Presenters

I was in the last Unangan (Aleut) generation that had a fully intact traditional upbringing, where the entire village participated in raising me. In my adolescence I was moved by the government to boarding schools to get “proper” western modern education. There, in high-school, university and on, I climbed up the modern-world ladder, while learning its ways and harnessing them to help my tribe, the fish, wildlife and land; other Native peoples around me, and people in general.

As an adult, I have worked almost exclusively as an advocate, leader, advisor, organizer, and facilitator for my people in Alaska and a messenger for Indigenous Elders across the world for the past 50 years, beginning as my tribe’s first lobbyist in Washington, D.C. in 1968, at age 18. Having achieved political freedom in 1966 from a legally proven state of servitude to the U.S. government (lasting over a century), the tribe hired me to seek federal funds to establish a city. The effort was successful, and the City of St. Paul was created in 1971.

Also, at age 18, I was hired by the University of Washington to establish the Indian Education Program. The program has expanded and still exists today. While at the University, I became the youngest person on the National Indian Education Advisory Board and a member of the Convocation of American Indian Scholars, to help Indigenous peoples across the Americas to achieve freedom from tyranny and injustices imposed by governments.

At age 23, after graduating from that University, upon returning to Alaska, I became the Director of Lands for the Aleut Corporation. I went to all 12 Unangan villages in the Bering Sea region to train local people on how to select lands under the Alaska Native Land Claims Act. The 12 Alaska Native regions of Alaska and its villages received 40 million acres of land and money.

After that, I was hired by the Tanadgusix Corporation (TDX) that’s owned by the St. Paul Unangan people, to be its business manager. TDX received 120,000 acres of land from the government. Given that the federal government had total control over the lands and people of St. Paul for over a century, there was no local experience in creating businesses. I led the effort to create relevant culturally sensitive businesses. At the time, in 1976, we received $300,000 to invest in private enterprises. When I left in 1985, the organization was worth 12 million dollars. Today it’s worth over 100 million dollars and is financially strong.

In the first half of my career, I served as City Manager of St. Paul Island, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development, President and CEO of TDX, Chairman of the Board of The Aleut Corporation, Co-chair of the Rural Sanitation Taskforce (installing running water and flush toilets in 50 rural communities), Co-chair of the Japan-Alaska Fishery Cooperative, Deputy Director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, and served on the National Research Council Committee on the Bering Sea Ecosystem, as one of two Native people alongside acclaimed marine scientists. I was chairman and co-founder of the Alaska Indigenous Council on Marine Mammals; chairman of the Nature Conservancy, Alaska chapter; co-director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, Alaska chapter; co-founder of the International Bering Sea Forum, the Alaska Forum on the Environment, and the Alaska Oceans Network. I left all this to do my real work in the world over 30 years ago. I didn’t know what I was to do or where I was to live. I just “jumped”. Then, through inexplicable circumstances, my first work as “Kuuyux” was to carry messages of the Hopi and Maori they felt the world needed to hear. Then I was invited by Indigenous spiritual leaders from traditional lands such as the Tarahumaras of NW Mexico, the Mapuche in Patagonia, the Morley Reserve in Alberta, the Olone lands in California, and on and on.

From 2000–2003, I served as the Director of the Department of Public Policy and Advocacy in the Rural Alaska Community Action Program. I led the largest subsistence rights march and rally in Alaska’s history. This was instrumental in protecting Alaska Native subsistence rights, to fish.

I have chaired or facilitated many conferences, such as the 2009 North American Conference on the Healing of Mother Earth in Merida, Mexico; the 2010 Global Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change, where I chaired the Indigenous Knowledge sessions attended by representatives from 80 countries; facilitated the 2010 gathering of the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers; conducted ceremonies in Israel in 2018, in 2019 emceed Marie Mead’s First peoples Foundation Laureateship ceremony, and gave workshops in Israel and Sweden, and many more throughout the years throughout the USA.

In 2017 the Sacred Fire Foundation gave me the Wisdom Fellowship Award for wisdom carriers and tradition bearers.

I have written work: https://www.gcill.world/articles And filmed work: https://www.gcill.world/videos

In 2017, I gathered 13 Elders from around the world to discuss the state of Mother Earth, and what humans should do now. The Elders agreed for everything to be filmed; even ceremonies, which is unprecedented. A message was co-created. The https://wisdomweavers.world website explains somewhat what we’re attempting to do, and shows a 14-minute video, translated by volunteers into 15 different languages, and was shared globally by Rueters News agency for Earth-days 50th anniversary in April 22, 2020 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-earth-day-indigenous-idUSKBN2221G7 .

today I am the legacy of my name: Kuuyux, and continue to speak about the Elders messages when invited. For my Elders told me: “Only go where you’re invited. Trust you heart, and it will never guide you wrong.”