CIRI had 786 attendees at its Anchorage Friendship Potlatch, held on Saturday, Oct. 9, at the new Dimond High School in south Anchorage. CIRI shareholders, friends, family and employees gathered on a beautiful fall day and filled the cafeteria for a lunch of moose meatloaf, baked salmon, peroke, fry bread, rice, dessert and more.

Exhibitors displaying and selling their wares included Mary Montgomery, Virginia Hudson, Jada Smith, Amanda Attla, Mary Sully, Betty Gilcrest, Theresa Schloesser and Jean Fassler, Charlene Juliussen, Eleanor and Caroline Wilde, Theresa and Bradley Mike, Gerry Jamestown, Helen McNeil and Tara Giraud, Julie Calkins, Harold Campbell, and Lillian Hanaka and Leila Smith. CIRI non-profit organizations were also on hand to discuss programs and services available to shareholders and their family members.

Following lunch, attendees moved to the school gymnasium to join in a circle for the traditional Athabascan Cloth Ceremony. CIRI Board members Clare Swan and Agnes Brown conducted the ceremony and recited the names of CIRI shareholders who have passed away over the year. Shareholders then had an opportunity to remember their own loved ones.

CIRI has hosted the Friendship Potlatch since 1985. It is a modern version of the potlatch that has evolved from the historic tradition of the Athabascans. Although the potlatch has adapted to reflect the various Alaska Native cultures of the Cook Inlet Region, it holds steady to its mission: To strengthen the identity of the Cook Inlet Region people, to reaffirm unity among the region’s families, to confirm the importance of family and to revitalize the traditions of the region’s Alaska Native peoples. This year’s featured performers included the Southcentral Foundation Fireweed Dancers, an Anchorage-based group that formed in May 2003. The group originated when one student at the Pathway Home performed for staff and fellow students, which motivated many students to learn how to sing and dance. Today, some 17 dancers are learning and performing songs from various cultures throughout Alaska.

The Ke Aloha Dance Company, which is dedicated to preserving and sharing the dances, culture and heritage of the islands of Hawaii and Polynesia, also performed at this event.

CIRI also hosted a potlatch on the Kenai Peninsula on Sept. 25, and some 135 people recently attended the Northwest Potlatch in Puyallup, Wash., on Nov. 6.

Kham Yabut and Beatrice Patrick volunteer at the Anchorage Potlatch.

Descendant Mina Fuller gets her face painted.