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Protests are ongoing outside of a church located on the Wind River Reservation. That is after a pastor made comments during her sermon, deriding the Northern Arapaho’s Sun Dance, or Hoseihoowuʼ, ceremony.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards attended.
About a dozen protestors hold up signs outside the Foundations for Nations church near Arapaho, Wyoming.
Cars honk in support as they pass. One sign summarizes the general sentiment: it says, “leave”.
“ She called our sacred pipe an idol.”
MiRae Yellowbird says Pastor Sarah Lucas’ July 5 comments were hurtful, especially because the federal government made the Sundance illegal until 1978.
“ We weren’t allowed to practice our powwows, our Sun Dances, any type of ceremony. They would throw us in jail.”
In an interview with the Riverton Ranger, Pastor Lucas admitted she struck the wrong tone when describing the pipe.
“And words matter, right? Delivery matters. And that is where I feel repentant about it. I’m so sorry that that came off mocking.”
But Lucas says she owns the church’s property on the Wind River Reservation and has no plans to leave.
The family of late Ellen Paneok, her cousin Jillion Jones, left, sister Tina “Raven” Godsey, and aunt Lottie Jones, flew from across the state and country to celebrate the nonprofit’s launch (Photo: Alena Naiden)
Efforts to connect rural Alaska Native villages by air got a lift this summer, when the new organization Paneok took off in Anchorage last month.
In part two of her series, the Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA, spoke with the nonprofit’s founder and chair, Jamie Klaes.
Klaes is a pilot and instructor, originally from Bettles in Interior Alaska. She said she started teaching aviation classes because it is hard for rural Alaskans to get jobs in the industry, even though they rely on it.
Since then, instructors have worked with Alaska organizations and school districts to help connect students to aviation classes, and in some cases travel to Anchorage to attend them.
Klaes said the classes had up to 200 students enrolled at one time.
“If we get one kid that gets their pilot’s license, you know, from Chevak, all of a sudden, we have a lot of Chevackers applying. You can see the impact of not only the student that got their license and their confidence, but their whole community and the confidence of their peers.”
But Klaes said enrollment dropped to just 50 students two years ago, after some partnering organizations lost federal funding and had to cut their support for the classes. So she decided to form Paneok.
“I didn’t ever want to see this program stop. So I needed to do something that was going to help it grow.”
Klaes named Paneok in honor of Ellen Paneok, the first Alaska Native woman to become a licensed pilot. Paneok died in 2008, but her family flew from across the state and country to celebrate the nonprofit’s launch.
Lottie Jones from Utqiagvik is Paneok’s aunt.
“I’m pretty proud. I’m glad that she’s recognized because it took a lot for her to pursue her dream.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, attended the launch of Paneok on Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo: Alena Naiden)
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also attended the event. She said Paneok was not only a pilot, but also an ivory carver, a writer, and a mentor.
“This is Ellen. A woman who believed so much in what she had to offer and then was willing to pay that forward to help so many others, and particularly young Native kids from the villages, those who needed to be encouraged.”
Murkowski commended the program leaders for their work to meet the needs of Alaska’s growing aviation sector.
“It’s not just the young pilots. It is the ground handlers. It is the mechanics that keep everybody in the air safe. It’s the whole ecosystem of aviation that is so desperately needed in this place where we fly more than anybody else.”
But Joelle Kamkoff from Kotlik, 17, said she wants to be a pilot.
“I dream of working in medevac because I get to help people, and that makes me feel good. And also, like, being in the plane and in the air clears my mind.”
For a start, Kamkoff took a ground handling class through the program last spring to learn how to fuel and load an airplane.
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