Arctic Slope Native Association to hold annual meeting in Wainwright

Arctic Slope Native Association will bring its annual meeting to Wainwright on Aug. 10, giving residents a chance to hear program reports and board updates that can affect services across the North Slope. The two-hour meeting is set for noon to 2 p.m. in the North Slope Borough community on the west side of a narrow peninsula separating Wainwright Inlet from the Chukchi Sea.

ASNA says it was created to represent Anaktuvuk Pass, Atqasuk, Kaktovik, Nuiqsut, Point Hope, Point Lay, Utqiaġvik and Wainwright. The organization describes itself as an Alaska Native-owned, nonprofit, tribal health organization, and its board page says the Board of Directors is the governing body for ASNA.

That structure matters because ASNA’s services reach well beyond one village. Its materials list Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, medical travel and funeral assistance, and family preservation and child welfare services among the programs it provides across the region. For families that rely on those services, annual meeting updates can signal whether staffing, travel support, or program priorities are shifting.

ASNA’s posted annual reports for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 show that the organization has kept a regular reporting cycle in recent years. The Wainwright meeting fits that pattern, with leadership expected to walk through program performance and answer questions from the communities it was formed to serve.

In Wainwright, the questions that matter are practical: how ASNA is handling access to care, whether medical travel help is keeping pace with demand, what the latest board decisions mean for Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, and how family preservation and child welfare work is being supported in villages from Anaktuvuk Pass to Utqiaġvik. Residents will also be looking for any updates that touch staffing, coordination, and funding across North Slope communities.