Bob Benda

Prince William Sound College

PWSC is a two-year college in Valdez, Alaska. Accredited by the NWCCU through the University of Alaska Anchorage. Land Acknowledgement: "The Prince William Sound College main campus in Valdez respectfully acknowledges that we live, work, learn, and operate on the traditional, ancestral lands of the Chugach Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people. These lands have been stewarded for thousands of years since time immemorial by the Chugach Sugpiaq and Ahtna people. The traditional name of this area in Sugt'stun, the language of the Sugpiaq, is Suacit, which means, "the people of the place that rises into view." Suacit and the surrounding Prince William Sound villages provided a bountiful harvest for the Sugpiat, Ahtna, and Eyak people. Suacit played an integral role as an overland trade route that linked Interior Alaska to Prince William Sound. PWSC acknowledges the painful history of colonization and the resilience of the Chugach Sugpiaq who still live here today. Valdez is a unique community in that the Valdez Native Tribe serves all local Indigenous residents and is not specific to the Sugpiaq people. PWSC acknowledges the ancient and current Indigenous stewards of this land who reside here today. This land acknowledgment is important to the PWSC campus because too often Indigenous history is washed away, and we strive to include both the ancestral and the contemporary history of the Indigenous people in our region."