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 | Exhibit
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ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
HEARING
Nome, ALASKA
SEPTEMBER 21, 1992
Dazee
(Commissioner Towarak departed meeting.)
(On record at 2:40 p.m.)
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: It is now 2:40.
I'm Father Norman Elliott. Sam Towarak had to leave. We now
have testimony coming from a
Dazee (pronounced as short a and long e).
DAZEE: Dazee (pronounced
as short a, then long a), yes.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Dazee. If
you would please then state your name, and your occupation, and
proceed with your testimony.
DAZEE: Thank you. My name is Dazee.
I'm the Executive Director for the Bering Strait Economic Council,
Inc. I am the Project
Director for the Salmonberry Shop, which is an ANA grant, all
Native; and we have just gotten the Governor's Exporter of the
Year Award for our Eugene Omiak (ph.) Sourdough Factory, our
Sourdough Starter, which we ship all over the world.
I'm here
concerned on several issues, but I think my main issue is the
board members of this Commission are volatile, fighting,
neutralizing the strength of this Commission, because they can't
get their act together, as I understand it. I have just come
from another meeting, and I'm not at liberty to say where I heard
this, but it came from very informed sources. We out in the Bush
are usually the last to be taken care of, the last to have things
happen for us; and we don't need a Commission that's fighting
among themselves. We need a cohesive Commission that will help
us, will lobby for us, will give us the things that we need up
here; because all the time we hear:
"Oh, you're the Bush. You're too hard to
deliver to. You're this, you're that, whatever."
So what? If there's going to be
a Commission, then it needs to be what it's supposed to be. I
would like to see, once your findings
and your meetings are done, a plan -- an action plan that's published
and is shared with us in the Bush, so we know what you're going
to do; and then we want to benchmark you to see that you do it.
And I'm sure you'll try, and don't misunderstand me, and this
is nothing against your Executive Director, it's just we want
to see it really happen. We get these testimonies up here all
the time. It's nice; they pat us on the head; they go back to
wherever they are; and we don't get anything. That's one of my
positions.
Education in the Bush for our students is nothing
but social passing. A kid is in school; he doesn't read or write
well; he's
passed along; he's old -- too old to be in school; he's too big;
he's whatever; he's disruptive; so we're not going to educate
him; we' re going to pass him through. That's got to stop, and
it's got to stop from our school boards, because they allow it
to happen. We're very fortunate here in Nome. We have a superintendent
by the name of Bob Kenna (ph.) who's addressing our absentee
problem in a positive manner. I would like to see more of that
done. I would like to stop seeing the White ghettos in villages.
The teachers come in they live by themselves; they close the
gymnasiums on Tuesdays and Thursdays so they can play basketball.
The village can't go. That's wrong. Our village youth need as
much interaction on every level with our teachers; so, if they
decide to go to college, they don't come out, and they don't
know what do do; they aren't homesick; they understand the social
issues, how to act, how to behave, how to eat properly and be
comfortable in another environment, which is not always the case.
And I think, since our teachers are our first line to our youth,
that's part of their responsibility.
I'm also hoping that the
Commission will take some kind of stand on Native preference
in hire. Now I know that gets to be old
up here. I'm non-Native. I couldn't get a job when I lived in
Shishmaref. It was hard for me to get a job when I came in; but
you see these construction companies coming into our villages,
and they're constructing this, and they're constructing that,
and they're bringing their own crews, which they have a right,
via the Supreme Court, and I understand that. But there's got
to be some way that we can work with these employers to know
prior -- from training programs, to have people that are in the
villages be hired. We need that money in these villages. So I'm
hoping that the Commission will do something to work towards
that and help us in that area.
And then I'm hoping that the Park
Service -- please, gentlemen, don' t be mad (laughing) -- at
times, they have come into our
villages, and they' re much better now about their public meetings
and let us -- letting us know they're coming, etcetera; but there
was a time when perhaps that wasn't where they were; and I'd
just like to see that they're monitored to be sure that that
happens.
Like in Shishmaref, we have a piece of land five
miles wide. If you look towards the Bering Straits and to the
left
of the
village -- that's how I always do that -- it's five miles, and
we'd like to be able to get across it. We can't now. I guess
it's impossible -- that' s part of Viringe (ph.), is that --
you know the piece I'm talking about by the village, Ken? (Inaudible
response.) Well, if you look at the map, here is Shishmaref,
and he's all the pink, and then there's about a five-mile strip
on the le --
KEN: Oh, you're talking about that long, narrow
strip.
DAZEE: Yeah. And if we could get across that,
there's gravel and things, that a gravel-pit possibly could be
done.
But now
we're told that it's environmentally impossible, de da, de da,
de da, and so an economic development project is stymied.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Okay.
DAZEE: And that's all I have to say.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Well, thank you.
DAZEE: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
And --
DAZEE: Yes?
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Well, first of
all, I think I have to say something to you concerning your hearing
that the Commission
is fighting among themselves. And I think I can honestly tell
you we are not fighting. We do have differences of opinion on
some issues; but there's been no storming out of meetings, or
anything like that.
DAZEE: I don't think the Commission can afford
differences of opinion.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Oh, well --
DAZEE: I think
you guys should have one common goal and go towards it.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: That's -- the issue, perhaps, over which we are in disagreement
is just that -- how we go about the problem
-- not the -- nothing else. For example, there are some of us
on the Commission who feels the meetings, rather than being held
in Nome, Kotzebue, should be held in, we'll say, Shishmaref,
Unalakleet, Fort Yukon, Tanana, you name it. And others on the
Commission feel that it would be best to have them in Nome, Bethel,
and Kotzebue, and so there’s that area of difference. Now
that's the only area that I'm aware of, and we are having Commission
-- the Commission will meet again this week, and I don't know
of any -- we -- as I say, we've had some differences of opinion
on some of the rules that -- under which the Commission's going
to operate; but, certainly, not -- I couldn't use the word fighting.
And secondly, yes, we do - - in fact, none of us
would be on the Commission if we felt that we were simply going
to file a
report with Congress that would be printed, put in the official
records and forgotten. In fact, in Washington, D.C., we did talk
to Senator Inouye, who's --
DAZEE: Right, I know the Senator.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: -- really responsible for this, and he assured us that
action would be taken; because we said:
"We don't want to be on a Commission -- "
There
was one, I think, in '79, and you can read the report, and that's
about all you can do is just read the report. So I
want to assure you that I -- well, I personally would not be
on the Commission if I thought that, well, we're just going to
write a report, and get our names down in something, and then
go home.
Thirdly, it was brought up today about Native preference
in hiring, and we are aware of the disaster, you might say, in
a sense of
the Davis-Bacon Act.
DAZEE: Right.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: But, at the
same time, as one of the testifiers mentioned, it's understandable
that, because of the skills necessary
on many jobs, the contractor must bring in people --
DAZEE: We
understand that --
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: -- from outside.
DAZEE: --
as well, but there are many times when --
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
Yes.
DAZEE: -- they don't.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Yes.
DAZEE: More times than
not.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Yes, I can un -- yes, and
that's why -- so, you know, we are aware of that and looking
into it.
Now,
you're the first person that's mentioned the Park Service,
so (laughing) --
DAZEE: (Laughing.) Here I come, the ten-ton gorilla.
They sit wherever they want to; but I just hope we can make a
chair that
they want to sit in, so we can kind of maneuver them in once
in awhile.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Well, I think they’d
be happy to attend any meetings you'd like them to come to. DAZEE:
Oh, I
think so. There’s a better working relationship than there
was.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: That's grand. Now, of course,
I don't know anything about that strip of land you're talking
about from
Shishmaref;
but, as an example -- I mean I think that will help us to see
your -- to understand your point of view in that.
I -- you're
the first one that's mentioned the White ghettos, and I don't
know what the Commission can do about that, you know,
to be frank. I --
DAZEE: I think they're doing something about
in our region. I talked to Dave Dowling (ph.) -- is that the
guy's name from Unalakleet?
But he said it wouldn't happen. He promised.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
Uh-huh (affirmative). I think that's something that the village
must confront.
DAZEE: They're not confrontive
people.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: I don' t -- yeah, well --
DAZEE: They're not adversarial. They’re very
kind, very passionate, very gentle people.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
Yes.
DAZEE: And they accept a lot of things that you
and I wouldn't accept.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Uh-huh (affirmative).
But I think, at the same time, out of -- I've heard the testimony
today concerning
the teach-and what needs to be taught. Now, it would be
up to
the people themselves to present that, and so I'm just
using that --
DAZEE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: -- as an illustration
that perhaps the teachers themselves don't realize that there
is this
ghetto
situation; that that's just something that they do,
and that they might
be willing to rectify if they were made aware that
it is --
DAZEE: Well perhaps the Commission can help with
that.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Well, you've got it -- -
DAZEE:
I think that's what we want you guys to do. (Laughing).
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: We've got it down, and it certainly will be considered
because you have brought it
up.
DAZEE: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank
you for your time.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
And thank you for your time.
DAZEE: Oh, it's my pleasure. It's
what -- that's part of my job. Thank you.
MR. IRWIN: Mr. Chairman,
before we go off record, I -- there -- I'd like to enter
something into
testimony. This is on
education. It's from Loretta Muktoyuk,
who's originally from King Island,
now residing in Nome. And I just ask
your permission to add this to the record of
the hearing.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
Yes, but introduce yourself, Mike, so that --
MR. IRWIN: Oh,
this is Mike Irwin talking.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Did you want
to read that -- so -- for the
benefit of
those
present?
MR. IRWIN: Oh, okay.
(Reads testimony of Ms. Muktoyuk.)
(TESTIMONY OF LORETTA MUKTOYUK
ATTACHED AS EXHIBIT #4)
MR.
IRWIN: And, again, that's from Loretta Muktoyuk from
Nome, who
is too bashful
to come down. (Pause.)
REPORTER: Mr. Chairman,
are we off record at
this time?
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
We are off record.
(Off record.)
This document was ocr scanned. We have made every
attempt to keep the online document the same as the original,
including the recorder's original misspellings or typos.
