Prepared statements-Continued Henrikson, Linda, president, Association of Alaska Native Contractors...... Page 451 292 Hugo, Beverly. 474 Indigenous Conservators of the Environment (with attachments). 484 456 King, Pauk, director, Northern Light Recovery Center, Nome, AK... 569 479 LeBlanc, Elizabeth. 117 Mendenhall, Perry T., chairman, Nome Eskimo Community IRA Tribal 579 Miller, William 459 Mills, Mary Ann 405 Munson, Myra M., commissioner, Alaska Department of Health and 644 Nanalook Kenneth. 650 Petrivelli, Alice, chairman of the board, the Aleut Corporation 654 Pungowiyi, Caleb (with attachments). 97 Sallee, Jaclyn Mary D., Alaska Native Communications Society. 457 656 Vaska, Anthony (with attachments).. Additional material submitted for the record: Kotzebue High School class of 1989 list. Letters from: Alexie, Andrew, Tulkisarmute IRA Council, Tuluksek, AK. 465 659 661 664 669 MacLean, Eileen P., representative, Alaska State House of Repre- 668 Piscoya, Clyde, assistant fire chief, First Responders, Little Diomede, 672 Schaeffer, Pete, chairman, Kotzebue, IRA, Kotzebue, AK (with at- 673 Stephan, Le............ 701 STATUS OF ALASKA NATIVES SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1989 U.S. SENATE, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Anchorage, AK. The select committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in Courtroom No. 1, Federal Building, Anchorage, AK, Hon. Daniel K. Inouye (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senators Inouye and Murkowski. Staff present: Patricia Zell, Chief Counsel. STATEMENT OF HON. DANIEL L. INOUYE, U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII, CHAIRMAN, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will please come to order. Before proceeding, I would like to convey to you my apologies for the delay but I could not help it. Alaska Air Lines was slightly delayed and it wasn't their fault-there was a 50 mile an hour head wind. On March 3 of this year, the Select Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing in Washington on the recently issued reports of the Alaska Federation of Natives entitled, "The Status Of Alaska Natives-A Call For Action." Today's hearing is intended to provide an opportunity for those who could not travel all the way to the Nation's Capitol to provide the committee with your views on the status of Alaska Natives. In order to hear a larger number of persons on the issues, we announced our intention to hold this additional hearing in Anchorage, Alaska and this Senate recess has given us our first opportunity to do so. I realize that this wasn't the best day for some of you, but it was the only day open on our schedule. I know that my colleagues who are sitting with me here this morning-Senator Murkowski, who is ranking member on the committee, and Senator Stevens, your senior citizen-oh, senior Senator. [Laughter.] Had to rearrange their schedules to be here with us today. I am certain this is true for most of you. We begin our testimony today. The issues are very serious and are matters of deep concern to all of us-to you, to my colleagues, and to the committee. However, I regret that our schedule did not allow all persons who wanted to testify to have that opportunity. Those who were earliest in their calls to our office are on the agenda. Many others have submitted, or are submitting, written testimony for the hearing record. (1) On the March 3 hearing, it was proposed that the Congress enact legislation to provide for a Federal, State, and Alaska Native Commission that would formally study the issues raised in the AFN report, as well as other issues of concern to Native people. The commission would be expected to report recommendations to the Congress and to the State of Alaska for legislative and administrative actions, to address problems identified in the course of the commission's work. The proposal received the strong support of every member of the congressional delegation, as well as the support of your Governor. Today, we look forward to your important testimony on the status of Alaska Natives and your views on the proposed commission. We wish to welcome all of you to this hearing of the United State Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. At this moment, I would like to turn to my very distinguished colleague on the committee, Senator Murkowski. Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I would defer to the senior Senator who has put much more time in than I in the hearing process as well as in Washington, D.C. I won't refer to him as "senior citizen," however. He's a little touchy about that, Senator Inouye. So, Senator Stevens, please go ahead. The CHAIRMAN. Alaskans are very polite. Senator STEVENS. Mr. Chairman and Senator Murkowski, I'm delighted that you brought your committee here, as you committed yourself to do at the last hearings. I have just been sitting here contemplating whether I should file my application for my longevity bonus, Dan, now that you've let the cat out of the bag. I welcome you to Alaska once again. Senator Inouye and I have had a long period of service together on the same committees. Now, it is really sort of ironic being from the two off-shore States, that we have ended up on appropriations, commerce, and rules. This is the one trail he took by himself and I'm delighted it has brought him to our State. I thank you for your interest in this subject and in the report that you've given so much time to. I look forward to working with you. I don't have any specific statement to make except that I, too, had a schedule to be here and have appointments in my office, so I'll be coming and going throughout the hearing. I hope that you will excuse me as I go to keep those appointments. I'm most grateful to you for your time in coming to join us today. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. I would like to point out that shortly Senator Stevens and I will once again travel to Alaska. As some of you may know, he is the Vice Chairman and I am the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Alaska is an important part of the defense infrastructure of the United States, so we will be back at that time. I would like now to call upon my distinguished colleague on the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Murkowski. Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you very much Senator Inouye. I might mention, Senator Stevens, as you contemplate your longevity award, there is a free fishing and hunting license that usually goes with it. You don't want to pass that up. [Laughter.] Let me thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this hearing and for devoting your time on this long weekend to the serious con cerns of Alaska's Native people-a weekend where most Americans spend a little time in leisure and contemplation of Memorial Day. We do appreciate very much your being here. As you know, I flew in from Cordova this morning. Clearly, by the number of witnesses scheduled today, it is plain that Alaska's Native people and other Alaskans consider the concerns to be of a very serious nature. I feel quite sure that the numbers here today would be even larger but for the limitations of time. I'm looking forward to the testimony, reviewing the written statements to enlarge upon what we learned at the March hearing in Washington, D.C., which you referred to, and to obtain additional perspectives on the issues from those who were unable to participate in those Washington hearings. Before commenting on today's hearing, I want to make sure that all of you know that the person representing our office this morning and throughout the hearing is Mr. Bob Arnold, directly behind me. Bob is no stranger to many of you, he's a person known for his work among Alaska's Native people for over the past twenty years, that goes back as far as the Federal Field Committee and the days of Joe Fitzgerald, some of you would recall that. As some of you know, he was the principal author of a book explaining the 1971 Land Claims Settlement and later in 1978 the Bureau of Land Management chose him to head up the Land Transfer Program to get lands conveyed to the Native Corporations. Of the four years he was with the agency, half of the total Native Land Entitlement was conveyed. I was very pleased when Bob accepted my invitation to take the position on the professional staff of the Committee. We're certainly very glad to have him in Washington, D.C. I am confident that he will be able to assist the Chairman and the rest of the professional staff on the uniqueness of some of the issues relative to Alaska's Native situation, and, of course, he's my principlal advisor on the kinds of Alaska issues we will be hearing about today. Mr. Chairman, in my view you have wisely made the subject of today's hearing a very broad one, as one looks at the witness list we have a broad range and I think this will enable us to understand better the issues and the perspective for remedial action suggested by the people who are here. In your letter to the village leaders, you described it as a followup to the March hearing and, accordingly, I would like to invite witnesses to comment if they so choose on one of the proposals that attracted a good deal of wide support at the earlier hearing. This was a proposal that a joint commission be established to develop specific recommendations for action by the State and Federal Governments to address the issues identified in these hearings. I was among those who agreed with the proposal. I plan to draft legislation soon after my return to Washington. Our staffs have been engaging in preliminary discussions on what such a bill should contain. Let me explain why I think the idea gained such significant support at the March hearing. First, the issues, of course, are complex, they cover education, training subsistence, rural economic development, local government, social health problems, among others, that require analysis of the facts and laws to devise sound recommendations. Second, and equally important, if progress is to be made in addressing these issues, it will require collaborative effort by the Natives, the State of Alaska, and the Federal Government. A Commission made up of these parties can be the forum for that cooperative effort. Third, apart from specific problems of severe underfunding, like the Community Health Aid Program, few have argued that simply spending more on existing State and Federal programs will necessarily solve the complex problems. Increases in spending are going to be exceedingly difficult, as we know, to obtain at any level of government. What is really needed is not only an analysis but creative thinking and much of that comes from those who know first-hand the problems best, not necessarily from government. Government more often can guide, it can redirect priorities, but it cannot experience life in an Alaska village. I think the establishment of a Commission can be and will be a constructive first step in moving toward improvement in the life opportunities of Alaska's Native people. In closing, let me again thank you, Mr. Chairman. Obviously, you and I both know that we can't solve every problem brought before us for a variety of reasons but we can solve some of them. I think substantial progress has been made in areas. You recall that in 1983 we had the hepatitis B, which was of epidemic proportions. There was substantial progress made. We recall at a time when we were able to obtain about $7 million from State and Federal Governments to carry out a program of mass immunization and analysis at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. These are some of the examples of what can be done. Obviously, there is much more to be done and I look forward to hearing the testimony today. I understand, Mr. Chairman, you're going to some of the villages tomorrow with some of the professional staff. I believe John Moseman, my Administrative Assistant, is going, as well as some of the other delegation members. This is not just the end of your visit to Alaska and I'm very pleased that you'll be going out to the villages that are affected primarily by the oil spill, the villages in Prince William Sound. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We look forward to hearing from the extended witness list that I see before us. The CHAIRMAN. I thank you very much. Before proceeding, to underscore the importance of this gathering, I have brought along the chief counsel of the committee. She is the chief editor of the American Indian Law Review. She is a Navajo Indian and her name is Dr. Patricia Zell and she sits in the back of me. She is the chief legal counsel of the staff. We have this morning and this afternoon six panels made up of distinguished, knowledgeable witnesses. Our first panel is made up of the following: Mr. Mitch Dementieff, President of the Tanana Chiefs Conference of Fairbanks; Ms. Eva John, Tribal Administrator of Mentasta Lake Traditional Council; Ms. Mary Jane Fate, President and Executive Director of the Baan O Yeel Corporation of Rampart; Mr. Lincoln Tritt of the Arctic Village; Mr. William Miller, representing the Dot Lake Traditional Village Council; and Mr. Tony Vaska, Alaska Native Coalition on Employment and Training of Bethel. |