Gov. Palin billed her mercy mission to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to deliver food aid to hungry villagers as a faith-based partnership with Samaritan's Purse. Governments have been partnering with faith-based organizations since the days of Sheldon Jackson in the late 19th century to effect change in Native Alaska with mixed results, depending on your perspective.

This latest partnership was prompted by a letter from Nicholas Tucker of Emmonak, who alerted Alaska that some folks in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta faced the prospect of choosing between food and fuel this winter. Many Alaskans rose to the occasion. Donations came anonymously, without fanfare, from individuals and tribal, political, nonprofit and religious organizations to regional authorities like the Bethel-based Association of Village Council Presidents, who saw that aid got to the right people. At the request of Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, the BIA has discreetly provided a huge amount of assistance.

But Samaritan's Purse chose a different path.

To bestow its charity, the fundamentalist Christian organization brought in its celebrity evangelist, Franklin Graham, along with Gov. Palin, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell and the Rev. Jerry Prevo, head of the Anchorage Baptist Temple, to create a media event of altruism. The showmanship of the relief flight to Russian Mission and Marshall maximized the social capital of Samaritan's Purse and provided a platform for the faith-based partnership between Franklin Graham and Gov. Palin. The alliance of Graham and Gov. Palin began during her vice presidential bid and will likely continue as Samaritan's Purse ramps up its Alaska operation, buying large tracts on the Kenai Peninsula as an apparent base for further missionary and political lobbying efforts for "Sarah 2012." The publicity also made the people in need feel small.

The reason most Alaskans provided monetary assistance anonymously is because they understand the nature of a gift, particularly in rural Alaska among people living in the subsistence tradition. Subsistence is not just about hunting and fishing for food. Subsistence is about sharing the wild food you got and processed with your own effort, giving the gift of sustenance a value-added quality by investing a part of yourself in it. The desire to repay the gift of a jar of personally caught, home-canned salmon is a willful obligation that becomes the glue that holds a community together and a motivating factor in the timeless dance of the seasons.

So when folks in the Y-K Delta receive a gift, it's a big deal. Giving food aid anonymously was the right thing, because that way there is no obligation to repay and it becomes an act of pure kindness toward a people temporarily in need. But Franklin Graham made a calculated, public display of giving, creating an obligation that must now be repaid by the Yup'ik of the villages. Obviously, Samaritan's Purse does not expect food in return, but they do expect access and influence and that, of course, has been one of several strategies of missionary activity since the advent of colonialism.

Gov. Palin used the Russian Mission event to promote a rural strategy encouraging young people to take week-on, week-off jobs in mining and the oil industry, thereby living in villages part time and receiving a good paycheck in an otherwise unstable economy. Many Native Alaskans already do work in resource jobs but this scenario does nothing to secure economic stability for the community, and the net result is still outmigration.

The Tundra Drums Web site posted a poignant exchange between Gov. Palin and Mr. Tucker recorded at the Russian Mission airport when Samaritan's Purse delivered their food packages. Tucker listened to the governor's week on/week off plan, and states, "Yes, I appreciate your help, but that's barely enough. We want to get restored back to who we are." By "who we are" I believe Mr. Tucker means a proud, dignified, independent people nurtured by the bonds of community and the place of their ancestors.

Tucker had earlier stated, "The thing is this (food relief) is a temporary help ... but we need sustainable jobs, fisheries. ..."

Of course he's right.

In the short run, the state can use its influence to minimize the impact of Bering Sea factory trawler ships on village-dependent salmon returns. And in the long run Alaska can enact a policy making affordable instate energy a cost of doing business in Alaska for oil companies.

Alaskans should never have to choose between food and fuel.

Alan Boraas is a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College. The Palin-Tucker conversation can be found at http://www.thetundradrums.com/news/story/5063

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