Alaska Native Arts & Culture

Two bills dealing with Alaska Native issues got different receptions from members of the Legislature on Thursday.

At least three House lawmakers skeptically received a bill that would make 20 Alaska Native languages official state languages. About an hour later, they joined the rest of their House colleagues in voting unanimously for a bill honoring the late Rev. Walter Soboleff.
House Bill 217 would make Nov. 14 Walter Soboleff Day in Alaska. That was the day the Tlingit cultural and spiritual leader was born in 1908 in the now abandoned village of Killisnoo near Angoon. Soboleff spent most of his life in Juneau, where he established a ministry that welcomed people of all races at a time when discrimination against Alaska Natives was common. He died in 2011 at the age of 102.

Juneau Rep. Cathy Muñoz said her family belonged to Soboleff’s church.

“His words, his deeds, his presence were imbued with a strong sense of grace,” Muñoz said. “He often spoke of unity and respect and tolerance.”

Muñoz was one of several House members to share personal stories about Soboleff, who often served as chaplain to the legislature.

As the youngest member of the legislature, Sitka Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins never got to meet Soboleff. He said he learned of his teachings by watching videos on the internet.

“I think it’s fitting, just as this bill will continue to honor his legacy in years to come, his wisdom has been preserved courtesy of the wonders of technology,” said Kreiss-Tomkins, HB 217’s prime sponsor.

(Video from Kathy Dye on Vimeo)

With Soboleff’s four children watching from the gallery, the House passed the bill, 35-0. It now heads to the Senate.

Kreiss-Tomkins is also the prime sponsor of House Bill 216, the Native languages bill, which supporters say would recognize the efforts of people working to preserve Alaska Native languages, many of which have lost or are losing their last fluent speakers.

But some members of the House State Affairs Committee are concerned about how the bill would be interpreted by future legislatures or the courts. At a hearing on Thursday, Rep. Doug Isaacson, R-North Pole, said he wanted to make sure the bill’s intent was clear before he could support it.

“So that we don’t have compounding results from a law, where a future legislature might be encumbered with having to provide everything in 20 different languages for example,” Isaacson said.

Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, wondered if there was a better way to support those working to save Native tongues.

“Like we could have a day, you know, that honors the Native languages in the State of Alaska,” Keller said. “I’ll be a co-sponsor.”

Both Isaacson and Rep. Lynn Gattis, R-Wasilla, said their ancestors had adopted English as their chosen language after coming to the U.S. from Europe.

That elicited a strong response from Rep. Benjamin Nageak, D-Barrow, a fluent Inupiaq speaker and a co-sponsor of HB 216.

“The Native people here, we’re not from another country. We were here before,” Nageak said.

Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, also offered a passionate defense of the bill. Millett, who says she’s a quarter Inupiaq, said she didn’t remember as much push back and questioning when the legislature voted to make the Alaskan malamute the official state dog.

Committee chairman Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, held the bill.

Southeast Alaska tribal leaders meet March 25th and 26th to discuss Canadian mines that could impact regional fisheries. 

http://ktoo.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2014/03/20TribalMine.mp3

The Summit on Headwater Transboundary Development was called by the Organized Village of Kasaan, where Richard Peterson is tribal president.

“When you talk about the Stikine and the Unuk and some of these other rivers, and the impact on the Chinook and the ooligan (eulachon) and the other fish that go up these rivers, we want to make sure they have adequate plans in place that can promise minimal impact,” Peterson says.

The Stikine is east of Wrangell and Petersburg, while the Unuk is northeast of Ketchikan. The Taku, east of Juneau, is another transboundary river with a mine in its watershed.

Chris Zimmer of the group Rivers Without Borders Transboundary Watershed Alliance says the main focus is the KSM Project. It’s a proposed gold and copper mine across the border in British Columbia, roughly 80 miles east of Wrangell.

“Basically, you have what could be considered a time bomb up there of a massive acid-mine drainage factory that’s going to continue to leach acid-mine drainage pollution for hundreds of years. So the question is, can that be contained? Can these tailings dams last forever? Can we trust the mines to do the job right?”

Randy Wanamaker says we can.

“Modern mining is different from older mining, when people didn’t worry about the environmental consequences of things,” Wanamaker says.

Wanamaker is a former Juneau Assembly member who ran a business training tribal members for mining jobs. He’s also a director of Goldbelt, the capital city’s urban Native corporation, and he’s working with the Palmer mine prospect upriver from Haines.

“Canada has a good permitting process and environmental review process. It’s different from ours, but it’s no less stringent. They will take into consideration whatever it is we point out to them that would be an issue for us because the same fish that we’re protecting also migrate up into Canada,” he says.

Some tribal leaders are already working with developers of rare-earth, gold and silver mines on Prince of Wales Island.

Kasaan’s Peterson wants a similar relationship with Canadian companies.

“Whether we come out pro or con depends a lot on the engagement of the mines. We’ve had really successful open dialog with Heatherdale and Niblack and Ucore. They’ve been really great about being forthcoming and I actually really have a lot of praise for those groups.”

A representative of British Columbia’s KSM prospect will be at the Prince of Wales Island meeting. So will representatives of B.C. tribal groups, called First Nations.

The summit will take place at the Tribal House in Craig, the largest city on Prince of Wales Island.

Transboundary mine critics are also traveling to Washington, D.C., around the same time to lobby for federal involvement.

A group from Southeast will call for the State Department to increase Alaska’s voice in mine permitting and development.

Rivers Without Borders’ Zimmer says it’s a significant issue for the state.

“The scope here is massive. It’s across the entire transboundary (area). So you have tribes, fishermen and businesses almost from Yakutat to Haines and all the way down past Ketchikan concerned here,” Zimmer says.

Groups involved include the Alaska Trollers Association, Trout Unlimited, the Petersburg Vessel Owners Association, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Tlingit Haida Central Council and several tourism businesses.

For most Americans, the deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is March 31. For American Indians and Alaska Natives, the process is a little different.

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, United Way, and the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium have teamed up at Juneau’s Gold Medal Basketball Tournament to inform as many Alaska Natives as possible.

Jamie Paddock traveled from Hoonah to cheer on her hometown team. Attending Gold Medal is an annual tradition.

In between games, she visits a health care information table.

“My grandfather told me I might win a gift card if I sign up here,” Paddock says.

Paddock isn’t actually signing up for anything. She’s filling out an Indian Status Exemption form.

“It’s a little bit of a complicated form even though it’s pretty short. It’s only three pages but there are some tricky questions,” says Monique Martin with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. “And it just means that if you don’t have health insurance you could face a tax penalty and if you send in that exemption that gives you a lifetime exemption from the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.”

Paddock’s heath care provider is Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which doesn’t require insurance. But she does have Blue Cross as well as Medicaid.

“We have a very robust tribal health system in the state of Alaska. The exemption is to acknowledge that Alaska Natives and American Indians have access to tribal health and Indian Health Services to get their health care needs met,” Martin says.

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is targeting almost 50,000 Alaska Natives without insurance. They’re the ones who could face a tax penalty.

“The exemption form does not eliminate your ability to get insurance either at healthcare.gov or through an employer. It just covers you in the case that you have a gap in your insurance coverage,” Martin says.

So far, the tribal health consortium has helped fill out more than 2,200 Indian Status Exemption forms. One form can cover an individual or family.

“We’ve also sent out thousands of emails or also we print them up and mail them to people in rural parts of our state,” Martin says.

Only a paper version of the exemption form is available this year. You print it, fill it in, and mail it. Or have it all done at Gold Medal.

“Don’t forget to include a copy of either a tribal enrollment card or some proof that you’re an ANCSA shareholder or a copy of your Certificate of Indian Blood card issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If you don’t, the feds will send you back a letter saying your application is not complete,” Martin explains.

A health care information table will be at Gold Medal through Saturday.

“We’ve been from Barrow to Ketchikan, from Bethel to Fairbanks, Iliamna, Dillingham, Kotzebue, Nome. We’ve been to lots and lots of places to spread the word,” Martin says.

Open enrollment for Alaska Natives interested in getting health insurance is ongoing; there is no deadline.

And Alaska Natives have until the end of the year to submit an Indian Status Exemption form, although if you do it at Gold Medal, you could win a gift card.

Alaska tribes and rural hunters have long complained that the dual federal-state game management system is hard to live by and doesn’t give subsistence users their due. Friday, Ahtna Inc., the smallest of Alaska’s Regional Native Corporations, presented a proposal for co-management of game to a U.S. House panel.

Unlike most of rural Alaska, the eight villages of the Ahtna Region are on the road system. Ahtna President Michelle Anderson told a congressional panel today that every season, local hunters have to contend with more and more hunters who drive in from elsewhere. She said it’s not just a matter of food but also cultural erosion.

“It’s a shame that this last season for instance, you know, many of our hunters who have always gotten a moose couldn’t compete with everyone else,” Anderson testified at the House Indian and  Alaska Native Affairs Subcommittee. “A lot of our elders have empty freezers this winter. That means, too, that our children are not being raised on our traditional foods.”

Questions about how to divvy fish and game to favor subsistence users have plagued the state since the 1970s. Anderson says Ahtna has spent millions to protect their members’ hunting rights and to control trespass on corporate land. They say they need co-management, a real seat at the table, with state and federal managers.

“To be honest, we would be taken more seriously. Right now we’re just a voice complaining about these people coming on to our lands.”

The proposal would authorize Ahtna and area tribes to jointly manage wildlife on Native corporation lands. It would also establish co-management on what Ahtna says is its traditional hunting grounds. That territory includes state and federal land, stretching from Cantwell to beyond McCarthy. In state Board of Game terms, it’s mostly regions 11 and 13, though the governor would have to “opt in” for co-management to affect state land.

Tara Sweeney, co-chair of Alaska Federation of Natives, testified the proposal will help preserve the subsistence rights of non-Natives living in rural Alaska, too. Sweeney acknowledges not everyone will see it that way.

“The issue of food security for Alaska Natives has always been a controversial issue, and we’re here to stand behind the people of the Ahtna Region. It’s going to impact a very small portion of the state.”

She and Anderson were the only witnesses at the House Indian Affairs Subcommittee today. The head of the Alaska state office in Washington, Kip Knudson, says the state will submit a response by March 24, but the proposal is very complex.

“The bill is covering issues that have been fought about and debated for 40 years, so we’ll have to cover quite a bit of ground in our comments, I suspect,” he said.

The subcommittee chairman, Alaska Congressman Don Young, said at the end of the hearing he intends to pursue this, and he sees rough waters ahead.

“Thank you, and I will tell you, this is something I believe in or I wouldn’t do it, and it’s at great jeopardy that I do this. But if I don’t do this, why am I here?”

Young says he’s listening to all sides and aims to leave a legacy of increased opportunities for subsistence, as well as sport hunting and participation in what he called “the great Alaska experience.”

More Information:
[icon name=”icon-map”] Map of area Ahtna proposes for co-management.
[icon name=”icon-file-text”] Draft Bill

The Alaska Legislature could join the chorus of voices calling for an American Indian Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. An Alaska Senate committee on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting the project.

Native Americans have fought in every United States military conflict since the Revolutionary War, and have some of the highest per capita service rates of any ethnic group.

Since Alaska became a U.S. territory and later a state, Alaska Natives have served their country as well. During World War II, the Alaska Territorial Guard included more than 6,000 volunteer soldiers from more than 100 communities.

“American Indians have established a long and distinguished legacy of military service,” said Kalyssa Maile, an intern in the office of Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage. “Senate Joint Resolution 19 affirms the Alaska Legislature’s support of Alaska Native and Native American veterans, and recognizes their great sacrifices for our country.”

Wielechowski sponsored SJR19, approved Tuesday by the Senate State Affairs Committee. He said the American Indian Veterans Memorial is supported by the Alaska Federation of Natives, the National Congress of American Indians and Vietnam Veterans of America, among other groups.

“There were several people that came up from Florida to attend AFN and push for this resolution,” Wielechowski said. “I attended the Vietnam Veterans of America national conference in Florida last year and they were there. I spoke with people there. They were urging us to do this as well.”

Congress approved the Native American Veterans’ Memorial Act in 1994, but the project didn’t go anywhere. Stephen Bowers, a member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and a Vietnam veteran, started lobbying Native American groups to support the memorial in 2011. Bowers says it’s long overdue.

“It’ll mean that finally someone is recognizing the fact that the American Indians fought for this country and against the European invaders back since 1492,” he said.

While Bowers says many supporters want the memorial to be built near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, President Obama late last year signed legislation to place it at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, two miles away. Bowers says the location isn’t as important as getting a memorial concept approved, a process he says will take several years.

“When they built the National Mall, they didn’t make it easy for organizations or for anyone to put a statue or a memorial on the mall,” said Bowers.

He expects the National Museum of the American Indian to sponsor a contest and form a committee to shepherd the project through the design phase.

Senate Joint Resolution 19 now heads to a vote on the floor of the Alaska Senate.