basic curriculums in the school districts. Currently it is being treated as a special program outside the scope of basic education.

For too many years Alaska Natives have been told that we're not good enough. Our history, our culture, our language, our subsistence skills are not good enough to be incorporated into the western school system. Our traditional beliefs have all but been wiped out by religious groups intent on substituting their own beliefs for our own. It is human nature that if you've been told enough_that you're not good enough, you're going to start believing that. I certainly think that many of our young people have fallen prey to this stereotyping. This is a two-fold problem. First, many of our Native people have begun to believe it; and second, it is a problem because the western society is rarely willing to incorporate anything Alaska Natives in origin into the western society.

Our board recently passed a resolution that requests school districts to hire more Alaska Native teachers. We feel that this action can promote some of that self-worth that our Native students need in the schools.

I'll skip the sections on economic development and jobs because some of those will be covered by other testimony. But we would like to ask that we be given an opportunity to add information or recommendations in the future. Also, I will skip the section on the BIA because that has been addressed many times and we've probably beaten the poor horse to death. [Laughter.]

I would agree with Mitch that there is need for Federal legislation to naming the tribes in Alaska. I would urge this committee to support the tribal government status of our IRA and traditional councils. The councils provide Alaska Natives with an avenue for true local control-a tool to assert control over their lives, their communities, and their destinies. The importance of tribal government issues as they relate to the social and economic problems cannot and should not be overlooked. The communities have not only an inherent right to govern themselves, they have an inherent need to do so. By allowing our communities to exercise local control, they can alleviate some of the real needs and concerns. Congress should take a more active role in this area if efforts made and dollars spent are going to have any real and lasting benefit. In closing, I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to testify. I hope that some day many of the problems that face our Alaska Natives will be lessened and we won't need to have so many hearings concerning our problems.

Thank you.

[Prepared statement of Mr. Pungowiyi appears in the appendix.] The CHAIRMAN. The problems that all of you face here in Alaska, to say the least, are mind-boggling. I oftentimes have difficulty convincing my colleagues of the severity of it, but I will do my best. Senator Murkowski.

Senator MURKOWSKI. I noted in your testimony your concern with regard to U.S. Fish and Wildlife restriction on sea otter pelts. There is reason to believe that we may expect some alteration in the regulations to allow the conventional use of the remnants associated with subsistence use of the marine mammal for Native crafts so that they could be sold. I think your testimony correctly points out that this is an inconsistency currently as a consequence

of the tremendous growth of the marine mammal population. We will certainly continue to work in that regard.

Mr. PUNGOWIYI. Our testimony goes beyond that in that we would like to see rather than just for traditional arts and crafts, that we'd be allowed to use it for other commercial purposes that would economically benefit the communities.

Senator MURKOWSKI. I think you could expect some progress in that area.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Our next witness spent much time with me during my first committee visit to this State. He accompanied me to the villages in the Arctic Circle and introduced me to village life. I am happy to say that as a result of his guidance, we passed some legislation which I hope will be helpful to Alaska Natives. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Senator Willie Hensley.

STATEMENT OF WILLIE HENSLEY, PRESIDENT, NANA CORP., KOTZEBUE, AK

Senator HENSLEY. Thank you Senator Inouye, Senator Murkowski. My name is Willie Hensley and I am President of NANA Regional Corporation. I do remember your visit to the villages. The thing that struck me about that visit was that it was over the Labor Day Weekend, a long weekend at that, and instead of going to Hawaii, you came to Alaska to visit our villages. I appreciated that.

The CHAIRMAN. My Hawaiians are getting quite disturbed. I spend more time in Indian country than with Hawaiians.

Senator HENSLEY. I was going to appear here with others, Mr. Chairman. President Marie Green, of Maniilag, was to be here and Chuck Green, who is the Mayor, was also going to be here with me, but their plane isn't coming in until later on this afternoon. We thank you for returning to Alaska to hear us. I would like to have my testimony submitted for the record, if that's okay.

The CHAIRMAN. It will be made part of the record.

Senator HENSLEY. Also, Mr. Chairman, I was going to bring you some photographs. I don't know what you do with photographs, but in order to emphasize

The CHAIRMAN. If they make me look good, I publish them. [Laughter.]

Senator HENSLEY. Well, Mr. Chairman, these happen to be with regard to our water and sewer problems. [Laughter.]

The CHAIRMAN. I will look them over.

Senator HENSLEY. Mr. Chairman, this past winter was very difficult, it was very long, very cold, we had more snow than we've seen in many years. Also, the temperatures were down into the minus 50's, 60's, and 70's. For weeks transportation came to a halt for many of our villages. We were reminded of the power of nature and the frailty of modern mechanical equipment-electrical generators were ceasing to function, heating oil was gelling, and communications systems failed. Clinics froze up and medicine had to be carried to other warm locations. Where we had them, school and village water and sewer pipes froze. I mention all this, Mr. Chairman, because our villagers are very vulnerable at a time when the

State's resources are beginning to decline as well as the ability of our villages to secure the funding necessary to keep public services functioning.

Mr. Chairman, I will mention some of the issues that concern our region in the northwest part of Alaska. In spite of congressional amendments to Public Law 638, and reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, delays in implementation continue the frustrations that were to be addressed by those amendments. For instance, our ability to do recruitment and retention of critically needed medical personnel is being hampered still. Also, the Community Health Aid Program continues to be inadequately funded. The sanitation and water problems are continuing to plague the villages. We have systems that simply weren't designed for the Arctic, where they have them, they cause problems to the homes because of backing up. Yet, they love those systems because they are more than what they had before, even though they don't function properly. So we need help in that area. Despite amendments to Public Law 638, we're continuing to have problems of self-determination and foot dragging in the administrative apparatus of the BIA.

In housing, Mr. Chairman, your own eyes have seen the terrible housing conditions of the villages. In our region, we had a survey done of seven of the villages and only 68 percent of the housing needs are being met, and 41 percent of those units are substandard by any standard. We cannot hope to improve the situation with the program of new construction and improvements now in place. The BIA plan to renovate existing substandard housing within 10 years will fall 30 years short at the current rate of performance, not to mention the continued annual deterioration that takes place.

I might add also, Mr. Chairman, that under the HUD 500 program in Alaska we had, people take title to their own homes because they simply had lost hope that the government would be in a position to improve those facilities. Later on, however, HUD did get some funds to the Housing Authorities to improve them. Those people who took their own homes had to give up any ability to accept federally-funded housing for 10 years. Yet, those housing units that they took were totally inadequate to begin with. It's a problem. I don't know if anybody is going to look at it. We had to spend weeks and weeks and months of letter writing just to get one family a waiver so that at some point in the future they can secure additional housing that might be publicly funded.

Realistic goals and innovative solutions must be found to deal with the housing crisis. Village people are spending too much money just trying to keep warm in their inadequate homes.

Mr. Chairman, in the area of social services and in public assistance, the NANA region has 680 active cases with the State's Public Assistance Office. Yet there is no participation on the local or regional level to meet the needs of our people in the numerous rules and regulations, both State and Federal, and with their obscure interpretations and Wootem cultural biases.

Maniilag, our non-profit, provides in-take services but it is prohibited to provide eligibility determination by vague Federal regulations. Surely a hungry applicant shouldn't have to wait weeks for a decision from an office 600 miles away.

Mr. Chairman, I listened to Caleb Pungowiyi comments about the educational system and the necessity of trying to provide some self-confidence on the part of our own people. Having lived through decades of an educational system that is virtually blind to our cultural identity, our history, our sense of continuity, our sense of values, we are very frustrated. Even though we might have local control, it is very hard to change an educational institution because most of the people who are running our systems are not Native people. It is not their culture, and it is very hard to make room for our own cultural identity, our language, our traditions, and our values in the present system. Unfortunately, the self-determination which we thought we got through the establishment of the rural education attendance areas simply hasn't worked very well. Ultimately the village has very little to say about what really goes on in their own school. That's hardly your problem, but in a sense it is in that the BIA basically did kind of steal away from the State. I think it was a travesty because it takes a lot more effort, energy, and money to try to educate people in the villages and somehow I think there ought to be a way for BIA funding to reenter the scene because we are going to be facing some real problems in the future. We're facing them now and as our revenues begin to decline, we've got to try to think of new ways to educate our children, both in the western sense as well as in the traditional

sense.

That is the extent of my testimony, Mr. Chairman. As I said earlier, I would like to submit my written testimony later for the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator, I can assure you that for many of us in the Congress the words that represent identity, self-esteem, and self-pride and culture are very important. Without those important concepts, I suppose all ethnic groups would disappear. If we are of the belief, as I am, that perpetuation of Alaskan Native culture is in our best interest, then we should be concerned with self-esteem, pride, identity, and culture.

I thank you very much, Senator.

Senator Murkowski, did you want to say anything?

Senator MURKOWSKI. Senator, your last comment regarding the BIA somehow coming, re-entering the village education effort, how do you suggest that be done when it's being pulled the other way as a consequence of the State's role?

Senator HENSLEY. I am not suggesting that the physical presence of the BIA be expanded necessarily, I'm saying that we want the money. [Laughter.]

Senator MURKOWSKI. Well, you know what goes with the money, Willie-the strength, unfortunately. But the presence of the State in the role of education is, I assume, still far more acceptable than the previous arrangement?

Senator HENSLEY. It's hard to say. The BIA had lots of faults, that's for sure, but I'm not so sure that they didn't do as adequate a job as we're doing now. I mean, when you look back to our elders who went to school at the turn of the century, they were able to learn. The policies and the practices of BIA I would not commend necessarily in a lot of ways because it was really kind of a destruction ground for cultures, but yet somehow they were able to teach

people who were just virtually coming out of the Stone Age in terms of their material abilities. I just travelled to about 10 of our villages on what we call our "Spirit Program" and we see the inadequacies of the present system in teaching and also in the teaching of values, as well as in the teaching of language-both english and eskimo. But the elders did learn. They learned a foreign language, they learned to communicate, and they learned to write. We're having a very difficult time doing that today even with all the technology and new equipment that we have. We need to look at the system a lot harder.

Senator MURKOWSKI. You were a product yourself of the previous BIA system for your primary education and you were in a position to observe the transition that has occurred. It is very difficult for us to speak of self-initiation of a curriculum that is uniform throughout the State yet suited for village life. I assume that is a good deal of the frustration.

Senator HENSLEY. I think one of the gentlemen earlier reflected on some of the difficulties of our present system. Yes, it is hard but I think it has to be addressed by everybody and we need to come up with some new ways of doing things. It is a local problem in the sense that we do have resources, but they are not reaching those areas which we need those resources to reach. I don't know if it has to be addressed area by area, but I can see how from the Federal level it is hard to do. From what we can see, a little bit of money can go a long way if the village people have some say about how it is put to use.

Senator MURKOWSKI. Mr. Chairman, I have two other rather brief questions but one of them may require an extended answer. Obviously the delegation, as well as Senator Inouye and the professional staff, are very aware of the frustrations within Alaska as a consequence of the ANCSA legislation, the formation of the regional corporation and you, as President of NANA, share this frustration. The village expression is one of concern over not having adequate resources. We've heard testimony today from some of the witnesses concerning such issues as the naming and distinction of the tribes, per se. One can wonder whether there is a willingness of those that are tribal advocates to suggest that they be willing to give up their individual corporate stock for a new type of entity. My constituents continually express frustration, which your constituents do too. I wonder if you could just generalize for a moment on this dilemma as you see it. Do you see it as Alaskans in transition, the realization of the complexities for corporation, or is the frustration growing in the sense of the sensitivity of the tribal status? Where do we go from here? I know it's a dilemma for the AFN and it is certainly a dilemma for us to be responsive towards. Senator HENSLEY. You're right. We could go on all day on this subject. I would say in the early stages of our effort to try to secure the land, what we really wanted was control over our living space. We really didn't have any ideas in mind as to any kind of administrative apparatus in those early days. We just knew that the American Indian people lost most of a subcontinent and that we were well on our way to doing that here if we didn't do something. In the early stages all we wanted to do was to be able to sort of be in control of that space that we lived in and not worry too much