Anchorage Assembly passes resolution welcoming delegates to AFN's 60th convention

The Anchorage Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday, Oct. 20, welcoming delegates to the 60th Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention, running Oct. 22 through Oct. 24 at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center.

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley, Vice Chair Daniel Volland, 10 other Assembly members and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted the measure. The same group sponsored a second resolution the Assembly passed Tuesday, recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day.

The welcoming resolution states that speeches, sessions, expo booths, art and dance events at the convention are free and open to the public, with several ticketed events. Dr. Rosita Worl, a Tlingit anthropologist and president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, is the keynote speaker.

The resolution traces AFN to October 1966, when more than 400 Alaska Native leaders and delegates from 17 regional organizations met in Anchorage to speak on aboriginal land rights. Their work, the resolution says, led to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. AFN now includes 192 federally recognized tribes, 152 village corporations, 11 regional corporations and 11 regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums. AFN calls the convention the largest representative annual gathering of Native peoples in the United States.

The resolution describes Anchorage as Alaska's "largest Native village," home to more than 23,000 Alaska Native residents, and cites the city's government-to-government relationship with the Native Village of Eklutna. It honors the Dena'ina Athabascans, whose traditional land includes Anchorage, and urges residents to welcome the delegates.

The resolution gives the theme as "Rooted in Land and Tradition: Raising in Our Voices." AFN lists it as "Rooted in Land and Tradition, Rising in Our Voices," and said in its theme announcement that it "honors the enduring connection between Alaska Native communities and their ancestral lands, cultures, and traditions."

The convention agenda, as Alaska News reported Oct. 14, includes Alaska's congressional delegation and a candidates forum. Voting delegates will pass resolutions setting AFN's priorities for the coming year. Delegates are scheduled to elect an AFN co-chair Oct. 24, with the election announced in the morning session. Assembly members are invited to attend, and municipal notices say no Assembly business will be transacted there.