Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Eesh Richard Peterson and Community and Behavioral Services staff member Bettyann Carlos at the grand opening of a free vending machine in downtown Juneau on July 21, 2026. Photo by (Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
Juneau now has a free vending machine to distribute community health and healing supplies. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska recently opened one downtown.
The vending machine is located at the tribe’s Edward K. Thomas Building – across the street from Sacred Grounds Cafe – and can be accessed 7 am to 5 pm weekdays.
It contains lifesaving interventions like overdose rescue kits and other healthcare items like HIV tests, condoms, and drug disposal kits. It’s been open and operating for about a month now.
Bettyann Carlos is with Tlingit and Haida’s Community and Behavioral Services Healing Center. She said she has already encountered people who are excited that the vending machine exists.
“I come and check this vending machine every day or every other day, and I get to encounter so many people who are just ready,” she said. “Who are ready to make a change, and who want to support their friends, their family members.”
And nestled among those items are cultural healing tools like Hudson Bay tea, also called Labrador tea, which tribal citizens harvested this summer.
Narcan kits and Hudson Bay tea in Tlingit and Haida’s new free vending machine in downtown Juneau. July 21, 2026. (Photo by Yvonne Krumrey/KTOO)
“Some people might go to substance abuse because (of) traumas that they’ve had in the past, and where you find your sense of identity is through our culture,” Carlos said. That’s through the Hudson Bay tea. If you’ve done that with your grandparents when you were little, you remember that and you hold on to that, and that’s part of your identity.”
And Carlos said she plans to stock the machines with beading kits, which will provide an opportunity for people to make art and practice mindfulness.
The tribe partnered with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to bring the vending machine to Juneau. Another opened in Ketchikan last month.
Carlos said ANTHC is also partnering with Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to bring a second vending machine to the Mendenhall Valley sometime soon.
