Richard Peterson is not having a good week. The Landmine has learned that Peterson – who has served as president of the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) since 2014 – has been placed on administrative leave after a bombshell post from his former girlfriend and fiancé, Amelia Hayward. Since, more has been revealed. 

Hayward made a Facebook post describing a toxic relationship with Peterson, saying she “endured extreme emotional abuse, narcissistic behavior, manipulation, gaslighting, intimidation, and frequent sexual assaults at the hands of someone who said I’d ‘never been and would never be loved so well.'”

Hayward also claimed Peterson gave her substances to get her in the mood and threatened her with violence. 

Hayward, who previously worked at Tlingit & Haida, claimed she was “shown the ugly side of Indian politics when others started learning that the relationships was over.”

This Alaska Native News article shows that Hayward (then Rivera) was promoted to Cultural Heritage & Education Division Senior Director in early 2023. She had worked there since 2021.

In her Facebook post Hayward said her problems started in the spring of 2024. This is when she left Peterson and her job at Tlingit & Haida. 

The Landmine shared her post on our Facebook page and X account. Since, multiple women have either made public comments or contacted the Landmine with stories describing a long history of intimidation and harassment from Peterson.   

Renée Royal shared the Landmine’s Facebook post with her own story. Royal, who worked at Tlingit & Haida in 2015, describes a traumatic experience working with Peterson. In the post she wrote that she discovered “a barrage of perverse and sexually explicit text messages” objectifying her on a computer she was asked to retrieve a file from.

Royal agreed to talk to the Landmine about her experience. 

Royal told the Landmine that Peterson would, “Tell people in the workplace that he wonders if I wore panties. Then it escalated to him saying I didn’t and that I would open my legs and show him my privates at work. And I never ever did such a thing. Ever. I was married with two small children. But even if I weren’t it’s never something I would have done.” 

Royal also shared text messages in which a former co-worker told Royal that Peterson said she “displayed her privates to catch his eye.” 

Royal said that she was so sickened and traumatized by the experience she quit her job and left Juneau. She had moved to Juneau from the Mat-Su Valley with her family for the job. She decided to return to the Valley with her family because she was so humiliated by the lies Peterson was telling people about her. 

Other women contacted the Landmine with similar stories, but say they are scared to go public due to fear of reprisals from Peterson.

The Landmine spoke with multiple people who describe a culture of intimidation and retaliation at Tlingit & Haida against anyone who crosses Peterson. Some worry about family members being targeted if they speak out. 

An email obtained by the Landmine demonstrates Peterson’s penchant for intimidation.

In January, Peterson sent an email to Alana Peterson (no relation), the executive director of Spruce Root about a potential new employee, employee X. (The employee requested their name be redacted.)  

Spruce Root’s website describes them as an “Indigenous institution that provides all Southeast Alaskans with access to business development resources like loans, coaching, workshops and more. We catalyze local communities and empower small businesses.”

Richard Peterson made unsupported claims about employee X, alleging employee X made factually inaccurate statements about the tribe and cast them in a negative light. Richard Peterson gave no examples. He concluded by saying “Tlingit & Haida will not tolerate any further interference in our operations. We will also speak out against efforts anywhere to undermine the voices of all tribal governments.”

According to employee X’s LinkedIn, they worked at Tlingit & Haida for seven years between 2016 and 2023. If employee X was so bad why did Peterson employ him for seven years? The answer lies in where he went to work. After employee X left Tlingit & Haida he worked for a year at the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) from January 2024 to December 2024. 

In May 2023, Tlingit & Haida announced they were leaving AFN. Peterson had gotten sideways with AFN and was not shy about it. Regarding the decision to leave, Peterson told the the Anchorage Daily News, “It has always been in the best interest of the tribe to directly promote, advance and advocate for our people and communities, and we have positioned the tribe and strategically built our capacity to do just that.” 

Tlingit & Haida rejoined AFN this May, but it’s clear that Peterson tried to prevent employee X from getting a job at Spruce Root due to employee X’s affiliation with AFN after he left Tlingit & Haida. 

Peterson nearly succeeded. Leslie Isaacs is the board chair for Spruce Root, but his day job is a senior director at Tlingit & Haida. Lucky for employee X he is well regarded and despite Peterson’s attempt to block his hiring, he got the job.

Peterson’s reach goes even further. The board chair for Sealaska, one of Alaska’s 13 Native Regional Corporations, is Richard Reinhart. He is the CEO of the Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation, which is owned by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The board chair for Sealaska Heritage is Vicki Soboleff. Her day job is the cultural manager for Tlingit & Haida.

As president of Tlingit & Haida, Peterson has great influence over many careers in Southeast Alaska. The question is how many of them have empowered him or sat by in silence during Peterson’s reign of terror?