AFN's 60th convention brings candidates, subsistence and resolutions

The Alaska Federation of Natives opens its 60th annual convention Oct. 22 at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. Over three days, delegates are scheduled to hear from Alaska's congressional delegation, attend a candidates forum less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election, and vote on the resolutions that set AFN's priorities for the year, according to a draft agenda AFN posted this month.

AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. Its members include 192 federally recognized tribes, 152 village corporations, 11 regional corporations and 11 regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums, according to its convention guide.

The organization formed in October 1966, when more than 400 Alaska Native people representing 17 Native organizations met in Anchorage on aboriginal land rights. That work led to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, as Alaska News reported in June. The convention guide credits two tribes with early loans: the Yakama Nation lent AFN $225,000 to establish itself, and the Tyonek Tribal Council lent it $100,000, interest-free, for operations and delegates' travel. A first-day panel, "60 Years: The Decisions That Shaped AFN," brings together Emil Notti, AFN's first president, with Willie Hensley, Julie Kitka, Ana Hoffman and Nelson Angapak.

The first welcome remarks come from Dena'ina leaders: Aaron Leggett, chief and president of the Native Village of Eklutna, and Michael Curry, board president of Eklutna Inc. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance also welcomes delegates, and the Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to take up its own welcoming resolution Oct. 20.

Rosita Worl, a Tlingit anthropologist and president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, gives the keynote address the first morning. President Joe Biden awarded her a National Humanities Medal in 2024. This year's theme is "Rooted in Land and Tradition, Rising in Our Voices."

U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich are scheduled to speak Oct. 22, and a candidates forum fills most of the afternoon of Oct. 23. AFN's board decided this year not to endorse candidates. Delegates endorsed Mary Peltola and Murkowski in 2022 and Peltola again in 2024. Peltola is now challenging Sullivan for his Senate seat.

The first day's agenda also lists a "No on 2" presentation by Nicole Borromeo. Ballot Measure 2 would repeal Alaska's top-four primary and ranked choice voting, along with campaign finance disclosure rules voters approved in 2020.

Other scheduled speakers include Billy Kirkland, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for Indian affairs; Indian Health Service Director Mark Cruz; Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jude Pate; U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman, on missing and murdered Indigenous people, violent crime and drug trafficking; and Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation.

A Friday session is titled "One People, One Voice: Standing Up for Alaska's Salmon & Our Way of Life," and Jaeleen Kookesh speaks Saturday on Alaska's existing subsistence framework. In the guide, AFN's president's report points to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in January not to review lower-court rulings affirming federal authority over rural subsistence priorities. AFN held listening sessions on subsistence this summer, including in Dillingham and Fairbanks.

Delegates take up this year's resolutions on the final morning, Oct. 24. They passed 42 last year. Among those sent to AFN this year is a call for a moratorium on seabed mining off Alaska, backed by Kawerak, Sealaska and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, as Alaska News reported last week.

AFN will also announce the results of its co-chair election that morning. The agenda closes with a recognition of co-chair Joe Nelson and a welcome for the new co-chair.