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
List
| PDF Version
ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
HEARING
Nome, ALASKA
SEPTEMBER 21, 1992
Deposition Exhibit
#3 - Testimony of Gary Longley, Sr.
September 21, 1992
Mike Irwin, Executive Director
Alaska Natives Commission
4000 Old Seward Highway
Suite 100
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Dear Mike :
I would like to take this opportunity
to testify before the Alaska Natives Commission on Federal and
State programs and policies
affecting Alaska Natives.
I know that you know my background,
but just to help the Commission understand where I am coming
from, I would like to state that
I have over thirty years experience working for the BIA as the
Nome Agency Superintendent, the State of Alaska as a Local Government
Specialist, Alaska Area Native Health Service as the Chief of
the Office of Native Affairs, at Kawerak Inc. as President and
a long time Board member, and as Executive Director of Bering
Straits Native Corporation in addition to working at several
other lessor positions elsewhere. This experience makes me qualified
to speak on Native matters with some accuracy and knowledge.
Three of the top priorities as far as Alaska Natives
are concerned have to be as follows:
1. SUBSISTENCE -This will
probably show up statewide as the top priority. An understanding
needs to be reached which is acceptable
to the Native population, the State of Alaska, and the Federal
government. I believe that the main group which can facilitate
this "agreement" as far as the Federal government is
concerned is the Alaska Natives Commission. The State and the
Native population is at an impasse and perhaps your group can
get this issue moved off of dead center.
2. HOUSING -Safe, sanitary
and adequate housing to me is the second priority and will also
rate very high on a statewide basis.
I would like to recommend
that you secure a copy of two studies that were recently published.
The first one is BUILDING THE FUTURE:
A BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE which was issued in 1992 and is the final
report of the National Commission on American Indian, Alaska
Native, and Native Hawaiian Housing. The second publication which
I am sure that you are fully aware of, is the 1988 Rural Housing
Needs Assessment Study issued by the Department of Community
and Regional Affairs, State of Alaska. We really don't care who
does the building of the houses as long as they are safe, sanitary
and of adequate size to accommodate the rising Native population.
I personally believe that BIA and the Regional Housing Authorities
both should be involved due to the fact that Natives are in different
financial statuses, BIA does not charge for their houses. The
Regional Housing Authorities do. Not all mutual help homeowners
can afford the payments, so there is a definite need to consider
low income rental projects, which I have not seen yet in Rural
Alaska.
Perhaps another method of paying for the homes
would be "sweat
equity" which also has not been practiced in Alaska to date.
My understanding of this procedure is that a person could get
credit for as much as $30,000 or roughly 30% of the cost of a
decent home in Alaska by working on their own home as basically
a down payment and then pay the balance off over a period of
time.
3. EMPLOYMENT -This is a very general area and
several other needs are an integral part including securing the
education
and/or
vocational training to be in a position to qualify for higher
paying jobs. Presuming the above houses are stick built, carpenter,
plumbing and electrical training plus LABOR would fit in quite
nicely.
Obviously the previously listed needs are not all
inclusive. I would venture to state that health (including alcohol
abuse)
would also rate quite high. Another high priority item would
be Federal and State recognition of Tribal Sovereignty. I realize
that this process is fairly well understood on the Federal level
but we need help in getting the State people to recognize this
status. Perhaps the way to at least get this studied on the State
level is to establish a commission on a process for recognizing
various levels of local government so that perhaps a "new" type
of entity could become eligible for State Revenue Sharing (for
instance) without quite so many strings attached. Several months
ago, I was asked to submit my name and a brief resume to the
State DCRA to be considered for a Commission of this type but
there apparently was no follow-up.
There are many other priorities
that Native people will have statewide but I believe that the
ones that I have mentioned will
make the top ten list.
Hopefully your Commission will help
to bring about some of the changes needed in a timely manner.
I am sure that you are
well
aware of the strong movement that is taking place in Northern
Alaska on the possibility of breaking off and forming a new
State. This is not a new idea, Fred Hotti brought this up
at an AFN
Board meeting back in 1971 or 72 and several people laughed
at him. Little did we know!!!!
Thank you for the opportunity
to testify before the Alaska Natives Commission. We look forward
to seeing the results
of this study and recommended specific actions that will
be presented to Congress.
Respectfully yours,
GARY LONGLEY, SR., retired
P.O. Box 1051
Nome, Alaska 93762
Telephone: (907) 443-5715
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.
