Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Annette Bryan
“With this trust sitting the way that it's currently being invested, it's really not functional. It's not doing anything. We're grateful for it, and it, it has served a purpose in the past, but right now we don't even pay the salary for the trust board to function. So we really need to bring this in-house.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Leticia Fernández
“Representative Randall's legislation would amend the Tribe Settlement Act. It would give the tribe the authority to withdraw and manage their trust fund account under a secretarial approved plan, just like other federally recognized tribes can.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Leticia Fernández
“When Congress passed the Puyallup Tribe Settlement Act in 1989, it intended to provide vital services to their community and correct injustices the tribe experienced after the lands were taken or illegally sold. However, the settlement didn't provide a clear mechanism for the tribe to assume management over the settlement fund.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Sarah Obed
“I'm here on behalf of Doyon Ltd., our board of directors, and our over 20,000 shareholders and employees, and this testimony is a statement of support for H.R. 8674, The Geese House Conveyance Act.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Sarah Obed
“HR 8674 would complete a long-pending ANCSA conveyance by directing the Secretary of Interior to convey this historic Geese House site. These lands selected by Doyon in 1978 subject to certain restrictions on alienation and use and development consistent with ensuring the protection of these important cultural sites under Doyon's ownership and management.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Sarah Obed
“Geese House played an important part in the Native oral tradition of the Upper Kantiishna region in the past and is still a considerable interest to the Native residents today. And so this bill, if— when passed, will convey those lands back to Doyon.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“This bill doesn't automatically transfer the fund, approve a management plan, request new funding, or expand entitlements. The tribe would still have to satisfy the same federal review and approval standards that apply to other federally recognized tribes.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“The non-tribal parties to the settlement, have been informed of the tribe's approach to the permanent trust fund and support this legislation. I ask that their letters of support be included in this hearing record.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“I urge the committee to support HR 7269, and I'd be pleased to answer any questions.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Sarah Obed
“It's called Geese House site because there are story, origin stories about the site that might be found across many cultures, including the raven painting the loon.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Sarah Obed
“When we went out there 2 years ago, we went by helicopter. It's nowhere near the front portion of the Denali National Park.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“It's the way that the funds are invested so that the federal— the way that the interest rate is set up in the trust fund, it's not gaining any interest anymore.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Nick Begich
“I urge my colleagues to support 8674 and finally return Geese House to the people who have called it sacred for generations.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“So we want to take this $22 million and manage it in a way with keeping the core principle intact and still going through the Indian Trust Management Act, guidelines and using the interest then to provide programs.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“Well, self-determination means that the tribe runs programs for itself. And we have amazing capacity. I just want to take a moment to, you know, recognize that our CFO is a Puyallup tribal member. We have attorneys on staff who are Puyallup tribal members.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Sarah Obed
“It feels wonderful. And I'm really grateful to the committee for holding this here sharing, and for this bill's introduction. Thank you, Mr. Begich. And I'm really looking forward to its passage and to its conveyance.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Nick Begich
“H.R. 8674 Bars mining, bars transfer to anyone but the federal government, and bars any development that would diminish the Geese Houses site's cultural significance.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Nick Begich
“48 years ago, Doyon Limited selected the Geese House site a sacred rock formation at the heart of Interior Alaska, for conveyance under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Doyon shareholders identified this place as one of only a handful of physically defined cultural sites important enough to select by name. They have been waiting ever since.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“Today, the income generated by the Federally Invested Trust Fund has declined so significantly that much of it's consumed by the board's operating costs. Too little reaches tribal members. Maintaining a separate administrative structure also duplicates the work of the tribe's experienced and well-trained government staff. In fact, the tribe has absorbed many of the programs that the fund used to pay for.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Annette Bryan
“The tribe actually funds those now. So, we need to manage it in-house. We have really good qualified eligible tribal members who are doing an amazing job. One example is they took the children's trust that we had, in an old trust, and it was earning like the federal interest rate. We moved it to a Goldman Sachs account and are managing that trust, and it's making money for our children.”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026
Leticia Fernández
“your testimony where you describe that your members of your tribe had not been able to visit the site for decades, yet this is the place of such cultural significance, a place where your ancestors must be buried”House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs: Legislative Hearing · Sep 17, 2026