Co-Director

Deenaalee Chase-Hodgdon is Deg Xit’an Dene, Sugpiaq and Yupiaq from the villages of Gitr’ingithchagg (Anvik) and Qinuyang (South Naknek), Alaska where they spent their summers growing up and raised in during winter on Lower Tanana Dene land in Fairbanks, Alaska. Deenaalee enjoys working with their hands whether that means bead working, tanning hides, cutting fish, rock climbing, or learning how to tattoo.

Co-Director

Ruth Łchavaya K’isen Miller is a Dena'ina Athabaskan and Ashkenazi Jewish woman, raised in Dgheyay Kaq, Alaska. She is a member of the Curyung Tribe of Dillingham, though her family is from Kijik village from the Lake Clark region. She has worked many years towards climate justice and regenerative economies, including international advocacy, national policy leadership and local community roles.

Bristol Bay Coordinator

Drew Al’a Carlos (She/They) is Yupiaq from the tribe of Tuyuryaq, a place for sending. Al’a is passionate about language revitalization and healing through cultural arts and practices. When they are not on the boat commercial fishing, they spend their time carving ivory, beading, or with her cat Phoebe. She feels honored to be a part of a collective that aligns with our traditional way of life.

Community Affiliate Program Development Lead, Native Movement

Lev Greenstein (he / him) is nonprofit supporter focused on making the nitty gritty administrative work of social change as easy as possible. With experience in education, facilitation, and nonprofit operations, he has combined his skills to back community leaders, lending backend capacity to support their frontend focuses. Before joining Native Movement, Lev worked with Alaska Venture Fund and Alaska Humanities Forum. He is committed to supporting programs that are grounded in community and that honor the deep relationships, histories, and futures possible in Alaska.

Craig Chythlook is Yup’ik, originally from the Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska. Craig’s parents are Joe and Molly Chythlook from Dillingham, AK. Craig has spent his life fishing for salmon on the waters of Bristol Bay. Craig’s current work is looking at what evaluation criteria are used to measure success while observing salmon, salmon management, and how to utilize Indigenous values and place-based knowledge into resource management decision-making. Craig graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a business administration degree and a minor in rural development. While attending UAF, Craig spent three and a half years participating in undergraduate research studying how better access to water utility services impact subsistence activities. Craig’s research interests include how Western fisheries policy and management can better include Indigenous and place-based knowledge into state and federal decision-making spaces, regarding salmon/resource management.

Dewey Kk’ołeyo Hoffman is originally from Ruby, Alaska. Dewey was given the Denaakk’e Athabascan name Kk’ołeyo by his grandmother Lillian Olin, after her grandfather Big Jim; it means “walking.” His late mother is Dee Olin, grandparents Fred Olin, Sr. and Lillian Olin of central Yukon and adopted grandparents John and Lorraine Honea of Ruby. His father is David Hoffman, grandparents George and Helen Hoffman of Bozeman, Montana. He has a strong professional interest in positive youth development through cultural education, which is in line with his lifelong love of language learning and cultural exchange across the world.

Malinda is an enrolled tribal member of Anvik, a Deg Hit’an Dene’ village, located in Alaska’s interior region, at the confluence of the Yukon and Anvik Rivers. She works as the Tribal Resilience Liaison for the Alaska Climate Science Center to support tribes in their self-determined efforts in addressing climate change. She is actively engaged as a board member and in a leadership role for her village corporation established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Throughout her work life, Malinda is fortunate to work closely with prominent Alaska Native Elders and talented Alaska Native educators, especially with the Association of Interior Native Educators she's been involved with indigenous curriculum and professional development initiatives that perpetuate and share the knowledge, beliefs and strength of Indigenous People of Alaska. When she has a chance, Malinda loves berry-picking, cutting and preserving salmon, skiing, picnics and being in her kayak or riverboat on any Alaskan river, especially with family and friends.

Greetings, my name is Conor Downey. I moved to Dillingham from the Midwest in the fall of 2011 and never could have imagined the adventure that awaited me. I was introduced to traditional ways of living when my wife, Tiffany Bennett, and I started our family. Tiffany belongs to the Curyung Tribe with deep family roots in the Becharof lands around Egegik, the lost village of Kanatak, and the Kodiak/Afognak Islands. We are blessed with three daughters who I have spent a majority of my time raising for the past 10 years. We took over the family's commercial fishing operations in 2017 and started direct marketing operations in 2018. Health issues led us to hang up the nets at the end of 2023, but many new doors have opened. This new path has allowed me to take on advisory and consulting roles in the areas of Direct Marketing/Processing and Program Management. Quyana!

Bethany is Denaa (Koyukon Athabascan) and is a member of the Meneelghaadze T'oh tribe of Koyukuk, Alaska. She is currently a senior studying Environmental Conservation and Management with a minor in Native American Indigenous Studies at Fort Lewis College. She joined the Smokehouse Collective as an intern because she was raised in a subsistence lifestyle that involved spending countless hours in the fish cutting yard before the ban on fishing and would love to be back in that space. She plans on moving back home within the next ten years to work towards becoming fluent in Denaake’ and to be closer to her family.

My name is Jordan David, I am from Huslia, AK, and I just finished my second year at Stanford University. I joined the Smokehouse Collective because it allows me to work closely with my community in a meaningful way that wouldn’t be possible if I took an internship elsewhere. The Smokehouse Collective’s pursuit of securing and dispersing salmon to small villages fits well with my passion for sustainable fisheries and supporting Indigenous communities. I'm excited to contribute to projects that ensure the long-term health of the natural resources and cultural heritage of Alaska.