Avery Herrman Sakamoto saw a lack of Alaska Native activities in her hometown, Petersburg, so she decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n
Herrman Sakamoto, an 18-year-old Girl Scout ambassador, said she heard concerns from community members that youths were disconnected from Tlingit culture, so for her Gold Award project, she organized a Tlingit culture camp at Petersburg’s Sandy Beach Park.<\/p>\n
“We introduced the Tlingit culture to everyone (at the camp),” Herrman Sakamoto said in a phone interview. “We summed up the history of it. How we’ve been here for 10,000 years. I showed them my regalia that I made. I introduced them to some food they’d never tried before.”<\/p>\n
The Gold Award is a distinction similar to the Boy Scouts of America’s Eagle Scout award, and Gold Award earners must complete a service project. A culture camp is an event becoming more common in Southeast Alaska at which attendees are introduced to Alaska Native culture.<\/p>\n
In Juneau, organizations including Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Sealaska Heritage Institute and Goldbelt Heritage Foundation have held culture camps. Culture camps have also been held in Hoonah<\/a>, Kake and other places.<\/p>\n [Who would make up a name like that? Find out what led to some of Juneau’s strangest band names<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n Petersburg is located about 115 miles south of Juneau. It has a population of 3,221, according to census data<\/a>, and the population is about 75 percent white and 11 percent American Indian or Alaska Native.<\/p>\n Herrman Sakamoto’s culture camp was a free eight-hour event held last March attended by 12, and its menu included salmon roe, herring eggs, seaweed and other items. Herrman Sakamoto said family members helped demonstrate Tlingit song and dance, too.<\/p>\n She said Tlingit culture is something that has always been important to her because it is important to her mother.<\/p>\n “It’s really important to her, so it’s always been really important to me,” Herrman Sakamoto said.<\/p>\n Tina Sakamoto, Avery’s mother, said her children grew up subsistence gathering and learning to value Tlingit culture, and she is glad the culture camp could help pass some of that on.<\/p>\n “It’s just something I always took my kids out to do,” Sakamoto said in a phone interview. “My kids teethed on gumboots<\/a>.”<\/p>\n