(Photo courtesy of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s office)
MEDIA RELEASE
U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Begich (D-AK), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) on Tuesday continued the long legacy of two states working together and working for their native populations.
The Senators were joined by roughly 100 Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian business, policy, and community leaders to discuss a range of topics including ways to improve education in Native communities, and how to stimulate Native owned businesses.
The roundtable was hosted by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CHNA) and the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN).
“The relationship between Alaska and Hawaii was made strong by the bond between Sen. Stevens and Sen. Inouye through their partnership, friendship, and brotherhood – men of the greatest generation that led this Senate in truly defining the meaning of non-partisanship,†Murkowski said. “Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians also share a deep connection that goes back thousands of years to today’s partnerships among indigenous groups and I thank AFN and CHNA for allowing us to continue these special ties that bind us together.â€
“As the two youngest states in our country, Alaskans and Hawaiians have a special bond when it comes to addressing our unique needs. I am grateful to AFN and CHNA for pulling together both delegations, including our friends on the House side, to continue this great tradition of working together to build strong, thriving communities and advance the interests of our Native peoples,†Begich said.
“Today’s meeting will continue to build on the legacy of strategic partnerships between Congressional representatives from Alaska and Hawaii. In these changing times, it is critical that all Native Americans — American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians — continue to stand together, and move forward together, to advance Native self-determination in the United States. Alaska and Hawaii have had a long, successful, supportive relationship working together, both in the halls of Congress – and at home in our communities. I look forward to working with my colleagues Sens. Hirono, Murkowski and Begich to honor the legacy of those who came before us and helping to build a better future for all citizens of Alaska and Hawaii,†Schatz said.
“Our Hawaii and Alaska delegations have a special commitment to supporting Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives and all the indigenous people of the United States. In the House, I worked closely with Congressman Young to restore funding for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian education programs after opponents tried to zero them out. Now, I am working closely with my Senate colleagues to build support for reauthorizing this and other programs. I am proud of the work that Sens. Murkowski and Begich, my delegation colleagues and our indigenous leaders have accomplished and look forward to continuing those partnerships,†Hirono said.
Sierra Clubs Alaska-Hawaii joint working group is asking Hawaii
residents to call Rep. Hanabusa’s DC office about four bad bills that
will be voted on in the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday
June 11
Please ask Rep. Hanabusa to rescind her co-sponsorship of the Sealaska bill. Rep. Hanabusa’s DC office: 202-225-4096.
The
Sealaska Corporation falsely represents itself as a tribal entity. The
Sealaska Corporation was created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act as one of 13 regional corporations that would act as an economic
development mechanism for its Native Alaskan shareholders, a structure
that is unique to Alaska. (Brings to mind the PLDC in Hawaii)
Sealaska has a fiduciary responsibility to
its shareholders, Native southeast Alaskans, but it is NOT a tribal
government and it does NOT represent the needs or wants of the southeast
Alaskan Native villages.
H.R. 740 would give Sealaska an unfair deal
compared to the other Native corporations that would increase its bottom
line at the expense of the residents, animals and the environment of
the Tongass National Forest.
Please ask Rep. Hanabusa to vote against
the bill on Wednesday.
Rep. Hanabusa’s DC office: 202-225-4096.
Call Rep. Hanabusa and urge her to protect Alaska’s amazing public lands and waters by voting against these four bad bills:
•
H.R. 740, “Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and
Jobs Protection Act†which would transfer important forestlands within
the Tongass National Forest to a private corporation with a history of
clear-cutting old-growth trees.
•
H.R. 1548, the “Native American Energy Act†which, among other things,
would gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – the law that
ensures public participation in important environmental decisions by the
federal government. Rep. Hanabusa made some positive statements and
asked some good questions about this bill when it had a hearing in her
subcommittee.
•
H.R. 1964, the “National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Access Act†– which
would completely throw out the Obama administration’s Integrated Area
Wide Plan for the Reserve, a plan that so many of you weighed in on and
one which provides for the management of the Reserve into the future,
including conservation of nearly 11 million acres.
•
H.R. 2231, the “Offshore Energy and Jobs Act†which would open all of
America’s Arctic Ocean to dangerous oil and gas development.
What Sealaska calls, “continuation of economic
development”, is at the terrible cost of native communities, their
socioeconomic vitality and their cultural identities and traditions
according to decades of peer reviewed research by ethnologists,
sociologists, and anthropologists studying the role of ANCSA’s corporate
model in southeast Alaska.
History speaks for itself, as we see social scientists documenting cause/ effect relationships of ANCSA’s legacy of its terrible impacts on native villages. These villages have the highest rates of domestic abuse, suicides, rape, unemployment, and are direct consequences of native corporate practices failing to achieve sustainable economies and functional village dynamics.
ANCSA has re-created native village life into
those who have plenty and those who have very little and force marginal
families with limited access to subsistence resources out of villages.
This was never the way it was for thousands of years in Raven House.
ANCSA was supposed to create economic prosperity for all, but instead, it created economic prosperity for a relative few.
.Dr. Kirk Dombowski sums this up in his
dissertation, “Against Culture: Development, Politics, and Religion in
Indian Alaska”- “Alaska natives having borne the brunt of hundreds of
years of colonial extraction, have been placed at the margins of the
Western world and have borne a particularly heavy portion of the burden
of reproducing Western culture.”
The Native people of Hawaii, if incorporated, will find themselves picking up the tabs on they’re corporate leaders need to visit exotic locations for potential investments that will never be implemented, just like the ANCSA model in South East Alaska.
Give Hawaii’s hierarchy the funds to visit the world, but don’t claim it’s to benefit Hawaii’s native people.