ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Indigenous leaders want a seat at the table and to be seen and heard. “Nothing about us without us.”
That’s the message Indigenous leaders shared at an Arctic symposium that organizers say brought in participants from 30 countries. Six Inupiaq, Tlingit and Athabascan leaders kicked off “Arctic Encounter 2024” with a plenary session entitled “Northern Indigenous Leadership: Our Future, Our Vision for Success.” Organizers say the three-day symposium drew about a thousand leaders in diplomacy, research, science, the military and business to the Dena’ina Convention Center in Anchorage.
Dr. Pearl Kiyawn Nageak Brower, Inupiaq, is CEO of Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation and Affiliate Research Professor at the International Arctic Research Center, and at right is Kasannaaluk Marie Green, Inupiaq, speaking at the Arctic Encounter Symposium on April 10, 2024, Anchorage, Alaska (Photo by Joaqlin Estus/ICT)
Kasannaaluk Marie Greene, Inupiaq, is president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which is made up of members from Greenland, Canada, Russia and the United States. She told an audience of about 150 people her goal is to continue to fulfill the vision of the council’s founder, Eben Hopson, Inupiaq: “to have our Inupiat people at the international level come together to strengthen our unity, to work together in harmony as we come together and address our concerns, our common concerns, our challenges, and what we need to be doing going forward as we continue to build that unity.”
Greene said Hopson expressed at the founding meeting of ICC in 1977 “the need to … to be promoting our language, our culture, our customers, who we are as Inuit and to promote and work with our governments, to ensure that we have the policies, long-term policies in place and to also address our interests at the international level.”
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She added that Hopson challenged “us to do what we can to protect our homeland, to protect the Arctic and that’s a privilege being in this role that I have.”
She said communications need to be honest and respectful toward governments, but “we have got to be expressing our concerns about the change of the climate that we’re now experiencing in the Arctic.”
Apagzuk Roy Agloinga, Inupiaq, is president and CEO of the First Alaskans Institute, an Alaska Native policy and advocacy nonprofit. “(Our) people have always lived in this land,” he said. “We have a passionate and deep connection to every place. And the fact that we are able to make decisions about education, about the economy, about any kind of policy that impacts us, is really critical.”
At left, Apagzuk Roy Agloinga, Inupiat, is president and CEO of the First Alaskans Institute, an Alaska Native policy and advocacy nonprofit with at right, Morrie Lemen, Jr., Tlingit, is executive director of the federally recognized tribe, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. They spoke at the Arctic Encounter Symposium on April 10, 2024, in Anchorage. (Photo by Joaqlin Estus/ICT)
Agloinga said the institute plans to build on the training and education previous First Alaskans leaders have provided on the importance of subsistence, an effort he said that helped lead to the appointment of three subsistence users to the federal Subsistence Board. “One of the things that we’ve done, of course, is a lot of advocacy around protecting our ways of life and have such an amazing working group with about 200 people who are from across the state.” That work was brought to the forefront, he said, “so that we can really work closely with our communities to identify ways so that they can continue protecting subsistence… that will always continue to be a major priority for us, and we want to make sure that our community understands what the issues are and how to move forward.”
Agloinga said youth leadership is also a key area for the Institute. “Our youth are pretty amazing and the youth that participated in (our) Elders and Youth conference really already show tremendous leadership in their region. We want to make sure that those young people are able to get as much support as they can, as much education as they can, as much knowledge as they can about the issues that are so important to us as Native people in Alaska so that they can continue the fight for self-determination and really understand what that means.”
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Aaron Schutt, Koyukon Athabascan, is CEO of the Alaska Native regional corporation Doyon Limited. He told the audience the Doyon region is about the size of the country of France, and home to about 40 communities, and 25 village corporations. Doyon has about 20,500 shareholders.
Aaron Schutt, Koyukon Athabascan, is CEO of the Alaska Native regional corporation Doyon Limited. He spoke at the Arctic Encounter Symposium on April 10, 2024. (Photo by Joaqlin Estus/ICT).
“We were able to select and retain about 12.2 million acres within our very large homeland,” Schutt said. “We share about 4 million of those acres with our village corporations where they own the surface and we own the subsurface and we have about 8.2 million acres that we own outright like all the other Native companies. Our job is to make money, train and employ our shareholders, and then, most importantly, steward our land base.
“We have our land. We have our people. We have to have economic success in order for our people to thrive, in order for us to steward the land. The federal government doesn’t give us any money…We have trespass, fire, gravel, wildlife, all these issues that are very important to our people, that we have economic success in order to take on all of those issues.” He quoted a former chief who would often say, “We’re doing well; we can do better.”
Dr. Pearl Kiyawn Nageak Brower, Inupiaq, is president/CEO of the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation, and Affiliate Research Professor at the International Arctic Research Center. She said like the other village, urban and regional corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp represents a distinct Alaska Native community village tribe. ”But each has an important land base and each has had to learn how to traverse the for-profit environment.”
The Ukpeagvik corporation has about 3,800 shareholders and stewards about 229,000 acres of ancestral lands. “We employ about 4,700 people and about a quarter of those are here in Alaska,” Brower said. “We are the ninth largest company by revenue in the state and we’re hoping to be the eighth after the end of this year. So our mission is really we bring our Inupiaq values to the services and products that we provide to enhance the lives of our shareholders.”
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She said of shareholders, “They’re us. They’re our aunts and our uncles, they’re our grandparents, they’re our parents, they’re our children, our grandchildren, and what that looks like into the future. I think we also have challenges in the market and in policy. Nothing about us without us is just how we have to move forward.”
Brower added, “I think as Indigenous people, right, we are the best ecologists. We are the best scientists for our region. We are tethered to our place. We care about our land. We want it to be there for future generations…listen to the people, listen to those who have lived off this land and learned the stories and heard the stories and been taught about this place for generations.
Morrie Lemen, Jr., Tlingit, is executive director of the federally recognized tribe, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. He said the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was a dramatically different approach to federal Indian policy. “It created a fragmented system of the Alaska Native representation and delivery of services that required a coordinated approach to effectively serve Alaska Native people. It also resulted in landless groups, which ICAS is one of.”
Speaking of his vision of success, he said “The first thing that comes to my mind is self-determination. We determine our future by building our own, growing our own leaders based on millennia of tradition. Listen to us. I challenge the audience every time you think about the Arctic, think about the people first. What we have identified as our needs, not what you think we need. The North Slope approach to leadership is centered at the local level. There’s a trust that the residents of our villages know what is best for their village and we support them, not supplant them. At ICAS, we work to uplift, empower, and grow the tribes and our tribal citizens within our region.”
Tara Katuk Mac Lean Sweeney, Inupiaq, is vice president for external affairs, at ConocoPhillips Alaska, an oil company that has had a presence in Alaska she said for 50 years, “and we continue in our commitment to the state.”
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Tara Katuk Mac Lean Sweeney, Inupiaq, vice president for external affairs at ConocoPhillips Alaska, spoke at the Arctic Encounter Symposium on April 10, 2024, in Anchorage. (Photo by Joaqlin Estus/ICT)
She said life has changed in Alaska over the years. “I grew up on the cusp of development and was 16 when we finally had the infrastructure to have a flush toilet in our home. And there are many communities throughout Alaska that still don’t have the infrastructure to afford that luxury, and it’s important to remember. But what development has provided to Indigenous communities across the North Slope is opportunity, opportunity for education, opportunity to live in thriving communities that have police and fire protection, opportunities for work and career, career advancement.
“So our goal and our focus at ConocoPhillips really is to develop Alaska resources safely and responsibly and responsibly really means a number of things: Effective stakeholder engagement. It also means transparency and respect in the process. But effective stakeholder engagement means that local voices have a seat at the table, that they help guide the process, the projects through the conception phase all the way to the production phase. And so for me, when you ask me what success looks like, that would be my answer.”
The three-day conference continued with sessions ranging from energy, governance, and wildfire management, to oil spill response, security, and waste management, as well as media, leadership, thawing permafrost, food security, science, education, health, shipping, and geopolitics.
CT originally published this article. ICT is an an independent, nonprofit, multimedia news enterprise. ICT covers Indigenous peoples.
Alaska is one of those places that’s impossible to visit just once. I’ve barely returned from my first taste of this untamed beauty and already I’m planning my next trip.
On our Norwegian Cruise Line 7-Day Alaska Round-Trip, we spend a week cruising and touring Alaska’s famed Southwest region taking in the ports of Sitka, Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Dawes Glacier, and Ketchikan.
Here is your guide on what to see, what to do, and skip in the Last Frontier state.
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READ MORE:Perfect way to avoid the crowds in the Northern TerritoryAlready planning our next trip to Alaska. (Nine/Supplied)
Sitka
Once Alaska’s first capital city, this dreamy town pretty much jams the best of Alaskan experiences into one place. Spawning salmon jumping upstream, check. Bears catching said salmon, check. Remote and stunning fjords. Check.Check.Check!
I booked myself on tour here to ensure I got the most out of my time. First we visited the Fortress Of The Bears, a sanctuary for orphaned brown and black bears. This is a popular tourist spot as you are guaranteed to see their resident bears.
READ MORE:‘How a trip to Cambodia completely changed how I holiday’
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Take a look onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s brand new ship
After this close encounter, we cruised along the silent and glassy inlet waters to Silver Bay homestead where we feasted on S’Mores and hot chocolate as we learned about the local area and history. We were also lucky enough to see a bear near the local salmon hatchery fishing from the shore. What a privilege to see these magnificent creatures in the wilderness.Saw some bears doing their thing. (Supplied/Nine)
Be sure to leave yourself enough time to wander through town too and do the totem pole walking tour through the Sitka Historical Park. For some added spice, there are regular “beware of bears” signs to keep you on your toes and on the lookout!
For movie buffs, I hate to break it to you, but Sandra Bullock’s rom com hit, The Proposal, was “based” here, but was actually filmed in the United States. Our bus driver told us a few aerial shots may have been used, but that was about it.
Juneau is the capital of Alaska. It’s both a mountain town and a coastal city surrounded by incredible beauty, wildlife and with a deep Native American history.
As soon as you step off your ship, there’s a dizzying array of tours on offer, the highlight of which is a trip to the famous Mendenhall Glacier about 15 minutes out of town by shuttle. While the tourist centre was packed, we had a drizzly day, so the trails to the glacier lookout and the nearby waterfall are relaxed and easy to navigate. I’d give yourselves about two hours out here, unless you’re up for a longer hike.
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Back in town, there’s a long line out the front of tourist hotspot Tracy’s Crab Shack and it’s standing room only at the Red Dog Saloon. Line up early if they take your fancy. We took photos out the front and instead spent our time strolling around town.
We made a beeline for their famous fudge shops (this will be a common theme throughout this article!), bought some great souvenirs in the Alaskan Brewing Co and I can highly recommend Jellyfish Donuts. Also, the shuttle drivers in Alaska are the absolute best. Full of knowledge, hilariously bad jokes, and pride for their hometowns.This was the highlight of our trip to Alaska. (Getty)
Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier
This was the highlight of our trip to Alaska. The weather gods were smiling as we made our way down the glacier carved fjord of Endicott Arm. This is National Geographic worthy. Sheer granite cliffs that tower above our 20 deck ship. Water so green you keep taking your sunglasses on and off to ensure it’s not a trick of the lenses. Chunks of glaciers float by. Can this be real? Am I actually here?
Then after miles and miles of quiet cruising, you see her. The Dawes Glacier. 600 feet tall and half a mile wide. Even from a distance she’s magnificent. Rug up and grab a spot on the upper decks to truly appreciate nature in all her glory.
This is a once in a lifetime experience not to be missed.
Ketchikan
Ketchikan is the southernmost entrance to Alaska’s famed Inside Passage and is everything you hope an Alaskan city will be. Famed for its beautiful scenery, its world famous salmon and Native American history.
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Ketchikan is everything you hope an Alaskan city will be. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
If your time is limited, stroll around Creek Street and the downtown historic district. There are also more than 80 totem poles dotted around Ketchikan. And yes, more fudge to be consumed too!
When we docked, we opted for the George Inlet Fjords Safari. Now this is an action packed day! Start your engines as you drive your own UTVs through the Alaskan wilderness. The scenery is stunning. You may even spot a bear or two on your adventures. You then board a sightseeing vessel that will deliver you to the charming George Inlet Lodge where you’ll sit by the water as you feast on fresh Dungeness crab and sample local craft beers. I am not normally a seafood eater, but the crab chowder was irresistible. So were the beers!
These Alaskan cruise stops are just a sample of what awaits on your journey to the Last Frontier. I’m already planning to return to explore more and maybe buy some more fudge.
This writer travelled as a guest of NCL. The cruise line offers four ships (Bliss, Encore, Joy, Jade) from three departure ports – Seattle, Vancouver, Whittier – to explore the region, with an extended season from April to October, providing the opportunity to see Northern Lights.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan welcomed Americans to enjoy the massive Sitka spruce that is currently making its way to the nation’s capitol by truck and praised the two drivers hauling the 85-foot tall tree.
In his weekly “Alaskan of the Week” address on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday, Sullivan spent about 15 minutes explaining how the Capitol Christmas Tree — taken from the Tongass National Forest near the Southeast Alaska community of Wrangell — was selected and how it’s being transported nearly 5,000 miles to be put on display in Washington D.C.
The duo of Fred Austin of North Pole and John Shank of Fairbanks have been part of that journey. Austin is 89 years old and has driven commercially for 71 years, while Shank is about to hit 50 years driving for Lynden Transport.
Together, the duo have logged over 10 million miles of driving trucks in their career.
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Sullivan said the two will have driven through 12 states and 17 towns across the country before making it to D.C. on Friday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
vpso crop generic village public safety officer (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Under Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s leadership and with reliable funding from the Alaska Legislature, Alaska’s Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) program has experienced substantial growth, reflecting Alaska’s commitment to public safety across its communities. The number of VPSOs working in our remote communities was once at 42 officers in January 2020 and has grown to a current total of 79, along with the introduction of Regional Public Safety Officers (RPSOs) and competitive wage adjustments, the VPSO program has become more robust and better equipped to serve the needs of rural Alaska.
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This increase in officer numbers is a significant accomplishment, expanding the safety network across Alaska’s rural communities. Each new VPSO represents not only an additional first responder but also a vital resource for residents in need of emergency response, search and rescue, and community safety support. By nearly doubling the number of officers in just a few years, the program has strengthened statewide readiness and improved the capacity to address Alaska’s unique rural challenges.
A key initiative supporting this growth has been the addition of Regional Public Safety Officers (RPSOs). RPSOs enhance the effectiveness of local VPSOs by providing a layer of specialized regional support, acting as a resource that multiple communities can rely on in times of need. They can respond quickly with the Alaska State Troopers to large-scale incidents, provide backup to VPSOs during demanding situations, and share essential resources across multiple villages. This novel regional approach ensures that communities have comprehensive public safety coverage including their local VPSO, regional RPSO, and the Alaska State Troopers.
Another major factor in the VPSO program’s expansion has been the increase in wages, making the role more competitive and sustainable as a career. Recognizing the high costs of living and the challenges of public safety work in rural Alaska, recent adjustments to VPSO compensation have made these positions more appealing to qualified candidates and have strengthened officer retention. This increase underscores the commitment required of VPSOs, who serve as the primary responders for some of Alaska’s most isolated communities. By offering competitive pay, the program attracts skilled individuals committed to public safety, building a more dedicated workforce equipped to serve Alaska’s rural residents.
These improvements in staffing, regional support through RPSOs, and wage enhancements have created a VPSO program that is more resilient and adaptable than ever before. VPSOs provide critical services to safeguard the well-being of residents, and the increased investment in personnel and resources underscores Alaska’s dedication to supporting its rural communities.
Looking ahead, the VPSO program will continue to focus on these priorities to ensure that Alaska’s rural communities have the support they need. We remain committed to working closely with Dunleavy, the Legislature, the regional VPSO grantees and Alaska’s villages to ensure that every village that wants a VPSO can have a VPSO.
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James Hoelscher is currently the director of the Alaska Department of Public Safety’s Village Public Safety Officer Operations Division. He previously worked as the chief of police in the Village of Hooper Bay, as a Village Public Safety Officer in Hooper Bay, and for the Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office.
The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.
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