2025 Elder and Youth Keynotes
October 10, 2025
Contact: [email protected], 907-677-1700
42nd ANNIVERSARY OF ELDERS & YOUTH ANNOUNCES OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
WILSON JUSTIN AND CHARLEE KORTHUIS
Dgheyey Kaq’; Dena’inaq ełnen’aq’ qilan (Anchorage, Alaska; lands of the Dena’ina) – On October 12-15th, 2025, we celebrate the 42nd Annual First Alaskans Institute Statewide Elders & Youth Conference, we will be hosting in-person in Dgheyey Kaq’ at the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center. Elders & Youth is open to all who want to learn and immerse themselves in a gathering that centers our Elders and our youth in Native ways of knowing and being. In order to keep our conference safe for our Elders and our youth to participate, you must register.
Perseverance and Fortitude for the Future Generations
Qapiŋaiññiglu Siqsuńiglu Kiŋuvaaksraptignun (North Slope dialect)
Qapiŋaił̣iġḷu Anuqsruł̣iġḷu Kiñuviaksraptitnun (Northwest Arctic dialect)
Igluktuġlu Suŋiqtuġlu Kiŋuliut (Norton Sound in the King Island dialect)
Wilson Justin (Ahtna Athabascan)
Wilson Justin is Ahtna Athabascan, born in 1950 in Nabesna, Alaska. Wilson grew up in a traditional subsistence lifestyle in the Nabesna and Chistochina areas. He attended high school in Fairbanks and Anchorage and graduated in 1968. From the 1960s until the mid-1980s, Wilson worked for the family business as a hunting guide in the Wrangell Mountains. Wilson would alternate between the corporate world and the Outdoor Big Game Guiding Business. At the same time, mentors from the Traditional Athabascan community would journey to the Nabesna Country to speak of stories and medicine men of the Headwaters People. Trips to other parts of the region invariably ended up in Stories of the olden times and narrative of wars that occupied the Ahtna Nation prior to contact.
This duel trail of western corporate culture running parallel to the Traditional Teachings became a part of Wilson’s background until the late 1990’s when the last of the Clan Storytellers and Storykeepers passed on. Wilson has always been active in representing his community around the state in social, cultural, and political matters. Throughout his career he has worn many hats, including creating the Mt Sanford Tribal Consortium, working the Cheesh’na Tribal Council in Chistochina, and playing a critical role in the initial structuring of the IGAP Act of 1992 programming for Alaska and its evolution over the years.
Charlee Punurcilria Korthuis (she/her) is Yup’ik from Bethel, Alaska, with family in Emmonak on the Lower Yukon River. She is the daughter of Darrell and Vivian Korthuis and the granddaughter of Jacob and Eunice Johnson of Emmonak and Jerry and Virginia Korthuis of Bethel. Charlee has an older sister, Tatiana Korthuis. Charlee attended Ayaprun Elitnaurvik, a Yup’ik immersion charter school in Bethel. A 2022 graduate of Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, she is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology with a minor in Alaska Native Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is a University Success Student with the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP), where she has been engaged for nearly a decade.
She has also completed various internships across Alaska and the United States. Charlee is a current Arctic Youth Ambassador in which she advocates on behalf of her community at both a state and an international level. Through all her journeys and achievements, Charlee remains guided by Yup’ik values: respect for Elders, care for salmon, water, and land, and commitment to family and community. She continues to make time for the people and places that sustain her and looks forward to carrying her education, research, and leadership into her future serving communities across Alaska and the Arctic.
