Friday, November 7, 2025

Photo: Challistia Colelay, who went by “Tia,” was a 16-year-old Apache teen and went missing on October 16, 2025. (Courtesy Lula Mae Colelay / Instagram) The mother of an Apache 16-year-old who’s been missing since last month says her child’s remains were discovered by tribal and federal police earlier this week. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, it comes after the state recently named a new alert system in honor of another Apache teen, Emily Pike. Challistia Colelay, who went by “Tia”, disappeared in mid-October. No Turquoise Alert had been issued, but on Monday, authorities discovered human remains in Navajo County near the Knots Landing community in Whiteriver on the Fort Apache Reservation. Authorities asked for help in trying to identify the body by releasing physical and clothing descriptions. Soon after, Tia’s biological mother confirmed on social media that her daughter was found. The investigation is being handled by the White Mountain Apache Police Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Fort Apache Agency. The BIA Missing and Murdered Unit is also involved. Renee Ciugun Avugiaq teaches Yugtun in the early grades, where children learn numbers, the days of the week and month, and vocabulary for the weather, colors and basic words. Children take turns pointing at numbers on October 30, 2025. (Photo: Matt Faubion / Alaska Public Media) It’s not easy for a school to take in 70 students at once, but a school in Anchorage has done just that. It has opened its Yup’ik language immersion program to children, whose families were forced to move to the city after hurricane force winds and floods devastated coastal villages in Western Alaska last month. As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, the school feels warm and welcome to the students. The day at College Gate starts just as it did back home, with the Pledge of Allegiance, recited in the Yup’ik language, or Yugtun. When College Gate Elementary School began its Yup’ik immersion program eight years ago, it had just one kindergarten class and added a new grade every year. Now, it is a tight-knit family that just got bigger. The new students play hard at recess. The school’s daily routine seems to help them feel more grounded, something that’s hard to do when you’ve lost everything. “I just felt like my house moved to the ocean.” Ellyne Aliralalria says she feels safer since she moved to Anchorage. She and her family were inside their home when the flood carried it off. “The house spinned really fast. And we were like going down to the river. We stopped. We hit something really hard. Two times. And my living room window broke.” It’s a nightmare, that Ellyne says her new friends at the school are helping her to forget, friends like Lilly Lowen. “After something so big happening, they’re still so, like, cheerful and they’re so friendly. They’re just so fun to be around. I’m really glad they’re here.” Lilly says this experience has been an opportunity to learn about something larger than yourself. “It makes me feel like I could be doing more to help, even though I’m a kid.” But simply being a kid may be a bigger help than Lilly realizes – to share jokes and play games like Boop. In Boop, you tag people on the nose – and then, they’re it. Add some pig snorts and you get a real giggle fest going.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out the latest episode of Native America Calling Friday, November 7, 2025 – Native Playlist: PIQSIQ, Blaine Bailey, and LOV