March 21, 2024 — Alaska’s sole congressional representative, Mary Peltola, returned home to Bethel for the Cama-i Dance Festival held March 15 through March 17. While she was in town, she sat down with KYUK’s Sage Smiley to discuss infrastructure, fish, and why she’s running for re-election. A full transcript of the interview is below. It has been edited lightly for clarity and flow.
KYUK (Sage Smiley): Thank you so much for joining us here today, Rep. Peltola, we’re really excited that you stopped by KYUK.
Rep. Mary Peltola: It’s always good to be home, Sage, and it’s always fun to come back to KYUK.
KYUK: So you’re back for Cama-i primarily, right? How is it to be back?
Peltola: It’s wonderful. It’s so bright and sunny, and I love home this time of year when the days are getting longer and you can feel the birds are going to be coming back soon, breakup is on the horizon. Manaq season is a fun time to come home when everybody’s ice fishing, and yuraqing, and dog sled mushing so you can tell people are out and about more. Cabin fever has definitely set in and we’re just enjoying being outdoors now.
KYUK: What’s your favorite part of Cama-i?
Peltola: I love the craft fair. I love watching the young kids, many elementary schools have their students yuraq. And I think it’s really great to see how vibrant our culture is. You know, for a lot of Native American cultures, Alaska Native cultures, we feel that they’re, you know, on the decline or out of our grasp. I think the anthropological term is moribund; languages that are no longer spoken. And in the [Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K)] Delta and Alaska, Yup’ik is the fastest growing language after English. So it really is a testament to our survival and how we are still thriving.