Southeast

The House Resources Committee has approved a scaled-back measure aimed at increasing sea otter harvests. It’s a significant change for the resolution authored by Wrangell Representative Peggy Wilson.

Aide Arthur Martin addressed the committee on Monday.

“A concern was raised with the ability of Native peoples to sell sea otter pelts to anyone. So we removed all mention of the sale of intact sea otter pelts and crafted the language and a few changes that clarified the issue,” Martin said.

Federal rules allow only coastal Alaska Natives to kill otters. And they can only sell pelts to non-Natives that are turned into traditional clothing or crafts.

The updated resolution calls for the state to work with federal officials to update otter harvest rules. That includes allowing Natives to turn pelts into modern handicrafts. The change could encourage more hunting by providing a larger market, but not as much as whole-pelt sales.

Fishermen and divers have seen shellfish numbers drop as the voracious marine mammals expand their numbers and range. That’s led some to ask the federal government to increase otter harvests.

Sitka’s Mike Miller, of the Indigenous People’s Council for Marine Mammals, told the committee it’s a serious threat.

“There’s definitely concern in the Native community about the impact the otters have. And we need to protect both the otters, but also the resources the community relies on like subsistence and commercial shellfish and things like that,” Miller said.

Others asked the committee to drop any effort to slow otter growth. They said such actions would upset the environmental balance and inspire national protection campaigns that could hurt tourism.

“Opening the door for predator control for sea otters also opens the door for predator control on other protected species such as Steller sea lions and humpback whales,” said Tina Brown of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.

“And if you don’t think this is the case, haven’t been listening, because people are already talking about that,” she said.

But Petersburg Vessel Owners Association Executive Director Julianne Curry said many of her members want increased harvests.

“What we’d be looking for is for coastal Natives, who are allowed to harvest under current regulations, to be able to sell a sea otter pelt to a non-Native,” Curry said.

Sponsor Wilson says she will consider further changes to the resolution.

 

 

 

Anthropologists, linguists and elders will gather in Sitka this spring for a conference of Tlingit tribes and clans. It coincides with the 100-year anniversary of Alaska Native Brotherhood, the state’s oldest indigenous-rights association.

Organizers are meeting in person and by phone to assemble this year’s clan conference.

“The idea is that it’s sort of a combination of a down-home get-together and an academic conference,” says Richard Dauenhauer, a Juneau-based author, researcher and linguist, as well as one of the event organizers.

“So we encourage both academic participation, but also just folks in the community. Everybody has a chance to get together and we get different perspectives on things,” he says.

The event, called “Sharing Our Knowledge,” takes place March 29th through April 1st at Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Presenters include tradition-bearing elders, historians and anthropologists from Southeast, the Pacific Northwest, and as far away as Germany. (Read about the previous Clan Conference.)

“What’s unique about this is that for academics they get an opportunity to speak and kind of mix it up with people who are actually living the culture,” says Peter Metcalfe, an author, researcher, and one of the conference organizers.

“The part I like about it is that it’s very accessible. There’s a lot of very intimidating concepts, linguistics and cultural anthropology and so on. But people aren’t really talking down, they’re speaking English – or Tlingit, as the case may be. There’s very little jargon and people are very respectful each other,” Metcalfe says.

He says the public is welcome, whatever their background or interest.

The Sitka clan conference will include sessions on the Alaska Native Brotherhood, which is celebrating a century of work, as well as the Alaska Native Sisterhood.

That’s a topic of interest to Kathy Kolkhorst Ruddy, another person helping with the event. She, Metcalfe and Dauenhauer researched and authored a study of the ANB’s role in protecting Native rights.

“And I learned a lot about the history of the success of the Alaska Native Brotherhood in preventing extinguishment of aboriginal title. It was very close. People don’t know the drama of that story. So I’m eager that that success of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood be highlighted,” Ruddy says.

Other sessions will focus on museums, access to digital collections, archeology training, traditional art and food, and other topics.

Language expert and author Nora Marks Dauenhauer will present at the conference, as well as work behind the scenes. She’s been recording elders and transcribing their oratory since the late sixties.

“That’s part of the reason I’m glad that the conference is happening. I think there’s a lot of people who would like to have their stories told,” she says.

Clan conference sessions will be videotaped and made available to those who can’t attend.

See photos from the 2009 conference.

A key Southeast Native leader is asking the Legislature to not lower oil taxes.

Tlingit-Haida Central Council President Ed Thomas says Alaska needs the revenue. He also says oil companies are already making huge profits.

“If there’s no incentive for them to get more oil under those conditions, I really don’t think a few dollars of taxes taken away from our education programs or rural energy programs is going to make a difference,” he says.

The Central Council is a regional tribal organization representing more than 28,000 Tlingit and Haida Indians in and outside Alaska. It runs health, job-training, business, public safety and other programs.

Governor Sean Parnell says lowering taxes would promote new development needed to keep oil revenues coming. The House has passed such a measure, but the Senate wants a different plan.

Thomas says even talking about tax cuts is a bad idea.

“If the oil companies are going to keep getting promised that they are going to get cutbacks in taxes, they’re not going to drill. You know that and I know that. Because they’re waiting for the better deal. They can afford to wait because they have barrels of money already,” he says.

Thomas spoke at Wednesday’s Native Issues Forum in Juneau. His comments followed statements from House Speaker Mike Chenault and Representative Reggie Joule.

A Western Alaska lawmaker says place-based education is working.

Representative Reggie Joule, a Kotzebue Democrat, told Juneau’s Native Issues Forum today that the approach makes sense.

Theme- or place-based education teaches traditional subjects using students’ frames of reference.

Joule cited a math class he and other lawmakers visited last year at Barrow’s high school.

“The issue they were working around was height, distance and time. The problem that they were solving was in throwing a harpoon in which you hunt the whales with. What’s the time it takes to reach a certain point? What’s the time it takes to come down? What’s the distance? Those kids were into it big time,” he says.

Middle-schoolers compared the density of whale meat and blubber. And elementary students worked on kuspuk, or parka, designs.

Joule says those students were also very engaged in their classes.

“We put some money out there for a pilot project that’s taking place in the Iditarod Area School District. Because their board’s vision was to be, and to deliver to students, relevant education without losing the expectations and standards of what the education community needed to have,” he says.

Other Alaska schools use the technique. A legislative task force last year recommended more schools try place- or theme-based education.

Link to the final recommendations from the Alaska Legislative Task Force on Theme-Based Education.

Several Alaska Native organizations oppose a legislative effort to increase sea otter harvests. But they support efforts to get Alaskans more involved in federal management of the once-rare marine mammals.

The voracious marine mammals are expanding in number and range in Southeast and some other coastal areas. Crabbers and divers say otters are decimating populations of crab and other shellfish they gather for commercial or subsistence use.

Alaska Natives are allowed to hunt otters, but face strict federal limits on how they are used. Full pelts can be sold to other Natives. Traditional products, such as clothing or regalia, can be sold to anyone.

Representative Peggy Wilson, a Wrangell Republican, authored the legislative resolution asking federal authorities to work with state and Native leaders to allow more hunts.

“We’re hoping that the Natives can do what they traditionally have done for years. And they can be able to harvest (otters), use their skins to make other things so that they can make money. If we just keep it to them, we’re not going to overharvest by any means of the imagination,” Wilson says.

Wilson’s resolution would allow whole pelts to be sold to non-Natives, which is now illegal. She recently told the House Resources Committee that would boost harvests and lessen impacts on fisheries.

Tlingit-Haida Central Council President Ed Thomas says that could create problems.

“The biggest threat is that if we were allowed to sell those pelts unaltered, you could pretty much guess, if you look down here on South Franklin (Juneau’s tourist district), that they would come back as ‘authentic’ Native crafts made in Taiwan,” Thomas says.

Thomas supports other parts of the resolution calling for a new federal management plan that increases otter harvests.

So does Rosita Worl, who spoke on behalf of the Alaska Federation of Natives, Sealaska Corporation and the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Sealaska and tribal governments in Sitka and Petersburg are among those trying to expand pelt processing. Worl says they’re providing training and equipment needed to support a growing cottage industry.

“We see sea otters as just one answer to trying to promote sustainable economies in our communities,” Worl says.

She says the current law is interpreted too narrowly. She wants Native craftspeople to be able to make and sell a wider variety of otter products, such as teddy bears.

“We’ve had a number of our people that have been cited. We’ve complained vigorously about the enforcement practices. We’ve advanced the ideas of co-management. But our idea was to really change the marine mammal law that would allow for the sale of contemporary items,” she says.

House Joint Resolution 26, Wilson’s measure, was introduced last year. Its first hearing was February 3rd in the House Resources Committee. It remains before that panel.

If passed, it will be sent to Alaska’s Congressional delegation and the Secretary of the federal Department of the Interior.

Alaska’s House and Senate have passed bills aimed at easing veterans’ chances of getting jobs.

The measures direct the state to consider military training and experience when granting professional licenses. Alaska licenses about 40 professions, from barbers to contractors to nurses.

House sponsor Bill Thomas, a Haines Republican, says about 1,200 Alaska-based service-members leave the military every year. And the unemployment rate among young veterans is about 22 percent.

“Many have already received quality training through the military. I use an example of mechanics who have the ability to perform the duties and then have to go through the process of being certified at the local level. The other one is a plumber who’s been in the Navy for 20 years,” Thomas says.

“There’s no reason for them to come back and start over again. It’s a way to help them come out, get a job and go forward,” he says.

The bills also tell officials to grant temporary, six-month, professional licenses to qualified veterans. They also direct the University of Alaska to consider military training and experience as credit toward degrees.

House Bill 282 passed without opposition February 1st.

A similar measure, Senate Bill 150, passed the Senate 19-1 the same day.

Senate sponsor Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, says the measure recognizes veterans’ knowledge.

“There’s no special treatment here. What this bill does is it eliminates the need for duplicative education, classes and training. These service-members have already received this training,” Wielechowski says. “They’ve already received this education. This will help them more quickly integrate and it’s very likely to lower the unemployment rate for veterans.”

The two bills are very similar. But they have some differences, such as timing and cost. That means the House will have to approve the Senate’s version, or the other way around.

Thomas’ House bill has been assigned to one Senate committee, indicating it may be the most likely to pass both chambers first. Most senators have signed on as co-sponsors.