Today, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and other Native people are dancing, weaving, carving, canoeing, preparing Native foods and speaking Native languages. They are getting together in beading and drumming circles and meeting to chat in their Native tongue. They are gathering foods from the land and taking long walks with elders.

Tlingit immersion teacher Kitty Eddy helped start the first immersion class in 2000, through the Juneau School District. Still in operation, the class offers academics, language and culture within a Tlingit cultural context. When other kids are carving pumpkins, her students are designing totems or building traditional longhouses

The immersion program has grown to three classes at Harborview Elementary School, and led to an all-school integrated approach being implemented at Gastineau Elementary School.

"(An important theme in our teaching) is our culture and our kids and how the elders have left it in our care and that it's our time to learn and to give to our kids. We are a living culture and we are still alive," Eddy said.

Eddy tells students that it is all of our responsibility to carry on the culture.

"The elders gave this to us, they've given us their wisdom. They are sharing what they know and now is our time to learn, so that we can pass that on in the future," she said.

In her capacity as Native Education Grants coordinator for the Juneau School District, Alberta Jones brings programs to the district that encourage Native students to feel proud of who they are and where they come from.

"Research shows that students who feel good about themselves, that learn about themselves - if they embrace their culture and understand their culture - they not only feel better, but they perform better in school," Jones said.

Tlingit carver Doug Chilton is carving a canoe in the Tlingit tradition, on display now outside the Sealaska building, and viewable by webcam (www.sealaskaheritage.org). He was commissioned by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian to complete the project by December.

Chilton worked all year in finding the tree, blessing and transporting it, rough cutting, adzing and carving it. He has invited his brother, sons and nephews to work with him on the project, which he said helps keep the family engaged in the culture.

Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire   Carving craft: Tlingit carver Doug Chilton works on carving a canoe in the Tlingit tradition. He has invited his sons and nephews to help in an effort to keep the family engaged in the tribe's culture.

Inupiaq-Tlingit actor, storyteller and playwright Ishmael Hope, 26, actively studies the history of his culture. His parents, who grew up in the 1960s post-civil-rights era, infused Hope with a strong appreciation for his culture.

"I think it's about encouraging artists and encouraging people to celebrate the culture, not just for their self-esteem, but for celebrating what's already there. And there's a lot," Hope said.

"It starts with that connection to the land and how you build on that, and deepen it. This is a question our younger generation is gonna have to face."

Hope has written and acted in many plays with Native themes, through Perseverance Theatre and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. He and his partner, Lily, will do storytelling in the spring at the Smithsonian in New York.

"You feel like something is going on that is more than you even knew about yourself or about the world. And that happens in song-making, in storytelling, in the oratory, in speaking the language. Anything from singing a song that makes you feel the sadness of the world, or an elder whose voice is so deep and rich it's as if the ancestors are speaking," Hope said.

"You can get that from the land also, like harvesting spruce root, or going in and peeling the cedar bark off the trees in Sitka, or harvesting gum boots off of Glacier Bay," said Lily Hudson, 27, an actor, weaver, storyteller and soon-to-be mother. She is Tlingit, Filipino and Anglo.

"It's difficult to keep a balance between the two cultures because I'm living in the Western world where there's graduation, or a class that I want to take, or a baby coming, or whatever it is."

Hudson weaves on a loom at home, has made cedar bark hats and spins warp for her auntie. "I spin so other people can weave," she said.

Jessica Chester, 27, is driven to speak Tlingit and learn the culture.

"The feelings that you get when you're speaking Tlingit or when you're singing in Tlingit is more natural and pure to me than reading Shakespeare. It's who I am and it explains who I am."

Chester said Native people have a different way of thinking, and learning the language helps communicate those different ideas.

"Even though I didn't grow up speaking Tlingit, those ideas of respect that the language carries are inside of every Tlingit from generations of our ancestors living here. Being able to express myself in Tlingit and to teach my daughter Tlingit is really powerful," she said.

Chester teaches language and culture with the Juneau School District. She also makes regalia, beads and weaves. She started learning to speak Tlingit in 2001.

Hudson and Hope are contemplating how they will pass on to their children the traditions they have been learning themselves.

Hudson told her grandmother, the only Tlingit-speaking relative in her family, that she wanted her to speak only Tlingit to the baby so he or she will grow up knowing the language.

"The culture is us," Hope said. "To deepen the relationship to the culture, you have to deepen the relationship to yourself, first, and then start to try to understand the codes, the rituals and why they were there."