Sen. Ted Stevens a Champion to Alaska Natives

Former Sen. Ted Stevens, who died in a plane crash in Alaska this week at age 86, will be remembered by many as the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate's history, a man who helped modernize Alaska and, yes, the guy behind that infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” but he will also be remembered as a big supporter of Alaska Native people.

Stevens helped write and push through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. The legislation provided nearly $1 billion and 44 million of acres of land to Alaska Natives, which would be managed by 13 regional corporations and more than 200 village corporations. ANCSA ultimately paved the way for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

In a statement sent to AIR yesterday, Don Kashevaroff, CEO of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, said Stevens’ contributions to the Alaska Native community are significant.

"He worked with Alaska tribal leadership to pass legislation that created the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium [ANTHC], to take over health care ownership and management back to the tribes,” he said.

ANTHC, a non-profit health organization owned and managed by Alaska Native tribal governments and their regional health organizations, was created in 1997 to provide statewide Native health services. It jointly owns and manages the Alaska Native Medical Center, a 150-bed facility in Anchorage that provides specialty, tertiary and primary care to Alaska Natives and American Indians in Alaska..

Kashevaroff said the former senator brought telemedicine to the state’s rural communities and championed other initiatives that modernized the Alaska Native health system.

“We will dearly miss our friend, our champion and our partner in tribal health," he said.

Andy Teuber, chairman and president of the ANTHC Board of Directors, said in a statement that Stevens was instrumental in creating “world-class health care delivery in a frontier environment.”

"One of his favorite programs was the Community Health Aide program, which he showcased in other countries, like China and Vietnam, as a model of the great things that can happen when local people take over their own health care,” Teuber said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and with his staff, whom he treated as extended family."

Stevens became a U.S. senator for Alaska in 1968, though his political career started before that. In 2008, he lost his bid for reelection to Democrat Mark Begich. Stevens' was convicted in a corruption trial during the Senate race, but the charges were dropped in April 2009 due to “prosecutorial misconduct.”

Alaska Native Groups Demand a Halt to Oil Exploration in the Arctic

As the oil leak at the floor of the Gulf of Mexico continues to gush, at the rate of about 210,000 gallons a day, Alaska Native groups are demanding the halt of oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea and Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea, which is supposed to begin this summer, until the federal government knows what caused the spill in the Gulf and can guarantee that kind of accident does not occur in the waters off Alaska.

In a call to action sent out this week, the Native Village of Point Hope, located on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, has created a sample letter asking Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior, to stop Shell Oil’s exploratory drilling in the Arctic.

The letter states: “The impacts of a major spill in the Arctic would be widespread, long-lasting and disastrous. At risk are endangered whales, polar bears, seals, walruses, birds, fish and the Inupiat people’s subsistence culture.”

To view the letter, go to www.aitc.org/node/355.

Alaska Natives Urged — Down to the Wire — to Return Census Forms

Tribes and Native organizations made a last-ditch effort on Thursday to urge Alaska Natives to return their U.S. Census forms before the April 16 deadline.

As of yesterday, only 57 percent of Alaskan households had returned their Census forms, putting the state in last place in terms of participation rates, according to the U.S. Census.

Organizations like the National Congress of American Indians and the First Alaskans Institute were encouraging Alaska Natives to take action.

“As Alaska Natives, we must participate in the Census, even if we think it is an inconvenience or intrusive; the link is too important to ignore — turning in your census form leads to funding for important services for our peoples, and it impacts our political voice in state lawmaking,” said Elizabeth Medicine Crow, vice president of the First Alaskans Institute and director of the Alaska Native Policy Center, in a press release issued yesterday by the National Congress of American Indians.

“This is one of the opportunities for Indian Country to be heard,” said Jacqueline Johnson Pata, NCAI’s executive director. “For states like Alaska, which depend on the data for housing and other services, it’s so vital to get an accurate count.”

Yup'ik Speakers to Receive Language Assistance in Bethel Elections

Yupik-speaking voters in Bethel, Alaska, will receive additional language assistance for municipal elections, according to a settlement reached by the city, the Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Yup'ik is the primary language of a majority of citizens in the Bethel region. The settlement agreement follows a lawsuit filed against the city by NARF and the ACLU on behalf of the two local Alaska Natives.

The lawsuit Nick, et al. v. Bethel, et al., remains pending in the federal district court for the District of Alaska against the State of Alaska. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the same Alaska Natives who agreed to the current settlement as well as two other Alaska Natives and four tribal governments.

Under the settlement agreement, the city of Bethel will provide enhanced language assistance to Yup'ik voters, including trained poll workers who are bilingual in English and Yup'ik; sample ballots for election measures in written Yup'ik; a written Yup'ik glossary of election terms; advance notice of translator services; election announcements on the radio; and pre- and post-election reports to the Federal District Court for Alaska tracking the city's efforts.

Alaska Native Corps Get Letter from Senator Asking for Internal Records

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has launched an investigation into the millions of contracting dollars that Alaska Native Corporations have received from the federal government since 2000, The Anchorage Daily News reported on May 18.

McCaskill sent a letter to 20 of Alaska's largest Native Corporations last week. In it, she requested their internal records, including executive and board of directors pay and how many Natives they employed, covering the last eight years.

At issue are the contracting advantages that Alaska Native Corporations have with the Small Business Administration Section 8(a) program. Section 8(a) helps small, disadvantaged companies access the federal procurement market. It is typically for small contracts (those under $5.5 million for goods or $3.5 million for services). Federal law, though, provides the Corporations with an exemption, allowing them to enter into sole-source contracts of any value. They are also allowed to subcontract work to companies that don’t qualify for the Section 8(a) program and to enter into joint ventures and partnerships with non-Native companies for sole-source contracts.

The Corporations that received a letter were asked to provide the information no later than May 29, 2009. A hearing with the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight has been scheduled for July 16, 2009.

Wind Farms in Alaska Will be Little Help to Native Villages

Alaska is looking to spend $14 million to erect wind farms in six Alaska Native villages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, according to the Anchorage Daily News. But six wind projects right in their backyard will do little to reduce the cost of home heating fuel for the Alaska Native residents who live in those delta villages.

On the heels of a disastrous fishing season and with home heating fuel nearing $10 a gallon, strapped villagers are pleading with state officials for help getting through the frigid winter months ahead. But state officials are still deciding on an appropriate course of action. So far, they have declined to declare an economic state of emergency for the region or to take any action to provide relief. One state official has suggested the fuel vouchers may be an option for the region under the right circumstances.

The plight of village residents was brought to the attention of state officials in an open letter from Nicholas Tucker, a 63-year-old resident of Emmonak. Tucker took a survey in his village and found that most of his neighbors were in dire need. He described in heart-wrenching detail the conditions faced by each family. For his family of 10, which had paid $1,500 for fuel in just the past month, the choices had come down to fuel or food – the two mainstays of winter survival in the bush.

“For the first time, beginning December 2008, I am forced to decide between buying heating fuel or groceries,” Tucker wrote. “I had been forced to dig into our January income to stay warm during December. Again, for this month, same thing happens. I am taking away my February income this month to survive. Couple of weeks ago, our 8-year old son had to go to bed hungry. My wife and I provide for our family with disability, Veterans’ benefits, social security, and unemployment incomes. We are several months behind on our city water and sewer bills.”

Tucker’s letter, which was published in several rural newspapers, spurred donations and a demand for fuel pricing reform. Most Alaskan villages haven not been able to benefit from lower fuel costs because they had to lock in purchase contracts for their fall fuel deliveries while costs were at their peak. Making matters worse, the early onset of winter froze the river, preventing the bulk delivery of fuel by barge. Much of the fuel now must be flown in, which makes it even more expensive.

Palin's Rural Advisor Quits Amid Criticism Over Lack of Native Representation in Administration

Gov. Sarah Palin’s Rural Advisor quit Monday, saying the role would be better filled by an Alaska Native, Associated Press reported. In an e-mail to Alaska Native leaders, Rhonda McBride said, “In all honesty, I have never felt authentic in my role.” Alaska Native leaders have said that Palin neglected them when she made appointments after becoming governor. Alaska Natives are 20 percent of the state’s population. Palin, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has two Alaska Natives in her cabinet and her husband Todd is part Yup’ik Eskimo. However, she has been criticized for appointing white people to positions previously held by Alaska Natives and for appearing to tolerate bigoted remarks about Alaska Natives from some of her appointees.

Breast Cancer Among Alaska Natives Leveling

After tripling for nearly three decades, rates of breast cancer among Alaska Native women may be leveling off at last, the Anchorage Daily News reported. At least that is what the latest statistics suggest. While the incidence of breast cancer rose sharply among Alaska Native women toward the end of the 20th century, from 40 cases per 100,000 (from 1969 to 1973) to 138 cases per 100,000 (1994 to 1998), they dropped to 132 cases from 1999 to 2004, according to a recent Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium study. Breast cancer used to be pretty rare among Alaska Native women, but now their incident rates match those of white women nationwide and exceeds by half the rate of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the lower 48.