Alaska Native Government & Policy

The Alaska Federation of Natives convention will be in person for the first time in three years this fall.

The annual three-day gathering of the state’s largest Alaska Native organization was held virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last in-person convention was in 2019 in Fairbanks.

Holding the convention in person will mean the return of art vendors and nightly Quyana performances from Alaska Native dancers.

AFN represents members from 11 of the 12 regional Alaska Native Corporations and more than 191 federally recognized tribes. Conventions typically include panels on topics related to Alaska Native people, appearances from state and federal officials and debates between political candidates.

This year’s convention will be held from Oct. 20-22 at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. The theme will be “Celebrating our Unity.”

When Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson looks at the list of 14 traditional tribal values, he doesn’t see anything exclusive to one religion. He’s the president of the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which created the list in 2004.

“They’re inclusive and about, you know, literally one of them is ‘holding each other up,'” Peterson said. “But I think if you go down the values, it’s hard to take issues with any of them. I would imagine if they do, maybe the one around the creator, but I think that’s a personal one to anybody. What does that mean? It doesn’t specify any religious, or anything else, any specific religion.”

Peterson was talking about the value “reverence for our creator.” He said Southeast Alaska tribes don’t have a common religion, and the value means something different to everyone.

“I know what it means for me,” he said. “Make it personal to yourself. If you are atheist, make it about your parents — or ignore it. I think there’s room for values that we don’t always necessarily fully adopt.”

The reference to a creator is at the center of the lawsuit filed by Justin Breese and Rebecca King. They argue that the value is clearly a religious statement, and that makes it inappropriate for a public school.

The lawsuit is against Ketchikan’s school district and Ketchikan Charter School for posting the values in hallways and common areas and for using them as part of a behavioral reward program. The plaintiffs argue it’s a violation of the First Amendment and Alaska’s state constitution.

“We don’t think that the school district should be speaking to any type of spiritual or religious type value. Those types of values are things that are best passed down in a family, where your parents teach the students about their religious and spiritual beliefs,  Breese said. “And that’s not the place for the government to step in and teach those kinds of spiritual and religious values to students.”

He doesn’t object to the value being included in lessons about Alaska Native culture, but he said posting the values in classrooms and hallways strips out necessary context.

“When it’s on the list, and that list is posted everywhere, and you’re pulling items off the list, the student reads the whole list,” he said. “So, it’s hard for me to see how a student could make the distinction between whether this is a value that I need to follow and is endorsed by the school district, and is actual creationism or not.”

Peterson said he’s open to a conversation about the meaning of “creator,” but he doesn’t believe that a lawsuit is the right way to do it. He said he doesn’t understand why the parents take issue with the values being posted in school.

“It’s hard not to feel like this might have some bearings in racism,” he said. “I don’t like to leap to that conclusion. But, you know, it’s hard to find when you go down this list of values, where we can’t all, no matter what our cultural background, find a way to connect to those — Native, non-Native, other ethnicities should all find some commonality in these values.”

The lawsuit was filed in Ketchikan Superior Court July 25 and was assigned to judge Katherine Lybrand. Ketchikan’s school district has yet to respond in court.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday signed a bill that formally acknowledges the sovereignty of Alaska’s 229 federally recognized Native tribes.

The bill signing event was held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, where a large and emotional crowd included tribal leaders, state lawmakers and candidates running for elected office. Amid tears and laughter, Native leaders spoke about the legislation as a way to heal a painful past and create more opportunities for productive partnership with state government in the future.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky, a Bethel Democrat, passed the Legislature in May with bipartisan support. Zulkosky, who is Yup’ik, on Thursday called the bill “a historic milestone” in advancing state-tribal relations.

The bill, she said, is “a statutory recognition of a simple truth — that tribes exist in Alaska.”

The bill states that “the history of tribes in the state predates the United States and predates territorial claims to land in the state by both the United States and Imperial Russia. Indigenous people have inhabited land in the state for multiple millennia, since time immemorial or before mankind marked the passage of time.”

It goes on to say that “it is the intent of the Legislature to exercise the Legislature’s constitutional policy-making authority and acknowledge through formal recognition the federally recognized tribes in the state. Passage of this Act is nothing more or less than a recognition of tribes’ unique role in the state’s past, present, and future.”

The Alaska Federation of Natives said in a statement that “the statute does not impact the existing legal status of Alaska Tribes, nor does it change the state’s responsibility or authority. However, it does recognize Alaska’s Indigenous people. This recognition will help unify our tribal governments with the state government.”

Zulkosky and other proponents of the measure say it will also ease a history of legal challenges between the state and tribes.

Native leaders said that tribes in Alaska are already responsible for providing services for tribal members and others, relying on designated federal funding to boost education, health and infrastructure, among other services. But the state recognition, they said, could pave the way for better government relations between the state and tribes.

“If you live in rural Alaska and you can flush the toilet, thank your tribe, because it’s our money that has come in and done that for everyone,” said Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson, president of Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

“Tribes are an economic force in Alaska. Hugely so,” said Rep. Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent who previously served as speaker of the House. In that capacity, Edgmon led the creation of a legislative tribal affairs committee in 2019. Zulkosky served as the committee’s inaugural chair.

“Today is, in some ways, a culmination of where we’ve been trying to get, but in other ways, it’s the beginning of a journey,” Edgmon said, adding that his vision is that “tribes are not only going to be at the table, they’re going to be at the head of the table.”

Alaska follows several other states that have recognized tribes within their borders, including Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.

There are more than 570 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. — over a third of which are in Alaska. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, federal tribal recognition carries with it federal funding opportunities, whereas state funding does not guarantee state funding.

Peterson was one of several Native leaders behind a ballot initiative that last year sought to put the question of tribal recognition to voters. The group collected the signatures needed to advance the question to voters, but the bill signing now means that initiative will remain off the November ballot.

“It was one of the quickest signature gathers we’ve ever seen. Why? Because Alaskans — not just Alaska Natives — knew it was time,” Peterson said. “Most were bewildered and dumbfounded that this wasn’t already in existence.”

The ballot initiative was launched after a legislative effort to pass a tribal recognition bill stalled in 2020 amid the pandemic that cut short the legislative session that spring. The following year, Zulkosky began advancing a new version of the bill.

“It’s really great Alaskans exercise their voice at the polls. But I think what’s more meaningful about legislative action is the Legislature is such a microcosm of different political philosophies, different perspectives,” Zulkosky said. Advancing the bill, she said, required having sometimes difficult conversations.

“We did not understand — some of us — how important this was to members of the Native communities of Alaska,” said Sen. Mike Shower, a Wasilla Republican, who helped advance the bill in the state Senate. “Moving forward, we will have the opportunity to expand and do so many things that we haven’t done.”

Attendees at the bill signing included some of the more experienced Alaska Native leaders — and a new generation.

Ida Nelson, a tribal member from Igiugig, attended the ceremony with her young children, ages 3 and 1. The bill, she said, ensures that they will “still have tribal sovereignty when they grow up.”

Willie Hensley and Emil Notti, who were instrumental in forming the Alaska Federation of Natives in 1966 and passing the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, also celebrated the passage of the bill.

“It’s important to recognize that the bill was introduced by a Democrats, passed with bipartisan support, and signed by a Republican governor,” said Notti.

While Alaska follows at least 13 states that have recognized tribes within their borders, Dunleavy presented the bill as one setting Alaska apart from the Lower 48.

“We’ve had a couple rough years in the Lower 48,” he said, “in which statues were torn down, history was rewritten. But I think it’s a testament to us that in Alaska — we add things for a more complete history.”

Rhonda Pitka, chief of the Native village of Beaver, said she was excited about Dunleavy’s willingness to work with tribes and was eager to work on partnerships between tribal and state government.

“I was going to ask for his scheduler’s phone number so I can set up my first meeting, so we can really get to work. It’s been a challenge to get anything done,” Pitka said. Now, she says she envisions more “government-to-government consultation.”

Alaska First Lady Rose Dunleavy, who is Alaska Native, also spoke Thursday, telling the audience that “we can’t forget that we aren’t just tribal members. We’re Americans and we are Alaskans.”

U.S. House candidate Mary Peltola, a Democratic former state lawmaker who was in attendance at the ceremony, said she was moved by Rose Dunleavy’s words. Peltola, who is Yup’ik, said she too felt the legislation highlighted her identity as both an Alaskan and a tribal member.

Peltola was not the only political candidate in attendance. Independent former Gov. Bill Walker, who is one of Dunleavy’s challengers in this year’s gubernatorial race, was also at Thursday’s bill signing.

Dunleavy on Thursday also signed a bill creating a state-tribal education compact, which is designed to give tribes greater control over education programs for tribal members.

Sen. Gary Stevens, a Republican from Kodiak who sponsored the bill, said it would create opportunities to incorporate Native cultures and languages into tribal school curriculums.

“I can’t tell you how impressive this is,” Stevens said about the standing-room-only audience gathered to watch the bill signing. “The last bill I had signed by the governor was a week and held ago there were two of us in the room — the governor and me. So this is really impressive to see those who care about the legislation that we are passing.”

This story was originally published by the Anchorage Daily News and is republished here with permission.

Monico Ortiz says he was trying to fly from Seattle to Ketchikan when he got held up at a security checkpoint. He presented his Central Council of Tlingit and Haida identification card to a security agent, but the agent told him the scanning machine rejected it.

“And then he basically told me that it was not acceptable, (and asked) if I had some other form of ID,” Ortiz said. “I told them it was my tribal card, or my tribal ID, and I asked him to scan it again. And his response was, it was not going through the machine. So I told him, you know, that it should be acceptable.”

The cards are on TSA’s list of accepted IDs. The list also includes cards issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, military IDs and passports. But tribal ID cards need to be inspected manually, a TSA spokesperson wrote to KRBD on Wednesday.

Ortiz, who works in Seattle as an electrical engineer and is a Tlingit and Haida delegate there, said he ended up showing the agent his Washington driver’s license. He said he felt crunched for time to make his flight, so he didn’t ask for a supervisor or press the issue.

He says he filed a complaint with the TSA but hasn’t heard back. It’s his second complaint on the issue — it also happened in February of 2020 at an Oakland, California airport. He also reached out to TSA’s tribal affairs liaison.

“Basically, she noted that that CAT (credential authentication) technology machine does not read tribal IDs,” Ortiz said. “And the TSA officers should not be trying to, you know, use that machine. “

He says she recommended he ask for a supervisor next time — something he said he didn’t feel comfortable doing this time. But he says he’ll keep using the card.

Ortiz is even more concerned about what might happen after the deadline to get a REAL ID in May of next year. Ortiz says he has had his state ID with him when he travels, but he worries for tribal citizens who can’t get one or can’t afford the fee, which can range from $20 up to $40.

Alaska’s Division of Motor Vehicles says that once the May 3 deadline hits, federal identification like BIA or tribal cards will still be considered accepted forms of ID.

Jamiann S’eiltin Hasselquist is the vice president of Juneau’s chapter of the Alaska Native Sisterhood. She says the solution might lie in more training and awareness from TSA. She noted that there are 574 federally recognized tribes in the country, and that 229 of those are in Alaska.

“And so TSA has just got to do a better job and start training their staff on what is accepted and what is not accepted as identification, you know, with military ID is accepted,” Hasselquist said. “And, our tribal ID should be accepted. And it should be accepted wherever money is accepted.”

She said she refuses to use her Alaska state ID when traveling. It’s an attempt to raise awareness about the cards.

“So I kind of set all these boundaries, so that they can become educated, so that the next person who comes in doesn’t have this erasure of of our people, because we’ve been, you know, fighting for our identity and to be seen for you know, since colonization came to town, basically,” she said.

Hasselquist has tackled the issue before. She submitted a complaint to the Alaska Human Rights Commission when a Fred Meyer store in Juneau put up a sign announcing that the cards could not be used to purchase tobacco products. She says the sign reminded elders of a time when stores would hang “no dogs, no Natives” signs in their windows.

“So tobacco is also used in ceremony, so for that sign to be posted, is also I think, an infringement against our freedom to religion,” she said.

She referenced the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. The sign was removed three weeks after Hasselquist first saw it.

Hasselquist said that a conciliation agreement was being worked on. And Hasselquist said that the Tlingit and Haida cards already meet the REAL ID standards, which include new security features.

“It has my address.” she said. “It has my enrollment number. It has my date of birth. It has an expiration date, it has a photo, it has a logo of the federally recognized tribe, and then it also has the holograms on it.”

Hasselquist said she wants to see the cards as accepted forms of identification not only at airports, but anywhere people are required to show ID.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy will sign a bill giving state recognition to Alaska’s 229 federally recognized Native tribes, the Alaska Federation of Natives said Thursday.

In a July 28 ceremony, the governor will also sign bills creating child welfare and education agreements between the state and tribal governments, AFN said.

An official in the governor’s office confirmed that he will sign the tribal recognition bill but could not immediately confirm the status of the other two pieces of legislation.

“This is an historic moment for all Alaska Tribes,” said AFN President Julie Kitka in a prepared statement. “The acknowledgment of our 229 federally recognized tribes by the state of Alaska is a step toward building a stronger relationship with our state government.”

State recognition is not expected to affect tribes’ legal relations with the state, but supporters have said it is an important symbolic statement by the state, which has historically fought efforts by tribes to exert their sovereignty.

Last year, supporters of tribal recognition launched a ballot measure to put the issue in front of voters. The measure garnered enough signatures to put the measure on the November general-election ballot, but Alaska’s constitution contains a clause that allows a measure to be removed if the Legislature passes a “substantially similar” law.

In June, the Alaska Department of Law concluded that the tribal recognition bill meets that standard. Legislative attorneys previously published an analysis that reached the same conclusion.

The United States Supreme Court has limited the scope of its historic McGirt decision.

In a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that the state of Oklahoma has concurrent jurisdiction and the ability to prosecute non-Natives when the victim is Native and the crime is committed on tribal land.

“From start to finish, the dissent employs extraordinary rhetoric in articulating its deeply held policy views about what Indian law should be,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion reads.

Justice Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett in the majority. Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the views of the justices in the dissent were contrary to previous Supreme Court precedents and other laws.

“The dissent goes so far as to draft a proposed statute for Congress. But this Court’s proper role under Article III of the Constitution is to declare what the law is, not what we think the law should be,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.

Tribes, Native lawyers and advocates were disappointed in the decision.

The Muscogee Nation called the ruling an “alarming step backward.”

“It hands jurisdictional responsibility in these cases to the State, which during its long, pre-McGirt, history of illegal jurisdiction on our reservation, routinely failed to deliver justice for Native victims,” the tribe said in a statement. “While we hope for the best, we are not optimistic that the quality of effort from the State of Oklahoma will be any better than before.”

Similarly, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the court folded to what amounted to a social media campaign by the state and ruled against legal precedent, congressional authority and federal Indian law.

“The dissent today did not mince words — the Court failed in its duty to honor this nation’s promises, defied Congress’s statutes, and accepted the ‘lawless disregard of the Cherokee’s sovereignty,” Hoskin said in the statement.

Both tribes expressed commitment to continue to work to meet public safety and criminal justice responsibilities, as well as working with Congress, state and federal authorities moving forward.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the dissenting opinion and was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Gorsuch, the author of the historic McGirt decision, wrote that tribes were promised to be free from interference by state authorities.

“Where this Court once stood firm, today it wilts,” Gorsuch wrote. “Where our predecessors refused to participate in one State’s unlawful power grab at the expense of the Cherokee, today’s Court accedes to another’s.”

The case pertains to Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta, a non-Native man who was convicted by the state of Oklahoma for criminal child neglect of his step-daughter, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

His conviction came before the 2020 McGirt decision and after the McGirt ruling, Castro-Huerta argued that the federal government had jurisdiction over his prosecution. His conviction was vacated and Castro-Huerta later pleaded guilty to a federal charge.

The state of Oklahoma appealed to the Supreme Court seeking to overturn McGirt entirely, but the high court allowed only to hear arguments regarding the scope of criminal jurisdiction the state has over crimes committed by non-Natives against Natives on tribal lands.

Mary Kathryn Nagle, Cherokee, said Wednesday’s ruling will lead to an increase in violence in Indian Country.

“This, you know, just really broad and epic rewriting of federal Indian law all throughout Indian Country is only going to create chaos and it’s not going to result in greater safety for Native victims,” Nagle, a partner at Pipestem law, said.

Reaction throughout Indian Country was swift, with many sharing the same disappointment expressed from Oklahoma tribes.

After reading Kavanaugh’s opinion, Nagle found it concerning and said Kavanaugh misreads and misuses the 10th amendment, which she says could have implications outside of criminal law in Indian Country.

“He just concludes that states have unlimited authority on tribal reservations and cites the 10th amendment,” Nagle said. “He doesn’t quote any language in the 10th amendment that gives states such authority on tribal reservations. There is no language in the 10th amendment that gives states uninhibited authority on tribal lands.”

Stanford University assistant professor of law, Elizabeth Reese, Nambé Pueblo, described the decision as insulting.

“This #SCOTUS opinion in Castro Huerta is horrifying and insulting to Indian people and tribes. I’m shaken. Every few paragraphs of the majority opinion has another line that dismissively and casually cuts apart tribal independence that Native ancestors gave their lives for.”

Stacy Leeds, Cherokee and Arizona State University law professor, said in a tweet that the ruling is disruptive.

“Wow. Redo the federal Indian law criminal charts! SCOTUS rules, for the 1st time ever, states have prosecutorial power over Indian country crimes involving Natives (as victims) despite zero Congressional delegation. Very disruptive for Indian country nationally. #CastroHuerta”

Moving forward, Nagle said tribes need to come together to find a legislative fix to this case.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Nagle said. “I think tribes need to read this decision carefully. The decision is not limited to criminal law, which is scary.”

With the Castro-Huerta decision being handed down, the Supreme Court has two remaining cases to rule on for the current term before its summer recess. The court will reconvene in October.

Today’s opinion can be found and read here.

This story was originally published by Indian Country Today and is republished here with permission.