Cook Inlet Native Head Start

CELEBRATION 2026 TO KICK OFF NEXT WEEK: Event to be broadcast, streamed live

Event program: https://bit.ly/Cele2026-Program

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will kick off its biennial Celebration next week, marking 44 years since the inception of the popular dance-and-culture festival.

The event began as a way for Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people to gather and celebrate their cultural survival. This year, the theme is “Enduring Strength.”

“This Celebration, we can rejoice in the timeless strength of our people as evidenced over the thousands of years we’ve faced adversity with resilience and fortitude,” said SHI President Rosita Worl.

All members of the public are welcome to attend.

Over 1,800 dancers from 34 dance groups will participate this year. Along with dance performances, Celebration features several associated events, including a Juried Art Show and Competition, a Juried Youth Art Exhibit, a Native Art Market, Native food contests, a Toddler Regalia Review and a parade through downtown Juneau. The event will also feature several new events.

The Grand Entrance is scheduled for 5 pm, Wednesday, June 3, at Centennial Hall, and Celebration ends with the Grand Exit at 5 pm, Saturday, June 6.

SHI will sponsor a live, statewide broadcast of Celebration on KTOO 360TV public television — reaching viewers across Alaska via over-the-air, cable, and satellite — as well as a live stream on the institute's YouTube channel and on KTOO's Roku and Apple TV apps.

The Celebration 2026 art was designed by Tlingit artist Bill Pfeifer, Jr, (Wéidaaká Yóodóohaa) who won with his piece “Endurance and Strength: The Power of the Clan House,” which was inspired by the 2026 theme, Enduring Strength.

“We have survived environmental and climate changes, the loss of our lands, public policies that nearly wiped out our cultures and epidemics that diminished our populations. We have been tested, and almost erased. Yet we are still here,” Worl said.

Watch live: https://bit.ly/4vg1uIx

Read more: https://sealaskaheritage.org/celebration-2026-to-kick-off-next-week/

Your 2025-2026 Cook Inlet Native Head Start Staff!

We hope all of our Head Start students and families have a wonderful Summer Break! Stay tuned for enrollment announcements and return-to-school information soon 😊

We’re sharing this for any ASD families interested.

May the 4th be with you… and with some clotheslinesome news! ✨

We’re officially announcing the date for one of our most anticipated events of the year — Clothesline Project!

Join us on Saturday, August 1st from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Clark Middle School, where APD and incredible community partners will be coming together to support local students and families as they gear up for the new school year.

What’s in store? Think of it as a back-to-school launchpad 🚀
Families can expect a wide range of free items and services, including:

New winter jackets
Fall & winter boots
Helmets
Socks & underwear
Fresh haircuts
Health immunization screenings
Free food & drinks
Face painting
Bounce house fun
…and plenty more surprises!

This event is all about setting kids up for success while creating a fun, welcoming space for the whole community.

We can’t wait to see you there 💙

Office of Head Start Director Lizbeth Casco White took the stage today and left no doubt about where she comes from — or where she's going. A first-generation American, former teenage mom, and Head Start parent, she went from a high school diploma to a juris doctorate, often with her son in class beside her. Today, she stood before thousands of Head Start professionals and delivered a challenge that will stay with us:

"Go back to your classrooms, centers, and boardrooms and look for the Liz in the lobby — the mom who feels invisible and the child society has already dismissed. Be the architect of their fresh start every day."

And she reminded us why this program exists: "In Head Start, we don't just enroll a child. We embrace a family."

If you're with us in Minneapolis, share your favorite moment on social media with .

Did you know? Teachers and school professionals get a special discount with The Mobile Tire Guy!!!! Today we are at one of our kids school, Romig Middle School, doing a bunch of their teachers seasonal changeovers!!!! Text me or plan ahead if you want to have us come to your school next fall or spring for changeovers!!!!!

907-360-0203

Now’s the moment—don’t wait, don’t delay,
Nominations are open starting today!
Think of the ones who go above and beyond,
Whose care and commitment keep growing strong.

A champion for children, a guiding light,
Working with heart from morning to night.
Their impact is real, their passion is true—
Now’s your chance to honor what they do.

Submit a name, let their story shine,
It only takes a moment of your time.
For the Head Start Awards of Excellence, proud and bright—
Nominate someone deserving today—right now’s the time!

https://www.akheadstart.org/awards/

CINHS is looking for Duck and Geese donations for classroom activities!

Please call 907-433-1600 or 907-433-1601, or email Ms. Naaq ([email protected]) with any questions! 🦆

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/headway/childhood-trauma-recovery-healing-research.html

Childhood Trauma Doesn’t Have to Be a Lifelong Curse Decades after a landmark study showed the lasting health effects of such trauma, researchers are finding ways to guard against enduring harm.

📣 THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! 96 DAYS UNTIL THE 2026 COOK INLET NATIVE HEAD START CANOE JOURNEY!

🌅 Canoe Journey is a kid-free canoe camping trip with CINHS students' caregivers and staff
🗓️ June 1-5, 2026
📍 Whittier, AK (launch and return point)

🛶 Only 26 seats are open to CINHS students' caregivers: parents/guardians, grandparents, aunties & uncles
⛺️ Tents, food, and safety gear are provided — personal gear (rain, sleeping) may be provided if needed
🏋️‍♀️ Get fit for the journey: enjoy a gym membership to Planet Fitness (limited availability)
✅ Secure your spot today! Email Legacy Bearer, Mattox Metcalf at [email protected]

🌊 If you’ve been on a canoe journey, share a takeaway in the chat below! 👇
Pictures credited to 📸 Dixie Hutchinson ☺️

Juneau, Alaska. February 1945. The legislative chamber reeked of to***co and tension.

Native leaders had journeyed to the territorial capital for a single purpose: a law banning discrimination. The kind that let businesses post signs reading "No Natives Allowed." The kind that barred Indigenous Alaskans from restaurants and hotels in their own ancestral homeland.

But before the vote, they had to endure something worse than rejection. They had to sit in silence while white legislators explained, in clinical detail, why Native people didn't deserve human dignity.

This happened a full decade before Rosa Parks. Nearly two decades before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. What most Americans never learned is that the nation's first modern anti-discrimination law wasn't won in Montgomery or Washington. It was won in the frozen north by a Tlingit mother who'd spent her life watching "No Dogs, No Natives" signs in shop windows.

Elizabeth Peratrovich sat in the gallery, knitting, as senators debated whether her people were civilized enough for equality. One complained openly about the smell of Native theatergoers. Another rose with undisguised contempt.

Senator Allen Shattuck stared directly at the Native attendees. His voice carried across the silent room: "Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind us?"

Elizabeth set her needles down. She stood. She walked to the front.

As Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, she'd spent years advocating for her people. But this moment was personal. She was a 33-year-old mother who'd been turned away from hotels, who'd explained to her children why certain stores wouldn't serve them, who'd lived her entire life as unwelcome in the land her ancestors inhabited for millennia.

She looked directly at Shattuck. Her voice was calm, precise, devastating.

"I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights."

She'd turned his insult into a mirror. Used his claim of superiority to expose his complete moral bankruptcy. The opposition senators shifted uncomfortably. They knew they'd been dismantled.

When the vote came, the Anti-Discrimination Act passed 11 to 5. The first law of its kind in the modern era. Alaska now celebrates February 16th as Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. But outside the state, her name remains tragically unknown.

She proved that civilization isn't inherited from ancient history. It's demonstrated by how you treat the vulnerable. And sometimes, changing history requires nothing more than one person refusing to stay silent when called a savage.