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YAKUTAT - Jim Thomas, a Tlingit formerly of Yakutat, was recently elected president of the Potlatch Fund, an American Indian/Alaska Native philanthropic foundation headquartered in Seattle, Wash. Potlatch Fund supports worthy causes among Tribal organizations and individuals with emphasis on cultural preservation, promotion of artists and Native art and in assisting tribal organizations to form their own nonprofits.

Thomas also is the chairman of the TANF Committee of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians that represents 58 Tribes in seven states including Alaska. He is the vice president of National Alliance of Tribal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and is compliance officer for the Nooksack Indian Tribal TANF Program.

In Alaska, Thomas was the public relations director of the Alaska Federation of Natives and a member of its board of directors during the major efforts to win rights for Alaska Natives that led to the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act of 1971. He has served as president of Yak-Tat-Kwaan, the village corporation. He has served with the National Congress of American Indians, served in the Office of the Vice President of the United States and worked with tribes throughout the U.S. He was a Miss Alaska Judge on two occasions and was the first American Indian Miss America Scholarship Pageants judge.

In addition to his work on the Alaska Native Land Claims, his Washington, D.C. company Jim Thomas Associates handled the restoration of Mount Adams to the Yakama Indian Nation of Washington. He was also directly involved in the restoration of Taos Blue Lake to the Taos Pueblo of New Mexico; the restoration of toplands to the Havasupai Tribe that resides one mile deep in the Grand Canyon and the Ozette to the Makah Indians of Coastal Washington.