Public Media for Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Archives At KYUK

KYUK has been documenting life in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for nearly 50 years. Going back to 1971, KYUK has been capturing everything from Yup'ik dance, to interviews with local Elders. Now KYUK is digitizing our history. With help from our funders, we are in the process of digitizing over 2,000 videos and making them available to the public.

As we work to put this history online, we want to encourage everyone to visit the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to check out the 1,416 videos we currently have available. You can follow the link above or visit americanarchives.org and search for KYUK. Once there, you'll be able to find interviews with politicans, Waves of Wisdom, an interview series with Elders from around the region, dance videos, traditional kayak building videos, and so much more. 

We also need your feedback. Do you see someone you know in a video? Do you know anything about this video? Email any comments to gabby@kyuk.org. We want to get as much information about these videos as possible. 

The Preservation Process

The process of digitizing the archives first began in 2014 with funding from the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB). Since 2014, the entire collection of video and audio tapes from the KYUK archive have been packed and shipped to a humidity controlled vault at SummitDay Media in Anchorage, where they are being assessed and stored for the long term.

Credit AAPB

With over 12,000 tapes and 50 years of history, one of the greatest challenges was deciding which tapes were to be digitized first. To help make these decisions, KYUK put together an Archive Advisory Board that includes community memebers from various backgrounds. Thank you to the Archive Advisory Board members for their collaboration and commitment to this project. 

KYUK Archive Advisory Board Members:

Benjamin Charles, AVCP Museum CoordinatorBeverly Hoffman, H&M ProductionsJohn McDonald, H&M Productions Vernon Chimegalrea, Donlin Gold Myron Angstman, Kuskokwim 300 FounderChristopher Liu, Software Developer/Designer Atan' Winkelman, LKSD Yugtun Specialist

Our Funding 

The majority of our current funding for this initiative comes from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), and a federal grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

CLIR is a nonprofit based out of Arlington, VA that collaborates with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments. We are so grateful to CLIR for the $241,995 award through their Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program. 

NHPRC is a federally funded entity and the grant making affiliate of the National Archives and Records Administrations, our nation's record-keeper. NHPRC sees the KYUK archive as a historical record of national importance, and granted us $100,000 to digitize a portion of our archive.

We are equally grateful for funding and in-kind support from Bethel Community Services Foundation, Donlin Gold, Calista Corporation, Everts Air Cargo, and Ryan Air.  

Gabby Hiestand Salgado is the Multimedia Director for KYUK