Rosita Kaaháni Worl is an American anthropologist and Alaska Native cultural, business and political leader. She is president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Juneau-based nonprofit organization that preserves and advances the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Native cultures of Southeast Alaska, and has held that position since 1997. She also served on the board of directors of the Sealaska regional Native corporation for 30 years, beginning in 1987, including as board vice president. The corporation, with more than 22,000 shareholders, founded the heritage institute and provides substantial funding.
Worl's Tlingit names are Yeidiklasókw and Kaaháni. She is of the Ch’áak’ (Eagle) moiety of the Shangukeidí (Thunderbird) Clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered from the Sun) in Klukwan.
Professional life
Worl has been a professor of anthropology at University of Alaska campuses in Juneau and Anchorage and has authored papers on subsistence ways of life, Native women's issues, Indian law and policy and Southeast Alaska Native culture and history. She has been associated with the Smithsonian Institution and was among four editors of "Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska," published in 2010 by Smithsonian Books. It features more than 200 objects representing the artistry and design traditions of 20 Alaska Native peoples.
She also served on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) National Review Committee from 2000 to 2013, including as its chairperson. The committee monitors the process of repatriation, where Native remains and artifacts in museums are returned to their original owners. It facilitates the resolution of related disputes between museums and tribes.
A related paper about NAGPRA, "Integrating Science & Stories: Tlingit Ancient History," was presented to the Society for Applied Anthropology in 2005. It focused on coastal migration, genetic studies, the discovery of 10,000-year-old remains of an early indigenous man in Southeast Alaska and how tribal leaders and scientists researched his origins together.
Earlier in her career, Worl conducted field work in the Arctic, studying socio-cultural impacts on the Inupiat from offshore oil development. She also studied the aboriginal whaling complex and served as a scientific advisor to the U.S. Department of State for the International Whaling Commission and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.
In 1982, she and her children founded Alaska Native News, a monthly statewide magazine, which contained in-depth feature articles on Alaska Native corporations, art, culture, transportation, energy and other topics. It operated through 1985.
Worl served as an adviser on Alaska Native and Rural Affairs to Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper in the mid-1980s, where she formulated the first State of Alaska Policy on Alaska Natives. In that role, she analyzed federal legislation revising parts of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to reduce the chance that Native corporations created by the act could be taken over by non-Native interests. Worl made the case that the revisions did not fully protect those corporations.
She also served as a member of President Bill Clinton's Northwest Sustainability Commission. She has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Indigenous Languages Institute, the National Science Foundation Polar Programs Committee, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission Scientific Committee and the National Museum of the American Indian.
Worl chaired the subsistence committee of the Alaska Federation of Natives and addressed federal officials in that role. In 2013, she addressed the Energy and Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate, explaining the importance of traditional hunting, fishing and other food-gathering to Alaska Natives. She estimated that at that time, the annual average per-person harvest was 544 pounds, making up about half of their caloric intake. Worl noted that federal regulation of such harvests interfered with Alaska Natives’ ability to feed themselves and their families.
In recent years, Worl has taken the Sealaska Heritage Institute in new directions. It dedicated its new Juneau headquarters, in the Walter Soboleff Building, in 2015. The building includes contemporary and traditional Native art, a museum, a performance and lecture area and classrooms.