Anchorage Assembly to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day and welcome AFN delegates Tuesday

The Anchorage Assembly is set Tuesday to consider two resolutions honoring Alaska Native people: one recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day in Anchorage, the other welcoming delegates to the Alaska Federation of Natives' 60th anniversary convention, which opens Thursday at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center.

All 12 Assembly members and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance are sponsoring both, led by Assembly Chair Anna Brawley and Vice Chair Daniel Volland.

Both resolutions call Anchorage "Alaska's largest Native village," home to more than 23,000 Alaska Native residents. The welcoming resolution honors the Dena'ina Athabascans, whose traditional land includes Anchorage, and cites the city's government-to-government relationship with the Native Village of Eklutna.

It also traces AFN's start to October 1966, when more than 400 Alaska Native leaders from 17 regional organizations met in Anchorage to speak on aboriginal land rights. That work 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 nonprofits and tribal consortiums.

This year's convention runs Oct. 22 to 24 under the theme "Rooted in Land and Tradition, Rising in Our Voices." Tlingit anthropologist Rosita Worl is the keynote speaker, and speeches, sessions, the expo, art and dance events are free and open to the public. The agenda includes Alaska's congressional delegation, a candidates forum and resolutions setting AFN's priorities for the year, Alaska News reported Oct. 14.

The Indigenous Peoples Day resolution comes a week after this year's observance on Oct. 12. Brawley marked the day at the Assembly's Oct. 6 meeting, saying it is "also now a municipal holiday."

The resolution traces the day to 1977, when a delegation of Native nations proposed it at an international conference on discrimination against Indigenous people in the Americas. Alaska became the second state to recognize it when then-Gov. Bill Walker signed House Bill 78 in 2017, the resolution says.