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
Hannah Miller
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Albert Ningeulook? (Pause.)
Dazee? (Pause.) Let's see. Bertha Adsuna? (Pause.) Jacob Ahwinona?
(Pause.) Frieda Larsen? (Pause.) We'll get there. Hannah Miller?
(Pause.) (Laughing.)
MS. MILLER: (Indiscernible - away from microphone.)
(Laughing.) They were all here this morning, but --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Oh.
MS. MILLER: -- had to leave.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK:
Okay.
MS. MILLER: I'm Hannah Miller, and I was born in
Golovin, raised between Golovin and White Mountain, (indiscernible),
I
believe.
And I have always had a subsistence way of life ever since I
was a child. Therefore, my -- I was wondering if there was some
way that this Commission would -- could allow at least the senior
citizens of Alaska their subsistence way of life, without pressuring
with -- too much with all these regulations?
(Pause.)
I believe we know the problems up here about subsistence;
but I'd like to -- I want to make an -- one more plea for us,
because
when we are trying to make our own living, and you're on a set
income, and the source is right here, all it needs for us to
do is try and gather up as much of our food as possible; and
it's right here in our state, in our villages. But we are --
every time we try to help ourself with our own food, someone
comes along and says:
"You can't do that today."
And then if you
do get some, they'll say:
"You can't get that many."
And here we have a family to
feed and not too much money; and we are restricted to -- I
believe we are forced into poverty
this way. We can no longer help ourselves when we can and when
we need to. Is there some way that someone can do something
about this?
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: The subsistence question
is one of our higher priorities. What I was wanting for them
would
be maybe
your definition of either senior citizens or elders, --
MS. MILLER: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: -- knowing
full well that we're going to probably bump into that definition
and have to define
that. Then,
how -- if elders can't get their food and it's dependent
on other people, how would we go about doing that? Maybe
some
solutions
on defining the word senior citizen or elder, and also,
maybe, how do we take care of those people that are at home
and
can't provide for themselves?
MS. MILLER: This is where
the limits hurt, because I myself, when I'm fishing, I not
only fish for me and
my family,
I share with my neighbors that cannot go out. And this
past
year, they
have put on our little permits that we can fish for
an elder out --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay. Okay, so you --
MS. MILLER: -- get their permits. But --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK:
-- you would -- it would - - you could name the elder on the
permit, huh? On
a permit.
MS. MILLER: I don't know lust how they were going
to work that, but it did say that on the permit.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay, but that would be a
solution to some of the problem. Now,
h --
MS. MILLER: That would be one solution,
if they would allow us to fish.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Right.
MS. MILLER: But they don't allow us to fish in
our rivers now.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay. How 'bout the
definition of senior citizen?
MS. MILLER: That would be just like you define every other way,
you know.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay, using
the --
MS. MILLER: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: -- what do you call it? Longevity definition?
MS. MILLER: Probably.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: It would
be -- would define the
senior citizen. Those
that receive
longevity
are senior
citizens.
MS. MILLER: They are. They have to be.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay. Thank you, Hannah.
MS. MILLER: And the other was the problem of our children right
now, and this would go for subsistence, too. We
should -- maybe
we should go back to the natural way of closing fishing and
stuff. When we fish, we don't fish in bad weather, and sometimes
that's the only time the permits are open. If we did go back
to our own way of life -- subsistence way of life -- we would
strictly go by weather; and we would not over-harvest.
And
they say today fish are dwindling down because of more people
-- of more influx of people here, and which they fail
to note
is when I was growing up, we had a lot of dogs and a lot
more fish to catch. And I don't think having more people here
has
any affect on them, because we were catching a lot more fish
then than we are now.
And the times they give us to fish
sometimes are too late. Last two summers in our rivers, we
couldn't fish, because
they said
there were not enough fish; but there was a lot of pinks.
And we were still restricted on pinks in other rivers.
And the schools, I was really hit hard when they took school
-- prayers out of schools. We need to get back in tune
with God, I think, for all our problems, because federal
government,
state
government have done what they thought would work, and
those had never worked. I think we need to go back to the
church.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Hannah. I
think that area, probably more than other areas, has really
come close
to
the word subsistence and how it affects our region. So
thanks for
that testimony on subsistence.
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