The Buffet Award for Indigenous Leadership, along with a $25,000 prize, was given
to Clarence Alexander of Fort Yukon, Alaska, to recognize his extraordinary indigenous
leadership on November 30. The former chief of Fort Yukon and grand chief of
the Gwich’in peoples, Alexander is co-founder of the Council of Athabascan
Tribal Governments and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. Currently
chairman of the Gwich’yaa Zhee Corporation, he is working on an Athabascan-English
dictionary. The prize money is meant to aid winners in development and education
projects in their communities.