Ahtna’s Eat, Learn, Grow! series is an educational workshop program designed to inform and engage Ahtna employees and shareholders on a wide range of topics that support professional development, cultural understanding, and personal growth. Hosted by the Shareholder Enrichment Department’s Shareholder Advocates Starr Knighten and Tracy Parent, the series offers high-level introductions that encourage participants to learn more, ask questions, and explore subjects that matter to Ahtna and its people.
The workshops are held as lunchtime sessions, with participants welcome to attend either in person or virtually. Light lunch is provided at the Anchorage and Glennallen offices, and virtual links are made available to ensure accessibility for shareholders and employees who cannot attend in person. By combining learning with a welcoming, community-centered environment, Eat, Learn, Grow! creates space for meaningful conversation and shared understanding.
Over the years, the series has covered a variety of impactful topics. One session, Culture in the Workplace, was presented in partnership with the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The workshop guided participants through Alaska’s diverse Native cultures and how cultural values, communication styles, and lived experiences shape workplace dynamics. The session encouraged individuals and teams to build respect, awareness, and stronger working relationships.
Another workshop, Ahtna Pathways for Data Stewardship, introduced participants to Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance. This session focused on the rights of Indigenous Peoples to exercise authority over their data and emphasized community-led approaches to data collection, management, and use. Participants learned about the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance and the importance of ethical stewardship, relational accountability, and data systems that support self-determination and collective well-being.
CARE is an acronym for Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics.
A cornerstone of the Eat, Learn, Grow! series has been the Ahtna History and Culture workshops, presented in two parts by the Shareholder Enrichment Department. Drawing from Ahtna: The People and Their History, netseh dae’ tkughit’e’, “before us it was like this,” published by Ahtna, Incorporated in 2018, these workshops provide a comprehensive look at the Ahtna people’s history, traditions, and cultural foundations.
For the Ahtna people, history is not confined to books or archives. It lives in the land, the language, the rivers, and the stories carried by Elders and passed through generations. The Ahtna History and Culture workshops explore the historical forces that shaped the Copper River region and Alaska, from early Russian and European exploration to U.S. territorial expansion, restrictive laws, forced assimilation, and the loss of land and subsistence rights. These events occurred while Ahtna people continued to live on and steward their homelands, often without knowledge that decisions made elsewhere would fundamentally alter their lives.
Growing up, I wasn’t fully immersed in Athabascan/Ahtna history, so this workshop was a powerful and meaningful experience for me; hearing the history shared was emotional and eye-opening, helping me understand how past decisions, land loss, and forced assimilation continue to shape our lives today, while also showing the strength and resilience of the Ahtna people who protected their culture and homelands despite everything working against them, and learning this history helped me feel more connected to my identity and reminded me that understanding the past is one of the ways we protect ourselves and ensure it is not repeated.
A central theme of the workshops is identity. For many Ahtna people, traditional teachings were interrupted by colonization, forced schooling, and displacement. Learning history becomes an act of reclamation, helping participants reconnect with who they are, where they come from, and the values that guided their ancestors, including respect for the land, balance, responsibility, and care for future generations. Language, cultural practices, and traditional ecological knowledge are woven throughout these lessons as living expressions of history.
The Eat, Learn, Grow! framework reinforces these teachings by grounding history in everyday life. Food, land stewardship, and cultural practices are not separate from history but are ongoing reflections of it. Participants gain a deeper understanding of how past policies attempted to control Indigenous food systems and land access, and why reclaiming traditional practices today is an act of resilience and sovereignty.
Beyond education, the workshops are intended to empower. By understanding legal histories, land claims, and governance structures, participants are better equipped to advocate for their rights, engage with agencies, and help ensure that history does not repeat itself. Centering Ahtna voices and experiences fosters pride, awareness, and responsibility within the community.
The Eat, Learn, Grow! workshops have been offered for the past five years, following direction from the Ahtna Board of Directors to emphasize cultural and historical knowledge for employees. In 2024, the series expanded to welcome public participation. Looking ahead to 2026, future topics are expected to include ANILCA, ANCSA and the formation of Ahtna, Incorporated, Atna Lake, and additional subjects that continue to strengthen understanding of Ahtna history, governance, and identity.
Through Eat, Learn, Grow!, Ahtna continues to invest in education that honors the past, informs the present, and helps shape a knowledgeable and empowered future for its people.
Those interested in upcoming and updated Eat, Learn, Grow! workshops can find the latest information by visiting Ahtna’s Facebook page at facebook.com/Ahtna.Inc.
Disclosure: Ahtna, Inc. is a Copper River Record advertiser. This did not influence our interest in this topic.
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