This year’s theme of Ciuliamta Cauyait, or “Drums of Our Ancestors,” highlights the roots of traditional yuraq revival that remain on full display in Bethel’s premiere annual gathering.

The trial began Wednesday in Anchorage for a young man facing felony charges in a fatal Unalaska car crash case.Dustin Ruckman is charged with two counts of criminally negligent homicide for his involvement in the 2019 crash on Mount Ballyhoo. He was 18 at the time of the incident and was driving the truck that eventually plummeted about 900 feet down the side of the cliff. Ruckman sustained minor injuries, according to police, but two teenage girls were thrown from the truck and died in the fall: Kiara Rentaria Haist, 18, and Karly McDonald, 16.

Prosecutors are accusing Ryan Greydanus of receiving packages of tramadol mailed from Arizona and California.

Twenty-eight-year-old Allen Amik faces two counts of second-degree murder and two felony counts of tampering with physical evidence for allegedly killing 27-year-old Kari Nicholai and attempting to clean up the scene.

A plane traveling from Scammon Bay to Anchorage made an emergency landing in the village of Sleetmute earlier on March 7 after a front window ruptured partway through the flight. The Trygg Air commuter plane was carrying nine passengers, none of whom sustained serious injuries.

Arthur Heckman Sr. was sentenced in Bethel Superior Court to five years of probation for violations of state election laws in 2022 and 2023, while an outcome is expected soon for city clerk Ruthie Borromeo for her role.

The Alaska State House has passed an education bill that includes a $1,000 increase to its per-student funding formula. But many school districts throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta say even the proposed increase to the state’s per-student funding would leave them in the red.

Federal cuts to the National Weather Service caused the termination, then tentative reinstatement, of a social scientist position in Bethel. The position would be a return to a time of community engagement on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, one lost due to cuts in the past.

The hydrokinetic turbine pilot project, scheduled to launch in June, is a partnership between the Native Village of Napaimute, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Oregon-based company BladeRunner Energy.

Josiah Patkotak received tens of thousands of dollars for at least 15 trips with his family — then the assembly voted to allow the practice.