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and religious practices and rituals of all major civilizations and many lesser ones. Wine was developed thousands of years ago and in every civilization there are accounts of taverns and pubs and bars, but that was not so with the Native Alaskan culture, from what I can gather. The consumption of alcohol was not part of the daily life, nor was it part of the religion. The fact that today the incidents of alcoholism being so high-four or five times the National norm-and suicide among 20 to 24 year old males being 14 times the National norm should indicate that the solutions are not going to be easy to come. It is not like treating an alcoholic in Italy or an alcoholic in Germany. I realize that and that is why I have been spending much time in Indian country, trying to seek solutions to this. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the solution may lie in the direct involvement of the Natives themselves and the village leadership or the village council, because I think that is where the solution is. We can set up clinics and we can set up video tapes but they seem to have very little effect here. It may take more than economic recovery, it may take more than education. It is an illusive answer to this tragic problem but I can assure you that Members of the Indian Affairs Committee are doing their utmost in trying to resolve this matter.

Senator Murkowski.

Senator MURKOWSKI. I very briefly would ask you what your professional opinion is on the movement among many of the villages to go totally dry?

Mr. GOLD. I think it's an excellent idea. I can share some experience I had when I worked in Bethel with that. I was also the Program Director for the treatment center there. What was happening was that a lot of the villagers were winding up coming into Bethel itself to do a lot of the drinking. Bethel made a movement at that time to try to go totally dry as well and it was voted down. It seems to be having a good impact in a lot of the villages. We've also seen a lot of alcoholics anonymous type meetings being set up in the villages and starting to have good rates of attendance.

Senator MURKOWSKI. But this is self-determination. The villages themselves make that decision and the villages themselves are, in effect, taking appropriate action. It is strictly a matter of choice. Obviously, you have the concern over the bootlegging that is going to occur under those circumstances. But evidently it is relatively manageable?

Mr. GOLD. Yes; it is.

Senator MURKOWSKI. Unfortunately, you can't do that in every village and it is not an answer for every situation.

Mr. GOLD. No; I wouldn't see that as a complete answer. I would see that as maybe one step in the right direction. However, there are other things that need to be addressed.

Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much.

Our next witness is Mr. Alan Larson, the Tribal Chairman of Chickaloon.

STATEMENT OF ALAN LARSON, TRIBAL CHAIRMAN, CHICKALOON Chairman LARSON. Honorable Senator Inouye, Committee Members, I welcome you to this country on behalf of Chickaloon Village.

The original laws that we enacted by Congress, who is empowered to deal with the Indians, were very marvelous in setting up the tribal type entities and giving us a Constitution on which to base our system. The only thing it didn't take into account was the traditional values that existed among our people. When the Alaska Native Land Claims Act was settled, it did not address the traditional values of the people and it has introduced a whole different split in the direction that the people of this country need to be going.

If you're going to make a committee to study the problems that exist, I would like to recommend that if you won't use any traditional leaders from here, at least follow their recommendations on the people and not the corporate people because the corporate point of view is completely alien to the traditional values.

Another concern I have is health care. My daughter from the time she was born had chronic ear problems. She was given a medicine called Actifed to treat the problem. She continued to have ear problems and when she was nine years old, I moved to Palmer and we went to a private physician there. He examined her and said "I'm going to give you a prescription for a brand new medicine, it's called Actifed." My wife said, "my daughter has been on that stuff for years." He said, "well, I really don't think so because it's a very new drug on the market." So, I know that in our going to the Native medical center we are involuntarily subjected to testing of new drugs. I think it is something that should be looked into and if it can be, it should be stopped.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you telling us that Native Alaskans are used a guinea pigs without their knowledge?

Chairman LARSON. Yes, sir; that's what I'm saying.

The CHAIRMAN. Without their approval?

Chairman LARSON. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. We will check this out.

Chairman LARSON. Thank you. That's really all I had to say to you today. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity.

Senator MURKOWSKI. Mr. Chairman, if there are any witnessesother than the gentlemen or members of the audience-who have specific information relative to drugs and dates and prescriptions, obviously those can be checked out with the Indian Health Service, Public Health Service, and so forth. I think it's important that we not alarm unduly until we have facts because if we have facts, there is appropriate action that can be taken.

It is my conviction that most people within the medical field of public health are very dedicated people. I am almost positive, Mr. Chairman, that before drugs are released, they have to be evaluated for an extended period of time by the Federal authorities that regulate the release of drugs. If you generally look at our Nation, I think one would conclude that more often than not we are on the side of safety as opposed to a more liberal alternative that's available in Europe. Many people go to Europe, many people go to

Mexico for drug treatment with drugs that are not approved in the United States. But any evidence that's out there, we'd like to have it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. I wish to underscore that statement just made by Senator Murkowski. I have worked with the Public Health authorities for many years and I have found them to be always law abiding and ethical in their practices and it is inconceivable to me that they would use Alaskan Natives without their permission, without their knowledge, as guinea pigs for the testing of drugs and other substances. I can assure you, however, that it will be looked into immediately. We have the strongest laws on drugs in the world, as Senator Murkowski has pointed out. In fact, the major criticism against the Federal Food and Drug Administration is that they take too long in certifying the public use of drugs because of our long testing periods. But since this was made at a public hearing, you can be assured we will look into it.

Before we call upon members of the next panel, as Chairman of this Committee, I would like to point out that we will stay in session without any break until we hear the last witness. Otherwise we will be going into the late evening and I have other activities in which I am to be involved. So, if you people are hungry, you better head off to the restaurants. I will be having my sandwich right here. If you can go out and get your sandwiches, that would be fine and you can join me for lunch.

Our next panel consists of Elizabeth LeBlanc of Calista Corporation of Anchorage; Mr. Matt Andrews, member of the Board of Directors of the Pneuma Corporation; Mr. Paul Gregory, Bethel Village Chief; and Mr. Richard Jordan, University of Alaska. May I call upon Ms. Elizabeth LeBlanc.

STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH LeBLANC, PLANS DIRECTOR, LAND AND RESOURCES DEPARTMENT, CALISTA CORP., ANCHORAGE Ms. LEBLANC. Good afternoon Senators Inouye and Murkowski. My name is Elizabeth LeBlanc and I am the Plans Director for the Land and Natural Resources Department at Calista Corporation.

In March of this year, we gave you a report called "The Calista Region-a Gentle People, a Harsh Life." This was a report on the social and economic conditions now facing the people living in the Calista region. We prepared this document to show just how severe the problems are out in our region, both in terms of the social problems and the economic conditions.

When you look at Alaska, we found that nowhere else in Alaska will you find the living conditions as harsh as they are out in the Calista region. The severity of the problems facing Alaska Native people is really apparent if you go out to our region. We happen to have 25 percent of Alaska's Native people living in this region and out of the 203 villages that were recognized under ANCSA, 56 of them are located in the Calista region. So this shows you the extensiveness of the size and the number of people that are living in a region that is plagued by extreme hardship, both economically and socially.

Earlier today when I first sat down in here I heard somebody say, "Why is a regional corporation here testifying?" I think all too often the regional corporations are perceived as being money hungry and having to do things that the corporate world and everybody wants us to do. I think there is another side to the corporations and that's apparent when you see somebody like Calista taking the time to prepare a report and submitting it to Congress to say look at our people, our people are having problems, we need help. We do have a heart and we do serve another function. We look at and try to address the needs of our people.

In recent months there has been a lot of concern about the problems facing Alaska Natives. I think we've hashed over all the problems and we're all familiar with the fact that Natives are having problems with alcohol and suicide and things like that. The thing that is not as apparent is how quickly some of these problems are escalating. In just the couple of months that I worked on this report, I've seen suicides out in my region involving family members of co-workers and people on our Board of Directors. We've seen murders in a village that was already besieged by numerous suicides by young adults in the last year and a half. It has become real apparent, very quickly, that problems aren't going away and they aren't getting better. We need to do something about it and that's the purpose of our presenting testimony today.

We feel that a lot of these problems are caused by one thingthere are no jobs in these communities and there is no economic development out in rural Alaska. Consequently, these people have nothing to look for in the future. It is hard to be hopeful about one's life when you look out your window and you see blowing snow, you have no water, you have no sewer, you're living in a house that is 20 years old and is falling apart, you haven't worked in many, many months. What do you do? You sit, you drink, you watch TV, you get bored, you get frustrated, and eventually a lot of the young men end up shooting themselves.

We think there is a way to take care of this and it would be for the State, the Federal Government, and the Native corporations, both profit and non-profit, to look at ways of promoting economic development out in rural Alaska. We think this can be done in several different ways. You can set up special loan programs and grant programs to encourage businesses and industries to come out to these areas. Congress could grant tax moratoriums to encourage industry to come into a rural area. You can provide special funding for activities which promote economic development, for example, giving money for mineral exploration and development, both on private land and government-owned land. We've seen some of these things work. NAÑA region has developed the Red Dog Line. The Arctic Slope has the oil industry up there. These are regions that, yes, they do have problems, but they are not as extreme as those in areas like the Calista region where there is nothing. The people are being trained to go into these new industries and to partake in the growth that's happening out there.

A lot of people may say that costs money. Well, sometimes you have to spend money to take care of a problem and by taking care of the problem, people will become self-sufficient and eventually the government can look to the future in terms of not having to

provide general assistance and various kinds of subsidies for community development. If there were some sort of economy out there, the villages would suddenly see their property values increase, be able to set up tax bases, and look at ways of raising their own revenues to build towards the future.

If Congress, the State, and the Federal Government can't come up with the money for economic development, there is one other option available. In 1971 ANCSA was passed and the corporations were given the responsibility of becoming self-sufficient and providing for the social and economic needs of Alaska's Native people. Unfortunately, the Act did not necessarily give them the means to do it. We reviewed the Act and looked at various sections of it and have seen that there are ways to amend it to provide better means of implementing it and facilitating the various policies the Act was encouraged to promote. For example, section 22(f) could be amended to allow land exchanges. Right now this provision is real, real strict and by making a change that gives the various secretaries more latitude, village corporations and the regional corporations could exchange land that might not have value for land near their villages with better resource potential.

In our region we see something like this as being critical. We have a region made up of tundra, ponds and lakes, and villages own most of it. When you own water and marsh there's not a whole lot you can do in terms of economic development. So we look to these kinds of technical changes as a way to allow us to become more self-sufficient. In the next few months, AFN will be proposing several technical amendments to Congress. We would hope that Congress would take the time to look at those amendments carefully and consider them. If the amendments aren't passed or if there isn't something done to promote economic development out in the rural areas, I think we're going to see the problems grow. The only way you're going to get rid of the problems is to look at, not necessarily simple, but realistic ways of solving them. We feel that by promoting the regional economies and the village economies a lot of the things will start to take care of themselves. This kind of effort will take a very coordinated effort between the State, the Federal Government, the Native corporations, and the people themselves. The commission that AFN is recommending may be a first step in that coordinated effort. Therefore, we endorse the idea of the commission.

In essence, I'd like to say that if something isn't done, we're not going to see the corporations around 20 years from now and we may not see many of the Native people. If we are going to make it into the year 2000, we're going to have to give Alaska Natives and their corporations a way to survive and the means to survive.

Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. I agree with you that the conditions faced by Alaskan Natives today can only be described as being urgent, critical, and catastrophic. Whenever we find ourselves faced with such tremendous problems, we should be willing to take steps to come forth with solutions that may be out of the ordinary. Twenty years ago Congress got quite concerned with the plight of the people in Puerto Rico and, as you know, Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States, so they instituted laws to encourage businesses to

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