A Youth Opportunity Grant application submitted by the Alaska Native Coalition for Education and Training (ANCET) and Cook Inlet Tribal Council has been approved by the U.S. Department of Labor. The grant is designed to serve 40 high-poverty villages in Alaska that have a low percentage of high school graduates.

Young people from 14 to 21 years of age living in Alaska Native villages in which 35 percent or more of the residents live at or below the poverty level will be targeted. Youth development specialists and other staff will work to increase the graduation rate for those who are still in school and to provide vocational and employment training, and other opportunities for those who have left school.

Partnerships have been established with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Bethel Alternative Boarding School, the Alaska Military Youth Academy, and the Alaska Job Corps. Native youth leadership and youth enrichment programs will also be offered to encourage more Native youth to enter institutions of higher education. Additionally, a Youth Opportunity Community Center will be established in each of the high-poverty villages to centralize services for youth in each of the designated villages.

ANCET is a statewide consortium of Work Investment Act Section 166 Native American Grantees and includes the Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, Association of Village Council Presidents, Bristol Bay Native Association, Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians, Chugachmiut, Copper River Native Assoc., Kawerak, Inc., Kodiak Area Native Association, Metlakatla Indian Community, Maniilaq, Arctic Slope Native Association, and Tanana Chiefs Conference. CITC will serve as the lead agency for administration of the new grant.

Cook Inlet Housing Authority, which provides a variety of housing programs for CIRI shareholders and other Alaska Natives and Native Americans, has relocated. Their new location in Anchorage is 3510 Spenard Road, Suite 201. For more information about their services or location, contact (907) 276-8822 or visit their web site at www.ciha-housing.org.

The Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) and Alaska Governor Tony Knowles presented Koahnic Broadcast Corporation (KBC) with the Margaret Nick Cooke Award for Native Arts and Languages at the 23rd Governor's Awards for the Arts Banquet.

Chris Cooke, husband of the late Margaret Nick Cooke, presented the award to KBC for its "commitment to advancing Alaska Native languages and culture through the broadcast of programs such as 'Native Word of the Day,'

'Stories of Our People,' 'Earthsongs,' and the Annual Alaska Federation of Natives Convention."

The Margaret Nick Cooke award for Native Arts and Languages was established by friends and family to honor the memory of Cooke, an active ASCA council member and an advocate for funding Native and rural artists.

Upon accepting the award, KBC President and CEO Jaclyn Sallee said the organization was "humbled to be recognized by a family that has done so much to preserve Native languages and arts."

KBC produces Native public radio programs including "Stories of Our People," a 30-minute radio program that presents traditional stories, legends, and personal narratives as told by Alaska Native elders and tradition bearers.

"Native Word of the Day" is a daily 90-second radio feature that highlights words in a variety of indigenous languages. "Native Word of the Day" is broadcast several times daily by KNBA and can be heard on-line at www.knba.org.

The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Justice Center is awarding five scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each to Alaska Native students attending UAA during the 2000-2001 academic year.

"Alaska Natives comprise less than one percent of the state work force in the justice area," said Denise Morris, president of the Alaska Native Justice Center. "Through these types of scholarships, we come one step closer to our goals of increasing the number of Alaska Natives in the legal and criminal justice professions, and advancing Alaska Native justice issues overall."

The scholarships are made possible by a grant from CIRI, which was instrumental in the creation of the Alaska Native Justice Center. The UAA Justice Center and the Alaska Native Justice Center are working collaboratively to increase Alaska Native college enrollment and degree completion.

Scholarship recipients must be Alaska Native, have a GPA of 2.0 or above, and have a declared major in social sciences or justice. The application deadline is April 29, 2000, at 5 p.m. Interested students should contact the UAA Justice Center for more information at (907) 786-1810. Scholarship winners will be announced by July 1, 2000.

By William C. Prosser

Chairman of the Board

The new proxy form gives shareholders the opportunity to vote in three different ways. Shareholders can direct all of their votes for the Board-endorsed candidates; or, they can allocate their votes themselves among the various candidates running for the CIRI Board; or, shareholders can vote quorum only.

As part of this new process, all candidates who agree not to make their own separate proxy mailings will be able to have their names on the CIRI proxy form and be included in the proxy statement. This will make it easier for shareholders to run for the Board with a minimum of effort and expense. The CIRI Board will continue to use the Nominating Committee process to choose Board-endorsed candidates whom it recommends to shareholders for election.

The process we hope will help reduce the number of mailings shareholders receive from CIRI at proxy time.

This year's Annual Meeting will be held on June 3rd in Soldotna, Alaska, at the Central Peninsula Sports Center. Registration for the event begins

at 10 a.m. and the annual meeting starts at 1 p.m.

For more information on the new election process or the Annual Meeting, please contact CIRI Shareholder Relations at (907) 274-8638 or toll-free outside of Anchorage at (800) 764-2474. All materials and instructions on running for the Board of Directors are available through the CIRI web site at www.ciri.com and will also be sent to any shareholder who requests a copy.