choose it as an alternative. I think we could get some more independent travelers,” says Hughes. “And I think there’s a revenue stream there. And under the state DOT they don’t have the flexibility to do that kind of thing… but I would also look at where does it make sense, as far as shortening routes by putting in some roads where we can, so we can have a good system that meets the needs.”

On the topic of education, Hughes believes that there should not only be better funding to support teachers, but also vocational training programs. She says schools should also help students prepare for the wide variety of high-paying jobs the state offers that don’t require a college degree. Hughes says this is important given that one in three Alaskans is on public assistance and Medicaid.

“I’ve heard from employers who’ve offered them raises because they’re good workers, and they turn it down because they’re going to lose their Medicaid, for example, and they need their insurance for their families, and that’s a broken system,” says Hughes. “So we need to go in there and fix that system and make sure those people have opportunity for the kind of jobs where they can make the kind of money that you can live [in] and afford a home [and] afford your groceries.”

Regarding environmental regulation, Hughes hopes to hire a Fish and Game Commissioner who shares her perspective on balancing environmental and development concerns. Hughes says she plans to increase trawling restrictions and increase game so that rural Alaska Native residents can participate in subsistence hunting regardless of where in the state they choose to live. Hughes says she wants to partner with federal agencies to develop preventative measures for natural disasters brought on by global warming. On the flip side, she’s also optimistic about the agricultural development opportunities that a warmer climate could bring.

“Scandinavia is on the same latitude on the globe that we are. Now they have a warm ocean current, so it’s a little warmer, but their export for [agricultural] products and food is $10 billion a year,” says Hughes. “We’re going the other direction, we’re importing $3 billion. And so I see a lot of potential there, and when, with a little bit of warming, we can take advantage of that.

Hughes says that more agricultural work opportunities could also attract a wide variety of working-age people to Alaska. 

Hughes also talked about transferring government-owned land to private owners, infrastructure development, optimizing the state budget, and public safety reform during her two-day long stay in Sitka.