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done if their needs and concerns are given a greater and more deserved recognition than they currently hold.

Political and management decisions affecting the land and resources of western Alaska must weigh their findings with due consideration to the Native peoples as part of the environment. They must be given a fair and equal chance as well to take full advantage of and be a part of any economic benefits which are available through the apparently inevitable exploitation of their homeland. At all costs, the land and our renewable resources must be protected and maintained. They are the cornerstone of our survival in all respects. Without them, our culture and our people will cease to exist.

Thank you for listening.

The CHAIRMAN. I can assure you that this committee will look into your charge that Federal agencies either are not implementing the laws or enforcing the provisions of the laws to preserve and protect the resources that you speak of. I will have the staff look into this immediately. I will also look into the matter of the fishing companies from the lower 48 who, according to you, are doing damage to your fisheries. We will certainly do that.

Senator Murkowski.

Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I am sure you're aware of the recent action taken by the Administration not to approve the negotiations of the drift net fisheries on which substantial negotiations had taken place with the Japanese. There is a schedule for Taiwanese drift net negotiations on the 1st of June. The Administration determined that the negotiations were inadequate and the Secretary of Commerce mandated that they go back and renegotiate.

Of course, we're all very concerned about the drift net fishing. What it basically does is catch our immature salmon on the high seas. There is a strong commitment by the delegation that that fishery is just not acceptable because we lose the ability to manage the resources on the high seas, let alone our own salmon. I think there has been a substantial turn around on behalf of the State Department in particular in indicating that there is dissatisfaction with the continued presence without observers or without some type of transponders on those vessels so we can maintain some control over the incidental catch, which is more than incidental as we both know. We traditionally manage our resources as a consequence of allowing escapement. After the escapement has occurred, then we open our fishery. If someone is taking those out on the high seas, obviously that's an effort in futility. So, I assure you that Senator Stevens, Don Young, and myself are very concerned about what's happening in this regard.

You will notice that we've intercepted a number of vessels of late and one of those Taiwanese vessels took a great deal of formal diplomacy since we don't have a relationship with Taiwan in the sense that we do with most countries. We don't recognize the Taiwan government in the sense of the United States having an embassy there nor do they have an embassy in the United States. But I think it's fair to say that we mean business on the issue of drift net fishing and interception on the high seas.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator STEVENS. I would just like to add that what Mr. Gregory says is absolutely true concerning the impact of this new technology on our fisheries. We will welcome the investigation you just mentioned. I calculated with my staff last week that there are 70 vessels now that have the capability of harvesting all of the species from Oregon's southern border to the Arctic. They are that large and they are harvester processor vessels and we've got a whole new technology we're facing now. That's American vessels. Now, General Gossman has been talking about the onslaught of the drift net fleets that come from Japan and Korea and Taiwan and Thailand and the combination of these two sources of pressure on our North Pacific species, particularly on the salmon, is just overwhelming. We are going to have to see what we can do about it. At the current time, it would not be possible for us to discriminate against any of the these vessels because there is no concept of what we call "limited entry" in this area. Of course, we are protesting this, as Senator Murkowski said, very heavily.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to join you in this endeavor because I am convinced that if nothing is done, the fish life will disappear from this area within 50 years. That would be a crime.

Your testimony, Mr. Gregory, has been most helpful.
Chief GREGORY. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Our next witness is the Chairman of the Anthropology Department of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Professor Richard Jordan.

STATEMENT OF RICHARD JORDAN, HEAD, ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS

Dr. JORDAN. Senators Inouye, Stevens, Murkowski, and staff members. My name is Richard Jordan and I serve as the chairman of the Anthropology Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My specialty is northern archaeology and I have conducted fieldwork for nearly 20 years in Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. Since 1980, I have been carrying out archaeological research on the Native history of Kodiak Island with support from both State and Federal agencies and the Kodiak Area Native Association. Much of this recent work has been done while living in a Native village.

I thank you for this opportunity to present testimony on at least one aspect of the current status and problems of Alaska Native people as presented in the recently published report of the AFN. I have personally witnessed many of the destructive behavioral patterns which are presented as such shocking and grim statistics in this report. While I have no single magic bullet to offer in reversing these destructive trends, I remain optimistic that the lives of Alaska's Native people can and will improve in the future.

One of the core problems among a significant minority of Native people is the lack of a sense of self-worth and low self-esteem. These emotional feelings derive from historical attacks on Native language, society, economy, and traditional values through the process of colonial expansion and domination by Europeans. Historical forces have thus done much to damage a sense of cultural identity and pride, as well as cultural continuity in Native language, culture, and biology. The AFN report simply quantifies the extent

to which this historical process has produced so much human misery.

Another related factor is a sense of loss of control over one's life, family, and community. This reinforces feelings of hopelessness and despair and has, and will continue to generate feelings of anger and hostility directed both externally and internally. Given this climate, any externally imposed program is doomed to failure without direct and immediate input and cooperation from Native people in the planning stages. Management of programs by Native people logically follows at the implementation stage. I believe this is a theme that you've heard repeatedly from Native people themselves today.

Although I cannot speak for Native people, my view is that the healing process will not occur until there is a renewed sense of cultural identity and pride in that cultural identity. The assimilationist policies of the past have been failures and have resulted in compounding problems for Native people. Every effort should be made to eradicate all remnants of these policies and programs. In addition, the following steps should be taken if Native people concur: Financial assistance should be provided to encourage cultural heritage efforts. Such efforts might include oral history programs, archaeological excavations, language preservation programs, archival research, and documentation of traditional objects housed in museums. There is also urgency in recovering this information in the very near future. Traditional knowledge and historical perspectives disappear with the passing of each elder. Archaeological sites are massively threatened in many areas of Alaska through marine and riverine erosion as well as vandalism. The recent oil spill in Prince William Sound will probably severely impact an 8,000 to 10,000 year record of Native history in this State unless corrective measures are taken. The use of traditional languages continues to decline under the combined weight of the mass media, instruction in English, and pressures to gain skills useful to the dominate society. Such projects should be managed by Native people, which will initially require training and educational opportunities.

The accumulation of this information, however, will amount to little unless it is effectively transmitted in a useful and understandable fashion. Introducing this information into local school curricula is one critical step. Other means might include the production of videos, hosting of public culture heritage conferences, presenting displays of traditional arts and crafts, establishing courses in language instruction, and the production of activities in the expressive arts, such as dance and music. This dissemination of information and hosting of activities will not only build pride in Native culture heritage, but will act as a vehicle to overcome prejudice and intolerance within certain segments of the American public. Such a program is viewed, in part, as one of prevention. And it will be one that is cost-effective, particularly when compared to the human and financial costs of coping with criminal activity, suicide, homicide, substance abuse, family and community disintegration.

The establishment of local museums is another important element. Museums have evolved in the past several decades from dusty repositories of curiosities to dynamic educational facilities for

the general public. You only have to look down the mall to see that, I'm sure. At the local level they provide access to the achievements of earlier generations. To use Kodiak as an example, the most important ethnographic collections are now housed in Leningrad, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Boulogne-sur-Mer [France], London, Berkeley, and Washington, DC. None exist on Kodiak. If a proper museum were constructed, various types of loan agreements could be arranged with these museums. Finally, and very importantly, local museums provide a physical facility to conduct and host cultural heritage activities. And, of course, they should be managed by the local Native organizations, which will also require training and educational opportunities.

I thus urge this committee to consider supporting culture heritage research, culture heritage programs, and the establishment of local Native museums. According to the statement of one Alaskan Native whose views I take very seriously, "Preserving Native American cultures encompasses more than scientific or aesthetic goals. For us it is nothing short of survival."

Thank you.

Senator STEVENS. Mr. Chairman, may I? Professor, you should know that Senator Inouye is the leader in the Congress of the establishment of a new Indian museum on the mall. And, according to his legislation, it will provide travelling exhibits to go for substantial periods of time on loan to the areas from which those exhibits were obtained. It is a very historic exhibit, the Hay exhibit from New York, which now for the first time will be moved out of New York and will be available to the Nation and also to the areas of the west from which these exhibits were obtained in the first instance by the Hay Foundation. It is going to be a new era for museums once that starts.

Dr. JORDAN. Yes; I'm quite aware of that. One of the difficulties I see at the local level, however, is that unless there are proper facilities, which is to say facilities which are secure from vandalism, which are fireproof, have proper environmental controls, then these travelling exhibits cannot under good conscious come to local areas. But I do support those efforts, certainly.

The CHAIRMAN. I hope that you will not be too disappointed and frustrated in your efforts because what you are doing and pursuing I think is the answer to many of our problems here-cultural identity, cultural preservation. I join you in your endeavors, sir.

Dr. JORDAN. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Our next panel consists of Mr. Tom Abel of Craig; Mr. Joe Hotch, Chilkat Indian village; Ms. Clare Swan, tribal chairperson of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe; Ms. Katherine Boling, president of the Kenai Native Association; and Ms. Virginia Kvasnikoff, vice president of the Ninilchik Traditional Council. Mr. Abel.

STATEMENT OF TOM ABEL, CRAIG, AK, ACCOMPANIED BY JIM FRANK, ACTING PRESIDENT, PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF HYDABURG

Mr. ABEL. Thank you Senator, members of the Senate_Select Committee on Indian Affairs. My name is Thomas H. Abel. I speak

to you today as a sovereign Haida and I am a citizen of the Haida Nation. Our Nation preceded the United States of America by thousands of years. Our history pre-dates written western versions and the occupation of our homelands by ourselves remains a fact today. I would like to tell you all today that I am not an Alaska Native nor are any of the people in this room Alaskan Natives. I am a Haida.

Before I make my presentation, I have a letter here to Senator Inouye from the Klawock IRA Council and perhaps I should give that to you when I am finished, Senator. It is an invitation to visit the Island which is known to you as Prince of Wales Island, which is the Island on which my hometown is located and the other communities of Craig, Klawock, Hydaburg, and Kasaan. Also with us today he did not have the opportunity to be on the witness list-is Mr. Jim Frank, who has been acting as the President of the Provisional Council of the Haida Nation in Hydaburg.

Today I shall seek to provide for you a personal historical perspective and a contemporary opinion of the present status of the indigenous people of Alaska. My perspective is that of one who has fully and actively participated since 1977. Indeed, today I conduct only work which has the ultimate goal of seeking the restoration of the sovereign rights and the human rights of my people. I would like to relate to you today a story. When I was 10 years old, myself and two of my friends were apprehended in the act of digging out a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey monument. We knew even then that these markers were violating the integrity of our land and that they did not belong there. I believe that those lands are and were the lands of the Hydalas. We call ourselves the "Good People." These lands, waters, resources, and air were and are the homelands from which my people come. Today you call Hydaguay the Queen Shaded Islands in southern Prince of Wales Island. I submit to you that our claim is one of occupation that has been uninterrupted, albeit that it has been severely attacked and is under attack today. I submit to you that our title remains valid and that our sovereignty is in tact, including the jurisdictional rights and that the complete array of intrinsic accouterments of government need only to be reidentified and restructured to meet the contemporary issues and problems that face us today. Only we can solve the problems that face us.

The potential that is possible through the integration of our own indigenous science and technology with that of the technology available through western technology-your technology-offers us the opportunity to solve the problems which are attacking us in the environment and in our health, not to mention the social fabric which is being eroded among all of us-not only my people, your people as well.

History, at least that version presented in public schools, does not usually cover the topics which relate to trade and administration from the early 1700's to 1867. These events must and should be searched out by the individual to find the truth behind the Treaty of Cession of 1876. The territorial claims of the United States of America to Alaska, the Statehood movement, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, not to mention the legal decisions relating to jurisdic

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