Virgin Voyages staff welcome about a dozen representatives from the City of Sitka, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and local organizations as they board the 912-foot red and white cruise ship, the Brilliant Lady, on Thursday.

It’s the inaugural port call for not only the company’s newest “lady ship,” but for the adults-only cruise line as a whole, and is marked by shared champagne, speeches, and the exchange of plaques. 

“Virgin Voyages, as a company, is fairly young,” says Sitka Tourism Manager Judson Rusk. “And this is the first time they’ve ever entered the Alaskan market. This is the first ship in Alaska, and it’s the first time to Sitka, so this is a first on a lot of fronts.”

Virgin Voyages is a relatively new company — an extension of the multi-billion-dollar Virgin Group, founded by business magnate Richard Branson, and Bain Capital.  

Their first ship was built in 2021. The Brilliant Lady, in 2025. And they pride themselves on not being “your average cruise line.” 

Jill Stoneberg, the company’s senior director of sustainability, says for one, kids aren’t allowed. Second, she says they want to give back to the communities they visit by volunteering with local organizations, like Sitka Trail Works. Third, they want their guests to feel connected to the places they visit, so they’ve recently welcomed on board a full-time naturalist to educate about the wildlife and land in Alaska, and a heritage guide from Alaska Native Voices. 

“We recognize there are many different Indigenous groups, and they’re speaking from their experience through art, through storytelling, through dance,” she says. “And we’re just really pleased to be able to offer that authenticity to [the guests’] time on board.” 

Stoneberg wants to show the delegation a bit about what makes this cruise experience unique, and leads them to the dining room of one of the boat’s many restaurants to talk over eggs benedict and mimosas. Then, she leads them on a tour of the 17-deck vessel, which accommodates up to 2,762 passengers and 1,150 crew.  

She leads them through the casino, shopping center, night club, and adult arcade, and even shows them the ship’s tattoo parlor, Squid Ink.  

“We’re the first cruise line to offer a tattoo parlor on board,” Stoneberg says. “It’s actually very popular. If you want a tattoo, you have to sign up for it at the very beginning of the cruise.” 

Then, she takes them “behind the scenes” to the control room and waste room to walk them through some of the environmental measures the company takes as part of its decarbonization initiative. She says Virgin started off with efficient technologies because its fleet is so young. 

“We’re considered a hard-to-abate industry, meaning that it’s very difficult to transition completely to zero-carbon and low-carbon fuels to meet our energy demands,” she says. “But it’s something that the industry takes very seriously, and the goal is to be net zero carbon emissions by 2050.” 

Stoneberg says the company has started to use biofuels and Climeon technology — which converts low-temperature waste heat from the main engine into useful power — to run its fleet. And three of its four boats have shore power capabilities, which essentially means they can plug the ship into a local electric grid when in port. The fleet also makes 97% of its water on board through a desalinization process and doesn’t provide any single-use plastics to its guests, according to Stoneberg.

Virgin Voyages is the newest of about 25 cruise lines operating in Sitka this season, and its arrival comes at a time when the community of just over 8,000 is still grappling with the recent uptick. Cruise ship traffic has more than doubled since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2025, Sitka voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have capped the number of visitors. 

Tribal Council Chair Yeidikook’áa Brady-Howard, who is welcomed up to receive a plaque and say a few words on behalf of the Tribe, says the relationship between the community and cruise companies is complex. 

“We are very much the continued stewards of the lands that we’ve inhabited since time immemoria,” she says. “And when we have basically a floating city coming into our own community, we always have concerns about the impact for us. But also we’re responsible for the economic well-being of our people as well, and so we’re always walking that line between hoping for the best in terms of the impact that something like this can have on our community, as well as understanding very much that we require the economic stimulation that these sorts of things bring.” 

As the tour wraps up, Stoneberg walks the guests to the entrance of the massive boat, plaques in hand. The delegation exits and makes its way back to town as Stoneberg and the crew wait for the Brilliant Lady’s nearly 3,000 passengers to wrap up their time in Sitka and load up again before they head onward to their next destination. Tomorrow, another boat will take its place with more of the roughly 600,000 passengers set to stop in Sitka this season.

Sitka’s Fish to Schools program set a record for the most amount of fish donated in a school year. 

For 15 years, the Sitka Conservation Society has been a steward for the program, enabling local schools to serve fish caught from the neighboring waters on the same lunch trays known for sloppy joes and rectangular pizza. Communications Director Caitlin Blaisdell says some favorite school lunches have emerged from the program. 

“Kids love the rockfish tacos. That is just a hit every single time. But being able to go in and see the program hands-on, I’ve been able to see a few other meals, like their salmon chowder at Mount Edgecumbe High School. Oh my goodness, it’s some of the best chowder I have ever had,” says Blaisdell. “You can’t beat that in a school lunch program, and you’re looking for whole foods, nutritious foods, less processed foods, and nourishing our kids.”

Last year, the nonprofit received a record-breaking 6700 pounds of donated fish for the 2025-2026 school year. One fisherman and longtime donor, Andrew Friske, said for his crew, the decision to give a portion of their catch this year was personal. 

“[My crew was] made up of four teenagers, all who have gone either through the Sitka School District or Mount Edgecumbe High School. And we talked about donating part of their catch as part of their crew shares. They were super excited to do it,” said Friske. “We ended up donating 20 or 30 whole frozen at sea cohos to the program this year, which will hopefully feed or have already fed a bunch of students.”

In addition to individual donations by fishermen, Fish to Schools’ record-breaking year was also enabled by the generosity of local organizations. Shee Atiká, Sitka’s urban Native corporation, donated nearly 4000 pounds of sockeye salmon, the first time it has ever been served through Fish to Schools. 

For Blaisdell, reaching this milestone is especially meaningful after scaling back the program following the initial outbreak of COVID-19. The Sitka School Board voted this past March to determine their own lunch menus, which means that Fish to Schools meals will make a more regular appearance in cafeterias this year.

“Knowing that this has been a 15-year-long program, and it’s still going strong, and it’s going stronger than ever, really leans towards showing that community driven vision and that community passion of bringing fish into schools is really, really strong here,” said Blaisdell. “And we love to see it, and we love to support it, and we love to take it to the next level, and hopefully reach out to more communities to show them how that how they can do this too.”

As longtime Sitkans and both parents to kids growing up in Sitka schools, both Blaisdell and Friske feel that Fish to Schools provides an invaluable service in connecting students with healthy and culturally-meaningful meals. For Friske, it makes the work he does as a fisherman even more meaningful.

“Just being able to offer some of the best food in the world, which is only a couple miles from our doorsteps, and put it on [the] plates of our students, was amazing,” said Friske. “And just to see firsthand the kids enjoying salmon or halibut or black cod is one of the reasons why we go fishing, and to be able to see it firsthand is the biggest reward.”

Friske is looking forward to donating to the program this year, challenging himself and other fishermen to have 2026 beat last year’s record. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Tuesday (10-11-22) joined a prestigious roster of people to receive the William Paul, Sr. Award.

The honor was presented by the board and staff of Sitka’s urban Native Corporation, Shee Atiká, in recognition of Sen. Murkowski’s advocacy “for the betterment of Alaska Natives and Alaska Native subsistence rights.”

The award also mentions the senator’s assistance with the Cube Cove transaction – a controversial deal that saw a heavily-logged Native land selection returned to the federal government to become protected wilderness.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is only the twenty-second person to receive the William Paul, Sr. Award. It’s not given on any specific cycle – but only when Shee Atiká has found a worthy candidate. William Paul himself was the first Alaska Native attorney. In 1922, when his mother, Tillie Paul, attempted to cast a ballot in Wrangell, she was denied on the grounds of “falsely swearing to be a citizen.” 

The case went to trial, and the court ruled in favor of Native voters. Two years later, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, making all Indians citizens of the United States.

Murkowski reflected on Paul’s legacy when she accepted the award during a lunchtime gathering in the Shee Atiká boardroom.

A few hours later, speaking to reporters following her remarks to the Alaska Travel Industry Association Conference in Sitka, it was still on her mind.

“Some years ago, back in 2016, the Shee Atiká board had voted to recognize me with the William Paul, Sr. Award for contributions for leadership when it comes to civil rights and other areas of promoting democracy,” said Murkowski.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s acceptance of the William Paul, Sr. Award

“Thank you for this recognition. Thank you for really appreciating what William Paul provided not only to the Alaska Native community, but really to help build and shape our state. When you think about civil rights leaders, you think about Elizabeth Peratrovich. But what William Paul did as well, to really advance voting rights for Alaska Natives was extraordinary. He was pretty impressive in his own right: He was the first Alaska Native attorney and the first Alaska Native to serve in our legislature. Clearly a leader within the ANB, but as we think about those instrumental federal laws not only had impact on all Alaskan Natives, but really our our state, ANCSA (the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) and how he really helped to shape that – there is much to have great pride. And so the fact that I’m being recognized with this award is deeply appreciated. Thank you.” 

Among some of the other 22 honorees to have received the William Paul, Sr. Award are Sen. Mark Begich, Congressman Don Young, Mark Jacobs, Jr., and Herman Kitka.

2016 was the year that Sen. Murkowski helped Shee Atiká return to the federal government over 4,500 acres of its selected lands at Cube Cove on Admiralty Island. The Forest Service paid $4 million for the land, but some shareholders were angered enough to call for the resignation of Shee Atiká’s then-CEO Ken Cameron. Ultimately (in January, 2020), the corporation sold back a total of 23,000 acres of timberlands at Cube Cove for just over $18 million. The Forest Service announced plans to add Cube Cove to the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, ending any future prospect of its being logged again. 

For Sen. Murkowski, this was a complicated issue: She has spent her legislative career trying to remove lands from the federal inventory, not bring them back. Cube Cove seemed to cut against the grain of her principles, but it also touched on her other priorities.

“My responsibility, I think, as a member of the Alaska delegation is to be working with Alaskans, working with the constituents, to achieve their initiatives that they have put in front of us,” Murkowski said. “And you’re right, Cube Cove was a little bit of a reversal of what we typically try to do, which is take lands out of federal estate and put it into private hands. But I think there was a recognition that with the timber conveyances that were made at the time, this was a matter that needed to be resolved.” 

That resolution – as understood by shareholders at the time – included shoring up Shee Atiká’s balance sheet by selling lands that could not be logged again for decades.

And now, won’t be logged again, ever. This past June, the Forest Service released an 11-page preliminary proposal to speed up the restoration of Cube Cove by completing the decommissioning of 214 miles of logging roads, and repairing 153 miles of streams damaged during logging operations.

The Sitka Assembly is moving forward with plans to lease a large parcel of city-owned property to Shee Atiká Incorporated to develop a tourist destination about seven miles from downtown.

Shee Atiká Inc. was the only respondent to the city’s “request for proposals” seeking bids on 17 acres near the end of Halibut Point Road.

Sitka’s urban Native corporation says it plans to partner with a new concession “Adventure Sitka” led by Halibut Point Marine’s Chris McGraw to develop a tourist attraction on the property.  Shee Atiká’s initial offer was $50,000 a year to lease the land, and $4 dollars per visitor in revenue sharing for the city when negotiations began in May.

City Planning Director Amy Ainslie told the Assembly that both sides had to haggle up. 

“The RFP proposed an original lease rate of $50,000. We countered with $70,000,” she said. “Shee Atiká and its partners countered at $60,000. So that’s sort of our last offer that we received was an annual lease rate of $60,000.”

When it’s complete, Shee Atiká’s development, tentatively called the “Harbor Point Cruise Development Project” will include kayak and canoe tours, zip lines, and cultural demonstrations around gardening practices and traditional foods. 

Shee Atiká CEO Karl Potts said the project would help the city handle the influx of cruise ship passengers predicted for next summer. 

“A year from now, we’re hoping that we will have about 400,000 or so people stepping off their boats and onto the shores of Sitka. The year after that, and the year after that more and more. A rising tide is going to lift all boats,” he said. “In Sitka, this is a good project, certainly for us financially or it wouldn’t be involved. It’s good for the city.”

When it came time for the assembly to deliberate, most voiced support for the lease arrangement. Assembly Member Rebecca Himschoot explained her support. 

“And from everything I’m hearing from Planning and people on the ground, it’s not a property that could easily be used for housing,” she said. “And if it could be used for housing, it would be extremely high end housing. So for that reason, I would like to see something done with this land. So I’m a yes vote tonight.”

But Assembly Member Thor Christianson hesitated when he saw that the visitor fees would increase by 10 percent after 10 years. He said he wanted to see more regular rate adjustments figured into the lease. 

“The one deal breaker for me is that lack of escalation on the passenger fee of the $4,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen with inflation. 10% may be reasonable, it may not be. 

After some discussion, a motion was made to direct city staff to develop a lease based on the negotiated terms outlined by the Planning Director. That passed 4-1 with member Thor Christianson the lone holdout.

The lease will come back before the assembly for final approval at a future meeting. 

When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight (5-25-21), it will consider a proposal from to lease 17 acres of city-owned property. If the Assembly approves it, the Alaska Native corporation plans to partner with a newly formed concession, Adventure Sitka, to develop the property into a tourism attraction.

Karl Potts is the CEO of Shee Atiká Inc. He spoke with KCAW reporter Katherine Rose about the project that could break ground as soon as this summer, should the Assembly give it the green light.

KCAW: So when the Sitka Assembly meets this week, they’re reviewing your proposal to lease 17 acres of city-owned land out Halibut Point Road. Right now you’re calling that project, the “Harbor Point Cruise Development Project.” I’d love some more background on it. How did this project come to be?

Potts: What we want to do, and let me explain a little bit about who the “we” is. Chris McGraw and Dennis McDonnell have created a an organization called Adventure Sitka. As you know, the McGraw Hill family owns and operates the Halibut Point Marine Services, which is euphemistically known as a cruise docks at HPR. And Chris and Dennis approached Shee Atiká a year or so ago and asked if we might be interested in working with them to develop a 17 acre parcel that the City and Borough of Sitka currently own that is, in the same general area as the cruise ship docks are currently.

The purpose essentially, is to develop a recreational tourism and cultural product package that the cruise passengers who are coming off the cruise ships can have access to and participate in, in addition, of course, to what’s already present in in the community of Sitka.

KCAW: So, day to day, what does that look like? What kinds of activities are going to be out there for tourists?

Potts: The design and the operations of the program are basically twofold. We’ll have a cultural component to it, where you’ve got various activities, whether it’s gardening, traditional gardening methods, food preparation. We’ve talked with STA about their interest in sponsoring and promoting some of those more traditional type things. The other aspect to it is that we know that many of the passengers in the community are physically active in are looking for recreation opportunities, in addition to the hiking and biking, and walking that are available. We’re designing what we’ll call an aerial adventure. We’ll have many, many zip lines, some kayaking, canoeing, those types of activities for people to just get out and stretch your legs.

KCAW: Some may have concerns that developing more tourist attractions near the cruise ship terminal could draw tourists away from downtown Sitka and affect our economy. Does your proposal account for that? And if so how?

Potts:
Right and I think that’s where the locally led part of our mission statement comes in Katherine is that we are very sensitive. So the owners and the developers in this project live in the community, we work in the community, we play in the community, and we want to enhance livability. We want this project to enhance the livability of the community in total. And so, we’ve talked with a number of operators, tour operators in the area, business owners, retailers, community members, and the intention is to create a program, again, that does not duplicate what’s already here. It just enhances it. We’re very much integrating and planning the project so that it’s going to work to benefit the collective whole of the community.

KCAW: It’s looking like 2022 is actually going to be a boom tourism year for Sitka projections are recently suggesting upwards of 400,000 cruise ship passengers. So should the Assembly give you the greenlight? What’s your timeline?

Potts: We can begin this year pick up with our planning and do the construction and have everything ready to go by May of 2022. However, the caveat is that we need to have authorization basically site controls late June, early July. Because there’s permitting. We’ve got to get our crews situated because we’ll be pre-selling this these packages to the cruise ships during over the winter of 2021 and ‘22. And so we’ve got to have some sense of some level of comfort knowing that we’re selling something that passengers will be able to participate in.

Editor’s Note: Shee Atiká Inc.  has proposed leasing the 17 acres of city-owned property for $50,000 a year plus $4 per customer toward the city. The Sitka Assembly will consider the proposal at its regular meeting tonight. View the full proposal here.

Sitka’s urban Native corporation has a new look — and a new outlook — following annual board elections in September.

Lifelong Sitkan Rob Allen has been named to chair the board, and he’s hoping to steer Shee Atiká Incorporated toward sustainability and profitability. 

Rob Allen has been regularly appearing in the news since he was tapped in 2015 to take over management of Sitka Community Hospital, which was edging close to insolvency. He was just starting a cruise charter business at the time, and it was supposed to be a four-month interim job. But it turned into four years, as the hospital regrouped, repaired its bottom line, and was ultimately sold as an asset to the Southeast Regional Health Consortium in 2019.

Shee Atiká Inc. never has been as close to the brink as Sitka Community Hospital, but the business has not been thriving.

“Things have been kind of tough the past couple of years,” said Allen.

Rob Allen became chairman of the Shee Atiká board at its shareholder meeting on September 12. At the same meeting, longtime board member Faleene Worrell was unseated by the newly-elected Alysha Guthrie.

See the voting results from Shee Atiká’s September 12 shareholder meeting.

Allen says that Shee Atiká has been running on revenues from land disposals, which he believes is unsustainable.

“We had the land sales in Cube Cove, and some of those proceeds we’ve had to use to make our dividends and pay for operations.”

Cube Cove is on Admiralty Island. Shee Atika selected the land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, logged it, and sold it back to the federal government for $18 million. The corporation has also been selling off residential property on Alice and Charcoal islands in Sitka. The drain on the corporation’s resources was a major source of shareholder unrest in 2017.

Shee Atiká’s remaining large land holding is at the head of Katlian Bay, where the state is currently building a 7-mile extension of Halibut Point Road. Allen says planning for the Katlian Bay site is going to be drawing the board’s attention in the coming months.

“That (Katlian Bay) we definitely want to take a longer-term view on those projects, so they fit in and they’re successful, with what we want to accomplish and with what shareholders would like to see up there,” said Allen.

Katlian Bay is a promising site for tourism development, but its road connection and deep waters create other opportunities as well, especially in the realm of so-called 8(a) contracting. The Small Business Administration runs the 8(a) program, which connects Native-owned businesses with government contracts.

Shee Atiká operates three 8(a) subsidiaries: a technical and engineering firm Shee Atiká Enterprises in Orlando, Florida; a ship repair company called American Marine and Technical Services in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and a cyber security/IT firm in Montgomery, Alabama, called Alaska Northstar Resources. Allen says this latter firm is Shee Atiká’s largest, with about 45 employees. He also says that the 8(a) contracts represent the best short-term opportunity to get the corporation back on track.

“So that’s exciting,” said Allen. “We’ve been getting some good contracts, and we have some proposals in that we’re watching very carefully. We’re expecting that area to continue to grow, and hopefully to provide some potential opportunity for shareholder hire.”

Allen says that Shee Atiká’s 8(a) companies could be part of the long-term strategic plan for Katlian Bay.

Lastly, Allen says his board is committed to preserving the corporation’s endowment funds. Although he’s an original shareholder, he’s given some of his 100 shares to his daughter, to qualify her for scholarships which Shee Atiká distributes by the thousands every year. So the corporation is seeing more shareholders who own just a few shares, and more shareholders (roughly 60-percent) who don’t live in Alaska. Looking forward, Allen says it’s important to make sure that Shee Atiká continues to contribute meaningfully to art, culture, and language on behalf of these growing numbers of shareholders.

And will he ever get around to launching his charter cruise business? Chairing the Shee Atiká board is supposed to be a part-time job, as is his contract to manage all the CARES Act funding applications by individuals and businesses to the City of Sitka — about 600 of them so far. Allen is a graduate of Harvard and the Kennedy School of Government, but he was practically born on the water as a member of Sitka’s Allen Marine family. For the time being anyway, his dream of cruising Southeast’s waters remains tied to the dock.

“Well, it just seems that idea keeps getting pushed!” he said.

The federal government is finalizing the buyback of heavily logged forest lands on Admiralty Island from Shee Atiká, Sitka’s urban Native corporation.

U.S. Forest Service Alaska Region’s Deputy Director for Recreation, Land & Minerals Dawn Collinsworth says the deal was completed over four years.

“They were lands that had been conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to the Shee Atiká Corporation,” she said. “And they were logged at one time but they are returning to a more natural character and will be allowed to do so.”

The corporation will receive $18,312,200 — slightly less than $800 an acre.

The nearly 23,000 acres around Cube Cove were intensively logged from the 1980s up until the early 2000s. They’ll be added to Kootznoowoo Wilderness, a protected part of the Tongass National Forest about 30 miles south of Juneau. It will be off-limits to future logging.

The land deal involves the lion’s share of Shee Atiká’s real estate holdings.

“The completion of the Cube Cove land transfer was truly a monumental team effort,” Shee Atiká Board Chairwoman Pamela Steffes said in a statement.

In 2016, Shee Atiká sold the first 4,500 acres near Cube Cove to the U.S. Forest Service for nearly $4 million. The announcement of the deal was unpopular among some shareholders, who called for then-CEO Ken Cameron to step down.

Congress has appropriated funds annually over the past four years to complete the transfer.

This story has been updated.

Sealaska Shareholders Underground is a Facebook page with about 1,600 followers. It’s the mouthpiece of Dominic Salvato.

“Every year we see the same millions of dollars go to the same people,” the Anchorage-based Sealaska shareholder and perennial critic of the corporation’s management said in a recent interview.”We just get separated further and further from the ownership of our stock.”

But Salvato’s comments were more than simple criticism. State regulators accuse him of misrepresenting how Sealaska pays out incentives to shareholders to vote in board elections. He faces a $1,500 fine.

In Sitka, Clarice Johnson moderates a Facebook forum for Sealaska shareholders. It has more than 4,000 members; she says it connects shareholders across the country.

“A lot of people are in the (Pacific) Northwest so Facebook was the most efficient way to reach the most shareholders,” she said.

But her critical comments in a different forum about Sitka’s Native urban corporation’s electoral process brought a state enforcement action against her. She’s on a three-year probation and has a suspended $1,500 fine hanging over her head.

“I think that shareholders don’t really understand their potential liabilities,” she told CoastAlaska. “We think we have free speech, and we don’t. I don’t know how we came to this situation, but it’s really disturbing.”

Both Johnson and Salvato were fined because they violated the state’s Division of Banking and Securities regulations. In 2019, they were among four shareholders who received cease-and-desist letters with civil penalties for online posts about board elections. That’s because in the corporate universe, any statement that could influence voting has to be preceded by formal disclosures — that includes Facebook comments.

Division officials declined an interview request earlier this month. By January 14, they had not answered written questions sent on January 9.

The division regulates Alaska’s financial industry — including Alaska Native corporations. It levies civil fines, although shareholders do have the right to a hearing.

“Although the term elections is used, and it suggests in people’s minds the First Amendment when it comes to corporate elections, the First Amendment is not a relevant concept,” Lloyd Miller, a veteran attorney specializing in Alaska Native issues, told CoastAlaska.

Regulations policing what a shareholder can and cannot say are designed to punish false or misleading statements that could hurt a company.

“So these rules that are intended to apply for the Exxon corporations of the world or General Motors or Boeing are also being applied in a very different context with very peculiar results,” Miller said.

Enforcement orders begin as confidential complaints that are investigated by the state. But Miller says they’re apparently weighted in favor of the powerful. That’s because corporate managers have a legal team and know the rules — shareholders often don’t.

But that complaint-driven system can work in the other direction. After Clarice Johnson was sanctioned for her posts about Shee Atiká’s election process, the corporation’s then-CEO responded on Facebook.

“He had the resources to know what he could and couldn’t say, and he chose to violate it,” she said in a recent interview.

She filed her own complaint against the CEO. The division placed Shee Atiká’s top executive on a five-year probation with a suspended $1,000 fine. He wasn’t accused of making false statements. He just hadn’t filed the required disclosures in advance of his Facebook posts.

And filing a proxy disclosure isn’t simple. It’s a multi-step process. The disclosures ask a lot of information. And it’s the same whether a shareholder wants to send a mass mailer or post on social media.

Sealaska executives say the regulations are designed to keep everyone playing fair. Jaeleen Kookesh, vice president for legal affairs, says management sometimes has to remind its own board members to abide by the strict limits placed on corporate election campaigns.

“It’s about everybody running for the board of directors following all the rules, otherwise, it’s unfair to other candidates,” Kookesh told CoastAlaska.

Bringing the state in to police shareholder speech is a last resort, she said.

“It’s very rare that we go to Banking & Securities and file an actual complaint,” Kookesh said. “We generally try to communicate with the shareholder directly … and usually that’s all that it takes.”

Salvato says he has no intention of backing off. He’d like to see the state’s restrictions on corporate speech reviewed by a judge.

“I try to goad them into suing me and get me into court — Sealaska itself,” Salvato said. “But they use the Banking & Securities as a buffer; it’s insulation.” His case remains pending in an administrative process overseen by the division.

In Sitka, Clarice Johnson also says even though she was sanctioned, she refuses to be silenced by the threat of civil fines.

“I think that the increase in complaints to Banking and Securities against shareholders, is a direct result of increasing power of shareholders as they gather in Facebook groups,” she said. “We’ve seen a rise of independent candidates across the board. So I think that this is just the way the corporations are pushing back against the will of the people.”

Lloyd Miller, the attorney, says it’s unreasonable for the state to regulate Native corporation board elections like that of just another investor-owned company.

“There really is a bit of a mismatch between the corporate world and the Alaska Native corporation,” Miller said. “The Alaska Native corporations were forced upon people, people don’t buy in based upon investor interest.”

He says the state’s regulations could and should be updated. Many were designed in the 1970s to prevent misleading mailings that could dupe shareholders, though there are specific regulations that explicitly cover “electronic forums.”

“Now it’s very quick back and forth among hundreds, potentially thousands of people on Facebook and Instagram, other platforms,” Miller said. “And the regulatory regime hasn’t kept up with that world at all. It really needs to change.”

Dissident shareholders like Dominic Salvato says the rise of social media has been a game changer.

“But I warned Sealaska about that, I said when you bring the young kids aboard with the new shareholders, they’re not as dumb as the old ones,” Salvato said. “They’re going to be a lot smarter — they’re not going to be able to pull this stuff for as long.”

Political leaders and local organizations broke ground on the Katlian Bay Road project Tuesday afternoon. Sitka Senator Bert Stedman championed the plan to extend Halibut Point Road, which has been in the works for years. Voters approved the project in a 2012 bond package. But construction finally began earlier this summer. 

The project will extend Halibut Point with an additional 9 miles of unpaved, single lane road with turnouts. It will end at the northern limit of the bay, between lands owned by Shee Atiká, Sitka’s village Native corporation, and lands owned by the U.S. Forest Service.

Several stakeholders spoke before a group of people crowded under tents to avoid the rain, including Senator Stedman and Shee Atiká CEO Ken Cameron. Sitka Mayor Gary Paxton praised Stedman for his work on the project. He said he was excited to see how Shee Atiká will move forward, once the road is built. 

“This is a big deal. This is a really, really big deal, he said. “You cannot overstate the long-term economic and quality of life impacts that this will have.” 

In 2012, $14 million in funding was approved for the project, with an estimated cost of $16 million. Since then, the estimated cost of the road extension nearly doubled, and earlier this year, the contract to construct the road was awarded to K&E Alaska for $31,755,278.

Sitka’s village Native corporation, Shee Atiká, held board elections in May. An independent candidate won a seat at the table, after working around obstacles and navigating complicated corporate law — a process that some shareholders believe is unfair and should be reformed.

There are 9 people on the Shee Atiká Board of Directors. Each year three are up for election. More often than not, incumbents or those selected by the board as the “board slate candidates” take seats. 

But for the last few election cycles, a grassroots movement of Shee Atiká shareholders, unhappy with the direction of the corporation, have rallied support for independent candidates. Board member Larry Garrity was elected in 2017, and at this year’s annual meeting in Anchorage, another independent candidate, Norma Perkins of Sitka, received over one-third of the votes cast, and is now the Shee Atiká board secretary.

Sitka shareholder Clarice Johnson says there’s a reason that independents have had recent success. Shareholders are dissatisfied with the status quo and are pooling their votes to gain momentum. 

“We have the option to create our own slate which is three or more board candidates running together. This gives people an advantage because they can combine their votes,” Johnson says. “And if they don’t have enough votes to put everyone on individually, a person can drop out and give their votes to another candidate. It’s one of the few ways we can overcome obstacles that board puts in the path of people who want to be elected.” 

Among those obstacles is running afoul of the regulations governing elections for Native corporations. 

In April, Johnson wrote a social media post that encouraged shareholders to vote for the three candidates listed on the independent “owner” slate: Perkins, fellow Sitkan Dionne Brady-Howard, and Jim Wilkins of Anchorage. She posted to the public Facebook group, Sitka Chatters. But she didn’t think her post was going to cost her $1,500.

“As someone who had worked on previous campaigns,” she says, “I was aware that all candidates and proxy holders needed to file any public posts with Banking and Securities in a timely manner.”

Johnson wasn’t running for a seat on the board, and she wasn’t a proxy holder. Nevertheless, someone filed a complaint about her post with the state Division of Banking and Securities. That’s the agency that enforces election proceedings for Alaska Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. These rules have been in place for decades, but Johnson says she was surprised that all shareholders were being held to the same level of scrutiny.  

“I was not aware that any shareholder who had an opinion and expressed it in a public way, theoretically could have a complaint filed against them,” she says. 

The division ruled that Johnson’s post was soliciting proxy votes, which obligated her to file a report with the division. The oversight cost her $1,500.

“If you’re found guilty, you’re essentially put on probation for five years. You have the $1,500 fine over your head,” she says. “I can’t believe that many shareholders realize simply using free speech to express their opinions about their corporation could land them in legal trouble.” 

Lloyd Miller is a Native rights attorney in Anchorage. He says that while corporate law can land shareholders like Johnson in hot water, the rules can be especially tricky for candidates to navigate. 

“If it minds its p’s and q’s and pays enough money for hourly services from a good law firm, management generally will avoid violating state and corporate law,” says Miller. “It’s very hard for a candidate who’s not supported by management to get access to the legal resources that candidate needs to make sure that she or he doesn’t violate those same laws.”  

Miller says Banking and Securities is generally pretty good about helping people so they don’t make mistakes and get fined, but the lack of professional legal guidance makes it difficult. And the expense is another hurdle. 

“The candidate may have to incur considerable expense doing outreach to the shareholders to convince the shareholders to vote for him or her instead of the three candidates on the management slate,” says Miller.   

One of those expenses for the independent candidates Johnson was supporting? Electronic voting. Miller is not exaggerating by describing the expense as “considerable.” Johnson considers it yet another obstacle for independent candidates.

“People do prefer to vote electronically if possible and Shee Atiká offered additional prizes for people who would vote electronically. The Independent slate had the option of having their own electronic voting site,” but Johnson says the cost was high. “It would have been, estimated, I think I heard $30,000 to $40,000 dollars to have a secure portal.”  

The incentives that Shee Atiká and other corporations provide for voters aren’t illegal, as they’re applied equally to all candidates. But the practice of proxy voting can appear to turn a voting incentive into an advantage for the management slate.  

Shee Atiká’s management says its election practices are regulated by state law, and are required to be fair. CEO Ken Cameron agreed to be interviewed for this story, but declined to be recorded.

Independent candidates are just that, Cameron told KCAW. They’re independent. And as for why the corporation even provides incentives to begin with, Cameron says they’ve had trouble reaching quorum in the past. 

Cameron says if candidates go through the proper channels but aren’t selected as board candidates, they can still be on the electronic, board proxy running as independent candidates “below the line,” and voting for them still puts shareholders in the pools for the electronic incentives and the $25 board proxy reward.

To make things even more complicated, there’s a write-in option on the corporate proxy, where a shareholder could write in an independent “owner” candidate’s name and still be eligible for all of the prizes- both the electronic voting prizes and the $25 dollars for submitting the corporate proxy.  

But, only the votes for the first write-in candidate will be counted- votes for any other candidates become “discretionary to the board’s proxy holders” according to Shee Atika’s policies. 

Clarice Johnson says this limits some of the power shareholders have in the vote pooling process, which is why she pushed for people to vote using a paper proxy in the Facebook post that earned her a fine.

Compared to how most Americans vote, none of this is especially straightforward. Johnson feels that Shee Atiká’s election practices are designed keep corporate-sponsored candidates in power, particularly the $25 dollar prize Shee Atiká offers if a shareholder votes with a corporate proxy.

“Although it may be legal to do it this way it seems highly unethical and unfair.” 

But with momentum building around independent candidates — and some costly lessons from regulators — ,  perhaps achieving quorum in the future won’t require any other incentive other than the desire for change.