Cultural Heritage Academic Services (CHAS)

Cultural Heritage Academic Services provides comprehensive services for tribal members who seek to increase their leadership capacity through educational and professional training. CHAS views every tribal member as current or prospective leaders for our Native families, schools, organizations, and communities. CHAS embraces and celebrates our Native traditions while encouraging tribal members to live fulfilling modern lives.

CHAS Mission Statement

KIC Cultural Heritage Academic Services works in partnership with our elders, educators, and leaders, as well as other allies, to provide career, educational, and language programs for all tribal members. We complete this work acknowledging át awoonéi, yahkwdáng, and hlau-dum, in order to develop tribal members’ individual leadership capacity and to promote tribal self-determination.

*The words át awoonéi (Tlingit), yahkwdáng (Haida), hlau-dum (Tsimshian) are concepts of respect in our heritage languages.

CHAS Working Priorities

• We prepare students at a young age to meet the demands of traditional and contemporary cultures, especially in the workplace and in school.
• We infuse cultural knowledge and language into all our programs and services.
• We leverage and maximize our resources by working with state, federal, and community entities, as well as other tribes.

CHAS Programs

• Workforce Development
• Advanced Educational Opportunities
• Language Program (formerly J.O.M.)