The new Board of Game chairman apologized Wednesday for implying that Natives absent from a recent meeting may have been off drinking beer.
Ron Somerville’s controversial remarks came at the end of a politically charged meeting at a downtown Anchorage hotel last month.
The Alaska Federation of Natives will ask the U.S. Department of Justice, the Alaska Human Rights Commission and the state ombudsman to investigate the remarks.
The statements came Oct. 7 during a Game Board meeting. Somerville called on three people who were signed up to speak but weren’t there, according to a recording provided by Game Board staff.
The speakers were part of a group of more than 50 Natives attending the special meeting from Copper River-area communities to protest several proposals. Their primary concern: that the board would restrict subsistence hunting for caribou and moose in the Nelchina basin north and east of Anchorage. The board did take such action and is continuing the process at upcoming meetings.
After the third person in a row who had signed up to speak didn’t show up, Somerville said:
“There must have been a run on free beer or something.”
Somerville then called Donna Hicks of Copper Center to speak.
“Don’t like beer, Donna?” he asked.
Some laughter followed the statements, though it is impossible to tell who was laughing.
Several Natives in the audience were deeply offended, said Ken Johns, chief executive of Ahtna Inc., the Native regional corporation for the area.
Alcohol is a sensitive topic in Native villages, where it’s blamed for some of the nation’s highest rates of violent crime, suicide, fetal alcohol syndrome and other ills.
Delegates at the AFN convention last week passed the resolution calling for the investigation. It also asks the state to take corrective action, including Somerville’s removal, if the investigation shows that he demonstrated “inappropriate, discriminatory, oppressive or discourteous behavior.”
Somerville, reached in Arizona, where he is vacationing, said he was just trying to lighten the mood during a tense moment. He said he understands the sensitivity of alcohol among Natives and didn’t mean anything racial by the comment.
“If I offended somebody, I’m terribly, terribly embarrassed by that, if it was taken other than as just a way of breaking the tension, and I apologize for that. I don’t think I have to, to be honest with you, but if that’s what happened and someone took it wrong … “ he said. During a break in the Oct. 7 meeting, a Native woman told Somerville that his remarks were offensive. He apologized to her, he said.
He added that the uproar in the Native community is “really just trying to divert attention” from the Game Board’s efforts to redefine rules for the Nelchina subsistence hunts.
Reporter Alex deMarban can be reached at ademarban@adn.com.
