situation where government is bowing to monetary interests and failing to fulfill its responsibility for proper management of the re

source.

3. Fisheries. This is perhaps the greatest area of current failing that has been wrought on our people through inaction or apathy on the part of the governmental and private interests.

Fisheries are the mainstay of our subsistence lifestyle and the only viable alternative for any sort of economic independence. They are subject to ever-increasing pressures through expanded commercial efforts and resultant interceptions of our salmon in the Bering Sea and high seas. The Federal Government has been reluctant and uncooperative in pursuing known and existing violations. Neither has it backed up existing legislation through active enforcement.

When western Alaska fishermen were successful in reducing interceptions by foreign fleets through forced implementation of the Magnusson Act, domestic fleets from the lower 48 immediately took their place and left us in a similar situation. Perhaps worse, as these fleets are not subjected to the same level of restrictions. Efforts are currently under way by these same domestic fleets to pass regulations through the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council which will:

Exclude any western Alaskan villages from participating in the lucrative Bering Sea bottom fishery;

Increase the current allowable catch of the total available biomass by almost 30 percent; and

Continue their practice of wasting hundreds of thousands of salmon which are an incidental by-catch. These salmon are routinely thrown overboard as dead fish because they are not the target species. Eskimo people don't throw fish overboard, we eat them. A conservative estimate of 100,000 western Alaska King Salmon are killed this way each year by Bering Sea trawl fisheries. At the same time, fishermen in our area are urged not to catch too many King Salmon for subsistence purposes and are not allowed to fish for them at all commercially because of low escapement and endangered population levels of King Salmon. Where is the justice or sound management principle here? We see none. It seems readily apparent that the voice from one Bering Sea trawler which makes $50-plus million a year carries a lot more weight in management decisions than all of the people in our region. As an dollar comparison, the combined total for all the fisheries in our area was in the neighborhood of $20 million. The out of State trawl fisheries have a net worth of approximately $1 billion annually. This is another totally inequitable and unacceptable situation. Yet, the Federal Government remains notably inactive and silent.

Overall, this is our greatest frustration. We are continually confronted with the sad fact that money speaks louder than people. Corporate interests carry far more weight in the political process than do the people whose very lives are affected or threatened by these actions.

There is a current political attitude that the people of bush Alaska could be taking a stronger role towards shaping their own destiny and attaining economic independence. This can only be

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