Alaska Native Arts & Culture

The state of Indian Country is strong, according to the president of the National Congress of American Indians. Today Jefferson Keel presented the State of Indian Nations Address in Washington D.C.

But despite advancements in tribal governing, leaders are worried about the coming sequester, and what it means for Indian Health Services.

Keel rattled off a long list of recent successes – from the Cobell settlement to record levels of energy production in Indian Country to stronger government to government relationships.

But he made clear the near future will be difficult.

“The trust responsibility is not a line item. And we are not a special interest group,” Keel says.

He went on, warning that the coming budget cuts could devastate essential services to Natives.

We urge Congress to acknowledge their Constitutional responsibility to honor our sacred trust by holding tribal governments harmless in the sequester and beyond. As President Obama said in the State of the Union Address, just two days ago, the federal government must keep the promises they’ve already made,” Keel says.

The sequester is set to take effect March first. On that date, government agencies will need to start cutting at least eight percent of their budgets.

Yvette Roubideaux leads the Indian Health Service. She says the sequester would slash nearly all aspects of the federal government, but the effects would hurt most in native communities. She

“3,000 inpatient admissions and 804,000 outpatient visits would have to be cut to be able to absorb the sequester,” Roubideaux says.

Keel put a more human face on the figures … saying the cuts to IHS would hit at the community level – not just jobs in Washington D.C.

“It will affect whether or not a young mother will be able to access healthcare for her unborn child. It will affect whether or not elderly people will be able to afford their medications, or whether they’ll be able to go to the doctor,” Keel says.

Keel says he’s trying to sway members of Congress to exempt Native services from the sequester. But there isn’t much time.

Haines native Jackie Pata is the executive director of NCAI. She originally thought IHS would be exempt from sequester. Now’s she’s preparing tribes for all sorts of cuts – beyond healthcare.

“We’ve been talking with tribes a lot about things like lean management, how to take on some of those principles and really scale to address our most critical needs and be efficient and effective with the federal funds we do have in our communities,” Pata says.

And regardless of what happens with the sequester, federal budgets need to shrink because of the Budget Control Act.

That means all sorts of Native services will feel the pinch. The new chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell, made clear that the Committee has a full docket.

But getting appropriate funding for any of them will be hard.

“The Native American Self Determination Housing Assistance Act expires this year. We have a Farm Bill that we need to reauthorize. The elementary and secondary schools act which expired in 2008 is well past its due date for reauthorization. The issue of tax reform and making sure the IRS deals with tribes in a fair way on taxation issues,” Cantwell says.

Most in Congress publicly say the sequester will happen, what’s unclear is whether it will be permanent. Congress could pass a fix once the cuts go into effect.

Tlingit elder and original Sealaska Native Corporation board member Clarence Jackson passed away Thursday at the age of 78.

He’s being remembered for his contributions to the Native land claims movement, and for being an ambassador for Tlingit culture in both the business world and his personal life.

Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl says Jackson relished comforting people in times of need. He served as master of ceremonies at the memorial service for the late Reverend Dr. Walter Soboleff in 2011.

“He became like our ambassador from Sealaska, where he would attend all of the funerals, all the memorials,” Worl said. “He was there to comfort clans and the family of those who had lost someone.”

Jackson was born in Kake in 1934. He lived there most of his life, attending Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka, before moving back to the village, where he was a fisherman and operated a small store.

Worl says he was a great fisherman, who loved boats.

“We always say, it is as if the spirits of the animals know him and they give themselves to those kind of people who have those good spirits,” she said. “So, yes, he was a great fisherman.”

In the 1960s, Jackson was involved in the Alaska Native claims movement as a delegate to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians. He served as Central Council president from 1972 through 1976.

Also in 1972, Jackson signed the articles of incorporation for Sealaska, the regional Native Corporation for Southeast, created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. He was the only board member to serve continuously from the time Sealaska was founded.

Current board chair Albert Kookesh first met Jackson when he joined the board in 1975. He says they quickly became friends.

“We’re both from villages right next to each other. He’s from Kake and I’m from Angoon,” said Kookesh. “He knew my father and he knew Walter Soboleff, my uncle. So I got immediately scooped up into his little circle.”

Kookesh says Jackson was a champion of village life and traditional culture on the board, something he attributed to being raised by his Tlingit speaking grandparents.

Kookesh says his ability to speak both Tlingit and English fluently made Jackson a valuable asset to the company.

“His Tlingit background, and his Tlingit stories, and his Tlingit upbringing gave him a really good sense of oration,” Kookesh said. “Very, very articulate. Not somebody who went to college, not somebody who went to law school, not somebody who went to graduate school. But somebody who went to the upper learnings of the Tlingit culture.”

When the corporation established the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute in 1980, Jackson became one of its trustees and served as chair of the Council of Traditional Scholars.

Worl says the council was instrumental in identifying the core cultural values that guide the institute to this day.

“Clarence would remind us always, this is what makes us Native people, it’s our cultural values,” Worl said.

Jackson talked about the importance of preserving those values at Celebration 2012, the biennial cultural and educational event sponsored by the Heritage Institute.

“We’re strengthening our culture,” Jackson said. “We might hear a new song here and there this Celebration. But it’s a shoring up time to not be doing anything just for show. But to show the young people, this is the way it is.”

Jackson spent much of the past two months in Seattle receiving cancer treatment. He recently returned to Alaska, and died surrounded by friends and family on Thursday.

A service will be held at the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall (former ANB Hall) in Juneau on Saturday at 5 p.m.

A video of Clarence Jackson from Celebration 2012:

Clarence Jackson’s last address at Celebration. from Kathy Dye on Vimeo.

Original post:

Tlingit elder and original Sealaska Corporation board member Clarence Jackson died Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was 78.

Jackson was born in 1934 in Kake, where he lived most of his life. He attended Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka, and was involved in the Alaska Native claims movement in the 1960s with the Tlingit and Haida Central Council.

He served as Central Council president from 1972 through 1976. Also in 1972, he signed the articles of incorporation for Sealaska, the regional Native Corporation for Southeast, created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Jackson had been the only board member to serve continuously since Sealaska was founded. He also served as a trustee for the Sealaska Heritage Institute from the time it was created in 1980.

SHI President Rosita Worl says Jackson was an ambassador of Tlingit culture in the board room and his personal life.

“He lived in the village and he said that it is our responsibility to make sure that our people can continue to live in their homeland,” Worl said. “So, even with all of our businesses and investments, even if they were doing well outside of Alaska, he was always reminding us that we had a responsibility to our people in the villages.”

After the Heritage Institute was created, Jackson not only served as a trustee, but also as chairman of the Council of Traditional Scholars.

Worl says the council was instrument in identifying the core cultural values that guide the institute to this day.

“I remember some of the almost philosophical discussions they would have about how much change is acceptable, how much change can we allow in our society before we become not Tlingit,” Worl said. “And Clarence would remind us always that this is what makes us as Native people. It’s our cultural values.”

Jackson was a lifelong commercial and subsistence fisherman, who also ran a store in Kake and served as a director of Kake Tribal Corporation.

Worl says Jackson enjoyed telling stories and making people laugh. He was often the person who helped organize memorial services for elders who died, including his longtime friend the Reverend Dr. Walter Soboleff, who passed away in 2011.

Worl says Jackson spent much of the past two months in Seattle getting cancer treatment. But he was able to make it back to Alaska, where he died surrounded by friends and family on Thursday.

Services are pending.

The Juneau Assembly on Monday voted to change the boundary of the city’s historic district, clearing the way for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s proposed Walter Soboleff Center to be built as designed.

The four-story, 29,000 square foot education and cultural facility will be constructed on a vacant lot at the corner of Seward and Front Streets downtown. The property was right on the edge of the historic district until Monday, when the Assembly voted to remove it.

While the district honors the late 19th and early 20th century architecture of Juneau’s original mining period, plans for the Soboleff Center call for traditional Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian designs with modern flourishes.

The city’s Historic Resources Advisory Committee recommended the Assembly keep Front Street as part of the historic district, a move opposed by Sealaska Heritage officials.

SHI President Rosita Worl said forcing the nonprofit to redesign the building would be costly and delay the project.

“It would take up to 20 variances in order to meet the direct district standards,” Worl said. “The architectural and engineering costs alone, those changes and modifications would require an additional $120,000 and a two to three months delay, just in the design.”

Worl also called any changes a “serious challenge” to SHI’s cultural values.

“We believe that the design of the center compliments the historic district and the history of Juneau by highlighting Native inspired architectural design and the heritage of the Tlingit Indians that is largely absent from the historic district and all other areas of Juneau,” she said.

Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand President Freda Westman added that the building would not just be for Juneau residents to enjoy.

“Visitors coming from the surrounding villages. They are going to want to see this building be presented intact, in the way it was designed,” Westman said. “It will honor them, and it will honor us.”

The Assembly approved the boundary change without any debate.

SHI has secured most of the estimated $20 million needed for construction. That includes $3 million in sales tax revenue approved by city voters last year. The project could break ground as soon as this year.

The facility will be named for the Reverend Doctor Walter Soboleff, a renowned Tlingit elder and scholar who passed away in 2011 at the age of 102.

The property where it will be built is the site of the former Skinner Building, which was destroyed by fire in 2004. It subsequently fell into disrepair and was known as “The Pit” until Sealaska bought it in 2010.

The President ceremoniously swore into his second term on Monday. He spoke to a crowd on the National Mall of about a million people, plus tens of millions more tuned in at home.

And while most people watched from afar, some lucky Alaskans were there to witness to it firsthand.

APRN’s Peter Granitz caught up with students from South Anchorage High School in Washington, D.C.

The fifty-seventh presidential inauguration is winding down. The last inaugural ball is Tuesday night after festivities started over the weekend. And, as APRN’s Peter Granitz reports, amid all the pomp and circumstance, some Alaska Natives are showing the rest of the country their heritage and traditions.

Below are a picture and video of the administration of the official and ceremonial oath of office as provided by the White House:

Dirt has been turned for the new State Libraries, Archives and Museum in the capital city. The project to hold Alaska’s treasures in one building is already underway, as contractor PCL Construction prepares the ground behind the current Alaska State Museum.

Wednesday’s cold rain in Juneau moved the groundbreaking inside. The museum was packed with state and local officials, including legislators and Juneau Assembly members, some who had their pictures taken with the special shovel in a trough of dirt near the museum’s landmark eagle tree.

Linda Thibodeau is director of the SLAM project.

“I wish we could have had a beautiful sunny day and we could have gone outside and dug in the back lot, but we don’t.  It’s winter time in Juneau and we have a lovely pile of, as our commissioner said, fertile earth here, ready to go.  This is a day we’ve been waiting for, for a long, long time,”  Thibodeau said.

So far, the Alaska Legislature has approved about $81 million toward the $131 million project.  Gov. Sean Parnell has included $20-million in his proposed state capital budget.

As Juneau Mayor Merrill Sanford thanked the many people who have worked on the project, he reminded lawmakers in the audience that another $50 million is needed to complete construction.

“And in fact your work is not done yet.  We’re going to be banging on your door – I see a chairman of a finance committee here  – for a little bit more money to get this new facility completed all together,” Sanford said.

At 118,000 square feet, SLAM will have twice the space currently allocated to the state libraries, archives and museum in Juneau, according to Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Mike Hanley.

“The new SLAM building will double the exhibit size and triple our storage space above what we have here.  When we look at the operating costs it will do it for the same operating costs that we have now, because of a focus on energy and because of the work we’ve done with our architects.  It’s tremendous.  A huge building that will be able to be operated for the same cost that we’re operating this one now,” Hanley said.

He also said that structures used in construction called “unified curtain walls”  can be built in Alaska.

“At one point we thought our only option was to have these constructed overseas and brought back. We recently found out that we have been able to move that contract to Bucher Glass in Fairbanks, into a new factory that will employ an additional 16 to 20 individuals.  And it’s been said that this project, the SLAM project, was the spark that allowed them to get their feet under them and get that project rolling,” Hanley said. 

The SLAM project is to be complete in 2016.  Education officials say it will allow the state to improve its technical and program support for archives, libraries and museums statewide.

Alaskans are joining the Canadian First Nations’ Idle No More movement.

Often compared to the “Occupy” protests, the grassroots movement has moved across Canada and is gaining traction among Native groups in the U.S.

Canadian First Nations are protesting legislation that removes environmental protections on tribal lands. As several First Nations’ chiefs were meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday, they got support in Juneau and Anchorage.

About a hundred people turned out for a noon rally in Anchorage, compared to about ten in Juneau, but the message and the signs were the same: Sustainability now; sovereignty for indigenous people.

At the Anchorage rally, Allison Warden, of Kaktovik, called the issues emotional.

“I hope something is awakened within you. Something inside your DNA, like this is where I’m supposed to be, this is what I’m supposed to do, this is how I stand up for my people,” Warden said.

Vi Waghiyi, of St. Lawrence Island, said the military bases built there during the 1950s have contaminated the land and waters where the Siberian Yupik residents of the island gather food:”

“We have 10 times more PCB levels in the blood of our people than the average American in the Lower 48. But we’re also some of the most highly contaminated population on the planet because of our reliance on our subsistence foods,” Waghiyi said. “Our very foods that have sustained our people for many, many generations are killing our people.” 

In Juneau, Ishmael Hope called the Idle No More movement wholesome, simple and healing. Of Tlingit and Inupiat descent, Hope said the local rallies are not meant to antagonize.

“What we’re here to do is show who we are and that can translate into the politics of our time, and that can translate into the big issues of our time,” Hope said. “We could see how the clan, the language, our culture, our identity can connect with political issues, with ideas of sovereignty. “

Hope said the border between Alaska and Canada is invisible for Native people. And when it comes to major industrial development – like that proposed in the British Columbia wilderness – it could impact all Alaskans.

Guy Archibald is Mining and Clean Water Coordinator for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, which supports the Idle No More Movement.

“Up the Unik River, the Stikine River, the Sacred Headwaters, there’s huge open pit mines proposed mines proposed for up there,” he said. “The environmental review process of the Canadian federal government has been deregulated and defunded. It’s scary what could happen, and so much of our economy here in Southeast is dependent on these rivers. It’s a billion dollar fishing industry.”

While conservation groups share many of the values expressed in the Idle No More movement, Archibald said the cause should not be “co-opted by conservation groups.” He said Idle No More needs to remain an indigenous movement.

Related stories: Skiing the Sacred Headwaters; BC  powerline spurs transboundary development