“Lingit x’éináx Jaax̱snée yóo x̱at duwasáakw. Yéil naax̱ x̱at sitee, ka Taakw.aaneidí áyá x̱at. My Tlingit name is Jaax̱snée. I am of the Raven moiety, and I am from the Taakw.aaneidí clan.”
Kelsey Foote (Jaax̱snée) is a Tlingit illustrator, writer, and voice actor from Southeast Alaska who works in digital art, blending natural textures and watercolor elements. Her work draws from an Alaskan upbringing—putting up fish, exploring temperate rainforests, and attending programs like the Sitka Native Education Program—along with a commitment to celebrating Native people, stories, and identity.
A lifelong love of storytelling, from anime and manga to character-driven video games, continues to influence her work, bringing stylistic elements, rich worldbuilding, and whimsicality from animated media into her artistic practice. Kelsey’s creative journey debuted with Celebration! (2022), a children’s book produced through Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Baby Raven Reads program, which promotes literacy and preserves Alaska Native languages and culture through children’s literature. This book received the American Indian Youth Literature Award’s Picture Book Honor, recognizing “outstanding writings and illustrations for youth by and about Native American and Indigenous peoples of North America” and now resides in the Library of Congress.
In early 2024, Kelsey transitioned from her role as Director of Communications at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) to focus full-time on creative projects. She remains Creative Editor of Restoration Magazine, a triannual publication dedicated to informing tribal leaders, advocates, and communities about emerging issues affecting American Indian and Alaska Native women. A notable work in this space includes the collaborative No More Stolen Sisters (2023) project with her brother Nick Alan Foote, featured as cover art for the June 2023 issue of Restoration and set to appear as embroidered shawls in a forthcoming CDC exhibition on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis.
Most recently, Kelsey and her brother were selected as illustrators and character designers for a long-term language revitalization project with the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, Cedar Group, and cultural specialists. The collaboration spans nine children’s books and animated shorts entirely in Tlingit. The first book, Kuhaantí (2023), was released in October in Juneau, Alaska.