At Bethel’s library on Indigenous Peoples Day, hands-on activities start at 3. Kimberly Jackson is helping people make akutaq, everyone’s favorite dessert.

 Jackson: ” So I put, because I grew up in Akiak and the way people make it differently the way that they grew up, I put mashed potatoes and Crisco and sugar and water. There’s so many different ways you can make it, but that’s how I’m making it.”

Jackson was taught by her mother and grandmothers, and she taught her daughter, who’s mixing her own mashed potato and crisco dough beside her.

Jackson: ” Wash your hands first or lick your hands.”

 At long plastic tables a little ways down the room,  kids draw silly and terrifying expressions on plastic masks,

And Serena Solesbee is teaching people to bead small flowers into earrings and bracelets.

She learned when elders would come to her school for workshops during culture week. She has her own jewelry that was dyed naturally, with grass and clays.

She likes that beading lets people express themselves, and learn about the culture and themselves.

Solesbee: ”  I think it’s just reclaiming. So a lot of reclaiming our culture, reclaiming who we are just reclaiming, you know, what it actually is because Native people have been around for forever.

As afternoon becomes evening, kids pose with a mascot of Molly of Denali-

Before the community marches down the highway, with signs reading ‘Resilient. Proud. Free.’ ‘Indigenous values are good for ALL Alaskans’ and ‘Time to rise.’ beside a rising sun. Beforehand, Arianna Samson, originally from Kipnuk, made a speech.

She said while today was once celebrated as Columbus day, he didn’t discover America. She said, that discovery of America is built on social unrest, the loss of the indigenous way of life, mass genocide and the colonization of native people.

 Sampson: “Today is also a day to celebrate the resilience of our people, along with our heritage. We should be proud of who we are. Grateful for the beauty that is so embedded into our culture and lands. Today is a day to honor our people, a day of recognition, and to be proud of who we are.

After the community marched a short loop to the hospital and back, dancers from Ayuprun Elitnavik elementary school take the stage.

In beaded headdresses and kuspuks. The girls wear red with brown trim, and the boys wear brown with red trim. Each with their own set of dance fans.

Today, the dancers are confident, poised. The crowd is quiet too, taking in a piece of culture once taken away.

In Bethel, I’m SB.