Alaska Inter-Tribal Council : Advocating for Alaska Tribal Governments

The National Congress of American Indians
Resolution #BIS-02-056

Title: Supporting the Subsistence Lifeways of Alaska's Tribes, Gwich'in, Inupiat, Tlingit, and Saint Lawrence Island Native Peoples, and of Related Indigenous Cultures in Canada and Russia, and Opposing Efforts by Multinational Economic and Political Interests that Would Endanger Their Lifeways

WHEREAS, we, the members of the National Congress of American Indians of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our descendants the inherent sovereign rights of our Indian nations, rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws of the Constitution of the United States, to enlighten the public toward a better understanding of the Indian people and their way of life, to preserve Indian cultural values, and otherwise promote the health, safety and welfare of the Indian people, do hereby establish and submit the following resolution; and

WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was established in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments; and

WHEREAS, the subsistence traditions of Alaska Native peoples and other related indigenous peoples vary considerably among regions and cultures, but are tied together by the common strands of their importance for indigenous cultural survival, and their vulnerability to attack from outside interests that lack respect for these subsistence traditions and would destroy or endanger these traditions in pursuit of their multinational economic and political objectives; and

WHEREAS, like the Yup'ik people of the Akiak Native Community and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of southwest Alaska, the Gwich'in Athabascan people of eastern Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory, the Inupiat people of northern and western Alaska, the Saint Lawrence Island Natives of the Bering Sea, the Siberian Yup'ik familial relatives of Saint Lawrence Islanders who live on the Russian side of the Bering Sea, and other indigenous peoples of eastern Siberia, all depend on the perpetuation of their various subsistence traditions across the generations for the very survival of their indigenous cultures; and

WHEREAS, legal barriers and ecologically destructive practices imposed by multinational political and economic interests can and have disrupted indigenous hunting traditions in places around the world, and even where these disruptive actions may have ultimately proven temporary in nature, they have interfered with the perpetuation of indigenous subsistence traditions across the generations, thereby threatening the very survival of indigenous cultures; and

WHEREAS, the cultural survival of the Gwich'in is so tied to the survival and continuation of the migratory cycle of the Porcupine caribou herd of Canada and Alaska that the Gwich'in are known as the People of the Caribou; and

WHEREAS, the Inupiat people have likewise been referred to as the People of the Whale because of their profound cultural relationship with the bowhead whale, which provides the foundation of their subsistence diet and serves as a central organizing factor for a culture that is largely structured around whaling crew affiliations and associated familial relationships; and

WHEREAS, the Saint Lawrence Island Natives are likewise dependent upon whaling for their cultural survival and the Native peoples of eastern Siberia have only recently begun the difficult task of trying to reclaim and reinvigorate subsistence whaling traditions suppressed under decades of Soviet rule; and

WHEREAS, the people of Southeastern Alaska are likewise dependent on herring for subsistence lifeways; and

WHEREAS, all Alaska Natives [are] dependent on the riverways for their traditional lifeways related to the salmon; and

WHEREAS, all of these subsistence traditions are currently threatened by multinational political and economic interests that place them at risk; and

WHEREAS, the cultural survival of the Gwich'in people is threatened by multinational oil companies and pro-industry officials in the highest ranks of the United States government, forces that would callously place the survival of the Porcupine caribou herd at risk by gambling that oil exploration and development on the herd's calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska would not have devastating effects on the herd that many biologists and people with indigenous knowledge of the caribou believe such actions would; and

WHEREAS, the cultural survival of the Inupiat people, the Saint Lawrence Island Natives, and the Indigenous peoples of eastern Siberia is likewise threatened by recent developments before the International Whaling Commission, where Japan succeeded in blocking the allocation of whaling quotas for Alaska Natives and Indigenous Siberians beginning in 2003 and did so solely out of a desire to retaliate against the United States for its opposition to the resumption of a commercial whaling industry in Japan; and

WHEREAS, it is morally wrong and a violation of bastc human rights for multinational corporations and national governments to place the survival of indigenous cultures at risk, especially to pursue excess wealth or international political advantage and it is important that the NCAI opposes these assaults on indigenous lifeways that are currently being perpetrated on the international stage.

NOW THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the NCAI does hereby oppose the efforts of multinational oil companies and certain high ranking federal officials, to open the Arctic Refuge to oil exploration and development in complete disregard of the risks such actions would created for the cultural survival of the Gwich'in people of Alaska and Canada, and calls upon the government of the United States to reject any and all proposals that might create such risks; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NCAi similarly opposes the efforts of commercial fishing interest which adversely affect the subsistence salmon and herring traditional and customary fishing rights of all Native Tribes of Alaska; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NCAI similarly opposes the efforts of the government of Japan and Japanese commercial whaling interests to play international power politics by shutting down indigenous whaling in Alaska and Siberia at the expense of indigenous cultures that must be allowed to survive and perpetuate their way of life, and calls upon the governments of the United States, Russia and Japan to take appropriate. steps to end this callous and abusive mistreatment of indigenous cultures on both sides of the Bering Sea border; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NCAI until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.

The. foregoing resolution was adopted at the 2Q02 Mid-Year Session of the National Congress of American Indians, held at the Bismarck Civic Center in Bismark, North Dakota on June 16-19, 2007 with a quorum present.

Signed
Tex Hall, President

Attest
Colleen Cawston, Recording Secretary