Newscast – Friday, May 29, 2026

In this newscast: Thousands of people will converge in Juneau next week to dance, sing and showcase their Indigenous culture; More than 100 Sitkans gathered at the Starrigavan boat launch Thursday morning for a blessing and send-off of the “Ancestral Echoes” canoe heading to Celebration in Juneau. Lingít elders Ed Peele and Harvey Kitka offered a blessing accompanied by drumming and singing before the 12 paddlers got into the red, blue, and black canoe to leave on their five-day journey to the capital city; The state’s first Justice Summit for Alaska’s missing and murdered Indigenous people got underway in Anchorage on Wednesday with a call to push harder for healing, learning, and action; Oil prices are going up because of the war in Iran, and in turn, the price of plane tickets has increased. Some of the hardest hit passengers are those in Unalaska, an 800-mile plane ride from Anchorage; May in Utqiagvik means whaling. But the community just landed its first spring whale last weekend, very late in the season.