Disney Cruise Line and Huna Totem Corporation (HTC) signed a 15-year agreement securing preferential access at Icy Strait Point, ensuring Disney Cruise Line guests will continue visiting the Indigenous-owned destination through at least 2041.
That thought came rushing back this week as I learned more about Huna Totem Corporation, the Native-owned corporation that has been reshaping how cruise visitors experience the Great Land through Icy Strait Point, Klawock Island and Chugach Glacier Gateway.
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Icy Strait Point in Hoonah, Alaska, offers a rare kind of cruise stop — one where nature, culture, and community take center stage. It was also specifically developed with tourists in mind. … According to Icy Strait Point’s Senior Vice President, Tyler Hackman, the destination generates “$20 million a year of positive economic impact on a community of 900 people,” creating jobs while allowing Hoonah to remain distinctly itself.
Huna Totem has built up to four ports in Alaska and is extending its reach into the Caribbean, which is a transformation that Howard Sherman, president, Huna Totem Tourism Group, said reflects both the industry’s growth and Huna Totem’s evolving ambitions. … “If you go back and look before COVID, it was a single destination, which was Icy Strait Point, that Huna Totem was involved with, and had been involved with for almost 20 years at that time,” Sherman said.
The result has been rapid diversification.
With the recent announcement of the finalization of a necessary tidelands lease, the protracted and long-running permitting process for Huna Totem Corporation’s Áak’w Landing development is complete. Construction is slated to begin in the summer of 2027 with a projected opening in 2028.
Related:NCLH donates Juneau parcel to Huna Totem Corp. for new cruise pier
Waterfront revitalization
“Áak’w Landing is a meaningful investment in Juneau’s future,” Huna Totem President/CEO Russell Dick said.
When you do meet civilization, it’s in the remote Tlingit village of Klawock, home to an impressive 21-strong totem collection, and in Prince William Sound, Valdez, where you can learn about the famous 1989 Exxon oil spill at the local museum.
Totem poles in Klawock, Alaska.
Credit:
Image Source Limited/Alamy Stock Photo
Under cloudy skies, the Regent Seven Seas Explorer anchored off Prince of Wales Island. … (Klawock Heenya had the assistance of Huna Totem, which runs Icy Strait Point, another Native-owned port near Glacier Bay and a T+L Global Vision Award winner in 2025.)
These trips will call in smaller, less-visited ports including Klawock Island, Wrangell, Petersburg, Haines, and Valdez, in addition to familiar favorites like Sitka and Ketchikan.
Cruise guests visit a totem park near the Klawock Island port. Photo Credit: Huna Totem Corp. … Visitors to the Klawock Island port can take nature excursions like kayaking. Photo Credit: Huna Totem Corp.
Lessons from Icy Strait Point
When the Huna Totem Corp. opened its first cruise port, Icy Strait Point, in 2004, it had a different approach than with Klawock Island.