Listening sessions tell AFN tribes want real authority over fish, wildlife and land

Participants at 13 listening sessions across Alaska said tribes should have real authority over fish, wildlife and land, with their knowledge treated as expertise from the start rather than consulted after decisions are made, according to a report the Alaska Federation of Natives is presenting Friday at its convention in Anchorage.

The 68-page report, published Oct. 16, summarizes the sessions, held from July 7 to Oct. 7. AFN's session slides say the series was prompted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy's call for a subsistence task force to amend the Alaska Constitution, and that AFN came "to listen, not advocate for a particular solution."

On Saturday, delegates take up the convention's draft resolutions, nine of them listed under subsistence. Two oppose shifting federal subsistence authority to the state in a way that would weaken the rural priority, which under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act puts rural residents' subsistence harvests first on federal public lands.

"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. Among the most consistently proposed solutions, it says, is restructuring the relationship between tribal governments and state and federal agencies.

The sessions began in Utqiagvik and included Kotzebue, Bethel, Nome and Juneau and virtual sessions for the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands and for Chugach communities. Alaska News previewed the Dillingham session Aug. 7. The report gives no attendance figures, and its regional findings are AFN's summaries of what was said, not transcripts.

In Utqiagvik, the cost of getting out on the land came up. One participant described a 250-mile boat trip for a hunt, with fuel at $7 to $22 a gallon. Participants said the Western Arctic caribou herd limit had been cut from 15 caribou a year to five bulls per person as the herd declined. The federal system is starting to take tribal input, including nominations for seats on the Federal Subsistence Board, they said, but the state has no comparable mechanism.

Bethel participants said defending subsistence rights from a position of weakness is failing. They called for an "offensive" approach, including mass voting, amending that federal lands law and possibly a state constitutional amendment.

In Nome, residents from the region around Brevig Mission described strong opposition to a proposed foreign-owned graphite mine, which the report does not name, and asked for a protective distance of 200 miles. "Western science is seen as superior to traditional knowledge, and that needs to change," Kelsi Ivanoff said, according to the report. "And I think the only way that's going to change is if we are the ones making decisions."

Chugach participants said oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill remains on beaches and that herring and seaweed have not recovered. In Juneau, participants called for a year-round subsistence designation for king salmon and proposed limits on charter permits. In Copper Center, they said federal land transfers are proceeding without tribal consultation.

AFN says the findings will shape its Subsistence Strategic Action Plan for 2026 to 2030 and guide its advocacy, education, communications and legal strategy. It has not said when the plan will be made public.