know that. It also gives us some sense of hope that all is not lost. I believe we met last November, didn't we? Ms. OLSEN. Yes; I was there. I am also involved in the Blue Ribbon Commission of AFN. This is what we're doing is celebrating sobriety and the good, positive things that are happening. The CHAIRMAN. Keep it up. Our next witness is Mary Ann Mills of the Sovereign Indigenous Women of the Arctic. STATEMENT OF MARY ANN MILLS, SOVEREIGN INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF THE ARCTIC, STERLING, AK Ms. MILLS. Honorable Senator Daniel Inouye, members of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, and staff, thank you for being here and listening to our concerns. My name is Mary Ann Mills and I am a Dena'ina Indian and representing the Sovereign Indigenous Women of the Arctic. I would like to draw your attention to the findings and recommendations within the United States Arctic Research Plan that was done by the Interagency Research Policy Committee, released July 1987. These findings were monitored by the National Science Foundation and further reviewed independently by the Federation of American Scientists. The political bias of the various agencies has been effectively neutralized and these determinations carry the highest degree of institutional integrity and should be relied upon by your committee to solve the many problems that have led to the genocidal elimination of the Indigenous tribal people of Alaska. I would like to draw your attention to this statement in the Arctic Research Plan, Considerable research has already been conducted in the Arctic. People living there, particularly Native people, express concerns that they are 'over studied', that they are treated only as subjects of experiments and not as collaborators in the research, that they are often not fully apprised of the research being carried out or the results at the conclusion of the studies, and finally that the sensitive nature of the results is often not fully appreciated and dealt with appropriately. Many of us are concerned over the mass hepatitis B immunization program that was imposed upon the Alaska Natives, especially when the November 14, 1987 Lancet report showed that the hepatitis B virus was on a sharp decline when the mass immunization program was introduced. We feel that the Indian Health Service, the governments, and the health corporations were not forthright with us in that they did not inform us of any controversy over the hepatitis B vaccine or of any of its potential risks. We are concerned for all Alaskan people because presently the State of Alaska has a mandatory immunization law, and who is to say who will be next. We have enclosed the shocking information that we received from doctors, scientists, medical writers, and concerned human beings from the United States and from around the world. We have been told "trust me, trust me" by the Federal Government, by the State Government, and their corporate instruments, so many agencies and bureaucracies, and for so many years. It seems only reasonable that with all of these health programs, educational programs, social programs, etc., that we should be fit as a fiddle. Something is very wrong with their system and we find under all of this "trust responsibility" of the occupying govern ments, the reality is: per capita, Alaska Natives have the highest rate of poverty, the highest rate of diseases, the highest rate of alcoholism, suicides, mental health problems, incarcerations. The list goes on in an unending cycle of genocide. It is easy to see that these programs which have been thrust upon us is working to our demise and are geared to fail us in almost every aspect. State and Federal statistics show we are worse off now than before the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Through ANCSA we have inherited discord, pitting brother against brother and sister against sister through their sophisticated art of money, power, and greed. ANCSA took us out of human form and now we are stockholders and, as we all know, it is okay to eliminate stockholders. Our cure must come from within us through our traditional beliefs, through the help of our traditional elders, and through our traditional tribal governments. The fact that the Indigenous Native people have been used as target groups without our informed consent has led us to an almost total loss of confidence in the Federal and State Governments and their contractors in the administration of designer health programs with designer drugs and vaccines that are suspiciously related to Injected Immune Deficiencies as differentiated from Acquired Immune Deficiencies. In closing I would like to state that the genocidal effects of both the State and Federal administration of governmental policies has resulted in overt and covert acts of genocide to the tribal indigenous people of Alaska and those other Alaskans who have peacefully integrated into our human tribal societies. Since the United States and the disclaimer State of Alaska has jurisdiction based on quasi-military occupation and not sovereignty, as outlined in the Koslivtzov Memorandum, the puppet governments have aided and abetted the genocide as defined in the recent enactment of Public Law 100-606, the Genocide Act. We are completely opposed to the Alaska Federation of Natives, Inc., and all other State or Federal chartered instruments in their efforts to create another commission to redocument what has already been determined by the Berger Report and the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee that was done under section 109 of Public Law 98-373, which we submit with our oral testimony. Most of the findings in the Berger report and the United States Arctic Research Plan of 1987 are enough to martial all the forces to correct most of the problems and the present act of Congress, Public Law 99-239, Compacts of Free Association Act of 1985, be fully implemented by the indigenous tribal councils through a conference as designated in the Act, and bring the natural forms of governance based on human sovereignty and indigenous title into reality. Senator Inouye, we stand here ready as sovereign indigenous women of the Arctic, along with many of our elders to assist the U.S. Government through your committee to make available the research and many hours of efforts that we have invested in the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Covenants on Human Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Declara tion on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. We pray you will accept our documentation and request the inclusion into the written record of the committee the article called "The Sovereign Village of Tununak," Anchorage Daily News, May 21, 1989, along with written statements from my witnesses which document the storm trooper tactics of the Alaska State Troopers and the invasion of sovereign jurisdiction of the village of Tununak. We also request a full investigation by your committee in this and other such incidents that have occurred throughout Alaska. Thank you very much. The CHAIRMAN. I thank you very much. All your documents will be received and appropriately placed in the record. [Prepared statement of Ms. Mills appears in the appendix.] The CHAIRMAN. A few moments ago Senator Stevens told us about his participation in the commencement exercises of the class of 1989 of the Kotzebue High School, held on Friday evening, May 26. At that time, Senator Stevens gave the commencement address. The important aspect of this exercise was that there were 30 graduates and of the 30, 14 received the honors diploma and 6 of the graduates became members of the National Honor Society. This record is rather unique in the United States. I have yet to see a high percentage such as this in any other high school on the mainland or in Hawaii. So, without objection, this list of graduates and their parents will be made part of the record. [Information appears in appendix.] The CHAIRMAN. Our final panel consists of the following: Ms. Eleanor Booth, Director of Social Services; Ms. June Degnan of the Unalakleet and Anchorage area; John Tetpon of the Alaska Native Communications Society; Fred Bahr, President of the Indigenous Conservators of the Environment, Anchorage; and Mr. Bart Garber, Council Member, Native Village of Tyonek. Senator MURKOWSKI. Mr. Chairman, sometime during the testimony of this last panel I am going to be leaving for Fairbanks. The last flight I can take is at 4:30, or thereabouts, and there are no other flights until 9. So Mr. John Moseman, my Administrative Assistant, will be accompanying you and the professional staff tomor row. The CHAIRMAN. I would like to thank you before you leave for participating in these important hearings. And I would also like to express my appreciation for the presence and participation of Senator Stevens, who, although not a member of this committee, spent much time with us. Senator Stevens regretfully had to leave because he will be playing some role in the wedding of former Governor Sheffield. Senator MURKOWSKI. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for your commitment to hold this hearing and the travel that you made throughout bush Alaska. I don't know that we have anything equivalent to "aloha." We had something but it wasn't as catching-I think it was "Kaninya?" Some of my Eskimo friends out there ought to help me, but it would be Alaska Travel Division attempted to have something that corresponded with that, but as you can see by my communication, it didn't sell too well. But anyway, we're very, very appreciative of your commitment to our Native people. The CHAIRMAN. "Kanangya" means "how y'all?" [Laughter.] The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Booth. STATEMENT OF ELEANOR BOOTH, DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL Ms. BOOTH. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, my name is Eleanor Booth. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today on the need to reinstate the Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance Program in Alaska. The BIA is once again proposing to categorically exclude Alaska Natives from participation in the General Assistance Program. The proposal is found in BIA's appropriation package for fiscal year 1990, which reads as follows: No part of an appropriations. to the Bureau of Indian Affairs shall be available to provide general assistance payments for Alaska Natives in the State of Alaska unless and until otherwise specifically provided for by Congress. As an Alaska Native, I am upset by this language. There is no reason why we should be singled out and denied access to a program which is available to every other Native American. BIA's proposal is also upsetting to me as a Director of Social Services for my community. Prohibiting the use of General Assistance Program funds in Alaska aggravates the current social and economic problems of our rural communities by denying Alaska Natives assistance when they are most in need. I have served as a Director of Social Services for the Metlakatla Indian Community for 18 years. During this time, I have administered, observed, and assisted people with many different Federal and State public assistance programs. Each program is designed to provide some medical or financial assistance to a specific population in need, such as single parent families, the disabled, and the elderly. Unfortunately, not all people in need fit neatly into these categories and, as a result, they fall between the cracks of the various programs. The BIA General Assistance Program was designed to keep these Native Americans who did not qualify for other assistance programs from falling into crisis. In 1981, its last full year of operation in Alaska, approximately 3,400 Alaska Natives participated monthly in the General Assistance Program. For some of these participants in Metlakatla, receiving general assistance meant being able to obtain or to maintain for their families food, clothing, and shelter while their applications for assistance under other State programs were pending. For others, general assistance helped provide for these basic needs during that time when their seasonal earnings had run our and the canneries were still a few weeks away from opening. Prior to the termination of the program in 1982, many Alaska Natives relied on BIA General Assistance for their essential needs when such assistance was not available from other programs. The BIA believes that general assistance is not necessary in Alaska because the State has a relief program which is available to all Alaskans and which provides for monthly minimum essential needs on a continuing basis. As someone who has experience with the State's relief program, I can assure you that it does not provide for an individual's or a families' monthly minimum essential needs. The State of Alaska's general relief program is a temporary, need specific assistance program. Rather than providing for essential needs on a continuing basis, the program is set up to satisfy emergency needs only. According to the State's General Relief Program Manual, "It is important to remember that general relief assistance and general relief medical are emergency programs." As described in an 1982 letter from Helen Beirne, then Commissioner for Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services, to BIA General Assistance households: Alaska's State General Assistance Program is not like the BIA General Assistance Program. It is a very limited program which only helps people who are having an emergency problem such as someone who is being evicted from their home. Nor is the State's emergency relief program a continuing program. An applicant for State assistance must apply for assistance each month. With each new application, the applicant must submit new proof of his or her financial emergency, such as an eviction notice from a landlord or a utility termination notice. And if the applicants' household-which includes all persons related by blood or by marriage to, and residing with, the applicant-has more than $500 in cash, savings, stocks or bonds, the applicant is automatically ineligible for assistance. This inflexible resource ceiling applies regardless of the size of the household. Finally, the assistance provided under the State emergency relief program is significantly below the State established need standard. For example, the State of Alaska has established a need standard for a family of four-that is the minimum financial need for food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and household supplies-at $900. However, under the State emergency relief program, a needy family of four would be eligible for only $480 in vendor payments, not cash. If the family had as much as $501 in savings-$399 short of their acknowledged monthly minimum financial need-they would be ineligible nonetheless for any assistance under the State's emergency relief program. It is clear to see that this is not a program designed to meet monthly minimum essential needs on a continuing basis. Nor is it in compliance with the Department's policy of providing general assistance for eligible Indians in a manner designed to promote personal and family unity and economic and social stability, working toward attainment of self-sufficiency. The State's programwhich has been criticized for its restrictive eligibility criteria, low need standard, cumbersome application process, and the creditor's option to decline a general relief vendor payment-is simply not set up nor funded to assist people with their unmet needs. The State program is also inadequate in that it ignores the unmet social needs of its participants. General assistance, as defined and administered by the BIA, encompasses a wide range of family and community services designed to address those unmet needs which may be causing or aggravating the financial need. For example, counseling on problems related to money management, economic opportunity, substance abuse, and the care of children. are available to eligible persons. Unlike general assistance, the |