ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
JOINT FEDERAL-STATE COMMISSION
ON
POLICIES AND PROGRAMS AFFECTING
ALASKA NATIVES
4000 Old Seward Highway, Suite 100
Anchorage,
Alaska 99503
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Witness List | PDF
Version
COMMISSIONER PAGANO: We have one more on
the list is Alfrieda Lord. Is she here?
(Off record.)
(On record.)
MS. LORD: Okay, my name is Alfrieda Lord. I represent the Native village of Barrow. We have approximately 3,000 members. Okay? I just came on board, working for a tribal government in this past May. Okay? I'm learning about 638 and doing everything else; but one of the things I already found out, since you people are supposed to be the state/the federal government, working -- solving problems with the tribes, right? Okay, under TARO (ph.), everybody's putting it in effect; they're going out and taking care of employment rights for the tribal people, which is fine; except their funding, they have to look elsewhere for. The Lower 48, every reservation automatically get that funding, and I wish you would check into this and find out why Alaska is deleted.
And then there's another thing under TARO (ph.) again, is that the State of Alaska when they give out any money to anybody for construction, they put the wording local hire; which is fine, except federal money has the wording for the -- for -- especially Indian money, says Native hire preference. Okay? Well, they get federal money, mix it with their own money, and then when it arrives in the village, it says local hire.
In Barrow, they're building a middle school; a very large project, and it's still going on. They have 80 people working there; there is only one Inupiat; so, anyway, that give you an idea of what's happening on that.
So, we went and checked with the Borough. The Borough had made -- had started out and said they want Native hire. The state came and said:
"With our money, it has to be local hire."
Local hire could be anybody off of the plane, in half an
hour get a job. So, if you want to help us trying to solve some of our employment
problems, I wish you would try and see if the federal money could have the
wording "Native hire" attached.
COMMISSIONER PAGANO: Yeah. Any comments?
Do you have any comments?
MR. GARBER: What is the name of your organization?
MS. LORD: Native Village of Barrow.
COMMISSIONER BOYKO: Is this a village corporation under the --
MS. LORD: No, this is a tribal government.
COMMISSIONER BOYKO: Okay.
MS. LORD: Yeah, it's -- we have the highest unemployment rate in the state of Alaska. It's very, very bad. There's a lot of people under General Assistance. We have a housing problem; we have everything that's wrong up there; and we're trying to solve this; but Tanana Chiefs (indiscernible) Officer came up there to help us, trying to get people on the job; and then we ran into this. And this kind of just stops us, because all I want is for the people to go to work, okay?
COMMISSIONER PAGANO: Thank you. Well, with that, we'll close the Task Force on Governance hearing.
(Off record at 5:30 p.m.)
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