Tongass Voices: Ldaan.aat Laurie Cropley and Yuxgitsiy George Holly on making space for tribal values

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

Lingít elder Ldaan.aat Laurie Cropley and elder-in-training Yuxgitsiy George Holly are leading dawn prayers at the annual Elders and Youth conference in Anchorage next week.

The prayers are from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Wednesday, and they involve singing, dancing, sharing thoughts. This year, they plan to lead a talking circle about tribal values across Alaska Native nations afterwards.

Listen: https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TV_GeorgeandLaurie.mp3

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yuxgitsiy George Holly: These are the words of Seigeige’i Emma Marks, when she shared about an old way of greeting the mor