Alaska Federation of Natives convention will be held in person for the first time since 2019

The annual three-day Alaska Federation of Natives Convention will be held in Anchorage from Oct. 20-22. (KTOO)

The Alaska Federation of Natives convention will be in person for the first time in three years this fall. 

The annual three-day gathering of the state’s largest Alaska Native organization was held virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last in-person convention was in 2019 in Fairbanks. 

AFN represents members from 11 of the 12 regional Alaska Native Corporations and more than 191 federally recognized tribes. 

AFN conventions typically consist of panels on a variety of topics related to Alaska Native people, as well as appearances from state and federal officials and debates between political candidates. Having a convention in-person will also mean the return of Alaska Native vendors selling art and artifacts, as well as nightly Quyana performances from Alaska Native dancers. 

This year’s convention will be held Oct. 20 through Oct. 22 at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. 

The theme for this year’s gathering will be “Celebrating our Unity.”

[Sign up for Alaska Public Media’s daily newsletter to get our top stories delivered to your inbox.]

Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.

Previous articleAnchorage school meal program faces worker shortage, loss of pandemic funding
Next articleIn Palmer teen’s murder, one of four convicted killers gets 99 years behind bars