Welcome to KHHF

In 1996, Kavilco Incorporated, a village corporation within the Southeast Alaska region organized pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), started the process to establish the Kasaan Haida Heritage Foundation (KHHF) and to register it as a non-profit corporation in the State of Alaska. In 1999, KHHF became incorporated, with three members of Kavilco's Board of Directors serving as officers – Kenneth Gordon, President; John Campbell, Vice President; and Jeane Breinig, Secretary/Treasurer. Laird A. Jones is the current KHHF Board President.

The concern was clear that an effort should be made to document and preserve our culture. There are many projects important to the cultural heritage of Kasaan Haida people: clan house and totem pole restorations, Haida language perpetuation, repatriation of Kasaan artifacts, videotaping and interviewing our elders, and cleaning up the creeks near Kasaan for the return of salmon runs.

Because of the increasing age of our elders, KHHF decided to raise funds for an Oral History Interview Project. In 2001, we produced the Kasaan Haida Elders Speak project, completed in 2002. In spite of the passing of many elders interviewed then, we continue our ongoing efforts to record and preserve our Haida language and stories.

Our current priority is the restoration of Chief Son-I-Hat's Whale House and Totem Park, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Because of a lack of maintenance by the U.S. Forest Service since the early 1940s, the Whale House and totems have fallen into disrepair. Steady deterioration seriously threatens the only remaining Haida clan house in Alaska. We have begun to seek grants and other funding in order to return the Whale House to a sound condition.

In November 2004, KHHF announced the appointment of Frederick Olsen, Jr., a Kavilco shareholder, to the position of Media Specialist. The Foundation created the position to seek funding for and to conduct cultural preservation projects. As a registered non-profit organization, KHHF can offer donors a tax deduction for monetary and in-kind donations.