Grandma’s Table to the Future: Chickaloonies Carries Tradition into the Future with Rebel Road

At the Alaska State Fair this year, visitors to the Native Gathering Place near the Yellow Gate may notice one cabin that looks a little different from the rest. Bright neon colors, glowing berries, handmade costumes, comics and an interactive art station transform the Spruce Cabin into the world of Chickaloonies, an Indigenous comic and storytelling project created by Casey Silver and Dimi Macheras.

Silver and Macheras are returning to the fair as featured storytellers for their third year, but this year's appearance carries an extra significance: the arrival of Rebel Road, the third book in the Chickaloonies series.

At its heart, Chickaloonies brings together adventure, humor, culture and imagination while encouraging Indigenous and Alaska Native youth to recognize the value of their own stories and identities. For thousands of years, stories have carried knowledge, values, humor, history and lessons from one generation to the next. Chickaloonies asks what that tradition can look like today—and what it might look like in the future.

For Macheras, that connection is deeply personal. He described his mother Patricia Wade and grandmother Katie Wade as storytellers and said much of the inspiration behind Chickaloonies comes from them. As a child, he was given the freedom to sit at his grandmother's table and draw stories that had traditionally been spoken.

Now, instead of asking young people simply to repeat stories from the past, Silver and Macheras encourage them to learn those stories, talk with their Elders and then find their own ways of carrying those teachings forward—whether through comics, character design, costumes, or oral storytelling.

The approach reflects one of the central ideas behind Chickaloonies: culture does not have to remain frozen in the past to remain authentic. Macheras pointed to the long history of Indigenous people adapting to new materials and technologies over generations while the values and knowledge behind them continued. The Chickaloonies team applies that same idea to comics, animation, graphic novels, cosplay and other modern forms of storytelling.

Traditional arts, clothing, stories and knowledge remain important, Macheras said, but Indigenous identity is not limited to recreating what existed generations ago. Indigenous stories can exist in comic books, animation, neon colors and futuristic worlds, drawing inspiration from anime, cyberpunk and cosplay while carrying teachings about community, Elders, identity and respect.

Rather than asking youth to turn away from modern media, Chickaloonies shows them that their cultures belong in those spaces too.

At this year's State Fair, visitors will see that idea brought to life through new costumes that the team described as their interpretation of futuristic Dene regalia. Created largely from materials such as foam core, zip ties, Velcro and neon paper, the designs combine cultural inspiration with the team's love of comics, animation and cyberpunk art. The costumes are also designed to come apart, pack flat and travel—a visual example of taking an old lesson and finding a new way to carry it.

The Road to Rebel Road

The title Rebel Road represents the journey Silver and Macheras have taken as independent creators.

After completing their second book, the pair spent about a year pursuing traditional literary agents and publishers. They came close to finding a home for the series, but discovered that having already self-published the first two books worked against them. The experience was discouraging enough that they had to decide whether to continue.

They chose to keep going. Instead of giving up the creative independence that allowed Chickaloonies to become what it was, they doubled down on the project and continued down their own road.

Independence comes with challenges. Silver and Macheras wear nearly every hat involved in the project, from creating and publishing the books to organizing workshops, scheduling school visits, designing displays and traveling across Alaska. But remaining independent gives them something vital: the ability to decide where their stories go and how Indigenous culture is represented within them.

Inspired by the People They Meet

The communities Chickaloonies visits are not separate from the books; they help shape them. Silver and Macheras have traveled around Alaska providing visual storytelling workshops in schools, libraries and communities, introducing participants to simple ways of expressing stories through pictures, characters, emotions and collaborative art. Participants help create an original character as part of the workshop. 

Silver and Macheras also provide professional development and workshops for adults, where storytelling and collaborative creativity become tools for communication, teamwork and adaptability. Their workshops emphasize collaboration rather than competition, resembling village life where people bring different skills and resources together rather than existing in separate silos.

Creating Space for Indigenous Futures

Representation is another major part of the Chickaloonies mission. Silver and Macheras want Alaska Native and Indigenous children to see themselves not only represented through images of the past, but also as people who belong in the present and future.

Silver and Macheras hope to plant seeds that result in new comics, artwork and stories coming from communities across Alaska.

Bringing the Glowberry Patch to the Fair

Visitors will get a chance to experience that philosophy firsthand at the Alaska State Fair. The Chickaloonies Spruce Cabin at the Native Gathering Place will be transformed into the “Glowberry Patch,” inspired by the glowing berries that illuminate the world of Chickaloonies. Visitors can explore the decorated cabin, see the new book and merchandise, and participate in a free emoji creation station.

Their daily live performance will also invite the audience directly into the storytelling process. During “Create a Character with the Chickaloonies,” audience members will suggest everything from what kind of creature the character should be to its clothing, hair and unusual features. Macheras will draw while Silver works with the audience to bring the ideas together. The finished character will be raffled, and the team plans to turn the creations into coloring pages.

The team is scheduled to perform at the Native Gathering Place each day from 2:30 to 3 p.m. near the Yellow Gate, behind the farm exhibits.

After the State Fair, their travels will continue with planned visits to Wrangell and Unalaska. Silver and Macheras plan to begin work on book four while expanding their workshops, live storytelling and collaborative projects.