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The second and final day of the AFN convention is packed with guests and big conversations. Sponsors of a ballot initiative took the opportunity to say their piece on why tribal recognition in the state is long overdue. Multiple attempts to pass a bill through the Legislature were unsuccessful. A tribal recognition bill was passed this year in the House but never went to a vote in the Senate. Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson is the president of the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. He’s also one of the initiative’s sponsors. “A bill that did come forward from Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky to recognize tribes couldn't make it because they were unable to really just get their business done. We thought it was better to just, let's put this in the hands of the people.” The initiative wouldn’t give tribes any new power, since they are inherently sovereign. Instead, the initiative aims to have the state acknowledge that sovereignty. To make it on next year’s ballot, the
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Day One of the annual AFN convention featured all three of Alaska’s sitting lawmakers. Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young spoke to the strengths of AFN and the landmark legislation known as the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. "We have to continue the work when we can. I know we can do it– you can do it. You’re extremely well done. With the future of the Alaska Native Land Claims Act – ANCSA will continue." U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski talked about legislation to provide promised land allotments to Vietnam veterans who were serving overseas when land allotments were selected. “We are finding some success in other areas as well. The Department of Interior has now finalized the first new land allotment for Vietnam era veterans. This is the first time in decades we look forward. We know there has to be more. We're working to expand the lands where those allotments can be made.” U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan dedicated much of his time to supporting Alaska’s Native veterans. Sullivan
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The Alaska Federation of Natives is the largest convention of Alaska Natives in the state. Affectionately called “Native New Year,” the convention is an opportunity for Indigenous people across the state to come together and develop important state and federal policy. The convention is virtual for the second year out of concerns for the coronavirus pandemic. But that doesn’t diminish the importance of the two-day virtual event. Kaaxúxgu Joe Nelson is the Sealaska board chair. He was elected as co-chair of Alaska Federation of Natives in 2020. “I got elected during the virtual convention a little over a year ago now, and obviously, I've been there many times before that, but last year know falling into this position during a pandemic is just a bunch of mixed emotions, I guess, because we're still in it.” This will be the second year that the AFN convention is virtual. Organizers hoped to postpone the convention in the hopes of meeting in-person, but eventually decided to go virtual. “It
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The Haines Sheldon Museum is showcasing a display of newly revealed Lingít formline images . The museum staff used an infrared camera to photograph traditional bentwood boxes to reveal paintings, not seen in perhaps 200 years. Several traditional Lingít bentwood boxes make up part of the Haines Sheldon Museum’s 23,000 item collection. Handmade out of cedar wood and painted, the boxes were used for storage or traded goods, according to museum collections coordinator Zachary James. “These ones I think were probably used for regalia, because they have really nice paintings on them,” James said. “But they were general purpose storage boxes, too.” James is Lingít, with ancestry in Wrangell and the Stikine Basin as well as the Chilkat Valley. And he has an active interest in Lingít art and heritage, especially new ways of looking at pieces from the museum’s collection. “It just basically looks like a black surface on wood, and then these amazing images are able to be pulled out of it.”
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Governor Mike Dunleavy is proposing additional hunting opportunities in the Matanuska-Susitna region by bringing in Sitka black-tailed deer . A state document obtained by the Anchorage Daily News points out a number of potential issues with that plan. KTNA’s Phillip Manning spoke with ADN report Zachariah Hughes about the story. Phillip Manning: I’ve got with me today Zachariah Hughes from the Anchorage Daily News, and we’re here to discuss a story that you wrote recently about the governor’s proposal for potentially moving Sitka black-tailed deer to the Mat-Su Borough. Can you give us just a little bit of an overview of how this story came about? Zachariah Hughes : So it’s pretty common for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to transplant animals. Currently, there’s a proposal to move Sitka black tailed deer into areas of the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys. And staff biologists wrote up a scoping document outlining, you know, what that might look like and some of the
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Fishing vessels cast wide nets, and they often catch more than the species they’re targeting. That’s bycatch: one of the longest-running controversies in the fleet and a vexing problem for fisheries managers . Now, the Dunleavy administration is wading into the debate by naming a task force to study the issue and find ways to make it better for everyone working on the water. Governor Mike Dunleavy’s office recently announced it’s setting up a task force to tackle the thorny issue of bycatch. Federal data show trawl fisheries this year in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska have caught tens of thousands of Chinook salmon, millions of pounds of halibut, and in the case of the Bering Sea trawl fisheries, hundreds of thousands of crabs. Stocks of staple species like Chinook salmon, red king crab , and halibut have been on the decline, forcing subsistence, sport and commercial fishermen to pack up nets or reduce harvest. “We’ve had a reduction in or closure of the crab fisheries in the Bering
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President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law on Monday, November 15. The Senate passed the $1.2 trillion dollar bill in August. Thirteen Republicans -- including at-large Alaska Congressman Don Young -- joined the majority of Democrats to pass the bill . The infrastructure funding package will deliver $550 billion dollars in federal investments over five years. The money will go to support roads, mass transit, rail projects, renewable energy and improving broadband. “This is a good, healthy start, and it's not going to cover everything, but it covers a lot of everything,” said PJ Simon, Tanana Chiefs Conference chief and chairman PJ Simon. “It improves our quality of life.” He says climate change and COVID-19 continues to stress communities within the consortium. The last couple of years have spotlighted the disparity and inequities that Alaskans -- and particularly rural Alaskans and Alaska Native communities -- have faced: Inconsistent ferry
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The first international Indigenous musical festival -- Rock Aak’w showcased several Native artists. For several artists, this was their first time on the mainstage of a festival. Rock Aak’w brought musicians from around the world in a virtual celebration of music, Indigenous values and family. It felt like a family reunion as relatives came together to share a range of musical styles like blues, jazz, folk, and more. Singer-and-songwriter Nicole Church is Łingit and has performed a number of local shows in Juneau. “It feels like being connected to our, reconnecting with our cousins that we never met. That's exactly how I feel. And this part's going to make me emotional because when I connect, when I'm surrounded by Native people, I just feel so safe. And so free, it's like a weight off my shoulders because … I can just be myself.” Church said the festival is “history in the making.” “These young kids, these young Indigenous kids need to see themselves represented. … It means that much
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Fourteen musical acts will participate in an international Indigenous music festival based in Juneau. Alaska Native musicians will join several others in the virtual festival called Rock Aak’w . KNBA’s Tripp Crouse talks with one of the festival organizers Qacung Stephen Blanchett about putting together the lineup. Can you give a synopsis of what you're doing now, but also maybe how you got there? Qacung Stephen Blanchet: Yeah, sure. I'm one of the members of Pamyua. We've been performing almost 30 years now. We're coming up on 30 years together. One of the things that we've really got to realize and notice is that there's few opportunities for Indigenous artists. We've performed at music festivals all around the world, and now a lot of these festivals we're often put off to the side, right? 'Oh, the Indigenous or the world music group will have their own kind of stage off to the corner of the festival.' And that was typically the norm. It was rare that we actually performed on the
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Bering Strait region Tribal consortium Kawerak published a language glossary which provides terms in research, science and policy in English, Inupiaq, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, and Yup’ik. The glossary is part of Kawerak’s ‘Knowledge Sovereignty and the Indigenization of Knowledge.’ The Indigenization of Knowledge informs the community about Tribal and traditional knowledge. Kawerak Social Science Program Director Julie Raymond-Yakoubian emphasized the relevance of indigenous knowledge today and wants to make sure that Indigenous voices are heard. “What knowledge sovereignty and the indigenization of knowledge means is really bringing to the forefront Tribal knowledge. It’s important, it’s value[d], and ensuring it is used in all the appropriate contexts where it can be used –which is basically everywhere! And making sure that Indigenous voices are being heard and taking a lead in matters that impact Indigenous people,” Raymond-Yakoubian said. The language glossary is “one small step”
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For more than 60 years, the Eklutna River north of Anchorage had been dammed up, stifling the salmon runs that fed generations of Dena’ina people in the area. Before the damming, for hundreds of years, the area surrounding Eklutna Lake was populated by the Dena’ina people. Curtis McQueen says the inhabitants were originally more nomadic. “They settled these lands here and never left because of the rich abundance of habitat in this area,” Curtis McQueen said of the originally nomadic Dena’ina. McQueen is the former CEO of Eklutna Inc., the Tribe’s for-profit corporation. “And the Eklutna River, which was a raging, massive river at the time, has– and still has — all five species of salmon, which is not… a lot of rivers don’t have all five species.” McQueen is Tlingit, but was formally adopted by the Eklutna people. In his time working with the Tribe, he says he’d heard stories about how bountiful the river used to be. “We lost an elder recently named Alberta Stephan,” McQueen said.
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Content warning: This story contains accounts from descendants of boarding school survivors that may be distressing for some readers. As the sun rose on Thursday, K’aaxnaa.at Bamby James and the Strong Women singers finished a women’s prayer song. Then they joined dozens of others waving at traffic along Egan Drive. Their bright orange t-shirts popped out against the deep blue shadows of the early morning. It was chilly, kids were running around wrapped in blankets. But warm coffee and pastries served from the back of a nearby car — and waving signs at traffic — kept people warm. James, who is Lingít, is surrounded by family. She says she’s waving because she has children. “And it means a lot to us the fact that we get to keep our kids home, and our ancestors did not. Generations have come. There’s been trauma throughout the generations. I feel like this is our way of showing them that we’re ending the cycle of violence against our people,” James said. Sept. 30 is a National Day of
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A man who pleaded guilty to killing a 10-year-old Kotzebue girl has been sentenced to 99 years in prison. Utqiaġvik Superior Court Judge Nelson Traverso sentenced Peter Vance Wilson on September 21st, 2021, to serve 99 years in custody in the disappearance and death of Ashley Johnson-Barr. The 10-year-old Kotzebue girl went missing in September 2018. Her father, Scotty Barr, says he was grateful for the national support as the case made its way through court. “I can't thank everybody for what they've done, what they continue doing for our daughter,” Barr said. “It's hard to put words for the people that continue helping us to pass three years. You know, those eight days were the longest days of my life, but the three years of dealing with the court proceedings has been pretty tough on our family and myself. But we got through it by our strength and from people all over continue giving us support and blessings to go ahead and go through this.” Ashley was last seen alive in September
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The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced earlier this month that all major crab stocks are down. And for the first time in over 25 years, the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will be closed . The species is world-renowned and was largely made famous by the popular reality tv show “Deadliest Catch.” In the glory days of king crab fishing, locals describe hundreds of boats rushing into the cold Bering Sea to harvest millions of pounds of the crab worth even more millions of dollars. The commercial fishery has been around since 1966. In the 55 years since then, there have been just two other closures: once in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Now, the Bering Sea crab fleet and fishing communities around the state and the Pacific Northwest are bracing for another blow to their industry and are calling for new conservation efforts. “It’s big news, and it's hitting our industry really hard,” said Jamie Goen, executive director for Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a trade association
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The last time political boundaries were redrawn, Southeast lost a senator and a House member which diminished its voice in the legislature. So there was some relief when the draft redistricting maps were published last week because the size of Southeast’s political delegation remained the same : four House members and two state Senators for next year’s election. U.S. Census data shows Southeast communities have either had very modest growth or lost population while other parts of the state grew relatively quickly. Rep. Andi Story is a Democrat now in her second term representing Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley. But the new maps released last week show her four-bedroom home on Auke Bay would be in a neighboring district that’s held by a party ally . But only by a few hundred yards — her neighbors across the street would be unaffected. “It is really suspect that they chose to break up my current street this way,” she said. It’s normal for political boundaries to be redrawn every 10 years to
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A new University of Alaska Fairbanks study featured on the cover of the journal Science explores the life story of a woolly mammoth that lived 17,000 years ago. Thousands of years ago a woolly mammoth researchers dubbed Kik lumbered across what is now the state of Alaska. There were times when he stayed in one area, likely in a group with other mammoths. At one point Kik took off on a long trip, covering great distances of icy landscape. Researchers think that means he left his mother’s herd and struck out on his own. At 28-years-old Kik died above the Arctic Circle--likely of starvation. Lead researcher Mat Wooller said in the lab “It was kind of like watching this soap opera of this mammoth’s life emerge in front of our eyes real time.” Wooller directs the stable isotope facility at UAF. How could researchers uncover such detail about the life of a long-dead animal? They used information stored in Kik’s fossilized tusk to learn about his life. The first step was for the scientists to
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The American Civil Liberties Union wants a federal court to hold the city of Nome in contempt – for allegedly withholding police audits and emails in a legal case against the Nome police department. ( Editor's note: The plaintiff’s name is publicly available via court documents. As a standard policy, KNBA does not name sexual assault survivors without their permission.) In 2017, a 911 operator with the Nome Police Department reported to her supervisors that she had been sexually assault ed. Last year, the ACLU of Alaska filed a lawsuit against Nome and the police department on behalf of the operator, who is Iñupiaq – saying the police department failed to provide equal protection in her case. The complaint said that for more than a year, Nome police did not investigate her case – and “valuable evidence was lost because of the delay.” It also said the 911 operator’s case was just one example of the department’s mishandling of sexual assault reports involving Alaska Native women. On
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Congress set aside $8 billion for tribal entities across the country as part of the federal CARES Act. But it took a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June to free up some of those pandemic relief funds for Alaska Native corporations. Then, some of the village corporations got large payouts while Juneau-based Sealaska, the corporation with the most shareholders, got the least of the 13 regional corporations. Corporation executives say they’re still trying to understand the wide disparities in disbursements. Corporations large and small had applied for the nearly $450 million in federal pandemic relief — some expecting to be able to offer some direct relief to shareholders. Don Bremner, president of Yak-Tat Kwaan, Inc., said their allocation was around $164,000. “So we thought, ‘My gosh, did we did we fill out the forms wrong? Maybe we missed something,’” he said from Yakutat, where the village corporation serves around 500 shareholders. Divvying up the federal aid would work out to about
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The award-winning podcast “This Land” returns for a second season . This one examines the legal attacks on a 40-plus-year old federal law meant to protect Native children in the U.S. The first season of “This Land” examined two legal cases that became incredibly important to criminal jurisdiction and recognizing Tribal land. Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle is the host. “The podcast is about cases that are important to federal Indian law and Indigenous sovereignty that I felt like needed to be covered more.” Two cases pitted state jurisdiction over Tribal jurisdiction in Oklahoma, where the Creek people were forced to relocate from the Southeast during the Trails of Tears in the 1800s. They signed another treaty with the federal government in 1856. Oklahoma never really recognized the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Nation reservation. “Oklahoma's main argument was, ‘we haven't recognized these reservations in over a century. And so you can't possibly ask us to recognize them.’ Now, there was no
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Seal meat makes up a good portion of what’s in subsistence hunters’ freezers in Kotzebue. However, the sea ice the seals haul out on is diminishing, and new research has shown the window to hunt seals is getting shorter as a result. Iñupiaq hunter Cyrus Harris has harvested ugruk, or bearded seal, his whole life. For many people in Kotzebue and the surrounding region, the rotund mammal is a dietary staple. “Ugruk, once we process it into a seal oil form and using it as a preservative for the meats, the product itself is very nutritious,” Harris said. “We may be processing this stuff in the month of June, but we’re thinking ahead to fill our Siglauq, or storage, with product that’s going to run us through the winter.” Harris says the hunting season starts in the spring, as the sea ice breaks up in the Kotzebue Sound. But he’s noticed a change in the season length. “Once the ice flows break loose and are drifting north, we’d have about a two-week timeframe to do that on a regular hunting
