AFN report says communities want tribes to have real authority over fish and game

The Alaska Federation of Natives published a 68-page report Oct. 16 on what it heard at 13 subsistence listening sessions held across the state from July 7 to Oct. 7. Participants told AFN they want tribes to hold real authority over fish, wildlife and land, not a limited role after decisions are made.

AFN says the findings will shape its Subsistence Strategic Action Plan for 2026 to 2030 and guide its advocacy, education, communications and legal strategy.

AFN's session slides say the series was prompted by the governor's call for a subsistence task force to amend the Alaska Constitution, and that AFN came "to listen, not advocate for a particular solution." Alaska News previewed the Dillingham session Aug. 7.

The sessions began in Utqiagvik and included virtual sessions for the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands and for Chugach communities. The report gives no attendance figures, and its regional findings are AFN's summaries of what was said, not transcripts. No state or federal agency, and no commercial, charter or sport fishing group, speaks in it.

Among the most consistently proposed solutions, the report says, is restructuring the relationship between tribal governments and state and federal agencies. Participants said traditional knowledge should be treated as expertise from the start.

"Alaska's subsistence challenges are regional, but the call for greater self-determination, stewardship, access, and protection of Alaska Native ways of life is statewide," the report concludes.

Fish concerns, including salmon declines, commercial fishing and bycatch, and restricted harvests, came up across the sessions. High fuel costs were a recurring barrier. In Utqiagvik, one participant described a 250-mile boat trip to hunt, with fuel costing $7 to $22 a gallon.

Utqiagvik participants said the Western Arctic caribou herd limit fell from 15 caribou a year to five bulls per person. They said the federal system is starting to take tribal input, including nominations to the Federal Subsistence Board, but the state has no comparable mechanism.

In Nome, residents near Brevig Mission strongly opposed a proposed foreign-owned graphite mine, which the report does not name, and asked for a 200-mile protective distance. Kelsi Ivanoff of Nome said "our traditional knowledge isn't being taken into consideration alongside Western science," according to the report.

Bethel participants called for an "offensive" strategy, including mass voting, amending the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and possibly a state constitutional amendment. Juneau participants pressed for year-round subsistence king salmon access and limits on charter permits. Copper Center participants said federal land transfers are proceeding without tribal consultation. Chugach participants said oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill remains on beaches and herring and seaweed have not recovered.

The findings are scheduled to be presented Friday, Oct. 23, at the AFN convention in Anchorage, and delegates are scheduled to consider eight resolutions on subsistence, fisheries and co-management Saturday, Oct. 24. Two oppose any shift of federal subsistence authority to the state that weakens the rural priority, which under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act puts rural residents' subsistence harvests first on federal public lands.

AFN has not said when the 2026 to 2030 plan will be made public.