More than 200 Natives revived the battle for rural Alaskans' subsistence rights Wednesday, with some blasting what they called a hostile state program and a federal system that increasingly ignores Native voices.
Lines of speakers at a meeting organized by the Alaska Federation of Natives wagged fingers and waved papers as they railed on federal managers for holding secret meetings, ignoring regional advisory councils and colluding with state officials to erode rural residents' subsistence rights to hunt and fish.
The federal subsistence program should be protecting Natives, but it's broken and looks out for urban sport hunters before subsistence users who rely on moose and caribou to survive, said Walter Sampson, a vice president for Kotzebue-based NANA Regional Corp.
State and federal officials, including some at the meeting, denied the charges. They said they haven't conspired against rural Alaskans and they consider public comments in all their decisions.
AFN officials called the gathering, in a crowded room at the Hilton Anchorage, a "call to arms" to unite the Native community against regulatory and legal threats to subsistence.
"We have so much going on that is not splashing on the front page of our newspapers but is eroding our subsistence rights," said Julie Kitka, AFN president.
Speakers and organizers said their concerns include:
• Decisions by federal officials to let 30 percent of members on regional subsistence advisory boards represent sport and commercial interests. Boards once were comprised almost exclusively of rural subsistence users.
• Lawsuits filed by the state challenging what areas are available for federal subsistence programs.
• State petitions to federal managers designed to decrease subsistence use, leaving more fish and wildlife for sport hunters.
• Recent decisions by the state Board of Game that could reduce subsistence use in the Nelchina caribou hunt.
The state is not holding anti-subsistence meetings with federal officials, said Sarah Gilbertson, the state's liaison to the Federal Subsistence Board, the panel that manages subsistence hunting and fishing on federal land.
The state has had informal discussions with federal officials to help them develop draft guidelines on such matters as how the board determines areas eligible for subsistence, she said.
The state believes the board has made decisions without having enough data and historical information. She cited a recent determination that in an area around Chistochina, 42 miles northeast of Glennallen, rural Alaskans customarily and traditionally hunted and fished. That's a step needed to create a subsistence hunt and fishery there. The area the board selected is larger than it should be, Gilbertson said.
It's critical that the board follow procedures when making such decisions because they could exclude other Alaskans, she said. Federal law allows a subsistence priority for rural residents on federal land, or about 60 percent of Alaska.
"Eventually the board determinations might lead to other Alaskans being shut out of other hunts on federal land," she said.
The Interior Department addressed one of the major concerns raised at the meeting, Gilbertson said.
On Wednesday, an Interior official rejected a state petition requesting, among other things, that the board develop new ways of deciding who has traditionally fished or hunted in certain areas.
The conflict goes back to 1980, when Congress gave a subsistence priority to rural residents who hunt and fish on federal lands.
That contrasts with the state's constitution, which gives urban and rural Alaskans equal subsistence rights. As a result, state game managers created separate rules for hunting and fishing on state lands.
Several efforts by the Native community, governors and state and federal lawmakers to create a state constitutional amendment to bring the state and federal systems into agreement have failed.
But in 2002, Native leaders like AFN co-chair Al Kookesh announced that AFN would no longer seek to change the state system because, despite the cumbersome dual system, Natives had a strong voice in the federal subsistence program.
But federal subsistence board is no longer protecting Native rights, speakers at the meeting said Wednesday.
One key issue was a recent decision by that board to strike down a request by Natives from Ninilchik to create a dipnet subsistence fishery to catch 500 salmon on seven miles of the Kenai Peninsula's Kasilof River.
The rejection came despite a regional advisory council's support of the fishery and years of requests from the tribal government, speakers said.
Some also complained at Wednesday's meeting that Mike Fleagle, who cast the final vote against the Ninilchik proposal, was appointed to the federal board as chairman without Natives, through regional advisory groups, being consulted. Fleagle is former chairman of the state Game Board.
Invited to speak at the beginning of Wednesday's meeting, Fleagle, a Native from McGrath, said he supports a rural subsistence preference.
"There seems to be a concern that I've moved to the federal board to make it (like) the state system," he said. "I want to make it known that that's certainly not the case."
Fleagle said he's willing to consider developing new ways to determine areas that have practiced customary and traditional use.
"There's always room for improvement," he said.
Attorneys at Wednesday's meeting circulated several draft recommendations to be considered by an estimated 4,000 delegates expected to attend the AFN convention, which starts today.
Chief among them may be a proposal to create and fund a statewide Native commission to fight for Native subsistence rights on several fronts across the state.
Daily News reporter Alex deMarban can be reached at ademarban@adn.com.
AFN CONVENTION
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