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
FATHER ELLIOTT: Who's the next name on there, I don't see it -- Rose?
THE REPORTER: Yes, Rose.
(Pause)
TESTIMONY OF ROSE HEDLUND
I am 76 and I live between Iliamna and Pedro Bay. I'm part Athabascan. And I have seen changes, a lot in my life. I agree with lots of this here thing as teach the children all we can teach them. They need to know the language, which we should use, and our way of living, all the -- to provide and how to protect themselves in the cold weather, bad weather, and how to provide food when they need it if they're stuck somewheres.
And I've seen so much of the liquor too, but there's -- I don't know what you could do about that, it's kind of hard. But I hate how -- what's going on.
Also, like one of the men has just said, they chop the heads off and leave them. I've seen lots of that. And I live where there's six lodges. And they all hunt moose. And they hunt moose when the moose is the worst eating. Dogs wouldn't even eat them, they're so stinky from rutting. And they're -- it's just terrible. What do you think happens to the meat, which we -- the villages could have used. It's destroyed. Which I really hate to see, because it's very hard to get meat, especially this winter-No caribou, no moose, lots of people could have used it, have lots of little children.
And which I hate, because -- and they were saying about the Fish and Game, I hate to say this, but it's kind of a joke, I think. We need more of them to watch the guides, see that they bring in the meat, not only the heads.
And they seem to turn their back on all the fishing. I know that people come in by planeloads in Iliamna, planeloads after planeloads. They go down Newhalen, get a three-prong hook and snag the fish; put them in the coolers, leave. But where's our game warden? You don't see no sign of him.
And about our...what else can I say.
(Pause)
No, they should have camps or something to teach all our kids while they're not in school, to distract them from the bad ways. Try to teach them ways, of our ways: Sewing, making crafts, some of them homemakers and how to provide and live off the country, save food, canning, drying, herbs and berries and everything else, so we could live our own way. I wouldn't live any other way, like the lady said. They can't change me. I got to live off the stuff.
We got seal oil. We live off of seal oil. And we of Iliamna use bear fat with our fish, which they give us four years in between a bear. And our country is overrun with bears. It's so much bears, you can see 13, 14, walking around where I live. And that's a big spawning area. And the bears just eat them as fast as they hit that creek. But they won't let us kill them. If we killed one, they take us to court. But they say they won't let us do anything unless a bear is halfways hanging out of our door.
So I don't know what our country's coming to. I sure hate to lose our way of life, because I have 12 grandchildren and they -- when they get married, they're going to have children. I'd like to see my great-grandchildren know what it's like to live like we are living.
It's been pretty hard on me this year, the whole Iliamna nearby. And that's on account of the bears too. The bears eat our moose calves. Where I live, we have moose that -- five or six cows live there. They go out on island, have their calves. One month later they come ashore. The next time you see them, they don't have no calves. The bear eat them. So I don't know. And --
FATHER ELLIOTT: Rose, what kind of bear are you talking? A black bear --
MS. HEDLUND: A brown bear.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Brown bear.
MS. HEDLUND: Brown bears. We don't see no black bears,
FATHER ELLIOTT: Mm-hm (affirmative).
MS. HEDLUND: And --
FATHER ELLIOTT: Are they protected; then,
is that why that you can't hum them?
MS. HEDLUND: They only have seasons like once in the fall, you go out in October. You -- October's when the -- they're only concerned about their -- the big moneymakers, the hunters. And you know, the moose -- the -- most of the bears are in bed. If they opened it in September, we might have a chance. Then in the spring, they have it in May. And the bears are up in the mountains. How are you going to climb the mountain to pack that stuff down?
FATHER ELLIOTT: Mm-hm (affirmative).
THE REPORTER: Excuse me. Off record.
(Off the record - tape changed - tape 12)
(On the record)
MS. HEDLUND: So I think really, they should let us -- especially the elders that eat bear meat and use seal oil -- should have at least, once a year have a bear. And we share. That's my idea of -- that way it would cut down on some of the bear. Pretty soon they're going to eat themselves poor. What's going to happen then? They're already turning on each other, killing each other. And it's not safe to even go berry picking anymore. I don't dare go out at night when I'm home alone. Because there's a bear out there, looking for something to eat. That happened to be my smokehouse most of the time too. Tear into my smokehouse, tear down the fish. But oh, no, you can't shoot them, because you get in trouble.
And I also thank all you good people for being here and giving us a chance to talk. And I thank everyone on this BBNA and everything to get us down here, so we could hear -- this my first time down, and I wish I had gone more. From now on, I'm going to go see every one of them, because it's going to help us, I think. Thank you.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Thank you.
MR. IRWIN: Rose, how do you spell your last name?
MS. HEDLUND: H-e-d-l-u-n-d. I'm an ex-fisherman
too.
MR. IRWIN: Okay.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Any questions, Mike?
MR. IRWIN: No.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Thank you.
MS. HEDLUND: Welcome.
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