TCC will hold a November summit on what villages told it this summer

Tanana Chiefs Conference will hold a summit in November on what tribal leaders told it during a summer of village visits.

Chief Sharon Hildebrand and TCC staff traveled to Tanana, Koyukuk, Eagle, McGrath, Birch Creek, Chalkyitsik and Beaver. What came back, according to TCC, was infrastructure, subsistence, education, housing, homelessness, the cost of fuel, and the burial of ancestral remains.

"In response to our Tribes, TCC is planning to host a Summit in November that will focus on issues and priorities important to our Tribes," Hildebrand wrote in a letter dated Sept. 2. It names no date, no location and no agenda.

Delegates have a scheduling problem before then. The National Congress of American Indians convention runs Oct. 18 through 22 in Palm Springs, California. The Alaska Federation of Natives convention opens in Anchorage on Oct. 22, the day the other ends. Hildebrand asked people to plan ahead.

She also pointed members toward the Nov. 3 election. "Those elected have the power to make decisions that have a tremendous impact on Alaska Native people, our communities, and our way of life," she said.

TCC represents 42 member entities, including 39 villages and 37 federally recognized tribes, across 235,000 square miles of the Interior.