She moved back to Alaska when she was 40 years old, and at the age of 55, she graduated from the University of Alaska Southeast, magna cum laude. In 2003, she graduated from University of Alaska Anchorage as Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literary Arts. She currently teaches at University of Alaska Southeast and is associated faculty for the University of Alaska Anchorage low-residence Master of Fine Arts program
Ernestine Hayes was raised in Juneau, and from the age of fifteen lived in California. Hayes is an active promoter of Native rights and culture, and decolonization. Despite this, she does not speak Tlingit herself.
Foreign just over a year, she wrote a column, "Edge of the Village", for the Juneau Empire.
Blonde Indian is the memoir of Tlingit writer and story-teller Ernestine Hayes. Book Review Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir
Author:Becca Gercken, Studies in American Indian Literature
Book Review Observatory Books, Dee Longenbaugh.
2002 Alaska Native Writer Award Anchorage Daily News Fiction 2006 Native America Calling October Book of the Month 2007 Kiriyama Prize finalist for Blonde Indian, An Alaska Native Memoir 2007 Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association-United States of America non-fiction award finalist 2007 American Book Award. 2007 HAIL (Honoring Alaska Indigenous Literature) Award 2014 Alaska Literary Award 2015 Rasmuson Artist, Djerassi Artist Residency 2015 AWARE Woman of Distinction.
