Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Oct. 6 1969

Discussions Friday between the city councils of Haines and Port Chilkoot aimed at solving common water problems ended with both groups unanimously voting to draft proposals for a merger of the two cities.

In a rare joint meeting of the two bodies, held at the Halsingland Hotel Friday noon, action was taken to request the city legal counsel and the state Local Affairs Agency to work out the process by which the two communities might become a single government. Original purpose of the meeting was to discuss the problems involved in the recently-completed emergency tie-in at Third Avenue between the two water systems.

The groups found the single-city idea most feasible after they had turned down these to other proposals as being to difficult to work out: (1) to meter the water and make payment for any used, and (2) to seek to form a larger water service district through borough action.

Oct. 6 1994

In a downpour at the Haines ferry terminal Monday, Joe Hotch welcomed home the Whale House artifacts, likening their return to a legend of a hawk that brought the first fire to the Chilkat.

"Don't give up. Keep coming. You're almost where you're supposed to be," said the village council president, speaking in Tlingit to a crowd of about 40.

Stored in a Seattle warehouse for a decade, the four totemic house posts and Rainwall screen were greeted with a daylong celebration of Tlingit song, storytelling and speeches.

Southeast Natives with roots in Klukwan joined villagers in the day's events that started at the ferry terminal, became a procession along the half-mile road into the village and culminated with an emotional installation at the Whale House.

The pieces were uncrated before a crowd of about 100 in the Whale House, where a song of rejoicing broke out as the last totem arrived. Several were moved to tears.

Oct. 1 2009

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but Chip Lende may beg to differ.

Lende, a moose hunter camped along the upper Chilkat River last week, said he enjoyed a free roast goose dinner Monday, compliments of an ambitious hawk.

Lende said members of his hunting party had bagged a moose and he was packing up their camp near Turtle Rock Sunday when he heard a "woofing" sound overhead.

"I looked up and there's a hawk with a goose in its talons, except the goose is too heavy for the hawk and they're falling to the ground. At about 10 feet up, the hawk drops the goose, right in front of me."

As the goose was dead, Lende figured there was no harm in taking it home. Cooked in wine, it made a fine dinner, he said. "It was real rich tasting. I was hungry. I'd been hunting all day."