A newly unveiled screen, called Yéil G̱aat X̱’éen, at the Lukaax̱.ádi Raven House on Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Haines, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)

In the week before Saturday’s four-hour ceremonial ku.eex, Lukaax̱.ádi clan trustee Jackie Pata spent her days running the culture camp at Chilkoot and her evenings in town putting the finishing touches on the Raven House. 

Pata said she had been watching children run through the house carrying things out to…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...