Joaqlin U.tw Estus is a member of the Raven moiety and Kaach.adi (Frog) clan of Wrangell.
Joaqlin Estus was born in Southern California in 1950, but her family moved to Wrangell, her mother’s ancestral Lingít homeland, in 1963.  Since then, she has lived most of her life in Alaska, where she’s
had local, state, and even national impact.  
Her contributions include advocacy, education, healthcare, humanities, and journalism. Estus has
been a pioneering Native journalist in both Alaska and nationwide. In 2025, she retired as a national
correspondent for Indian Country Today.
In one where to look on the internet for her name, many articles would appear bringing awareness of
Alaska Native and American Indian issues to audiences in Alaska and across the country. She’s had
several stories picked up by the Associated Press and distributed nationwide. Her stories have been
published by the Washington Post, Yahoo News, U.S. News and World Report, the Toronto Star,
Seattle PI, Arizona Daily Star, and the Anchorage Daily News, among others. She has also published
articles for magazines such as High Country News, Alaska Humanities Forum, and First Alaskans.
She’s won numerous awards from the Indigenous Journalists Association and Alaska Press Club for
her work.  
Aside from a longtime career as a journalist, she also has an extensive record of public service:
founding member of the Alaska Native Media Group, which works to attract Natives to the
communications field; co-organizer of the biennial Sharing Our Knowledge Symposium which
promotes Southeast Alaska and Canadian Native culture and history; in 2025 she chaired the
symposium's planning committee; helped to produce materials to convince the national Presbyterian
Church's leadership to apologize for the church's racist actions against Dr. Walter Soboleff, a Lingít
minister, whose popular Presbyterian parish in Juneau was closed in 1962 and torn down. Soboleff
preached to a primarily Native congregation with services in both English and the Lingít language;
helped produced a video about Pastor Soboleff’s ministry,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU3OswuYybo; helped organize a history-making week of truth
and reconciliation ceremonies in Juneau — in which Presbyterian leaders made a formal apology to
the Soboleff family and the Lingít community for its discriminatory actions.
She is a longtime volunteer for the Alaska Native Media Group Book Fair and is helping Emil Notti
write his memoire. Notti was the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives and one of the
main leaders in the Native land claims movement.  
Estus frequently is tapped by various Alaska and national organizations as a lecturer on Native
history and culture, as well as civil rights and justice issues and continues to serve as a co-host for
KNBA's live coverage of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. Her knowledge of history and
Alaska Native issues has enhanced the station's gavel-to-gavel reporting.
Estus was active in the Alaska Native Sisterhood, serving a few times as president of Glacier Valley
Camp 70 in Juneau, and as a member of the Southeast Alaska Native Women’s Conference Planning
Committee.
 
Joaqlin Estus has worn many hats in the communications field.  

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history from University of Alaska Anchorage, she worked
for the federal government as a researcher, documenting the history of national parks and preserves.
She also witnessed history unfold. When she worked for the state of Alaska’s Coastal Management
Program, she was among the first state officials to arrive in Cordova after the 1989 Exxon spill to
assess its impacts and propose programs to help.
Later in her career, she took up journalism. Given her long family history of Indigenous leadership and
advocacy for justice, this seemed like a good fit. You might say it was in her blood.
Her grandfather, Louis Paul, was publisher and editor of the Alaska Fisherman Newspaper, which
reported Native news in the 1920’s.
Louis’ brother, William Paul, Sr., was the first Alaska Native attorney and the first Native to serve in
the Alaska Territorial Legislature. The Lingít lawyer championed historic civil rights and land claims
battles, paving the way for the eventual passage of the landmark Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act.
This passion for public service and justice is a part of her DNA.  
Her intimate knowledge of Native civil rights and land claims has been invaluable to Alaska's
journalism community. Most reporters typically don't stay in the state long enough to understand
these complex but important issues. Estus has been one of the few journalists knowledgeable
enough to provide this coverage.  
She's also helped many a reporter navigate their way through an array of stories that are hard to do –
because they require a working knowledge of Native corporations and tribes – and their complicated
relationship with the state and federal government. This type of expertise takes years to acquire – but
also takes a special set of communications skills to make this information easily understood.
Estus seemed to follow her natural abilities as a communicator. She started out as a volunteer at
KTOO FM in Juneau and then landed a paid internship at the Alaska Public Radio Network. She went
on to work for KTOO, where she helped launch some of Southeast Alaska's first public affairs
programs on Native issues.
There was something about the warmth and clarity of her voice that struck a chord with Alaska public
radio listeners. Her deep knowledge of Native history and culture brought a new level of expertise to
the airwaves.  
Her talents soon drew attention from larger markets. In 1994, she went to work as a reporter for
Minnesota Public Radio, where she was based in St. Paul. After two years, she brought this big
market experience back to Alaska to work in both journalism and public relations.  
In 1999, she became Director of Public Communications for the Alaska Native Tribal Health

Consortium, ANTHC, a job she held for a decade. It was a highly influential position. At the time,
ANTHC had a $300 million dollar budget and 1,800 employees. Estus oversaw ANTHC’s newsletters,
brochures, posters, annual reports, public service announcements and educational videos. The
mission for ANTHC is daunting. It serves a population that struggles with some of the highest rates of
chronic disease in the nation. Estus’s messaging talents helped to raise awareness about these
challenges and helped to launch a wellness movement in the Native community.  She also enlisted
journalists in her efforts, who appreciated her help in telling these difficult stories.
Estus returned to journalism in 2010 to become news director of KNBA-FM, a station that is part of
the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, which also produces National Native News and the Native
America Calling talk show. She not only contributed stories heard by state and national audiences
but also helped volunteers produce public affairs programs.  
Estus retired in 2017, but this hiatus was to be short lived. In 2020, ICT (formerly Indian Country
Today) tapped her to be a national correspondent. Her reports helped build ICT from a struggling
online publication to a multi-media powerhouse. Mark Trahant, editor, publisher and architect of ICT’s
transformation, says Estus defined ICT’s coverage of Alaska and set a high bar for those who will
follow.
During her time at ICT, Estus mentored many up-and-coming Native journalists, including Meghan
Sullivan, the daughter of U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan and Julie Fate Sullivan, a former Native journalist.
While at ICT, Meghan produced an extensive series of articles to mark the 50th anniversary of the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Estus supported her efforts and gave advice on how to pursue
this project.
While Estus has helped young journalists, she has had a strong commitment to elders. Lingít culture
is matrilineal – so from a young age, it was natural for her to work with powerful Native women to
support their community service efforts. She had a long apprenticeship in leadership.  
Her long-term commitment to the Sharing Our Knowledge conference is an example of how she
worked with elders to preserve Native language, culture and history. In 2025, she is helping
Anchorage elder, Irene Rowan, develop a public affairs radio show and podcast, to be hosted by
elders.    
Estus has tried to retire but she continues to volunteer for community projects and speaking
engagements.
Estus has had significant impact on the lives of women in many ways: as she pursued a successful
journalism and communications career, she served as a role model for Native women everywhere.
During her stint as news director at KNBA radio, she became one of a handful of Native women to
serve as a news manager in Alaska.
Estus has been a mentor to many, known for her kindness and ability to bring out the best in those
she works with. She is a networker extraordinaire, especially among women. She has used her
connections to help women get ahead in the field of broadcasting as well as connect them to other
opportunities.

Rhonda McBride said, “I would call Joaqlin Estus a trailblazer, bridge builder, diplomat and tireless
“Estus-pedia,” for her encyclopedic knowledge of Native issues. Gifted communicator.  Encourager-
in-Chief. Font of wisdom.  I can share my own personal experience of Joaqlin as a role model. It's not
easy for a non-Native reporter to cover Native issues. It's a space in which we are not always
welcome, nor prepared to navigate. But I am ever grateful for Joaqlin's support. She has always been
so encouraging. She knows how important it is for reporters to bring these stories to light and is
always happy to share information about how to approach our work with respect and sensitivity.”
Many Non-Native journalists in Alaska, particularly women, have turned to Estus for help. She's not
only a great teacher but has often served as a bridge between reporters and the Native community.    
In modern Western society, women have had to contend with the good old boy network – and it hasn't
been until recent years that we've excelled at creating our own networks, which is what the Alaska
Women's Hall of Fame celebrates.
Estus, as a Lingít steeped in matrilineal culture, always seemed to have a good network of Native
women in leadership. She also willingly shared those connections with her non-Native colleagues,
which helped them to build ties with the Native community and uplift them in ways they might not
have otherwise experienced.  
In whatever arena Estus has worked in, she has always been highly respected for her goodness and
integrity. It never hurts to have her in your corner. She has a rare ability to help settle conflicts within a
group, a quiet leadership style that gets results, perhaps stemming from her Lingít culture's emphasis
on seeking balance.
Her organizational skills are formidable, which has helped to keep many of the complex endeavors
she's been involved with on track. Some of these skills no doubt come from being part of long line of
Lingít women leaders.
McBride said, “Estus has one of those qualities that's hard to define. It's tempting to use the word
"nice" to describe her. But this does her a disservice, because it doesn't address another side of her
character — the strength and determination she shows whenever she strives for a goal. 
Estus is the most approachable of people, which has made it easier for reporters to reach out to her
for help. She is unfailingly generous with her time but also unstintingly honest. You can count on her
for good counsel on how to pursue a story.  A gentle wisdom, a strong ethical compass, a
graciousness and willingness to help are common threads, all traits that she possesses that make her
a trusted and beloved mentor.”  
Although Estus and her husband, filmmaker Larry Goldin, never had children, she is the person that
her large extended family counts upon. She is the auntie her nieces turn to for help in coping with
life's challenges, the sister who escorts her brother to Seattle for cancer treatment.