Steven Holley, Teqin K’iega (Wolf Shadow in Dena’ina) is a culture bearer and agricultural entrepreneur. Born and enrolled with the Native Village of Tyonek, raised with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, and adopted as an honorary member by the Native Village of Eklutna, he is an indigenous Dena’ina, of the Cook Inlet region.

He began his career, as a Landsman, with assisting in the development in the lands department for his home Alaska Native village corporation. This gave him a unique perspective in the daily and long-term needs of his tribe. Tyonek is one of the first Alaska villages to benefit from the Tribal Conservation District model, and their use of it taught Steven the power of working with the institutions for healthier land and sustainable partnerships.

It taught him how Native ownership of productive lands provides generations of benefits in-line with Alaska Native culture. Having seen the successes of Alaska’s renewed interest in gardening and farming, Steven spent the next 12 years advocating for the social, mental, physical, spiritual benefits of gardening and the economic benefit of farming.

His advocacy includes the construction of multiple educational gardens (Eklutna and Stickleback) that will help him teach his (30+ people) Dena’ina cultural group to include agriculture into the cultural expectations of the next generation. He brought his group to villages for working with the community to build gardens and share culture. He used this perspective to help develop the Alaska Resilience Farms program, which assists in the establishment of gardens across rural and urban Alaska. In addition to food security and food sovereignty, Steven is passionate and active in community development. His work with the Anchorage community had brought the Dena’ina culture to the forefront, with other Alaska Native leaders, of the integration of agriculture in Alaska Native culture.

As a Landsman, Steven experiences the cost of energy for developing projects in logistically isolated communities. This led him to partner up with his longtime colleague at 10Power for building energy resiliency and sovereignty. 10Power’s values aligne with his values, so he introduced its founder to his home village and the villages he serves. This collaboration is building the framework for building elements of sustainable communities, derived from community input, experiences, and industry standards.