The Alaska Department of Law announced on Friday that the first of four defendants has been sentenced for his role in the double homicide that occurred in Mountain View on Christmas Eve of 2016. According to the announcement, 22-year-old Jaylyn Franklin, who was part of the murder plot but was not the triggerman, was […]
A dead gray whale found near Wrangell, Alaska. Taken 6/17/2019. Credit: Ceona Koch NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region has received reports of three additional dead gray whales this week, bringing the number of gray whale mortalities in Alaska to ten. The confirmed gray whale reports all came from Southeast Alaska. On Monday, a fisherman reported […]
Springtime was settling into the Matanuska Valley the evening Ronald Oquilluk went missing. The skies likely resonated with the cries of northbound geese, the sun climbing higher each day to brighten Pioneer Peak and Palmer’s weathered colony-era barns far below. That would have been the setting on April 29, 1987, when Oquilluk, a 38-year-old […]
Qetgauwartaasqaq—Frog / Toad Qetgauwartaasqat cungaruartut.—Frogs are green. The Alutiiq words for toad and frog are the same- qetgauwartaasqaq. This word literally means “thing always jumping.” Amphibians are rare in Alaska. The state’s naturally occurring herpetofauna includes just 6 species: two types of salamanders, one newt, two frogs, and one toad. Of these animals, only the […]