In a years-long effort to repatriate 462 acres of its ancestral homeland, the Native Village of Tazlina (NVT) has roughly eight months left to raise $250,000.

If successful, the Village will be able to expand the preservation of its culture and education of its people for generations to come.  If it fails to raise the funds, future access to the land and its resources is not guaranteed.

“It’s a very powerful thing when you think about not being able to access that or not being able to have that.  There are a lot of emotions,” Marce Simeon, tribal administrator, said.  “When we’re talking about purchasing land back, it’s more than an asset, it’s more than something tangible; it’s a huge connection.”

For hundreds of years before the U.S. or Russia took control of the land, it was home to fish-wheel sites and the original Village of Tazlina, with archeological sites dating back 300-700 years according to the National Park Service. 

“It’s kind of an odd concept to be in a position to buy that back,” Lacayah Engebretson, the Village’s vice president, said in a Facebook Live discussion last November.  “We’re essentially trying to purchase our place of belonging that people are already tied to and already have that home feeling of.”

In 1954, the U.S. Congress sold the land to the Archdiocese of Alaska for the purpose of opening the Copper Valley School.  According to NVT’s website, the purchase price was $10, and the boarding school was one of the only educational opportunities in the state at the time.

After operating for almost three decades, the school closed in 1971; the same year that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) was passed.  Under ANSCA, NVT became one of 229 federally recognized tribes in the state.  However, because the property was privately owned, it was not part of the land made available to them under the Act. 

The school burned down in 1976, and the property sat vacant.  In the years that followed, the site became an environmental concern for those living near it.  

There was asbestos in the debris left from the fire, and buried dumps along the banks of the Copper and Tazlina Rivers eroded and exposed lead-based batteries, paint containers, and other hazardous materials. 

After decades of neglect, NVT reached out to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to voice its concern.  In 2013, the EPA worked with the Archdiocese to remove the hazardous materials, demolish and dispose of structural debris, and remediate the exposed dump.

The cleanup effort cost the Archdiocese approximately $3 million, and when it was complete it listed the property for sale.  Sometime after, the Archdiocese entered a $1.8 million contract with NVT for purchase of the land.

“When we had these discussions around purchasing the land, it’s kind of a no-brainer that we would invest money in it, because the land has invested so much in us and our families,” Engebretson said.

Under the contract, NVT has until September 2022 to secure the funds.  However, part of the funding they are trying to obtain through the Great Land Trust (GLT) needs to be spent by November of this year.

If the tribe can raise $250,000 in donations by October, it will help secure that additional funding through the GLT.  Those funds combined will be used to leverage a larger grant from a private trust to cover the remaining money needed for the purchase.

The Archdiocese declined to comment on its plans for the land if the Village doesn’t raise the necessary funds.  

“When they talked about selling, it was incredibly concerning,” Simeon said.  “If they sold it to a party not as amicable to the situation, that would restrict our opportunity to harvest salmon.  The next closest access (for subsistence fish-wheel use) would be Chitina if that is the case.”

Despite the uncertainty, Simeon said the two parties have a good working relationship, and that the Archdiocese continues to allow them access to traditional subsistence sites.

A decade ago, with the guidance of the late Johnny Goodlataw, then-president of NVT, the Village held a multi-day community meeting to develop their vision for the land should they ever reclaim it.

That vision includes plans to build a cultural center, church, and native college, which would be the second of its kind in the state.  It also aims to make the community more self-reliant and sustainable through community gardens and the exploration of green energy.  

Additionally, their partnership with GLT would add a permanent conservation easement along part of the shoreline to protect fish-wheel subsistence sites near the confluence of the rivers in perpetuity, as well as allow for fishery research.

“All of the things we want to see from it … those are all kind of concepts that were already there; it was already a place to gather, it was already a place to learn, it was already a place to be independent and be a community,” Engebretson said.  “Those are all things that are rooted there just as much as we are.”

Like Engebretson, most Tribe members have fond memories of fish camp, culture camp, and family gatherings on the land and recognize the invaluable lessons and traditions they learned there throughout the years.

“That whole area is where my grandparents, my aunts, my family, walked,” Donna Renard, a member of the Tribe, said.  “Everywhere I walk down there, I’m walking over their footprints.”

At the time of publication, NVT had raised roughly 30 percent, or $76,000, of the $250,000 needed.  Alaskans can donate a portion or all of their PFD to the fundraiser through Pick.Click.Give (select “Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission”).  All other donations can be made through the Village’s GoFundMe campaign.

Article by Amanda Swinehart

Editor’s Note: The Copper River Record acknowledges the complex legacy associated with Native boarding schools throughout the United States. We do not wish to gloss over the past in this article, however the focus of the article is on the Native Village of Tazlina’s vision for the future.