Native Movement Blog
2024 Reflection From Native Movement Executive Director
Remarks from Elders & Reflections & Closing Panel at the 3rd Statewide Just Transition Summit: Remembering Forward.
Native Movement continues to pursue our vision and mission with love and determination. Despite the challenges of this year, we continued to make strides in all three baskets of our work: Action and Advocacy, Community Education, and Movement Infrastructure support. We have endeavored to center care, thoughtfulness, and a deep commitment to fostering strong, empowered communities in all our work. The abundance of good work makes it difficult to capture in this blog post but we can uplift a very few highlights.
This year we co-hosted the 3rd statewide Just Transition Summit: Remembering Forward, with a theme of “Chʼa a kayaa áyá yéi g̱ax̱tusanéi”, meaning “We will imitate them (our ancestors),” a quote from a Lingít Elder named Kaatyé (David Kadashan). We also co-hosted a major Action Camp in Nome Alaska,hosted the “Ceremony as Resistance” Organizer Camp, collaborated on numerous legislative fly-ins, and so much more base-building work.
We have been proud to be an integral part of historic community wins, from the “No Action” selection in the proposed Ambler road permitting process to the passage of the first MMIP legislation in Alaska. And we have been steadily supporting 20 Community Affiliate groups throughout the state who are carrying out work in Landback campaigns, language revitalization, arts in action, and much more.
And this year we launched the Native Movement “Warrior Wear” Store in Fairbanks! This walk-in store front is providing opportunities to support the designs of Alaska Native artists and amplify advocacy work. You can still order from anywhere in the world at our online shop as well.
Movement leadership care and redistribution of resources are two areas we have been prioritizing in recent years. This year our long-time founding Director of the Gender Justice & Healing team was able to take a much deserved sabbatical! We granted five Healing Justice Scholarships to Alaska Native movement leaders for intensive healing time and needs. Seeing a gap in funding of the arts, we launched the Alaska Native Artists Open Call Movement Fund and we expanded regranting support to be able to support tribal community requests, including the biannual Gwich’in Gathering. We have done all of this by working with advisory groups and committees to establish governance and processes to support this work with great intention, thought, and care.
Our legal board and advisory board have been critical to all we do and have seen some beautiful transitions. Early in the year one of our long-time board members, Tagnak Rexford, stepped out of her board position to make room for others. Tagnak has been one of the longest serving board members and before becoming a board member was the Alaska Director of Native Movement in the early 2000s. We honored her long service and continued partnership with Native Movement.
Native Movement Legal Board Member, Oliver Tyrrell
Native Movement Legal Board Member, Tikaan Galbreath
Joining our legal board this year are two phenomenal humans: Oliver Tyrrell and Tikaan Galbreath! Oliver is an inspiring youth leader, he is Yupik and Iñupiaq with family from Emmonak, Alaska. Tikaan is from the Village of Mentasta and is a leader in Native agriculture and food sovereignty. Our legal board have been dedicated to multiple days of meetings this year and we are so lucky to have such humble, intentional, and powerful leaders in our midst.
Recently our legal board, advisory board and staff came together in Fairbanks to get ready for 2025. We are so grateful to our board for the dedication they have made to supporting Native Movement’s growth, vision, and labor. In addition to their continuous advisement, they engage in numerous subcommittee meetings, and represent us in many places globally. Check out our website to read more about all our board and advisory board members.
Native Movement staff – Too Oozhrii Nickoli & Dorothy Shockley – at WEIO 2024
Native Movement’s work depends not only on the dedication of our leadership but also on the efforts of so many throughout the state! You all! You who read out newsletters, who raise your voice to testify, who have marched in the streets and through the halls of our legislature. Our work is built on the belief in Movements and movements are built from many!
In this end of the year time we encourage you to continue your partnership with our work by donating to Native Movement. Every donation makes a difference for us and we need this support especially now, as we prepare for the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
We hope you all get some good rest time surrounded by loved ones during this holiday season. Stay tuned for January’s newsletter when we welcome new staff leadership – Movement Infrastructure Director and Deputy Director! As the sun returns to us, we are reminded of the resolve of our ancestors and offer gratitude for the teachings they passed down to us.
In solidarity!
Enei Begaye,
Native Movement Executive Director
Transcending Thinly Veiled Borders
Photos by Oliviah Franke
October 22nd, 2024 | Written By: Oliviah Franke
This year Anchorage is celebrating its 20th year of public Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) events, hosted this year by Out North and Radio Latina. Dia de Muertos is a holiday and ceremony rooted in Indigenous practices that honors our loved ones who have passed by welcoming their spirits to visit with us during a time when the veil between our worlds is thinnest. Ofrendas (offerings usually in the form of altars) are built with photographs, cempasuchil (marigolds), copal (an organic resin incense), papel picado (the intricately carved rainbow flags), water, salt, calaveras (decorative skulls), and pan de muerto (bread of the dead). All efforts are made to welcome our loved ones back with comfort and love, making sure that their favorite things are plentiful. At its core, Dia de Muertos is a celebration filled with joy and solemn awareness of life’s impermanence. Ceremony roots us in our connection to the spirit world and to mama pacha (the land).
Photos by Oliviah Franke
The belief that our ancestors and loved ones who have died are visiting with us in this living realm is deeply rooted in our Indigenous spirituality. Dia de Muertos has braided themes from Indigenous practices as well as Catholic influence from colonization. By integrating and adopting catholic symbols and ideas, Dia de Muertos has been able to persist and maintain its importance to culture across Abya Yala (1). The origins of Dia de Muertos are in Mexico and other parts of central Abya Yala.
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1. Abya Yala is a name strongly supported by Indigenous peoples of the south to replace the word “America”. Abya Yala was the name the Cuna Indigenous people gave to the entire continent, meaning a ‘mature land’, or one that is bountiful. (Raices, El México Indigena en Alaska. Second Edition, Zagal et al. 2024).
Of course, there are celebrations across the world as our people find themselves spread out across lands, and we have found and cultivated a strong community here in Anchorage that have held this ceremony and celebration. Today there are many observances and protocols that vary greatly by region and person.
The kaleidoscope of Dia de los Muertos is made up of as many lenses as there are people that honor and celebrate. Some folks observe multiple days leading up to November 2nd, including a day to specifically honor children who have died (Dia de los Angelitos). Celebrating Dia de Muertos is a reclamation of our power and culture, an honoring of our community and identity. Our relationship to death is defined by this celebration and in our gathering, laughing, eating, singing, and dancing together.
For twenty years, we have been celebrating our ceremony and celebration on Dena'ina Ełnena. The Indigenous people of Abya Yala have always been connected, the threads of our stories interwoven across geography through the trading and gifting of what is most precious to us; songs, beads, clothing, prayers, language, and ways of being. There is a prophecy from relatives from the Amazon region that tells of the Eagle and Condor people. This spring our team was invited to support the start of the 2024 Peace and Dignity Journey in Fairbanks, where this prophecy was shared with us. The prophecy describes the separation of Eagle People of the north and Condor People of the south, characterized by masculine and feminine energies, respectively. The prophecy says that the Eagle people will become powerful and domineering, but ultimately there is a call for reconciliation, to ‘fly in the same sky’ and bring new levels of consciousness for humanity.
Photos by Oliviah Franke
In our work at Native Movement we tend to many things, and the continued tending to the threads that connect people from across Abya Yala, the Eagle and the Condor people, is an important component for working towards a liberated and thriving future for the people of Dena’ina Elnena. Our prosperity and the future in which we thrive is intertwined with the successes and struggles of the Indigenous people of Alaska. We must intentionally tend to our connections, to our ways of being, and share in reciprocity. We must gather and share in our grief, our joys, our celebrations, and when invited- our ceremonies.
As a person whose ancestors are from the lands now known as Sinaloa and Sonora Mexico, it is a gift to honor and celebrate Dia de Muertos as a visitor on these Dena’ina lands. Recognizing our loved ones who have died, while being in community helps us move through the hard parts of grief. But amongst those parts are also the joyful parts of grieving: sharing of stories and jokes, the connection and empathy that we can build for one another, and the taking up of space. Opening the doors of our culture to others and reaching across differences to share in this celebration together is done with reverence for the Indigenous people of these lands, as well as being a generous showing of trust and community. While our identities and cultures may present social divides, Dia de Muertos collaborations with the Native Movement team and community is a reaching across that thinly veiled divide, and our healing becomes collective.
Photos by Oliviah Franke
We heal from the impacts of colonization and the erasure of our people and cultures. We heal from the violence that our people experience, through the heartache of generations lost, and we heal through the joy of knowing that our ancestors are now friends, as they visit us and each other while enjoying the finest things we can offer them.
Join Us In Participating In This Year’s Dia de Muertos events!
Anchorage Craft Night! Join us in creating tissue paper flowers! Wednesday October 23, 2024, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., Loussac Library (3600 Denali St. Anchorage)
We will be making tissue paper marigolds for community members to use to decorate their ofrendas. Marigolds are thought to attract the souls of the dead to the ofrendas prepared for them. Families will often scatter marigold petals forming a path from their front doors to the ofrenda waiting within the home.
We’ll provide free materials! This is a wonderful opportunity to learn, share stories, and come together as a community to heal and celebrate
Celebrate The 20th Dia de Muertos Celebration in Anchorage with the Native Movement Community Education team , Out North and Radio Latina!
Ofrendas are built with photographs, colorful flowers, incense, water, salt, and pan de muerto to welcome the spirits. In honor of 20 years of this celebration in Anchorage, there are many events open to the public to learn and celebrate.
Join us on November 1st, 2024 for an Alter Preview (4:00 - 8:00 p.m.) and on November 2nd, 2024 (5:30 p.m.- 8:00 p.m.) for the Main Event at 3400 Spenard Rd. Anchorage, AK, 99503. Both events are free and open to the public.
Joins for a Dia De Muertos Community Conversation Event on Sunday November 2rd in Anchorage (3400 Spenard Road) from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
This community conversation space is open to all and is a free event. Participants will share in personal stories and dialogue exploring how our cultures shape our understanding of death and the ways that we move through grief in community. The conversation will draw from a foundation of Dia de Muertos experiences but all perspectives, identities, and cultures are invited.
RSVP on Facebook Here.
Fish Camp Vibes
Photo by: Cyndi Reeves
September 19th, 2024 | Written By: Kira Lena Lajarnie
Last month in Anchorage, we held a small backyard gathering called “Fish Camp Vibes”. Many people in our community are missing fish camp and haven’t been able to go, since they live in the city or because of the ongoing salmon crisis, and ever-increasing fishing regulations. Despite these challenges, there is inherent value in being together, sharing traditional foods, and practicing our culture in accessible ways – even though it might look a little different than we’re used to.
And so we gathered! We had a small, potluck-style event where we sat around a campfire talking with each other and sharing traditional foods. Some highlights were fish pie, akutaq, and ayuq tea! We enjoyed sharing comfort foods from home, and trying other people’s traditional foods. I loved hearing about fish cutting adventures and berry-picking on the tundra. We even shared ideas for future projects!
Photo by: Dewey Kk’ołeyo Hoffman
Folks who met each other for the first time discovered mutual relations, just one of the many ways our people are intertwined. I never tire of hearing how your grandpa flew planes with my grandpa back in the day, and someone saved someone’s life, or finding out that we share a cousin in common! There’s a certain comfort in knowing that the people around you have cared for each other for generations. Our communities and relationships are reflective of the deep time our families have spent in this place, interacting with each other and Land longer than anyone can count or remember.
In these challenging times of polarizing politics and constant threats to our Lands, our Alaska Native cultures and connections can sometimes feel inaccessible. But our ways of life are within us – all we have to do is practice them. Practicing our culture strengthens us, our families, and our communities for the current moment and whatever comes next.
May we continue practicing our ways of life, in relationship with each other and Land.
Photo by: Cyndi Reeves
Kira Lena Lajarnie, Climate Justice Organizer
Kira ( she / her) is an Indigiqueer person of mixed Yup’ik, Sámi, and other Indigenous and European descent. She grew up in Chugiak, Alaska, on the unceded lands of the Dena’ina people. She holds an MPH and comes from a background in public health, with community-based fieldwork in Uganda, India, Cambodia, Tibet, and Alaska. After a lifetime of exposure to colonization, Kira is working to restore relationships with her family, culture, and community in Anchorage. She is currently focused on aligning with her ancestral values to repair people’s relationship with the Earth, by developing and sharing sustainable lifeways.
Native Movement mourns the loss of Anchorage teen
Native Movement is heartbroken at the loss of Easter Leafa, the 16 year old teenage girl who was shot and killed by police last Tuesday August 13th in Anchorage. Our prayers are with the entire Samoan community and all those who knew young Easter. This past weekend hundreds of Alaskans gathered to show support for Easter and her family.
“No daughter of our community deserves this response from law enforcement. Our hearts go out to Easter’s family; and we are outraged at the injustice created by those tasked with community safety,”
Easterʻs family has created a GoFundMe page to help assist with unexpected costs associated with her untimely passing. If you have capacity to donate, please do.
2024 Legislative Session Re-Cap from Our Policy Justice Legislative Fellow
August 5th, 2024 | Written By: Lauryn Baldwin
My family has lived in what is now known as “Alaska'' for thousands of years. Both of my parents are Inupiaq; my mom’s family is from Kotzebue, and my dad’s family is from Kiana. I grew up in Anchorage, on Dena’ Ina lands, and have always called Anchorage home. This was my first year working as a fellow on legislative issues. I got onboarded to Native Movement in the middle of the legislative session, and had to learn about bills that aligned with Native Movement and my own values. Navigating my bills was challenging, and finding ways to digest the legislative process often made me feel inferior. I had to give myself patience and time to feel comfortable where almost no one looked like me, knowing that being in new spaces takes time for growth. However, once I became familiar with representatives, senators and the legislative process, navigating bills became less tedious, and seeing movement in bills that aligned with all Alaskans in mind became exhilarating.
Walking between two worlds can be challenging, but putting my values into action is necessary.
More Alaska Native perspectives and worldviews need to be implemented in local legislation for Alaska Natives to be represented accurately. The most important lesson I learned from this experience is how much voting matters, especially on a local level. It is important for communities to engage in local elections in order to elect people that understand the needs of their specific communities.
Key legislation that passed last session was a direct result of engaged representatives, senators, and public pressure from engaged constituents.
Here are some key victories:
Photo by: Kai Monture
Senate Bill 151 creates a police review commission for Missing and Murdered Indigenous people. This is the first bill of its kind in the Alaska Legislature. The passing of this bill is monumental, uplifting MMIP advocates, and Indigenous voices. A police review commission will help bring justice to Indigenous peoples on the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous people epidemic.
Several renewable energy bills were passed, including community solar (SB 152) and the (HB 154) green bank bill. These bills will alleviate financial burden and create more sustainable energy solutions.
We defeated a number of harmful bills, including:
The anti-trans bill (HB 183) that would ban Trans Girls from participating in sports.
HJR 22, which would allow the state of Alaska to manage subsistence on federal lands. This is harmful for Indigenous communities that rely on the lands to feed themselves and their communities.
The anti-protest bill (HB 386), which would have criminalized and chilled peaceful protesters. Alaskans can still practice their first amendment right without fear of fines and criminalization.
Photo by: Jeff Chen
But we didn’t get everything we wanted. Some of the bills we supported didn’t make it through, and some that we didn’t support did. For example:
The Renewable Portfolio Standard bill didn’t pass. HB 121 would lower energy costs for consumers by transitioning to 80 percent renewable energy for electricity by 2040. With Cook Inlets gas prices continuing to skyrocket, this bill would have been beneficial to consumers.
The carbon sequestration bill did pass. HB 50 will allow for carbon capture and sequestration, creating false climate solutions. Carbon sequestration is often pushed by oil companies as a false solution to climate change.
Implementing effective climate solutions into the legislature will be key in moving from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This would not only help mitigate climate change but also benefit consumers.
By voting for engaged representatives, Alaskan communities reap the benefits from a successful legislative session by encouraging progressive bills and stopping harmful bills from being passed. Voting in local elections helps people elect effective decision makers who will pass legislation that strives for healthy, strong and equitable communities. 2024 is a big year for elections with the presidential election coming up, but in order to become an engaged community member, constituents should not only vote in presidential elections, but local elections too.
Lauryn Baldwin, Native Movement Policy Justice Legislative Fellow
Hello, my name is Lauryn Lucille Ulaaq Baldwin (she / her). My Iñupiaq name, Ulaaq, is after the late Martha Pruitt of Noatak, Alaska. I am Iñupiaq from Kotzebue and Kiana, and I am Japanese from Kagoshima Prefecture. I grew up in Anchorage and completed a thirteen year Japanese immersion program through the Anchorage School District. Connecting and learning about my Japanese language and culture made me curious to learn more about my Iñupiaq language and culture. I attended Fort Lewis College and completed a Bachelor's degree in Communication Design with a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies. During my time at Fort Lewis College, I was a fellow for All our Kin Collective, and learned about Indigenous language revitalization and preservation. I am interested in continuing my education and earning a Masters degree in Indigenous Law. In my free time I enjoy backpacking, berry picking, painting, traveling, and spending time with my loved ones.
Amplifying Indigenous Voices for Energy and Broadband Justice in Rural Alaska
July 30th, 2024 | Written By: Lila Hobbs and Autumn Cantu
Hobbs
Imagine opening your electric bill one day and finding that your rate had increased by 400% without warning. Last month you paid $500—already a cripplingly high sum—and the next month you’re being asked to pay $2,000. Or what if your town lost 911 services for six months? Who would you call in an emergency? What if you lost power while caring for a terminally ill relative and all the food they had harvested and frozen was lost? What if you lost access to the internet for months?
These stories are real. Communities across Alaska, particularly rural communities, are navigating the stark realities of persistent, systemic energy injustice in rural Alaska. These challenges represent only a small glimpse into the infrastructure instability across Alaska.
Energy injustice refers to the unequal distribution of affordable, reliable energy resources. In rural Alaska, this manifests as disproportionately high energy bills, unreliable power generation, and limited access to essential services like broadband and telecommunications. These disparities are more than inconveniences—they have profound implications for health, safety, and economic stability. When communities are cut off from reliable energy and communication networks, their ability to thrive is severely compromised.
The roots of energy injustice in rural Alaska are deeply intertwined with the legacies of colonization and systemic racism. Through my work and relationships with Tribal communities, I have witnessed how rural Alaska bears the burden of disproportionately high costs for basic essentials like electricity, internet, and phone services. Energy insecurity and the persistent digital divide are manifestations of an ongoing legacy of colonialism, resource extraction, and systemic marginalization of Indigenous people. The disproportionately high costs, decaying infrastructure, and substandard services in rural Alaska are direct consequences of chronic underfunding, policies of forced assimilation, and the intergenerational trauma inflicted by a centuries-old, extractive worldview rooted in the denial of Indigenous sovereignty.
While my understanding is shaped by my work and the time I spend in communities across rural Alaska, the lived experiences of Alaska Native individuals provide crucial insights into these challenges. My colleague and co-author, Autumn Cantu, a Koyukon Athabascan from Ruby, AK, brings professional expertise and a profoundly personal understanding of these realities.
Cantu
The loss of subsistence food due to power outages has been particularly devastating. After the significant effort involved in hunting, butchering, and storing food, seeing it spoil due to an inconsistent power supply is heartbreaking and threatens our food security. These experiences underscore the urgent need for reliable renewable energy systems in rural Alaskan communities. Embracing renewable energy addresses these challenges and eases the financial strain of escalating electricity bill.
In my work as the Rural & Indigenous Outreach (RIO) Director at The Mobilization Center and MMIWG2S Communications Coordinator & Graphic Designer at Native Movement, I advocate for equal rights in community safety. Our work emphasizes the critical necessity of reliable energy, broadband services, and consistent telecommunications throughout all rural Alaskan communities.
Hobbs & Cantu
We recognize that addressing these critical needs requires a radical paradigm shift—one that centers on transformative solutions rooted in Tribal sovereignty, Indigenous self-determination, and decolonial models of sustainable development. To build a just and sustainable future, we must combat energy injustice and bridge the digital divide in rural Alaska. Prioritizing Tribal energy sovereignty empowers Indigenous communities to control their energy resources and determine their futures through development aligned with their values and traditional ecological knowledge systems. Investing in Tribally-led renewable energy, such as solar and wind microgrids, can provide reliable, affordable, and sustainable power. These initiatives pave the way for the creation of Tribally-owned independent power producers, fostering economic independence, creating local jobs, and generating revenue for critical community services. Enhancing broadband infrastructure owned and operated by Tribes is equally vital, ensuring digital self-governance and unrestricted access to opportunities in telehealth, online education, and economic development.
But true systemic change demands we dismantle the root causes of inequity. This includes significantly increasing federal funding for rural infrastructure development directed by and accountable to Tribal nations. It also means empowering tribal communities by making grant applications and financing mechanisms easily accessible and continually tailored to their needs, and by removing unattainable match requirements. It necessitates meaningful collaboration between federal and state government, the private sector, and Tribal governments—not as an act of charity, but as a restorative process in service of Tribal sovereignty.
We share a vision for Alaska’s future: Imagine a future where every Alaskan Tribe controls its energy resources, where access to broadband and telecommunications are open and accessible to all Alaskans. We see villages powered by renewable energy systems that respect cultural values and ensure long-term resilience. In this new reality, we envision an Alaska where the digital divide is a distant memory and every future generation has access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, regardless of location. Together with our communities and partners, we are committed to turning this vision into reality.
Written By: Lila Hobbs and Autumn Cantu
Lila Hobbs, Energy Justice Lead, Native Movement
Lila Hobbs (she / her) was born and raised on the unceded Dena'ina lands now known as Anchorage. She received her BA in International Relations from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Health from Johns Hopkins University. She has devoted the past decade and a half to working at the intersection of coalition building, policy and advocacy, and communications. Lila is deeply committed to uplifting Indigenous knowledge and advocating for a regenerative economy, reproductive rights, criminal and juvenile justice reform, and refugee rights. Beyond her work at Native Movement, you can find her practicing radical listening and bearing witness to local storytellers as the President of Arctic Entries, rescuing lost and injured people in the backcountry, and gleefully careening down mountains on her beloved mountain bike, Tallulah (“Lu”).
Autmn Cantu, Rural & Indigenous Outreach (RIO) Director at The Mobilization Center and MMIWG2S Communications Coordinator & Graphic Designer at Native Movement
Autumn (she / her ) is originally from Ruby, Alaska. Her parents are Francis Captain Sr. and Deanna Houlton, Her grandparents are Martha Wright, the late Eugene Floyd Davis on her mother’s side, and the late Eleanor Captain and the late William (Billy) Captain Sr. on her father’s side.Autumn spends her free time with her family, enjoying the outdoors and reading as much as possible. Autumn is attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) for her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and plans to go for her Master’s degree in Social Work as well. She has an exceptional work history with years of knowledge in training staff, establishing rapport with clients, and strategic planning. Autumn is the business owner of Cantu Tactics & Consulting (CTC), she currently works at Native Peoples Action and Native Peoples Action Community Fund as the Communication & Indigenous Engagement Manager. She has also worked at Recover Alaska, as a Youth Wellness Coordinator. She has years of experience as a Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (TVR) Technician, Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success (SPF-PFS) Project Director, and a Suicide Prevention Coordinator at Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), where she worked for 5 years. Autumn also worked in Galena, Alaska as a Certified Nurse’s Assistant (CNA) for about 3 years at the Yukon Koyukuk Elder Assisted Living Facility (YKEALF). Overall, she has gained many partnerships throughout her work history. Autumn is very resilient, she believes in protecting our ways of life through civic engagement, encouraging healthier social norms in communities, bridge building, and being an example for strong future generations to come.
HELP RESTORE THE EKLUTNA RIVER
February 6, 2024 | Written By: Lila Hobbs
The Eklutna River is home to one of the oldest villages in Southcentral Alaska, the Dena’ina Village of Eklutna, which was founded on the banks of the Eklutna River because of its historic runs of Chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon. The Eklutna Dena’ina peoples have relied on and carefully stewarded the Eklutna River’s rich salmon runs since time immemorial.
The Eklutna Hydroelectric Project, built in 1955, has dried up and cut off the entire Eklutna River from the lake and upper tributaries. With dams being built from the project, the Eklutna River has not been allowed to flow out of the lake, cutting off historic salmon runs and impacting local people.
The proposed Eklutna Hydro Plan is inadequate to protect salmon and the Eklutna Dena’ina peoples. Native Movement therefore supportʻs the Community Alternative put forth by the Native Village of Eklutna. This alternative respects the Native Village of Eklutna’s stewardship and addresses decades of cultural and environmental neglect. It would restore the natural flow of the Eklutna River and its salmon habitat, allowing the salmon to return to their spawning grounds. It would also save ratepayers money and allow for the transition to new renewable energy projects.
To learn more, check out these FAQs compiled by the Eklutna River Restoration Coalition.
Additionally, Native Movement supports the Anchorage Assembly’s recent resolution AR 2024-40 that passed unanimously and seeks a two-year extension of the 1991 agreement. This extension would provide an opportunity for more meaningful consultation between the Native Village of Eklutna and the Eklutna Hydroelectric project owners (Chugach Electric Association, Matanuska Electric Association, and the Municipality of Anchorage).
HOW TO TAKE ACTION:
Eklutna Hydro is currently taking public comments until February 19th. Sign onto our letter below to make your voice heard and help restore the Eklutna River!
Protect D-1 Lands
Since the 1970s, over 150 million acres of land across Alaska have been protected from fossil fuel and mining leasing and extraction – protecting our lands and waters, caribou and salmon, and the Indigenous communities who depend on these intact life-giving ecosystems
This “D-1 land” – known as such because it was withdrawn pursuant to article 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act – is now under threat. The Bureau of Land Management is considering opening nearly 28 million acres of D-1 lands across the state to leasing, which could expand industrialization on lands important to the health of ecosystems, animals, recreational areas, and local communities.
At least 78 Alaska Native Tribes have spoken out against removing the D-1 protections, stating in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, that: “BLM-managed lands support important subsistence resources and serve as the breadbasket for thousands of Athabaskan, Aleut, Denaʼina, Inupiat, Yup’ik, and Tlingit peoples. For Alaska Native communities off the road system, over 80% of food consumed comes directly from the surrounding lands and waters.”
Photo by: Jeff Chen, Native Movement
#ProtectWhatYouLove
The BLM has produced a draft environmental impact assessment and is now seeking comment on that assessment through February 14, 2024.
It’s time for us to show our love for Alaska’s wild lands, and the people and animals that call it home. Together, we demand that the BLM choose the “no action alternative” to continue protecting these vital places. Click HERE to get involved TODAY!
Tending to The Light Re-Cap and How You can get Involved
One of our longest standing baskets of work is our commitment to movement building via the support of emerging and long standing grassroots-led groups and organizations. Native Movement provides administrative and fiscal support for Indigenous and grassroots-led projects that align with our vision of building healthy, sustainable, & self-determined communities for all.
On November 28th, 2023 the Native Movement team, community partners and members gathered virtually to attend the 3rd Annual Tending to The Light Virtual Fundraising Event. Native Movement shared space to celebrate and support our community partners and affiliates who are doing bold and transformative work throughout Alaska. This year we got hear from Smokehouse Collective, Dena’ina ełnene’ eł Ahtna nene’ Community Language Project and Umoja Co-working & Incubator. Check out the Facebook recording below.
The amount raised at the Tending to The Light event directly supports Native Movement's Regranting Fund. In recent years, Native Movement has been able to regrant external funding to Community Affiliates and other organizations and groups throughout the state. Contributing to this Regranting Fund supports many groups, and the promotion of Indigenous economies of care. Native Movement is looking at ways to implement a model of mutual aid that centers relationships. Our success is not measured by the size or scale of a grant or contribution.
You can get involved and support our community partners and programs by making a donation today. Every person, regardless of the amount you are able to contribute to this grassroots fundraising drive, is a meaningful part of this movement.
2SLGBTQIA+ Non-Discrimination Resolution Passes at the 2023 Elders & Youth Conference.
At the 2023 First Alaskans Institute Annual Elders and Youth Conference, Native Movement Board Member Oliver Tyrrell drafted a Resolution that supported 2SLGBTQIA+ Non-Discrimination and the Resolution was passed! We would like to uplift Oliver and his tremendous work in raising awareness and speaking up against the injustices of 2SLGBTQIA+ peoples. Get to know Oliver and check out his resolution below.
Oliver Tyrrell is an FTM transgender male who is Yupik and Iñupiaq with family from Emmonak, Alaska. He currently resides on Dena’ina land in Anchorage, Alaska. Tyrrell is a queer youth activist. He started writing resolutions when he was only 12 years old. He saw that queer Indgenous people don’t have a space to gather within their communities. He wanted to change that. Since then he has helped create numerous spaces for queer Indgenous youth, raised awareness, and spoken up against injustice against 2SLGBTQIA+ peoples.
A Week of Native Movement Events During AFN and Elders & Youth
This year during the 2023 Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Convention and the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference week, (October 15, 2023 - October 20, 2023) Native Movement focused on creating space for community to gather, create and learn.
We had an eventful week full of discussions, workshops and art builds to prep us for our Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT Our Way of Life Rally.
The week started off with an in-person Artist Pop-Up event on Sunday (October 15, 2023) at the Native Movement Anchorage office that featured many artists and their work. Moose soup was served and shared among many amazing artists and community members.
Artist Orianna Cingquk Greenberg shares their work at the Artist Pop-Up event in Anchorage at the Native Movement Office.
Community stopping by at the Native Movement Table .
On Monday (October 16, 2023) we set up at the First Alaskans Instituteʻs Annual Elders and Youth Conference to share some of our Native Movement work with attendees.
Later in the afternoon, we hosted a Protect the Arctic Refuge Tailgate Rally to prep for the Arctic Refuge Public Hearing. Updates on the on the proposed oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Refuge (ANWR) were shared and information was given to help assist for comment writing
Native Movement Team at the Arctic Refuge Tailgate Rally before the public hearing.
Native Movement team members tabling at the 2023 Elders & Youth Conference.
Tuesday (October 17, 2023) was the first day of events at the Akela Space and it was jam packed! In the afternoon Native Movement Advisory Board Member Rosemary Ahtuangaruak hosted Grandmotherʻs Growing Goodness work-shop and shared about indigenous led resistance. Check out the workshop recording of the event here.
Native Movement Advisory Board Member Rosemary Ahtuangaruak hosts Grandmotherʻs Growing Goodness Workshop
In the evening folks stoped by the Akela Space to for dinner and a film screening of Paving Tundra followed by a Q + A session to discuss the film.
Wednesday (October 18, 2023) was all about rally prep as we prepared for the Defend The Sacred: Extraction is NOT our Way of Life Rally. Community members joined in as we spent the day creating banners, screen prints and signs with Native Movementʻs Arts in Action Coordinator, Jessi Thornton.
Thursday (October 19, 2023) was a big day as we rallied along side United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Mother Kuskokwim, Grandmothers Growing Goodness and community members at the Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT Our Way of Life Rally outside of the Annual Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention. The theme of the AFN Annual Convention this year was “Our ways of life”, which many of the rally signs and speakers spoke to when highlighting how critical their relationship to the land is for hunting, fishing, and food sharing with their communities.
Native Movement Gender Justice and Healing Co-Director Charlene Aqpik Apok speaks during the Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT Our Way of Life Rally.
For years communities have been speaking their concerns over the extraction industry and the harm that it perpetuates on Alaskan land, water and air. As Indigenous people, we have always known that the world is interconnected and that when you take from the land or water, you pay for it in other ways. Today, we are seeing that cost, with the loss of the salmon on the Yukon River, the decline of the caribou herd populations and the scarcity of the moose, all of these issues are in part caused by either extractive development or climate change caused by extractive development. Listen and watch the full live stream of the rally here.
On Friday (October 20, 2023), we celebrated and ended the week with some dance moves and tarot card pulling at the INDIGEQUEER: A DANCE PARTY hosted by theres more, the indigequeer, Indigenize Productions and our Gender Justice & Healing Native Movement Team.
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The 2023 Native Movement Summer Internship program was a success!
The 2023 Summer Internship program was a success! Native Movement set out to create a program to introduce our youth to grassroots social justice organizing, have a leg up in future jobs and have an overall enriching experience connecting with Alaska Native cultures. Our inaugural cohort consisted of six interns from 16 to 22 years of age, all with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This cohort model allowed for them to exchange knowledge, grow together and form meaningful bonds.
The interns organized two community events: a Defend the Sacred Tie-Dye event and painting the Native Movement garden beds. They also coordinated composting for the entire Native Movement Fairbanks office building, planted, and maintained the Native Movement garden throughout the summer. The interns even had the opportunity to learn to cut and process fish with the help of April Monroe. They were able to experience many levels of movement work: screen printing, sign making, protesting and attending a court hearing related to the protest. The interns tabled at the Pride Picnic, Juneteenth, Midnight Sun Festival, WEIO, the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium and AYP. They organized, inventoried and maintained the social justice merchandise that they sold at those events.
Native Movement team and interns at the 2023 Native Movement Organizers Summit at Gaalee’ya Spirit Camp in Fairbanks, Alaska
As a part of their program they were given classes on Decolonization, Resumé writing and attended Native Movement’s Northern Organizers Summit with goal of deepening their understanding of community organizing. All of the training was built on a foundation of Indigenous ways of being. The Interns loved their experience and expressed interest in continuing to be a part of the Native Movement community and work. The entire Fairbanks office staff is so grateful to have had the Interns throughout the summer and they will be missed! Thanks to our Interns who brought such joy, light and help to us.
2023 Native Movement Fairbanks Summer Interns: Nick Nicholas, Trinity Villalobos, Vance Hogue, Avienda Titus, Delnor Johnson and Kip Angiak
Honoring Survivors
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
On Oct. 1, the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a healing totem and panel carved by Wayne Price was unveiled and celebrated in Alaska’s capital city, Juneau. The totem and panel honor survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as well as missing and murdered Indigenous persons and their families and communities.
Alaska has had the highest rate of women killed by men in the nation for seven years now. Alaska Native women bear the brunt of this unacceptable statistic. They are 10 times more likely than white women to be killed.
This is absolutely unacceptable. Domestic and sexual violence are remnants of settler colonialism inflicted on our communities through boarding schools and the taking of Indigenous lands. Healing from historical trauma is extremely hard yet necessary work. We know there are also many healthy and vibrant Alaska Native families who are breaking the cycle.
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
This totem and panel remind us that in our work to end domestic and sexual violence in our communities, we must center healing. We must believe victims when they share their stories. We must support bodily autonomy and grow a culture of consent including with our young people. We also know that holding accountability is an act of love in effort to heal as a whole. We must create healing pathways for restorative justice. While we work on systemic issues we also know that the most powerful work begins in our homes and those closest to us.
The story of this totem shows a family of survivors on their healing journey together.
“We uplift all survivors who have courageously come forward and shared their stories. We believe you. This month must be more than just raising awareness- we need actions now. I call on each and every person who reads this to find an actionable item they can do to stop this violence,” said Aqpik Apok, Gender Justice and Healing Director at Native Movement.
The breaking of silence can be the first step on a healing journey. We urge you to find out how you can support the survivors you know. The culture of silence is a barrier to truths being told. Be a safe person for someone experiencing abuse to talk to, and believe survivors when they tell their stories. And if you are a survivor, there are resources you can utilize and people who love you and will support you without judgment.
At the unveiling celebration, people wrote the names of those they want to direct healing towards onto cedar pieces from the healing pole and put them in the fire. Our traditional ways, teachings, and culture offer many healing pathways. We uplift those who have been courageous to share their stories so others can come forward and be heard. The raising of the totem and panel are a beautiful illustration of healing led by our Indigenous people. May we carry that hope and intention forward this month and always.
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
Photos & Story By: Lyndsey Brollini, Native Movement Narrative Coordinator
Doomer Mentality and the Importance of Organizing with Joy
Spending time in the Alaska Botanical Gardens during a Just Transition Collective convening. From left to right: Michaela Stith, Brittany Woods-Orrison, Gunnar Keizer. Photo Courtesy of Gunnar Keizer/ Just Transition Collective
Doomer Mentality and the Importance of Organizing with Joy
By: Gunnar Keizer
Maybe you have also experienced something like this: Feeling like you committed a war crime for buying a plastic bottle of water; or treating yourself to a spa day and then not being able to enjoy it when you wonder what the experience could have meant to someone in real need.
Maybe you scroll through Instagram or TikTok and see stories of crisis or injustice next to cute puppies or funny memes, and become desensitized. Maybe you think you don’t want to have children because the world is burning and the future is bleak.
There are so many problems in the world and it is hard to not feel like anything you do matters. Some days, it’s hard to be a human being or feel empathy for others when everything sucks.
These are ideologies of a doomer. Doomerism is damaging to mental health and personal well-being, but it also damages our community organizing, as it stifles the creativity and care necessary to envision a just world that we all can see ourselves in. I think the doomer mentality is being weaponized by those in power that don’t want the world to change away from oppression. We must combat doomerism with joy and optimism in our organizing.
It can be so easy to fall into a doomer mentality, particularly for us youth who grew up on the Internet. Our social circles thrive online, where the lines between leisure and news sources are blurred – leaving us desensitized to world issues and hopelessness.
At the Alaska Just Transition Community Summit this summer, we heard from Gopal Dayaneni who posed the question, “What if we are already winning and we don’t even know it?” He went on to say that the scale of the solutions do not have to match the scale of the problem –meaning any of our actions, as small as they may seem, can add up to huge systemic changes.
We need to hear and share the stories of how we are winning. When feelings of hopelessness set in, just being in community with one another is enough to find reason to fight for a better world. We, as Indigenous people, already know how to live in right relation with each other, the lands, waters, and other-than-human kin.
We can center our Indigenous ways of knowing, model what community care looks like, and be joyous. Our values and all the small actions we take can add up to create solutions that together can match the scale of the problem.
As we organize for a bright future, we must be optimistic and joyful. We must be visionaries and lead by example. Events that have concrete goals or products can show how what we do is impactful. Community art or days of action that bring people together can fight the darkness, and instead, model the bright future we deserve.
Hand-in-hand, joyous and bright, following the original instructions bestowed upon us by our ancestors, we can overcome doomer mentality and create a world in right relation that we want to live in.
When the fish go, a river runs quiet
The Tanana River is unusually quiet this summer due to low salmon returns for the third year in a row. Photo by Jeff Chen/Native Movement.
When the fish go, a river runs quiet
By: Jeff Chen
Elder Vernell Titus remembers the Nenana shores of the Tanana River as a lively place when summer would arrive each year – fish wheels churning, noisy birds all around, and boats zooming up and down.
“Usually there’s thousands and thousands of seagulls just making all kinds of noise – wanna get to that fish,” she says, gesturing to a modest fish rack drying nearby. “Right now with all that fish hanging there, you don't see not one seagull. It's strange – very very strange.”
Fish returns on the Tanana River have been abysmal since 2020 – both chum and king salmon numbers so low that Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) closed the river to subsistence fishing for the third year in a row (2021-2022 summer chum salmon closure and 2020-2022 fall chum salmon closure). Meanwhile, commercial fishing in the South Alaska Peninsula remained open, harvesting a sizable portion of salmon bound for western and interior Alaska rivers.
A handful of community members nearby cut, dry, and smoke salmon. This year and last year’s salmon were donated from North Soul Salmon in Bristol Bay through a program called Fish for Families.
When the fish don’t come back, Titus says everything changes. On a recent trip to Lake Minto, she observed that only one lone swan drifted by, where normally a whole ecosystem thrives. As she teaches students how to sew birch bark, Titus repeats to them what her elders predicted, “The world is coming to a big change.”
Despite a quiet river, a group of roughly 50 people showed up each day for two weeks in July at a culture camp along the shore, put on by the Nenana Native Council. Most days, parents dropped off their kids to an intergenerational crew of elders, culture bearers, and advocates to share skills and knowledge of the Lower Tanana Dene – beading, crafting with birch bark, learning songs and dance, and studying plants.
The camp came alive in recent years as cultural advocates like tribal member Eva Burk and Nenana Native Council First Chief Caroline Ketzler sought funding and in-kind donations for the community to coalesce around culture.
On a sunny afternoon, Ketzler visits with camp organizers and helps with potlatch preparations. From cutting meat, preparing gifts, and serving elders, Ketzler expects a sense of community to emerge, something she says has wavered this last decade. “I'm really happy to see all of our hard work coming together and people getting that sense of community back, and just realizing that everybody is a person, an individual themselves. And even though we may not agree with each other, we can all come together and celebrate together.”
Families begin to arrive at the potlatch and get seated along the shore, just down the road from a former church mission, which eventually washed away with the river. “This land held significance before it was mission land. If you look at the pictures of our traditional chiefs in this area, you'll see them take photos right in front of that hill.”
At the same time that cultural revitalization is steadfast, subsistence opportunities have conversely dwindled. Hunters at camp who went to look for moose came back without any luck. Nenana residents talk about how their family’s traditional hunting areas aren’t the same as they used to be.
And now, the State’s nearby effort to sell 140,000 acres of land – the Nenana Totchaket Agricultural Project – threatens those traditional hunting grounds. The State has been looking to sell the land west of Nenana for decades, and this summer, the bidding began.
A range of views on the development exist, but Ketzler says industrialized agriculture activity will disturb the land, create runoff, and likely impact the adjacent land owned by the Toghotthele Corporation and also the waterways.
She believes the State has the development project already planned, and says the State sent consultation paperwork to Nenana Native Council during Christmas, when nobody was in the office.
Even as soil studies have yet to be completed, the State’s first auction for 27 parcels closed on October 4, 2022. “To buy that amount of land on that large of a scale, you have to have significant money,” Ketzler says.
A Nenana food sovereignty project called The Tlaa Deneldel Community Group was formed recently to make a bid on some of the land in order to build local tribal agricultural projects on.
Back at camp, 14 year old North Pole High School student Michael Burk and a friend help carry a couple boxes of frozen salmon to the cutting table. “It’s peaceful down here next to the river, and you get to talk to people,” Burk says. “We're just around the city most often. And once you come down here in Nenana, you honestly get to experience firsthand how to do things by hand.”
As the potlatch begins, elder Virgil Titus of Minto, stands up, beaming with pride. He’d just arrived from the Doyon 50th anniversary potlatch in Fairbanks. To the gathering, he speaks. “You’re holding your Alaska together. We love you for that, and we’ll never forget you. That’s all what we’re trying to pull our young people together for,” Titus says. “Believe me, this is the best camp I ever seen for a long time.”
The State of Alaska is currently auctioning off traditional subsistence lands for industrial agriculture. Donate today to support the Tlaa Deneldel Community Group, a Nenana food sovereignty project. www.NativeMovement.org/Landback.
This week, Native Movement and Always Indigenous Media brings you The Trickster Times . You can pick-up a print version at the Elders & Youth and Alaska Federation of Natives conventions. Some stories are more newsy, some are more commentary, and all are written from the heart and for our community. We welcome you to join us as we build people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL.
Never Alone, Reflections from a Circumpolar North Indigenous Youth Leadership Workshop
David Clark speaking alongside Indigenous leaders and Norwegian dignitaries on a panel regarding circumpolar Arctic cooperation, geopolitics and climate change. Photo courtesy of David Clark/Native Movement.
Never Alone
Reflections from a Circumpolar North Indigenous Youth Leadership Workshop
By David Clark
I stepped out onto the deck of the large houseboat that we had all settled into mere hours earlier, and took a deep breath of crisp, southern Norwegian air. The harbor in Arendal, Norway, was ornamented with houses that reflected the golden morning sunlight under ribbons of muted baby blue sky and wispy clouds. After soaking in the sight, I stumbled back into the boat for coffee and a light breakfast with my roommate, whom I had met only hours before.
The day prior, Indigenous youth had all traveled to Arendal from across the circumpolar North to participate in a weeklong intensive leadership training, designed to empower young Indigenous people with the leadership skills and connections necessary to become the next generation of climate action leaders for their communities. All of us – from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway – woke up blurry-eyed, parched and exhausted from the multiple borders and timezones we crossed to reach our destination. Slowly, as we sipped our coffee and ate our breakfasts, we began conversations that would spark lifelong connections with one another.
I sat down with my roommate, who is Sámi, at the breakfast table. Our conversation started out light; laughter was shared as we exchanged stories of our lives back home and how we had met the night before in a state of dazed exhaustion. I got to learn a little bit about how Sámi families manage their reindeer herds. I got to share about the time I ate freshly-caught seal on Nuchek Island, how it tasted like the salt water I was learning to be in relationship with, and what it was like visiting Prince William Sound.
The more commonalities we drew in that initial conversation eventually led us to more in-depth topics, not all of them happy ones. I learned about fornorskning – the official policy of the Norwegian government that targeted Sámi and Kven peoples in northern Norway for total assimilation. I learned that Sámi children were also forcibly removed from their communities and forced into boarding schools; oftentimes, they would not return home, feeling a deep sense of shame and believing that they were honestly better off having become Norwegian. I shared how that same colonial strategy at the hands of the U.S. government is something that Alaska Native peoples continue to grapple with, as well; how some of us (like myself) have grown up disconnected from those roots as a result of that policy, and how so many of us yearn to return but can’t, because it’s not that simple.
It was clear from that initial conversation that we both experience intergenerational trauma in the same ways, and that the hurt we experience in ourselves and our families is just the same, and that those experiences aren’t isolated. As the week wore on, almost all of the students in our international cohort would share personal stories and anecdotes to the same effect.
Naming the harmful effects of western colonialism and how it affects us was an important bonding experience that made our worlds much smaller and brought us a sense of healing and community. It would also set the tone for the week ahead, as we’d learn conflict negotiation and crisis management skills when dealing with imminent threats to socio-ecological welfare.
Norway is a world leader in development of renewable energy, or the “green shift” - which is ironic, seeing how petroleum accounts for around 40% of their annual exports and over 10% of their GDP. What most may not consider, though, is that producing renewable energy often involves extraction of critical minerals to produce machinery such as windmills, solar panels, and rechargeable batteries. Mining for these minerals, which already disrupts local ecosystems, also produces tailings – which are powdered byproducts that are extremely toxic to the environment, and are often disposed of by simply dumping them into open landfills or adjacent bodies of water.
Because of the severe public health risks that mining presents, mining projects in Norway are rarely slated close to populated cities and towns, but rather, sparsely populated areas that constitute the birthing grounds of reindeer herds – thus, the heart of Sápmi—Sámi homelands across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. (Sound familiar?...)
Norway has a long history, dating back to as early as 1974, of violating Sapmi’s inherent sovereignty in favor of extracting resources and minerals with little in reparation to the Sámi people. This means that, over the last few decades, reindeer herds have shrunk dramatically, there is much less access to wild salmon fishing, and the government has a vested interest in allowing development to continue.
As Norway continues with its “green transition,” threats to Sámi communities and lifeways persist. Their fight continues today with some success; within the past decade alone, the Norwegian Supreme Court sided with the Sámi Parliament to halt operations of two wind farms in the Fuson region central Norway, citing violation of international conventions on Indigenous cultural rights, as well as provide Sámi in the Fosen region USD $10 million in damages caused to local reindeer herds as a result of windfarms. Other fights are more unclear; as of today, the Nussir Mine case in Kvalsund has been halted indefinitely, thanks to the large turnout in 2021 of Sámi and environmental activists across the country to stop mining. However, permitting for the project – which proposes marine disposal of copper tailings directly into the fjord – has not been rescinded, and the project continues to be the subject of ongoing litigation.
Had it not been for that initial conversation that I had with my roommate over breakfast on the first day, then it surely was learning about threats to Sámi sovereignty and life ways that cemented my understanding of commonalities in colonialism and state violence against Indigenous peoples, not only in Alaska but across the circumpolar North.
I found myself reflecting on controversial projects like Pebble Mine and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I thought about how contentious it is to come up with equitable solutions, yet so easy under western capitalism to bypass that process. I lamented on how money speaks more to power, rather than deep, intimate knowledge and relationship to the land. I found myself thinking about how deeply ironic it is that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act – which granted corporations (not tribes) title to around 10% of Alaska’s total land area as settlement for future land claims. ANCSA robbed Alaska Native tribes of the right to exercise land-based sovereignty, and created deep divisions between Alaska Native tribes and Alaska Native corporations. I found myself seething yet again at how we live under a system where money overrides morality, and where decisions are often made by the moneyed elite, with a shortsighted gain in mind rather than the future wellness of the collective. I found myself hurt that the same western colonialism, that spurred the intergenerational trauma I’ve experienced within my own family, is continuing to harm our planet.
Our last hope lies within a Just Transition, whose central principle is that a “healthy economy and healthy environment can and should coexist” through recognizing that “Indigenous Peoples have an inherent right to clean air, water, land, and food in their workplaces, homes and environment.” In the development of fair, just and equitable policies, it is necessary that frontline communities that stand to be most affected by pollution, ecological damage and economic restructuring play a critical role where negotiations are held and decisions are made (For more about Just Transition concepts, visit jtalliance.org).
In Alaska, this would call for accountability on the part of Alaska Native corporations and the state of Alaska to look beyond short-sighted economic gains from oil and gas development, and more toward positively impacting environmental sustainability and the communities in which they serve. It would require them to eschew values of western capitalism that have allowed them to grow to be very successful, at the expense of the Indigenous Peoples they purportedly serve, and start considering projects and decisions with long-term sustainability and community health in mind. It would require the U.S. government to not only treat Alaska Native communities as equal decision makers in terms of climate and energy policy and environmental remediation, but seeking radical and affirmative consent. It would require the government to also radically reconsider what they value in building out the economic and environmental future of the U.S., and whether or not status quo corporate liberalism—where decisions are made among corporate and governmental elitists—is worth sacrificing sustainable communities, habitable climates, and the 500 Indigenous tribes to which they have a trust responsibility, within Alaska and across the country.
Those demands are not unique to Alaska alone. As I’ve learned through my own research and spending time with Indigenous youth from the circumpolar North, we ALL need a Just Transition. Just as we’ve all suffered intergenerationally at the hands of state-sponsored colonial terrorism, we all continue to suffer from an Arctic that is warming four times faster than the global average rate, and governmental administrations that continue to charge forth with policymaking, with little-to-no inclusion of the first stewards of those lands.
A Just Transition is undoubtedly going to take time, as it is unrealistic to expect Alaska Native corporations alone to radically change the way they engage in economic development and still remain among the top economic performers in our state, in an economic climate that rewards extraction.
Together, we must imagine and work towards a future that considers the seven generations ahead, and the world we leave for them. Creating such a world must begin at the grassroots level—aligning ourselves, our families and kinship groups, and our communities with our traditional values, and creating communities and lifestyles that reflect those values. As we continue as a community to grow and unite under Just Transition values, we continue to build the power base necessary to expand the Just Transition movement to more structural levels.
In our off-time in Norway, you could find our cohort spending quality time together. Our afternoons and evenings were filled with laughter as we ate Sámi food together, explored the small but beautiful town of Arendal, sang karaoke and shared stories of “back home.” These moments throughout the week reminded me of an important lesson that I’m learning through my work in community organizing and movement-building: no matter how urgent the fight may be, we are still inherently worthy of laughter, joy, and rest.
Perhaps this is another important component of Just Transition that again applies all across the circumpolar North; if we seek long-term environmental sustainability and healthy communities for our kids to enjoy, should we not reach out and claim for ourselves some of the joy and continuity that we seek to build for the next seven generations?
This week, Native Movement and Always Indigenous Media brings you The Trickster Times online . You can pick-up a print version at the Elders & Youth and Alaska Federation of Natives conventions. Some stories are more newsy, some are more commentary, and all are written from the heart and for our community. We welcome you to join us as we build people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL.
Growing Beyond our Indoctrinated Histories of Extraction
Canoes landing at Auke Bay in Juneau, Alaska for Celebration 2022. Photo by Lyndsey Brollini/Native Movement.
Growing Beyond our Indoctrinated Histories of Extraction
By: Lyndsey Brollini and Anaan’arar Sophie Irene Swope
For thousands of years Alaska has been stewarded by Alaska Native peoples. People with rich knowledge systems who for centuries have navigated these lands from a culture of sharing, of regeneration with little to no waste, using each item as a sacred gift of the Earth.
With the first European explorers began the practice of extracting and exploiting Alaska’s natural resources.
Russian and then French explorers came to Alaska bringing with them diseases which caused near population collapse. The resilient few were placed into a society of forced labor, where the Russian extraction around furs began a critical shift in the natural world as a commodity to capitalize on for wealth garnering.
The Russian contact significantly diminished the animal populations of Alaska and brought new systems of belief and the ideology of money to Alaska Native people.
During the United States’ Western expansion, the U.S. illegally purchased Alaska in 1867 for the tactics of war, bringing leverage on the Pacific front. As time passed and settlers explored, it led to the 1896 discovery of gold.
This discovery brought a stampede of 100,000 prospecting miners to Alaska during the “Klondike Gold Rush” from 1897- 1898.
Alaska Native lands continued to be prospected by outside influences. Alaska became a state in 1959, and seven years later in 1966 the Alaska Federation of Natives organized for the first time. That same year, a “land freeze” was imposed to protect Native occupancy and use of Alaska lands. This all changed in 1968 when oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay.
Discovering oil in the Arctic triggered fervor within the state economy. With oil in mind and no existing settlement over land, the 1968 “Alaska Land Claims Task Force” began Alaska's Indiginous journey to settlement.
In 1971, Congress signed the Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act (ANCSA) into law. It mandated the creation of 13 regional corporations and hundreds of village corporations that represent Alaska Native people in a foreign economic system. ANCSA extinguished Alaska Native claims to 90% of their lands in the development of Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs).Which extinguished indigenous hunting and fishing rights, and laid the foundation for undercutting Tribal governance and self-determination in Alaska
Alaska Native people, as always resilient and adaptive, navigated the foreign system, attempting to negotiate the system to meet their needs of survival and change it to be more aligned with their values and traditional ways of life.
But the colonial and capitalist systems ANCSA put in place have become embedded in Alaska Native communities today, and are a major reason why our communities are so deeply divided.
This is most literally shown through the ongoing debate about blood quantum. When ANCSA originally passed into law, a 1/4 blood quantum requirement was in place with the colonial goal of eliminating our Nations. That, despite our continued growth of our populations, the legal recognition of "tribal blood" would in fact lessen.
That requirement was removed in later amendments to ANCSA, but many regional and village corporations still use that requirement – keeping future generations from having a say in what happens to the land their ancestors stewarded for thousands of years. Tribal Governments who are federally recognized as sovereign entities and policy makers, are completely separate from the ANCs, and yet even Tribes adopted blood quantum requirements.
It is unnecessary to hold onto an outdated and counterproductive policy. If we look to our values, we love children and the expansion of our families and communities. The growth of the communities does not mean we must enforce a shrinking system.
ANCs and Native Tribes: Are They Benefitting Equally?
ANCs started extracting from their lands through oil drilling, mining and clear-cutting old-growth forests for timber. These are non-renewable industries that hold impacts that will remain for all of time.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a particularly devastating demonstration of this. In 1989, a 987-foot oil tanker struck rock while transporting 53 million gallons of North Slope crude oil. This incident brought total collapse of the local marine population, which is the core sustenance to many, if not all, Alaska Native populations. This was a detrimental time to the Alaska Native people of the area.
Despite the fact that oil and minerals are already running dry and have caused irreparable harm in the past, ANCs are still pursuing non-renewable resource projects.
These projects have a possibility of short-term gains but come at a huge cost to the Earth and our ways of life. Our coastal villages are being threatened more often by severe storms, and the long sustained ways of life are dwindling and as weather patterns are becoming more unpredictable.
It is possible to return to our teachings of being in harmony with the land. Some ANCs are starting to move away from extracting from their land and aligning business more with Native values.
While some ANCs are slowly incorporating more socially conscious entrepreneurial practices, wealth inequality is still prevalent, a strong departure from a history of sharing and cultural “mutual aid”.
The leaders who fought for ANCSA did the best that they could with the resources they had – which was hardly any resources at all in the beginning.
ANCSA was the biggest land claims settlement in the history of the U.S.. ANCs provide jobs for their shareholders and fund culture camps and language revitalization. It is important to acknowledge that it has been an important vehicle in economic development that is unprecedented in other parts of “Indian Country”.
But still, it wasn’t quite a win either. Most Alaska Native lands were taken and with many Tribes having little or no legal land claims currently.
Furthermore, hunting and fishing rights were extinguished with the passage of ANCSA Instead the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) has failed to protect “subsistence” hunting and fishing. ADF&G has continually opted to side with commercial fishing interests.
A transition must be made away from extractive business-as-usual practices, we must look to our history of thousands of years of successful earth stewardship as we build forward.
So What DOES a Just and Equitable Transition Look Like in Alaska?
In May 2022, hundreds of Alaskans gathered at the Nughelnik Just Transition summit to talk about all the ways regenerative economies are already being shaped in the state.
Just Transition is a framework that the International Labour Organization describes as “maximizing social and economic opportunities of climate action, while minimizing and carefully managing any challenges – including through effective social dialogue among all groups impacted.”
Many organizations that participated in this year’s summit are building food distribution systems and utilities that center community care over individual gains, and have engaged in mutual aid since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
In 2021, the Alaska Native Heritage Center organized a fish drop, giving 25 pounds of salmon to families during the pandemic. Community farms and greenhouses funded by community organizations and Tribes are emerging all across the state. And the network of reciprocity displayed every year during herring egg season is an impressive model for how communities can share resources with relatives across the state.
Tribes are also building their own broadband internet access systems. The Akiak tribe started their own broadband network, and Wrangell is a starting point for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to build their own broadband service to communities in Southeast Alaska.
Alaska also has a lot of opportunity to invest in renewable energy – a field that harnesses infinite forms of energy – instead of investing money and technology in extracting hard-to-find deposits of oil and gas.
A transition to renewable energy is not just possible, it is necessary. Alaska Native communities are at the forefront of the devastating effects of climate change. Extreme weather patterns that caused the deadly landslide in Haines in 2020 and the storm that tore through Western Alaska in September 2022 are becoming more common as the ocean warms.
Some Alaska communities already demonstrate that it’s possible to rely on renewable energy. Juneau’s electricity is already almost entirely renewable, relying on hydroelectric power supplemented by diesel fuel. Since 2014, Kodiak Island Borough has successfully gotten over 99% of their energy from wind and hydropower resources immediately available to them.
People may not be able to envision a future without an extractive economy, but the roots of it are already here. Alaska Native knowledge has created systems of care for the community and environment for thousands of years.
Alaska Natives and countless ancestors were the true stewards of the land for time immemorial and are the inventors of the only system that worked in preserving fish populations. It needs to be known that we are not economically depressed; we have every resource necessary to thrive.
Being self-sustained by switching to renewable energy and growing food on our immensely fertile soil creates lifetimes of jobs and provides food security. That is more rich than a 30 year mining project that provides only for a single generation, while also destroying the lands and foods they already provide.
We must recognize when our current systems are not working or leaving many people out, and we deserve better. When corporations become truly accountable to Tribes and our tribal communities, then perhaps we can lead all of Alaska with traditional values that embrace communities of care for each other and for Mother Earth then a better future is guaranteed for everyone.
This week, Native Movement and Always Indigenous Media brings you The Trickster Times online . You can pick-up a print version at the Elders & Youth and Alaska Federation of Natives conventions. Some stories are more newsy, some are more commentary, and all are written from the heart and for our community. We welcome you to join us as we build people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL.