<+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+>
 

http://www.adn.com/stories/T00021792.html

Thursday, February 17, 2000
Natives rally for subsistence
Knowles' stand unchanged

By LIZ RUSKIN
Daily News reporter
 

Gov. Tony Knowles said Wednesday he will continue to fight for a
constitutional amendment allowing rural residents a subsistence priority,
even though the main group pushing for the priority, the Alaska Federation
of Natives, has reversed course and now opposes a constitutional amendment.

"I would say it's a setback," Knowles said of AFN's announcement on Tuesday.

The AFN's new position was one of several the group announced at the close
of a one-day special convention on subsistence. Among other resolutions, the
group decided to ask Congress to allow the reclassification of Native
corporation lands as Indian Country and to change the rural subsistence
priority granted in federal law to a "Native and rural" priority.

What that means - whether it would broaden the priority to urban Natives or
restrict it to those rural residents who are Native - is unclear. AFN
President Julie Kitka and the group's co-chairmen did not return messages
left at their offices Wednesday asking for clarification.

Knowles said he absolutely opposes a Native priority.

"I always have," he said. "This country spent a hundred years doing away
with laws dealing with racial determination."

The AFN's break with the governor has not derailed a separate Knowles
initiative to forge government-to-government relations with Alaska's Native
tribes. Delegates meeting in Anchorage this week are expected Friday to
select a team to negotiate with the state.

The AFN's political shift is the latest turn in the state's long-running
battle over subsistence hunting and fishing. Federal law guarantees rural
Alaskans who hunt and fish for food a priority when there isn't enough for
all. A 1989 Alaska Supreme Court opinion, in a lawsuit filed by urban
Alaskans, declared that the state constitution doesn't allow a rural
priority.

To enforce the rural priority in federal law, the U.S. government in 1990
took over game management on Alaska's federal lands. In a case filed by an
Athabaskan subsistence user named Katie John, a U.S. appeals court in 1995
ordered the federal government to also assume fisheries management in
navigable waters in and next to Alaska's federal lands. That takeover took
place Oct. 1, after the Legislature adjourned a fifth special session on
subsistence without putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Eight
Republican senators, as well as a handful of House Republicans, say a rural
priority discriminates against subsistence users who live in nonrural areas.

Knowles, who has stood with the AFN in fighting for a subsistence amendment,
caused a furor in the Native community by announcing three weeks ago that he
is appealing the Katie John decision. He said he supports John's subsistence
rights but must appeal the case to protect the state's right to manage its
waterways.

"The state's sovereignty over water, land and resources is not something I
will barter away," he said Wednesday when he met with reporters in his
Juneau office.

The anger and frustration many Natives felt over the appeal prompted the AFN
to call the special convention. There, several participants said it was time
for the AFN to get tough.

"I just think we need to take a stronger position and no longer compromise
with the state," said Steve Ginnis, president of the Tanana Chiefs
Conference.

He and others said they are happy with federal management. The feds make
subsistence the top priority and give rural people a greater say in
management decisions, they said.

While Native leaders bashed Knowles at the Tuesday convention, a few on
Wednesday gave Knowles credit for opening the door on a historic opportunity
for Alaska's tribes.

Tribal delegates met Wednesday in the 4th Avenue Theatre to discuss how to
negotiate a new relationship with the state.

The meeting is the result of Knowles' announcement in October that it was
time for the state to formally "acknowledge and embrace" Alaska's 227
federally recognized tribes and to establish government-to-government
relations with them.

Some tribal leaders worried that anger at Knowles over the Katie John appeal
would derail Wednesday's statewide gathering.

Mike Williams, chairman of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, urged
participants at the tribal conference to stay on track. Subsistence is
vitally important, he said, but tribes face other serious issues in the
areas of education, health, public safety and tribal justice, among others.

Heather Kendall-Miller, Katie John's attorney, also told the group not to
let the appeal stand in the way of tribal progress.

"The Katie John appeal is more than likely going to be resolved in our
favor," she said. "And even if it's not, we'll deal with it."

At the Wednesday conference, tribal leaders from the Lower 48 talked about
their experiences in negotiating with their state governments.

Local participants raised a host of questions: How should Alaska tribes pick
a negotiating team? Should the team be able to make final decisions or
should they go back to the tribes for ratification? Should the negotiations
take place in the open, and if not, how can the tribes keep abreast of the
discussions?

A few people questioned the entire process. Gary Harrison of Chickaloon said
he didn't think the tribes should be represented by a team at all. The state
should instead negotiate separately with each tribe, he said.

Barbara Janitscheck, a delegate from the Northwest region, said bad feelings
over Native representation in the early '70s, when the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act was negotiated, still hang in the air.

"I know there's a lot of us out there who've been hurt by ANCSA," she said.
Some have forgiven the Native leadership and say the team got the best deal
it could at the time, and others are making the best of the Native corporate
system ANCSA established, she said.

"But there's still a lot of hurt and mistrust because of that process," she
said.

The meeting continues today. On Friday afternoon, delegates are scheduled to
pick a negotiating team.

---
* Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com

<+>=<+>
Information Pages: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
Online Petition: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net
Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm
<+>=<+>
if you want to be removed from the KOLA
Email Newslist, just send us a message with
"unsub" in the subject or text body
<+>=<+>