"It was a lot of talking past each other," Reuben Loewens said. "There were lectures about smallpox. There were bigger issues for some of these people."

  Sorry the legacy of colonization of Alaska was hard for you to hear about, but it sounds like MAYBE, the folks you were talking to--I mean, being 'lectured' by--have a history of being trampled on by colonists, and they are pointing out how now might be a good time to make that right.