The Alaska Native News, this Christmas season, elected to initiate our “Rural Project,” a project begun to bring information, technology, awareness, and news information to the state’s rural communities in this age of increasing rural Internet access.

The Alaska Native News, as an Alaskan non-profit news organization, is also very aware of the financial issues that each and every one of these communities has, and continues to work towards alleviating these problems to the best of our abilities.

We work to bring journalism to each of these communities on a two-way street. We intend to continue to bring news to these communities, as well as acquire news from these communities through instruction and employment of Native writers, in an effort to generate income in these communities,  bring each of these communities closer together, as well as bring these communities closer to regions that are otherwise unavailable to them.

In addition to that, the Alaska Native News is aware of the obstacles that rural artists and craft-persons face as they work to retain their traditional art in the far-flung regions of the state. To that end, we are working to build a free, viable venue for these artists and crafts-persons to publicize and sell their works. These artists currently lack a large-scale venue to do so.

The Alaska Native News is a relative newcomer to news-gathering and distribution, and that makes our project difficult, but with our reader’s help, still very attainable. In the last few months, we have reached out to several Alaska Native entities, including all of our regional corporations, as well as our state’s leading political figures. Although initially, the response has been very minimal, we know that as the project progresses, more and more will find the will and the way to be on-board.

But, we would like to thank Koniag, Inc., the only regional corporation to respond thus far. We gratefully accept the Kodiak Island Native corporation’s donation, and for stepping forward with us to work to address the needs of our rural communities. We would also like to thank the president of that corporation, Tom Panamaroff, for his additional personal contribution to the Rural Project.

Currently, we have had only one other contributor to the project. That contribution came from Lydia Lohse, the owner/operator of ACT Services, an Alaska Native-owned tax preparation service in South Central Alaska. ACT Services has offered services in the state for many, many years, and we thank her, and her company, for believing in our rural residents.

While we have received these funds from our donors, we have as yet to access them, as we would prefer to do so only as it becomes necessary, and we need to utilize them for specific instances of the Rural Project.

The Alaska Native News is very positive about this undertaking and our readers should be too. While this project is slow in getting started to become what it is envisioned to be, we have no doubt, it will attain its goals. We look forward to the advancements the project makes, and we will continue to keep our readers, as well as our contributors informed about the progress of this reader-funded goal.

Remember, this project is ongoing, it is not too late to lend a hand in a project that we feel, is a noble endeavor. We hope to hear from you, our readers, in the near future. And remember, if you yourself can’t make a contribution, feel free to inform those who can, including your regional entities and representatives. We look forward to building this for our rural communities, and will continue to look proudly to the contributions from our readers as they make this project a reality.

Our donation drive can be seen here:  Alaska Native News Rural Project.

In conclusion, the Alaska Native News would like to wish each and every one of our readers a very Happy Holiday Season, and keep reading, you are the reason why we are here.

The Editor
Alaska Native News

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