Rural exits, energy set tone for AFN talks

ALEX DeMARBAN

October 30, 2008 at 12:47PM AKST

The theme was “Reaching for the Stars.”

But “Our Endangered Villages” might have been more appropriate.     

Variations of that grim phrase were heard repeatedly during the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage last week, as delegates sought ways to lower living costs that have forced many to leave rural Alaska for urban areas.  

Near the end of the annual meeting on Saturday, Alaska’s largest Native organization asked the state and federal government to declare an emergency in the Bush because of the high cost of heating oil and gas.

“The situation is catastrophic,” said Ralph Angasan, AFN board member, during a break. “There’s no money in rural Alaska. The economy is dead.”  

Delegates passed a host of resolutions that sought financial help from the government for such things as capping the price of rural fuel at urban rates and developing energy from wind, solar and tidal sources.

The cost of gas and heating fuel soared past $10 a gallon in some villages this year, creating a ripple effect that forced all prices higher and burdened rural residents with incredible hardship, delegates said.

Some village schools are in danger of closing for lack of students. Many families have apparently fled to Anchorage this year, where more than 400 new Native students have unexpectedly arrived, the Anchorage School District reported.  

Ralph Andersen, chief executive officer of Bristol Bay Native Association, said he knows three families who recently left Dillingham because of high prices at grocery stores and gas pumps.

Filling his truck the other day in Dillingham cost more than $110 for 13 gallons of gas, or just under $8.50 a gallon.      

“It made me sad,” he said. “I’m thinking I can afford this but others can’t.”

Things are so bad that some families have given up on the time-honored practice of subsistence hunting and fishing — they can’t afford gas to power boats, four-wheelers and snowmachines.

Instead, they buy all their food at grocery stores.

“People are choosing between putting gas in the outboard or food on the table,” he said.

Federal fuel subsidy
That’s why the Bristol Bay nonprofit introduced a resolution asking the federal government to help rural residents buy gas to hunt, fish and gather. The money would come from the 2007 Farm Bill, which has set aside millions of dollars for Alaska. The state would design the subsistence relief effort with input from AFN, the federal Subsistence Board and the University of Alaska Anchorage, the resolution said.  

AFN passed that resolution unanimously, along with several others dealing with the rural exodus and the energy crisis.  

Above all, delegates want to create a task force to make recommendations to the governor and Legislature on how to stop the exodus from rural Alaska. It will also offer suggestions on what urban organizations can do to ease the transition.

The task force will include a strong village perspective, said AFN co-chair Al Kookesh, a Democratic senator from Angoon. It should complement a subcabinet Gov. Sarah Palin has said she will create to address rural problems.

“Hopefully they’ll pay attention,” he said.   

The subcabinet, announced by Palin in a prerecorded speech to the convention, would be comprised of cabinet members, including two Alaska Native commissioners, the Associated Press reported. It will work closely with rural communities, corporations and other groups.  

Other resolutions seeking government help included:
• Creating a state energy plan that includes government buying down the debt of rural utilities, investing a sizable chunk of money in renewable energy projects and sharply expanding the state’s Power Cost Equalization program to lower electric bills in rural Alaska.

• If a federal economic stimulus package passes, it should include special help for Alaska Natives and American Indians, including job training, low-interest loans, and help restructuring small-business debt.  

• Increasing the federal low-income Home Energy Assistance Program.

• Providing rebates for energy-efficiency improvements to houses and buildings.

• Doubling the federal production tax credit for renewable energy projects.

• Bringing back the Department of Community and Regional Affairs, an agency that focused on rural issues and the needs of Alaska Natives.

• Expanding the state ferry system across rural Alaska to help lower the high cost.

• Also, the governor should provide a supplemental appropriation to the Legislature that would help cover the rising cost of energy for schools, clinics and other public facilities.

Delegates also issued a call for personal action, recommending that Native corporations, tribal governments and individuals invest their own money in efforts to reduce energy costs.

Dispute over Native allotments
Things went smoothly on the convention floor compared to recent years. Resolutions passed speedily with little disagreement — everyone sees the energy crisis and shrinking villages as top enemies.    

But one resolution dealing with the rural crisis was pulled for later consideration by the AFN Board.

The Association of Village Council Presidents and other groups from the Bethel region want a federal law designed to protect Native lands.

With prices soaring, some are looking to sell allotments their families have owned for generations, said Myron Naneng, head of AVCP.

Beginning in 1906, the federal government granted Natives thousands of allotments — homestead parcels up to 160 acres. The program ended in 1971 with passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Many people selected their land in prized areas along rivers and coasts, often at family fish camps.

Today, guiding companies and other organizations are eager to buy the allotments, Naneng said. But that might mean Natives would lose access to important hunting and fishing areas.

The AVCP resolution requested that the federal government prevent Native families from selling their allotments until Native corporations, tribal governments or Native individuals are given the chance to buy them.

The sticking point in the resolution came in a clause requesting that Native groups create a pool of money to buy the allotments.  

Richard Glenn, vice president of lands for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., said he agreed with the spirit of the resolution. But the money would encourage people to sell their families’ land.

Native corporations should instead find ways to help people continue to own those allotments.

“We’ll separate our people from their lands,” he said. “If that person is going to sell their allotment they won’t do it with my help.”    

Other resolutions
AFN passed other resolutions that didn’t necessarily deal with the high cost of living in rural Alaska.

They include:
• The federal government should allow rural areas that practice subsistence to always have a subsistence priority. Communities can lose that right if they are deemed non-rural by the federal Subsistence Board for reasons that include becoming too large or developing certain urban characteristics.

• Create a statewide committee to stop sexual assaults that includes local leaders, Alaska State Troopers and others.

• Make federal, state and local election information available in Alaska Native languages.

• Seat more Natives on the state’s boards and commissions.