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‘Wáahlaal Gidaag (Barbara Blake)
‘Wáahlaal Gidaag (Barbara Blake)
‘Wáahlaal Gidaag works as Director
of the Alaska Native Policy Center
for the First Alaskans Institute
“My life’s ambition is to protect and cultivate Alaska Native rights to provide environmental, cultural, social, and economic well-being to current and future generations.”
Barbara works as Director of the Alaska Native Policy Center for First Alaskans Institute.
From 2015 to 2019, Barbara worked as a political appointee under the governor and lieutenant governor of Alaska as the director of Native and Rural Affairs and as senior staffer for Fish and Game. She conducted special studies and developed policy in areas of Tribal relations, subsistence, fisheries, forestry, transboundary water quality, food security and Native affairs. Previous positions include work with the USDA-Office of the Secretary in Washington DC, assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and vice president of an 8(a)-certified business in Anchorage.
Barbara holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in rural development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, along with certificates in Tribal Business Law and Indianpreneurship. She is a Sealaska scholarship recipient, former Sealaska accounting intern and former Board Youth Advisor.
She was born after 1971, so she is the first shareholder on the board of directors with descendant stock (Class D). She has also inherited landless stock.
Barbara’s Haida name is ‘Wáahlaal Gidaag (Potlatch Giver). Her Haida, Tlingit and Ahtna Athabascan family stems from Klawock, Hydaburg and Tsiis tl’edze’na’ (Chistochina). Her Xaadaas Clan is Yahkw Janáas (Raven Shark), her father is Naltsiine, and her grandfather is Teeyeeneidi.
Contact: barbara.blake@sealaska.com