Back to the Hunt, Fish, Share rally: We must take care of the animals and lands that have provided for us

I will now pick up where I left off yesterday, but first I will quote the opening line from a story about the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in today's Alaska Dispatch:

"Attorney John Sky Starkey said out loud Thursday what Alaska Natives have known for decades, if not longer: 'Other people can't be in charge of managing your life.'"

This statement pretty much sums up what the rally I went to on Wednesday was all about. Even as I spent my summer lying in hospital beds and in my house recovering from my surgery, many Alaska Native people from various places in the state found the traditional fishing that has sustained them for centuries disrupted by State law enforcement authorities, who came into their lands from other places to enforce laws made by others elsewhere upon them in their own homelands.

Some went to jail. Some got their fish nets cut. Yes, there were shortages of fish this summer, but the people felt they needed the major say in how the laws are drafted and enforced in their lands and upon their people. They felt more recognition should be paid to the needs of the Native people who, for centuries have depended upon the fish and the animals for survival.

I began and concluded yesterday's entry with a single image of the Ahtna Dancers, opening up the rally. I now return that same dance, just a little bit further along, with David Harrison of The Native Village of Chickaloon dancing past in front.

Most groups and organizations that stage meetings, conventions, rallys or whatever in Anchorage just come and do it, with no thought given to the first people of Anchorage. In the Alaska Native community, it is a tradition to seek the permission of the local village tribe to have a meeting. This tradition is honored even in Anchorage, where permission to hold the rally was sought and granted from the Native Village of Eklutna - a tribal community located within the boundaries of Anchorage.

"Welcome to Eklutna country!" Lee Stephan shouted. "I’m here to fire you all up. I wish all the western men were here, too. I like to share something with you from Eklutna. We fish down here in the Cook Inlet. We usually get lot of King Salmon, looks like they’re gone. I read in the paper, watch around the world, Kuskokwim, Yukon," he refered to the fish shortages and state law enforcement activities of this past summer.

"White man been managing our fish for how long now? How wonderful a job they’ve done for us? Our kids gonna starve. How many hundred thousand years we manage here ourselves? We never run out of food. Then we’re set aside, 'here let us do that for you….'"

"I understand we’ve got tribal governments with great power. It’s time to start excercising that power. Federal government, State government, all these guests in our land. They’re our guests. Yet they marginalize us."

Native film star and Gwich'in Steering Committee member Princess Lucaj, of Arctic Village emceed:

"I’m a proud Gwich’in woman.  I’m a daughter of Alaska, I’m a daughter of this land. The animals and the land have provided for us for hundreds of years and we have to take care of the land and the animals. That’s part of what we’re out here for and sharing is a key part of our culture."

She said early missionaries were puzzled when they saw successful hunting families share their food with families that came up short. The missionaries wondered why they did not just hoard, she said. "Because we wouldn’t survive if we didn’t share. That fishing net. The fishing net is symbolic of all of us. So many prayers go into that fishing net - we take care of each other with that fishing net. So when they cut that net, that’s really our life line that they are cutting. It’s what’s connecting all of us and we cannot stand for that."

Evon Peter, younger brother to Princess Lucaj and a member of a team making a film to combat Native suicide:

"It’s a violation of the declaration of human rights for us to be denied our means of subsistence, but just as importantly, it is morally and ethically unjust for us to be made criminals for practicing our way of life in our own homeland. This is a way of life that was handed down to us by our grandmothers and grandfathers who came before us and it’s a way of life that we are going to continue to hand down to the generations yet to come…

"We have been on a 145 year mission to obtain recognition of our fundamental human rights: equality and basic respect in our own homeland," Peter continued.

"It took the federal government 57 years to acknowledge the fact we deserve the right to vote. It took them 104 years to acknowledge and recognize that we have a right to our own homeland.

"How much longer will it take for us to be recognized as equals? That is simply what we’re asking, is for true equality. For us to have a nation-to nation relationship with the federal government, an opportunity for our nations to sit across the table from the federal government and discuss what is best for all our peoples."

When the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed in 1971, it included language purporting to extinguish Native hunting and fishing rights. Peter called for an amendment to ANCSA to restore indigenous hunting and fishing rights. He called for tribal management of hunting and fishing on all Native lands in the state, and Native comanagement on all federal and State land. 

Elizabeth Hensley, a wife and mother who has earned her certificate in Indigenous Law and Policy and is gaining recognition as a young Native leader, sang a song of thanks, then stated:

"It’s a beautiful day to be indigenous. It’s a beautiful day to be Alaska Native, and it’s a beautiful day to be an ally of Alaska Native people. Together, all of us have thousands and thousands of years of knowledge and care and compassion. We can bring that forward and create a subsistence managment system that works! To protect your grandmother and your cousin and your daughters and the planet!"

Elizabeth then rejoined her father, Iñupiaq author Willie Hensley and the others in the crowd.

Barrow elder Rosabelle Rexford, who I visited at a whale landing the week before last:

"Today I thank my God. He wake me up. Just to let you know. I’ve been hunting for over 50 years. Presently, I hunt whale, I teach my children. I do fishing for over maybe 50 years and I share. I teach my children to fish, hunt and share and pass on to my grandchildren. Again I say, I thank my God every morning I wake up."

There were a number of others who spoke as well, but I did not stay in one spot but instead roamed around a bit. I spent some time standing in the midst of those who stood by the roadside, waving their signs at passing motorists. Some motorists honked in support. Some waved. Some kept their eyes riveted straight ahead, as though the people waving signs were not there. I heard one sign-waving lady exclaim in surprise, "Did he just flip us off?"

Just as they had opened the presentation, so too did the Ahtna dancers close it. Earlier, Ahtna dance leader and retired Ahtna Inc. President and CEO had addressed the crowd:

"It's kind of a shame that we have to come out and rally for something that is instilled in our hearts - your right to be able to go out and fish and feed your family. There’s a problem with that. The state of Alaska has neglected to stand up and be accountable so that the guys on the Yukon can put their nets in without being threatened."

Johns also recalled hearing a state legislator make the erroneous claim that Native people do not need "subsistence" resources. The legislator called Natives, "whiny."

"I don't mind over the years being called 'salmon crunchers,' fat..." Johns said. "But I sure don't like to be called whiny when I want to feed my family... moose stomach - that's our slurpie. Bone marrow - that's our smoothie. It goes down smooth."

Before the crowd, estimated by Fort Yukon's Carrie Stevens, a rally organizer, to be about 400, broke up, Randy Mayo of Stevens Village and the Chair of the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, jumped on the stage. Earlier, Mayo had stated:

"We are who we are and we will never not be not who we are. Hunting and fishing rights is a God-given, spiritual, cultural right that cannot be denied. It is not negotiable. It cannot be taken away. All of us here are of the same heart and mind or we wouldn’t be here. The almighty dollar is not going to carry us through. The holy and the sacred is going to carry us through. Who stands here and will say this is not the way to go? We will not go silently into the night. No, we wll fight and fight till these children are afforded the same God given rights."

Now, he raised his fist and closed with this shout: "Strong to the front! Weak to the rear! Protect our women and children!"

And sadly for me, it appears this is as close to this year's AFN convention, which began the next day, as I am going to get. Right now, my wife needs my care. She has had a tough day today and could well have another one tomorrow. I believe she will soon be just fine, but for now she needs me here - just as I needed her every day for three months.

Comments

[Mrs Gunka]

Thank you Bill. We in the lower 48 really are not aware of the Native suppression. Word needs to get out so those making the laws in DC will honor these people as caretakers of their land. Not money-grabbers from outside. The outsiders in Alaska have no right to do this to them. If you are going to live there, they need to respect those who have taken care of the land before them and follow in their footsteps so those in the future can have the bounty too. Thank you for sharing this. May the upcoming elections bring those who care about this be elected.

Hope Margie is feeling better today and continue healing fast. Stress can really deplete our immune systems. Get well soon Margie! Sending love and {{{hugs}}} to you both.