Day: June 3, 2026

A tribal casino near Eaglecrest Ski Area that’s been discussed for many years is open, but its operator is taking something of a gamble by hoping it can prevail if the state challenges the legality of the establishment.

A “soft opening” of the Two Coppers Casino began this week, with the facility featuring 100 slot-style electronic machines (one of which wasn’t functioning), said Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson, president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, in an interview shortly after the casino opened at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Construction is still ongoing and some amenities such as running water are lacking, so the target official grand opening date is July 1.

“We’re really excited about this,” he said. “It’s an opportunity, an expression of our sovereignty, but also I think it’s a great economic opportunity for not only the tribe, but for people who want to work here.”

The casino is scheduled to be open until 9 p.m. Wednesday and at times to be determined in the coming days leading up to the official opening, with the regular operating hours still being determined, Peterson said. A shuttle to the casino that circulates via downtown, since cruise passengers are envisioned as a major portion of the customers, is set to begin operating this week.

Peterson also acknowledged concerns (and stigmas) some people have raised about casinos, and noted that for now alcohol isn’t being served and “we’re going to have some really strict guidelines that if we see people that are probably spending too much time here, they’re going to be asked not to.”

A more existential issue is the casino’s legal status, which was put into doubt last September. The Trump administration reversed a Biden-era ruling by the U.S. Department of the Interior cited by the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) when it authorized an amended gaming ordinance adopted by the tribe in October of 2024.

Peterson said even without that ruling it appears a previously approved ordinance for the casino appears to be legally valid. However, the Trump administration’s reversal was prompted by a similar gaming facility the Native Village of Eklutna opened in January of 2025, with the state of Alaska filing a lawsuit in February of that year to shut down the casino. But that facility continues to operate and Peterson said he believes his tribe will prevail if a similar challenge is filed against Two Coppers Casino.

“I feel fairly secure,” he said. “If they challenge it that’s their choice. That doesn’t mean I agree that they have a legal ground to stand on and that they’ll win.”

Sam Curtis, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law, stated in an email Wednesday afternoon “the State of Alaska is aware of the Two Coopers Casino opening and is closely monitoring the situation.”

“The U.S. Department of Interior has recently reversed a legal opinion issued by the Biden Administration that had been used to authorize tribal gaming in Alaska, directing all relevant federal agencies to follow a legal opinion that had been (in) place since 1993 and to revisit any gaming-related decisions made under that Biden-era opinion,” he wrote. “The State is deferring to the federal government as that review process plays out.”

Two Coppers Casino is a Class II gaming establishment, which can offer slot-like machines where payouts come from a pool of competing players (much like bingo), non-house-banked card games, bingo and pull-tabs. Games like poker, blackjack and traditional slot machines are not allowed.

The machines were somewhat unfamiliar to a handful of initial gamblers who visited the casino when it opened Wednesday afternoon.

“Just put money in and watch it spin,” said Deborah Picken, a Hoonah resident sitting next to her uncle, Herman Davis, a Sitka resident, at one row of machines. She said the visit to the casino was sparked by family members taking Davis to Las Vegas last year because that was one of the items on his bucket list.

“He ended up winning $800 by the time we left Las Vegas,” she said. “When he heard about this from my daughter last night he got excited and said ‘I want to check it out,’ so here we are.”

Annette Ulmer, a Juneau resident who said she has gambled in numerous tribal casinos elsewhere, said the new establishment compares favorably to those.

“I love it. I think it’s something that’s been needed for a while,” she said.

The casino is on a 220-acre site about a mile from Eaglecrest that is owned by the heirs of an Angoon man who obtained it in a land swap with the U.S. Forest Service in 2002. Tlingit and Haida has been leasing 20 of those acres since 2015.

Speculation has existed for many years about the site on Fish Creek Road about four miles from the Glacier Highway turnoff to Eaglecrest. A 2016 blog post by journalist Craig Medred headlined “Alaska’s first Indian gambling casino appears to be in the works” stated Tlingit and Haida had adopted a federal gaming ordinance, but denied “it has any plan to build a casino in Juneau at this time.”

But Tlingit and Haida began clearing trees from the land in 2018 for purposes tribal officials did not elaborate on publicly. Fireworks sales leading up to the Fourth of July occurred on the property during some subsequent years, with gaming establishment plans confirmed when construction began at the site last summer.

This story was originally published by the Juneau Independent.

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After six years of restoration, the Eldred Rock Lighthouse opened to the public. A group of 16 passengers departed Haines early Saturday morning for the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony at the lighthouse 17 miles south of town. One of the passengers aboard was Ralph Crane, who was stationed at the lighthouse from May 1969 to May 1970. Crane and his daughter drove from Homer to witness the grand opening.

“It was my best and worst year of my life, ever,” Crane said. “It was a rude awakening to remoteness, but we had so much fun out there.” Crane and three others from the U.S. Coast Guard worked at the lighthouse, along with two dogs. Crane was fresh out of bootcamp when he selected Eldred Rock as his next post. Coming back to the lighthouse 56 years later, Crane said he noticed small changes like not seeing the foghorn stand anymore, but overall said it still looks the same on the outside. The U.S. Coast Guard unmanned the lighthouse in 1973 and then “just essentially abandoned it,” according to Crane. He said that his time out on the island helped prepare him for his career as a firefighter “where you’re 90% bored and 10% sheer terror.”

Some of Crane’s tasks on the lighthouse included chipping ice off the windows at the top of the tower during storms. Reflecting on the storms, Crane said the Chinook winds would build up so much momentum that the ocean spray would hit the top of the light tower.

“Our job was to make sure that the navigation stayed available for navigators,” Crane said. “It got pretty severe out there at times.”

At one point, Crane said he woke up and heard loud puffing coming from the ocean. One of the two dogs living on the island, Kenmore, had gone out into the ocean and was chasing a pod of orcas headed for Haines. The lighthouse members hopped on a boat and pulled Kenmore from the water.

Finished in 1906, the lighthouse is Alaska’s oldest original. Located 55 miles north of Juneau and 17 miles south of Haines, the red-and-white lighthouse is now open for tours and guests to stay the night.

Some passengers from the Juneau boat “Goldbelt Seawolf” boarded a landing craft, which took them to the island. A floating dock has not been installed, so Haines passengers were not able to disembark. 

Stephanie Hawney, co-owner of the Skagway company Fairweather Marine Services, said that “it was seemingly an impossible task with three weeks of consistent 20 knot winds.” Only one of the four anchors was able to be placed for the floating dock and gangway. The Northwest Adventurer will be the main vessel transporting groups of 26 to the lighthouse. Fairweather Marine Services has partnered with the Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association, or ERLPA, to run tours to the island.

After viewing the grand opening from the ocean, the Haines boat circled the island and landed, picking up a volunteer and co-owner of Fairweather Marine Services, Rob Caldwell, who had been working on installing the floating dock.

Michael Marks, secretary of the ERLPA, said that because of these tours, the U.S. Coast Guard is preparing to clean up contaminated debris and dirt and remove it from the island.

“They wouldn’t even consider removing that debris until there was actually public going on a regular basis,” Marks said Saturday. Marks first saw the lighthouse in 2002 while he and his wife, Lorrie Dudzik, were on the ferry up from Bellingham. Although the restoration has mainly occurred within the last six years, Marks said that it took 20 years of talks with the U.S. Coast Guard to get to this point.

About 15 years ago, before there was the Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association, the Sheldon Museum’s Eldred Rock Lighthouse Committee worked on how to restore the lighthouse. Then Haines Borough manager David Sosa told the committee to separate from the museum because the Haines Borough could not “accept the liability of what you guys intend to do at the lighthouse,” according to Marks. After that, the non-profit preservation association was founded. Their first income 15 years ago came from T-shirt sales with a logo designed by Laura Rogers.

Then began what Sue Waterhouse and Marks called the “stealth era.” The U.S. Coast Guard owns the lighthouse and did not want members from the ERLPA to go to it. However, volunteers still kept coming out to the lighthouse for five years during the “stealth era.” The ERLPA leased the lighthouse from the U.S. Coast Guard and began making improvements. Marks said every improvement had to be approved by the U.S. Coast Guard and the state historical society. Volunteers like Waterhouse were trained and became hazardous materials abatement specialists. Crews performed lead and asbestos containment and removal.

The ERLPA has leased the lighthouse for the past six years. Their contract with the U.S. Coast Guard allows for four five-year terms, with two terms remaining after 2030. The association hopes to buy the lighthouse from the U.S. Coast Guard after the leases are up.

Marks called Saturday’s grand opening “history in the making.” He said that the association set the date for the grand opening three years ago. “We all knew it was never going to happen, but it happened.”

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Mary Peltola’s campaign for U.S. Senate arrived in Haines last week with little fanfare: a Saturday campaign event was announced by a lone, letter-size flier on local bulletin boards. It was sandwiched between flyers for karaoke night at the Pioneer Bar and a babysitting club advertisement.   

Meanwhile, Peltola has had the largest first quarter of fundraising in state history, a sign of how high-profile her race against incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan has become nationally. 

Saturday’s stop was one in a tour of Southeast towns, and roughly 80 people attended the event at the Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood Hall on Willard Street. Some supporters already on the campaign’s contact lists said they had been notified of the event by email and text, while others found out from community Facebook posts just hours before.

Peltola brings to the race a long political career across all levels of government, with a decade as a state representative, a term on the Bethel city council, and a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she was the first Alaska Native member of Congress.

After losing her seat to current representative Nick Begich in 2024, Peltola took a position at law and lobbying firm Holland & Hart LLP. It was there that she most recently appeared in the Chilkat Valley News, as a member of a prospective lobbying team nearly hired by the borough.

With her national stature, the campaign brought with it some layers of formality less frequently seen in Haines: attendees were required to sign in with the campaign before being allowed to enter the ANB/ANS Hall, and local news outlets were not allowed to ask Peltola questions, which has been the campaign’s policy with local media at other stops in the region.

But the theme among attendees was a feeling of familiarity with the candidate, who spoke to and took a photo with each attendee individually after delivering prepared remarks.  

Local gillnetter Brian O’Riley voted for Peltola in her 2022 House race, even as he has moved away from supporting other Democrats, he said. O’Riley voted for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the 2024 presidential election. 

“I don’t like dogma, all the talking points of legacy media,” O’Riley said. “I like people that aren’t politicians. I think (Peltola) is the real deal.” 

In something of a theme among supporters Saturday, O’Riley pointed to Peltola’s in-state roots, growing up in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, as a factor behind his support. 

“Going to fish camp as a little girl, hunting and fishing, you don’t really have people like that in government,” O’Riley said. “There are a lot of intellectuals in there, and you can intellectualize things to death, which is good sometimes, but common sense goes a long way.” 

Peltola supporter Sara Chapell said she first met Peltola when the now-Senate candidate was a low-level Alaska Department of Fish and Game employee, working with Chapell’s husband. 

“Mary was an intern or something, going around checking test nets. Personally, I’ve known Mary as a mom and somebody who cares about Alaska. And so yeah, naturally I have trust in her,” Chapell said. 

Chilkoot Indian Association tribal administrator Harriet Brouillette said she had not yet committed her vote to either Peltola or Sullivan, but said Peltola “feels familiar.”

“She was born and raised in Alaska, her family has been here for a millennia — I think that goes a long way.”

Brouillette also spoke to Peltola’s work while in Congress on legislation that would allot land to communities that did not receive land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Haines/Deishú being one of them. 

“She has a track record,” Brouillette said. 

Land allotments were a specific policy reason for Peltola support for others as well, like Jim Strong and Jack Young, both Alaska Native veterans of the Vietnam War. 

In 2019, national legislation opened a new round of allotment opportunities for Alaska Native Vietnam veterans, like Strong and Young, who missed initial opportunities for land claims while serving overseas. 

Many say the process has yet to work out as expected, including Strong, who said he’s had 13 applications rejected already because of his selections already being taken. 

Peltola acknowledged during her remarks what she said were issues in the process. 

“The parcels the Department of the Interior are offering are thousands of miles away, in Good News Bay, North Slope Borough,” she said. “Good News Bay is a community that costs $400 one-way to get to just from Bethel. There’s no way someone from Haines is going to find that an attractive allotment.” 

In recent years, members of the state’s congressional delegation have spoken in support of the veterans’ allotment program, including Sullivan, Peltola’s opponent. Sullivan, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Nick Begich sponsored a bill passed last year that extended the application period for the program.

But Strong and Young said they had confidence that Peltola, more so than Sullivan, would effect real movement on the issue. 

“Sullivan has been involved in the Native allotment issue and met with us several years ago, but it hasn’t gone anywhere,” Young said. 

“She’s been around the problems. She’ll keep it not in the rearview mirror, so it can come to some sort of settlement,” Strong added. 

Other Chilkat Valley-focused sections of Peltola’s remarks included what she referred to as “the struggle between resource development and protecting our environment.” 

It’s a contentious topic in the Chilkat Valley, with advanced mineral exploration at the Palmer Project in the upper valley. Opposition to the project has been spearheaded by the Chilkat Indian Village’s Chilkat Forever initiative. 

Peltola has supported a number of major resource development projects as a national politician, but seemed to lend some support to those opposition efforts Saturday. 

“I really believe, fundamentally, there has to be social license to operate,” Peltola said. “If there’s a project coming into a region, the people who live close to that project have to be supportive. I do think our permitting process is really designed for these projects to go through, whether or not there’s social license to operate. That’s something I worry about.” 

Chilkat Indian Village and Chilkat Forever leaders have also used the language of social license, saying this year they aim to show the Palmer Project does not have social license to operate in the Chilkat Valley.

Peltola will continue campaigning through the Aug. 18 non-partisan primary, which will advance the top four vote-getters across all parties to the general election. Voting in the general election will conclude Nov. 3. 

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