nized non-tribes. The with passage of Senate Bill 611, Seldovia may be able to overcome its debilitating lack of acknowledgement more quickly and at less expense than what we are facing under the current FAP. With the acknowledgement due us, our tribal rolls will be official in the eyes of the Indian Health Service, and services to our people will not be terminated. The State of Alaska contends that by enabling tribes that have been overlooked by the Federal Government to gain their long overdue acknowledgement, Senate Bill 611 will raise the awful specter of sovereignty. The Seldovia Council certainly does not see it that way. Rather, we submit that the State is again raising the sovereignty issue as a smoke screen to cover its program of disallowing any form of government within Alaska that is not both ratified by the State and restricted to engaging only with the State. The idea of direct Federal-to-tribal relationships does not fit the Alaska State government's plan. The subterfuge that the State is using to persuade Congress to withdraw that bill is that there are court cases now pending, and you should postpone any action until they are settled. Well, if there were ever a time that there were not court cases pending, it would be a simple matter for the State to begin litigation that would force the continuation of this moratorium. The logic of the argument fades when one realizes that the court cases are usually caused by the failure of the legal system to figure out whether an entity is a tribe or not. As we read it, S. 611 would not change that specific ambiguity. Thus, its passage does not logically relate to the State's court cases anyway. The Seldovia Native Village urges the committee to pass S. 611. We ask that you see the State's resistance for what it is and we trust that you appreciate the bill's importance in preventing the disruption of critical services to our people. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. I thank you very much. STATEMENT OF DERENTY TABIOS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE Mr. TABIOS. Good afternoon Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens, Senator Murkowski, and staff. Thank you for visiting our State once again Senator Inouye. We appreciate the privilege of addressing you on matters of grave concern to the Alaska Native people. My name is Derenty Tabios. I was born and raised in Port Graham, one of the villages that is served by North Pacific Rim, of which I am the executive director. I would like to address two issues today. The first relates to AFN's report on the status of Alaska Natives. The second relates to the inadequacy of the Federal bureaucracy's response to the oil spill emergency. First, the matter of AFN's report. The discouraging social and economic statistics in that report reflect the continuing failures of the majority culture to deal effectively with the aboriginal peoples of this continent. Until very recently there has been an assumption that european or western values were superior to ours. This assumption affected how books were written, how children were taught, and how Native Americans—as well as other minorities— were treated. Many American citizens, particularly in recent decades, have begun to seriously question that assumption. Native Americans have begun to seriously challenge it. One result of the challenge is the passage of Public Law 93-638. The Indian Self-Determination Act has been the official policy of the United States Government for over a decade. Yet, in Alaska implementation of the policy is continuously hampered because some people believe that there are not self-governing Native tribes here. That belief is obviously inaccurate. It is simply not based in fact. Yet it is a belief that is held by many powerful people and it is an ever-present roadblock to the exercise of self-determination in our tribal villages. The deterioration of the traditional social structures in our villages is a direct and tangible cause of the social dysfunction reported by AFN. A most important component in any society is the effectiveness of its leadership in enforcing community values. In the case of Native Americans, the first post-contact event was inevitably the emasculation of the authority of the leadership. Treaties were made then broken, and the Indians were powerless to enforce them. In Alaska, the emasculation of village leadership was more subtle and perhaps more destructive. No treaties were made, so none could be broken. Village authority was simply ignored. Lands were used at will by the majority culture without even a token acknowledgement of Native ownership until 1972, when big oil and big government wanted a pipeline. In all the years of the Alaska Native Land Claims debate, the village governments-as the official and legally responsible representatives of their people-continued to be ignored. Even though some of the Native people involved were in fact village government officials, the process was not a government-to-government settlement. It was not until the mid-70's that the existence of the village governments was even noticed by the majority culture. The Self-Determination Act provided a vehicle through which the villages began to make their voices heard. Unfortunately, what the majority culture heard was not to its liking. And so in recent years it has set about to destroy what is left of village society by declaring that village government decisions are unenforceable and that Federal Indian law does not apply in Alaska-village adoptions are not recognized by the State, village jurisdiction over Indian child welfare matters is not recognized, the tax exempt status of village-owned enterprises and property is challenged, as is village authority to enforce local taxes and other community ordinances. The Department of the Interior, which is the primary Executive Branch responsible for effectuating the United States Government's trust relationship with the Native American tribes, has utterly failed to defend the right of the Alaska Native villages to selfgovernment. We hope that the new Secretary will be willing to take a fresh look at the legal quagmire that Alaska's tribal villages find themselves in. But the issue is so politically charged that we are concerned that even a new Administration may not be willing to touch it. Senator Inouye, you have evidenced great sensitivity to the situation of Alaska Natives, including the tribal government issues in our villages. It is with a great sense of urgency that we ask you to champion our case for recognition of the authority and legitimacy of our Native village governments. America's trust responsibility to us, the "First Americans," ultimately rests in the Congress of the United States. We know that you have taken upon yourself to examine our history and we trust you to have a hand in writing the next chapter. Now, I regret that I must also address the issue of the inadequate response of the Federal Government to the impacts of the oil spill in our villages and communities. On page 32 of Secretary Skinner's and Secretary Reilly's report to the President on the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, the President was advised that "no single mechanism is in place at this time through which Alaska Natives can provide inputs on their particular concerns, or receive assistance for their claims and subsistence needs." The "single mechanism" for human and cultural concerns should have been the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The North Pacific Rim went first to the Bureau for assistance. We appreciate the recent Bureau activity, it should be noted that as early as April 11, just a few weeks after the spill, our Natural Resources Department had submitted a full proposal to the Bureau for an interdisciplinary team to address the social, cultural, as well as the environmental and the biological impacts. Two days later, our Employment and Training Director requested funds to meet spill-related needs. Then on April 20, still less than 1 month after the spill, three full-fledged proposals in the area of tribal government assistance, social services, and natural resources were personally presented to Secretary Lujan during his visit here. On May 15, Secretary Lujan directed his Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs to undertake the necessary inventories and evaluations to determine what might be done to assess, and to facilitate the mitigation of the cultural, social, and economical impacts. The Secretary noted that "the Bureau of Indian Affairs may need to obtain additional funds to perform this work by either reprogram.ming or from other sources," and he asked to be advised of funding needs. While we welcome the Secretary's support, as of Wednesday, May 24, exactly 2 months after the spill, none of the North Pacific Rim's requests have been answered. We need expedited consideration and immediate approval to meet our needs. We need an answer. In the meantime, the Rim's village employees as well as village government volunteers and paid staff are faced with the dilemma of continuing to serve their communities at no pay or at TNPR's wages, or to go to work for VECO, the Exxon clean-up subcontractor, at nearly $17 an hour. All village staff have been seriously affected by the VECO conflict. One village Chief has exclaimed in frustration, "I don't know who I work for now because VECO is paying me but I'm still the Chief of my village." Most of the leaders have to wear two hats-one VECO employee hat, one village leader hat. The resulting conflict has had a terrible toll on morale and effective functioning. These impacts are long term. Thousands and thousands of cash dollars are falling into the hands of a subsistence oriented people. The value conflicts alone may take a generation to sort out. In the meantime, VECO will eventually leave the villages, the money pump to the individuals will be disconnected, and the wreckage of traditions and heritage and lifestyle will have to be faced. The time to start preparing for these social impacts was on March 25. Today is May 27. Relief is still not in sight and we are concerned that when it comes it may be too little, too late. The Rim was the only organization which had well-developed communications systems in place to receive impact information from all of the villages, to act as a central repository of information and coordination, and to provide requested assistance. Our strategic relationship with the whole impacted region caused our workload to quadruple within days of the spill, and the pressure continues. I cannot underestimate the urgency of the needed assistance. Senator, we hope you can help us by expediting the bureaucratic processes. In closing, I would like to thank the Senator for choosing two of those communities which have been impacted by the oil for your visit tomorrow. We hope to make your visit a very welcome one, Senator. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. As you know, we will be visiting the Native villages of Tatitlek and Chenega. I am looking forward to your guidance because I gather you will be hosting our visit there. Mr. TABIOS. Yes, sir; I will be. The CHAIRMAN. At that time, we will have another opportunity to hear from you and village leaders and the people. We will listen to their concerns. Your voice will be heard. Our next witness is Mr. Nick Peterson, mayor of the city of Akhiok. I understand that the Mayor is not here. So we will move ahead to Ms. Nina Olsen. STATEMENT OF NINA OLSEN, KODIAK AREA NATIVE ASSOCIATION MS. OLSEN. I am from Kodiak and I'm representing the Kodiak Area Native Association. First of all, Nick Peterson could not make it because of the storm. He had fully intended to come and he requests that he be able to submit a written testimony. The CHAIRMAN. The file and the record will be kept open for 2 weeks. If any of you would like to submit supplemental material or new material, please feel free to do so. MS. OLSON. Thank you. I work as an elder. My husband retired and I went to work two years ago. The organization was looking for elders to take part and so they came to me and I like what I'm doing. I am in the alcohol and other drug abuse department and have had training and plan to take some more training. I would like to share more positive things that are taking place in our community and our villages. There are things happening in our area—and I'm sure in other parts of Alaska-good things hap pening in my community, which is Kodiak. Working in that department, I do work on intervention and prevention and also some counselling. I find that our people are responding more. I don't know if it is because I am an elder or because I am a Native, but I find great response. I have a daughter who is also an alcohol counsellor and she has seen good response as well. So we've been thinking and trying different ways to present sobriety to our people. We will continue to do so. One thing I would like to mention is that we started a Native group which we call Natives for Sobriety. People have really responded to this. We have our meetings on Monday nights and our Native people come out. This is older people and youth together and we sense that they feel very safe when they come to this particular group, not that we don't encourage other groups, but we saw a need there and so we started this and I'm glad to report that it is taking off. Good things are happening through this. I also visit a treatment center and visit the Native people. I have group time with them and they respond real well. In fact, one fellow said, "You know, I haven't talked to anybody else as much as I have with you." So I feel there is a real need for Native providers and counsellors along that line. There seems to be real good response in that way. In my community, we are networking with other providers— mental health, crisis center, and we've asked the school to joinand we meet once a week. This way we know what is going on. The right hand knows what the left hand is doing. This is working out real well. Also we have an adolescent treatment center which is called The Wings. This has been effective. There again, we, as Natives, are involved in that with other providers, which are professionals. I visit and talk with the Native youth that come there. Another thing that's been happening is the youth and elder conferences. This has gone very well. I am really proud of our youth that are doing things and thinking up things for themselves. They're the ones that run the conferences. There is guidance by an adult, but the youth really run it. Every village has had a conference this past year and they have gone very well. I am very happy to see these things happening in my community. I do, however, have some concerns. There is a need to emphasize more training in the area of cross cultural issues amongst the care providers across the State. One would be amazed at how little information is geared towards this issue. By this, I mean to include teachers, the medical providers, as well as the clergy. The videos being produced these days are geared for urban living, not for rural settings where they are being used. My other concern is the changing role of the regional health corporations in light of the shift towards funding service programs directly with tribal councils in rural villages. As more villages write their own grants for providing alcohol treatment, suicide prevention, youth alternative activities, ICU, and so forth, how do the regional health corporation shift their focus? I thank you for being here in Alaska. [Applause.] The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Olsen, I am pleased that you spent time telling us of successful results in your program. It is gratifying to |