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Volume 11 No 4
A Briefing on Substinence and Other Native Issues: Hosted by the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
On September 20, 2000, the Leadership Conference together with the Alaska Federation of Natives hosted a national forum in Washington, DC, spotlighting the struggle for Self-Determination in the Twenty-First Century. The daylong event was designed to introduce Alaska Native issues to the national civil rights agenda and to create a dialogue about potential points of collaboration between Native organizations and other groups within the civil rights community. The event included a morning briefing and panel discussion with national civil rights leaders and key representatives of Native organizations from Alaska and other regions in the U.S.; an afternoon dialogue session with Members of Congress and Administration officials, including a panel addressing current legislation regarding the U.S. relationship with Hawaiian Natives; and an evening reception co-hosted by LCCR, the Alaska Federation, and U.S. Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK), Frank Murkowski (R-AK), and Daniel Inouye (D-HI).
Central to the day's events was deliberation over what is known as the Native "subsistence" issue. Subsistence refers to the hunting, fishing, and gathering activities that are fundamental to the way of life of many Alaska Natives. Before the arrival of non-Natives, subsistence was the only form of economic production Alaskan aboriginals employed to feed, clothe, and house their populations. Conducted in seasonal cycles by small, semi-nomadic bands within recognized territories, subsistence utilized traditional, small-scale technologies for harvesting and preserving foods as well as for distributing the produce through communal networks of sharing and bartering.
Today, though modernized by new technological methods, the subsistence lifestyle continues to flourish in most parts of Alaska, helping to define the lives of Alaska Native peoples. As Dan Glickman, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture has said, "For Alaska Natives, subsistence...is the fabric that holds their communities together; it is bound up in their cultural, historical and spiritual lives." Mike Williams, Chairman of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council of Akiak defined subsistence as tantamount to survival. "It is our spiritual center," Williams said. "It has been our way of life for thousands of years."
Part of this traditional way of life is now in jeopardy. An appeal to the Ninth Circuit court challenges a 1990 ruling that defined the term "federal public lands" as including waters. If the appeal succeeds, fishing- which provides nearly 60 percent of the rural subsistence diet- would no longer be protected by federal law. In 1980, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) which gave rural residents a priority for subsistence fishing and hunting on all federal lands and reserved waters in Alaska. In 1989, a state ruling forced the federal government to assume management of subsistence, but the U.S. did so only for hunting on land and not for subsistence fishing on federal waters. Natives had to sue to win the 1990 ruling, now threatened, which protects subsistence fishing for Alaska Natives.
At the forum in Washington, D.C., civil rights leaders and prominent Alaska Native representatives discussed various proposals for countering the recent attack on the subsistence lifestyle as well as the merits of joint collaboration on this and other issues. Noting parallels between the present Alaska Native plight and situations in other disenfranchised communities, Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference, said he was struck by the observation that American history seems to be repeating itself. Mr. Henderson summed up much of what had been suggested by morning briefing participants in recommending five action items: launching a public education campaign to raise the consciousness of Alaskan citizenry and to spark synergy with the disenfranchised in the lower 48 States by continuing and expanding the education of the civil rights community and highlighting mutual interests; informing Congress about the statutory basis of the Native argument for subsistence; legally challenging the failure of the State of Alaska to provide equality in specific areas such as police protection or educational funding; and spotlighting international civil and human rights forums and conventions in order to challenge the U.S. to live up to its ideals as articulated in the international arena. Henderson's suggestions were echoed by many of his colleagues throughout the day.
Rosetta Worl, Executive Director of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation, questioned use of the term "subsistence" to define this issue. Ms. Worl described the expression as "innocuous," citing "tribal survival" as a more accurate descriptive term. Others echoed Worl's sentiments saying that using the word "subsistence" to describe that which could be lost in this particular battle does injustice to the scope of the issue. Native Hawaiian Kamau'u described the matter as one not of subsistence, but of a spiritual connection to the land. She said that traditional ways of sustaining themselves are essential to identity, nourishing not only the body but also the spirit of the Native.
For more information visit the Alaska Federation of Natives website at http://www.akfednatives.org
  
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