A group of proposals before the state Game Board this weekend could tighten oversight of hunters who kill moose to serve at funeral and memorial potlatches. The focus of concern: Alaska's urban and most accessible hunting grounds.
State law allows the practice, outside of hunting seasons and bag limits, for "customary and traditional" Alaska Native ceremonies as long as the kill is reported within 15 days.
One request submitted by an advisory group representing Mat-Su hunters and fishermen framed the issue as a competition for moose between those taking an unknown number of animals for potlatches and "the average hunter" who also relies on wild game for food.
"There are people in the Valley and other areas, hunters who feel like potlatch moose are coming out of their area," said Game Board Chairman Cliff Judkins.
Meantime, he said, "Native people have traditions they've practiced for years and they want to keep practicing. So now it's before us with four or five different approaches."
The Mat-Su advisory committee asked regulators to limit potlatch hunts to subsistence areas. That would forbid the practice in Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula and parts of the Valley. The head of a statewide sportsman's group says that's not likely to pass.
Instead, the state Department of Fish and Game has called on the board to ensure potlatch kills are possible in non-subsistence areas as long as hunters get a letter of authorization from the state.
"Potlatch isn't a subsistence issue. It's a cultural ceremony," said Gakona village council president Darin Gene.
When someone dies in Gakona, an eastern Interior village of about 250, the potlatch draws hundreds of people for up to three days, Gene said.
Hunters sometimes take three or four moose for the ceremonies, he said. "You're feeding them breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Gene supports the Fish and Game request to allow approved hunts in non-subsistence areas, as well as a proposal by Ahtna Inc. that would give the regional Alaska Native corporation authority to oversee all potlatch hunts in parts of the eastern Interior.
"It would keep better track of who's doing the hunting. It would keep it local," he said.
While non-subsistence hunting areas are the most populated, the Ahtna region includes some of Alaska's most popular, most accessible hunting grounds.
Eleanor Dementi, of the Ahtna Tene Nene Customary and Traditional Use Committee, submitted the proposal. It's meant to prevent people from abusing the hunting exception for potlatches and to allow Ahtna to monitor and approve kills conducted according to tribal law, she said.
Asked if Ahtna would give people who live outside the region permission to kill game for potlatches, she said outsiders could possibly qualify for the hunt. Still, she said, it's not customary to go to someone else's traditional grounds to hunt for a potlatch.
The requests are among more than 50 proposals before the Game Board, which began a four-day meeting in Anchorage on Friday to consider changes to hunting rules across Alaska.
At least 386 moose were taken for potlatches between 2004 and 2008, according to the Division of Wildlife Conservation, though regulators and hunters suspect other potlatch kills go unreported.
Some hunters worry the exception can be abused because of weak reporting requirements, meaning hunters caught poaching a moose could claim the animal was for a potlatch, said Aaron Bloomquist, chairman of the Anchorage Fish and Game Advisory Committee.
"The lack of reporting could in the future lead to a conservation issue," he said.
Tony Kavalok, a state biologist based in Palmer, said it's unclear how many moose are actually taken for potlatches in the Mat-Su.
The proposal from Fish and Game says the rules need to be changed because of a "new, spring 2009 interpretation" of the potlatch regulations that prevented access to game for ceremonial harvests.
The existing law is unclear.
It appears to already prohibit potlatch kills in those urban areas --- despite a Supreme Court ruling that the state must allow people to take animals for religious ceremonies. The debate this weekend is over a line in the state law that says game taken for potlatches must be "customarily and traditionally taken or used for subsistence."
Fish and Game has proposed removing that wording, which could open potlatch hunts to non-subsistence areas where hunting is already allowed.
The Mat-Su advisory committee's request to bar potlatch hunts in non-subsistence areas won't happen, said Rod Arno, executive director of the Alaska Outdoor Council, a sportsmen's group. That's because the state now believes it cannot legally link subsistence boundaries to religious hunts, he said.
The Game Board planned to hold a special work session to hear more about the proposals and possible solutions late Saturday afternoon. The board hasn't started voting on proposals yet, and will likely continue hearing public testimony today at the Egan Center.
Read The Village, the ADN's blog about rural Alaska, at adn.com/thevillage. Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334.
By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com