Village survival recurring motif at Native convention

Convention delegates are tackling the problems and challenges of rural life in Alaska, including domestic violence, subsistence laws, suicide rates and substance abuse.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported a federation convention more than three decades ago carried a similar theme, but the prospect of "village survival" then held a strong thread of doubt, former state Sen. Georgianna Lincoln said.

"Thirty-four years later, at this convention, we put an exclamation point on the end of that theme," said Lincoln, who represented the rural Interior in the state Senate.

"We know our villages can survive, we know our villages have and will survive. We know, and we've known all along, our villages and our people are resilient survivors."

One teenager attending the conference, 17-year-old Barrow resident Adele Solski, said Alaskans need to preserve their cultural and traditional roots but embrace the opportunities offered through access to urban hubs.

"I think it's important for the youth to step up and want to learn about their culture," Solski said.

Others at the convention, which attracts Alaska Natives from across the state, weighed in at open microphones. Some suggestions were specific, such as George Pletnikoff's request that Native communities do more to protect groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea from commercial trawling.

"If we don't protect our oceans, we're not going to have any food (for) our villages," he said.

Curtis Sommer, of Tanana, and North Pole resident Albert Attla said the Legislature should repeal a 1998 bill that slashed state aid for any public school that saw enrollment dip below 10 students.

"When the school dies, that's when the village dies," he said.

Julie Roberts-Hyslop, of Tanana, called for improved telecommunication infrastructure to help communities keep up with a quickly changing world.

"We need broadband, we need Internet. We need cell phones," she said. "If we don't have villages, who are we?"

The keynote speaker, Gloria O'Neill, said Alaska Natives have survived disease, displacement, discriminatory policies and life in a demanding physical environment.

O'Neill said she senses public leaders are poised to tackle another challenge: education. People who thrive, she said in an interview, are those that both stay in touch with their respective cultures while adapting to succeed in contemporary economies.

"We've really got to invest in our young people," she said.