Life in the Arctic

I love Government and law.   Let me add a few definitions first.

Enclave – isolated, foreign, separate areas.

Congress wrote into the US Constitution the authority to have such an area udner their sole and exclusive jurisdiction in Article 1, section 8, clause 17.   This section gave them power to create a federal enclave forthe seat of government and any other enclaves/districts necessary for federal purposes.

The US constitution (1788) begins with these words:  “We the people of the United States….”

From the very beginning of European contact the Indian tribes were recognized as independent sovereign nations.  This is why when the US Constitution was ratified in 1788, the phrase contained in its preamble, “We the people of the United States” did not include the Indians.  However, Indians are specifically mentioned within the Constitution, not as being part of the people of hte United States, but as people whom the US deals with as detached domestic nations.  There are three secitons with the US Constitution involving Indians.  (two sections were in the original document of hte Constitution and one was added, via an amendment, eighty years later.)

1.)  Article 1, Section 8, clause 3 – The Commerce Clause – Congress regulates trade with Indian Tribes.

2.)  Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 – The Treaty Clause – Regarding constitutional treat-making (not specific to Indian Treaties only)

3.)  The 14th Amendment (added in 1868) – “Indians not taxed”

(You should really know your history if you are going to be a leader or lawmker in the Federal Government, such as congress)

TREATIES:  There was a very specific method incorporated into the Constitution for negotiating formal contracts with foreign nations, which included the Indian Nations.  For almost a century the United States formally recognized Indian Tribes as among those capable of treaty-making.  At least three hundred and seventy treaties were made and ratified between the United States and the various Indian Tribes.  The first treaty was September 17, 1778, with the Delawares.  Treat-Making with Indian Nations continued for nearly one hundred years until it was officially stopped in 1871

The United States’ trust responsibility with Indian Tribes is based on actual historical events and commitments.

What is Tribal Sovereignty?  

Tribal Sovereignty is never individual and is not based on an individuals ethnicity.

This is an important concept in understanding PL 280 (and Indian Law in general).  Tribal sovereignty is the basis for a tribe’s political relationship with the United States.  A Tribe’s government-to-government relationship is not based on individual ethnicity.  Rather, it is based on the historical dealings of the United States government with sovereign tribal governments.   Tribal governments represent their communities who collectively share a form of government, culture, tradition and values.

If you chose to look further at USC Title 25, you will find all sorts of laws relating the US government and tribes, revealing the unique political status between the federal government and the Indians.

The special relationship between Indians and the Federal Government is a result….of solemn obligations which have been entered into by the United States Government.

Down through the years through written treaties and through formal and informal agreements, our government has made specific commitments to the Indian people.  For their part, the Indians have often surrendered claims to vast tracts of land and have accepted life on government reservations.  In exchange, the government has agreed to provide community services such as health, education and public safety; services which would presumable allow Indian communities to enjoy a standard of living comparable to that of other americans.

This goal, of course, has NEVER been achieved.  But the special relationship between the Indian tribes and the Federal Government which arises from these agreements continues to carry immense moral and legal force.   To terminate this relationship would be no more appropriate than to terminate the citizenship rights of any other American.

This special message to Congress by the 37th President recognized tribal sovereignty and the responsibility of government-to-government commitments.  He pointed out that just as the US government cannot haphazardly stop rights of US citizens that are spelled out in the US Constitution, neither would it be appropriate to cut off at will, legal obligations made with Indian Tribes.

Next time, we will talk about Trust Responsibility.

*Thank you to Understanding Justidication on Tribal Lands  – Alex Tortes and Cindy Pierce.

 

 

I could not say a lot of things because I was employed and appointed as a Judge but since that is gone for now, I can freely speak.

I was probably one of the lowest paid Manager/Director/administrator of the Tribe. I can tell you that I made $34 per hour for managing probably one of the most advanced Tribal Court in Alaska. You know I didn’t do it for the money but because it was and is my passion to see families thrive and succeed.  I managed 3 large grants and it was not because of my doing but it was the blessing of God because He is my Covenant and covering.

As Tribal Members, there is a big discrepancy in salaries/wages in the Tribe. If you are a friend of the Executive Director, you can make at least $20 more than my pay. As Tribal Members, you have every right to ask to look at the books of the Tribe. The reason we found out about the discrepancies in pay was back in November when confidential information got put on the Public drive. Not just pay scales but confidential Children’s matters.

One of our short term Executive Directors had mentioned that our Tribe needs to be federally audited because of discrepancies he saw. There was a bonus given to employees a couple of years ago after our long term Executive Director resigned.  The bonus given was based on years worked there for their benefit.  This bonus was not approve by then council members and it was questioned but because majority of the council worked for the Tribe, it did not go anywhere.

I fear for the financial stability of our Tribe.    Who can help, who can intervene when you have an Executive Director with 2 contempt charges from the Court, as well as the Tribal Council members.

I was threatened by a Tribal Council Member when the first contempt charge was delivered to this council person whom I will call ___, she told the Tribal Court staff “doe-doe can shove it up her ass” and “I will find a way to get her fired”.    She succeeded because she sits in authority as a Tribal Council member.  She has two contempt charges and still makes decisions for the tribe like the rest of the council.

 

 

Sovereignty = exercising independent and self-governing power, status or authority.

There, if you are in a Tribe and they are recognized by the Federal Government as a sovereign tribe, you have the power to exercise independence and you have the self governing power, status or authority.

There is a lot of history when our visitors landed in the east coast to the time of PL280 being enacted.

So, a lot of our leaders say this without understanding the history and the why we are here today.  “but, we are in a PL280 state”.

The termination period, which PL280 resulted from, was actually a continuation of the federal policy of assimilation.  The termination period where the federal government (kind of like what Hitler was doing to the Jews).

This policy of assimilation was to put natives in reservations, boarding schools and the allotment act were just natural results of the US government’s assimilation policy toward Native Americans.

Because of the post World War II era and the US was starting to feel the impact, of course, the monies and resources were necessarily diverted to the war effort, but there were other factors that affected the Indian Reorganization Act’s development because of the war.   As seen in the previous war, Native Americans were quick to defend their homeland.  Now US citizens (since 1924), Native Americans would fall under the draft requirements, yet many enlisted prior to being drafted.

Did you know that the scale of Native American enlistment during World War II was greater as a percentage of their total number than any other ethnic group…..yet they are not represented at any national monument in Washington DC.

There is more historical numbers to that.

Did you know that there are more than 370 ratified treaties that the US Government has with American Indians?

It must be noted that PL280 , in and of itself is NOT a termination statute.  It specifically provided for the protection of lands, including water rights, belonging to any Indian or Indian tribe, held in trust by the United States.  Additionally, it protected federal treaty, agreement or statute rights and provided for incorporation of tribal ordinances or customs into civil causes of action involving Indians in Indian country.   PL280 did not eliminate concurrent tribal jurisdictional authority.

Even the Federal Government and the State government has a difficult time deciphering this new Law PL280 because there are so many gaps.

Another key issue is, if the State Regulates, then they cannot enforce, ie, if the State regulates gaming, then they cannot enforce.

Some of the information gathered from our “Understanding Jurisdiction on Tribal Lands and PL280”.    Our leaders were invited to participate.

 

 

 

TAKING CONTROL: Eben Hopson gets an Education
7 November 2011 at 09:58

Eben Hopson Gets An Education

Early on a late summer day in the mid – 1930’s, a determined teen-aged boy packed his duffel bag, stepped out of his house, and marched resolutely down to the Chukchi Sea. Of all the Barrow students ready to venture off to high school, young Eben Hopson was the first to arrive on the beach. He had completed his elementary education and was now ready to advance on to high school.

In those days, education in Barrow and across the North Slope was funded and controlled by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. Classes in Arctic schools went no further than the eighth grade. Any student desiring a high school education had to travel, by ship, to BIA boarding schools far from their home shores.

Unfortunately, only a few students ever got the opportunity to attend high school at all. Each year the North Star, a BIA ship, would travel all along the Alaskan coast and up and down the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. The ship would drop anchor at Native villages along the way, bringing in doctors and nurses who would set up temporary medical clinics. When it came time for the North Star to leave a village, local high school students would be taken on board for the long and exciting trip to boarding schools at White Mountain or Eklutna. There was room for only a few students from each region to make the trip, and to board at the schools.

It was up to BIA educators to determine who, among all the Native youth of Rural Alaska, would have the opportunity to attend high school. Only the best, the brightest, and the most ambitious of all the village students would ever be selected.

As the story has been handed down, among the Barrow students of that year, there was none better, none brighter, and none more ambitious than the young Eben Hopson. He had studied hard, scored high grades, and had been active in student affairs. He had earned himself a berth on the North Star, and a desk in the BIA high school at Eklutna.

Yet, strangely, when the other students began to arrive at the beach, they dropped the excited chatter and laughter which had followed them there, and fell silent. Standing in awkward positions, Eben’s fellow students and friends exchanged quick, nervous, glances among themselves.

During the previous school year, young Eben had been active in civic affairs. He had taken a strong stand on an issue important to him.

He had made some enemies in high places.

The principal at the BIA school had thought it would be nice to have wooden sidewalks built between the homes of himself and his staff to the school. To accomplish this, he put Eben and his classmates to work constructed the sidewalks. For their labor, the students were to be paid nothing.

Eben protested. There were many families in Barrow who had little money, the student activist argued. The heads of these families should be paid a fair wage to build these sidewalks. Using unpaid student labor was unfair. Eben Hopson’s protestations were shunted aside.

The only thing to do, the youth decided, was to write a letter to the BIA school superintendent in Juneau. Here, Eben faced another problem. Outgoing letters were to be placed in a bag, which just happened to be under the care of the principal. Eben was quite convinced that if he dropped his letter in the mail bag, where it could sit for days before being picked up, the principal would read it. It would never get to Juneau. Eben would be in even more trouble.

He waited until the very last moment, when the mail carrier came to pick up the bag. Just as the carrier was about to pull the bag shut, Eben rushed in, and dropped his letter in. As the story goes, a dismayed principal witnessed this act, but, what could he do? He could not stop the mail, pull out the letter, and read it in front of everybody.

As a result of Eben’s letter, the principal soon found himself with some explaining to do.

Still, he would have his revenge. It was he who would make the final decision as to what Barrow students would be allowed to go on to high school. Despite Eben Hopson’s good academic record, and his strong desire to go to high school, Eben was struck from the list. “As far as I know,” Eben’s older brother, Eddie, recalls, “the principal thought he’d better keep Eben from getting more education. Eben was a good prospect to become a leader. With a little more education, he could be dangerous.”

Eben Hopson would not go to high school.

Everyone in town knew it. Eben knew it. His classmates knew it.

That is why, when they met on the beach to wait for the small boat which would take them to the North Star, the students were so quiet.

Even so, Eben had resolved that when the boat came, he would he ready to go. Eben was not allowed to board. As the boat returned to the ship, Eben held his place on the beach, waiting with his duffel bag.
People passing by suggested he give up, and go home.

“No,” he insisted, “they will send the boat back for me.”

Eventually, the North Star weighed anchor, and departed from Barrow waters.

Still, Eben Hopson held his ground.

“Why don’t you go home?” passers by asked.

“No,” Eben replied, “it will come back for me.”

Finally, Charlie Brower came by. Charlie thought that Eben had suffered a raw deal, and he sympathized with him. Still, he told the boy, “you’ve done all you can do. Now, why don’t you go home, and get on with your life?” Eben refused to leave the beach. Many hours later, after the late night sun had finally dropped from the sky and disappeared behind the Arctic Ocean, Eben Hopson, a boy who would never attend high school, picked up his duffel bag, and walked slowly home.

Much later in his life, a friend of Eben’s recalls him making the following statement: “There will be no child on the North Slope of Alaska who will be denied the opportunity to go to school.”

(Special thanks To Edward Hopson, Flossie Hopson, and Jon Buchholdt for their help in putting together the pieces of this story.)

TAKING CONTROL – a book to read and should be in our NSBSD Curriculum.

Did you know that?

While NPR-4 was created in 1923, there was no effort made to explore the huge reserve for oil or gas until World War II.  By then our Navy had established a small research facility near Point Barrow. Associated exploratory drilling led to the discovery of natural gas in 1949 and the south Barrow Gas Field began its development.  Gas was used to heat such Federal Facilities as the hospital, the BIA School, and the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, but we local people were not permitted to connect to gas to heat our homes.

It was a long, frustrating 12 year struggle to get permission to hook our homes in Barrow to gas mains that crisscrossed Barrow through our back yards. Although it sounds incredible today, the Navy was absolutely implacable (siqquqsima) in its refusal to let us use our own natural gas to heat our homes, and it took us twelve full years to get approval for us to connect to gas. It took a special congressional authorization in 1963 to sell us our gas for $0.50 per million cubic feet, a very high price at the time, one intended to force us to help amortize (akiililaaq) the Navy’s gas field development costs.

Our leaders then had to fight for that.  I remember my dad used to turn off our heat at times during the winter months to conserve the stove oil for colder nights.

I translated for the NSB IHLC many years ago and this was the word I would often hear from our elders “Ivayaqtuqtit” – those who come and take advantage of others.    The elders were talking about industry and those who approved the permitting of them to do so.

I remember some of the promises given by industry and the federal government when our elders back then were asking questions.   “We will not leave a footprint”; “we will restore it back to how it was”….some of the many promises.   What do you think?   What would our then elders say today?   If they took off from Kaktovik and flew to Barrow on a clear night.   It’s all lights until you land in Barrow.   All those gravel pads in the middle of the tundra, there are no rigs on them now but the gravel pads are there.   The many roads that lead to no where but to abandoned sites.

No one holds industry accountable.   No one looks back at the permits to see if what was needed to be done is finished when leaving a drill site.    Can we ask the NSB Planning Department and get a clear answer?   How many abandoned gravel pads do we have?   It has changed our landscape.    Are they environmentally clean?    Were the Traditional Land Use Inventory information used for permitting?

How much money has the State of Alaska made from leases?   Leasing what was not theirs?   There was a 99 year lease with the Federal Government for reindeer herders from Point Hope to the Canadian Border.   During the time of this lease, the State of Alaska started leasing to industry on top of the already existing lease?   What would that be called today?  Where was the Federal Government’s “Trust Responsibility”?

I saw many of our elders crying because their family graves that spread from Barrow eastward all the way to Kaktovik were being disturbed.   No one listened.   Let us remember the Traditional Land Use Inventories collected early in the creation of our Municipal Government from those elders.   These should be part of our school curriculum.

Let us remember that it was the Federal Government that told these families that lived from Barrow to the Canadian Border to move to a larger settlement for the sake of “Education”…..was it really education?   Or was it to take their homes for the sake of oil?     Who are the real “Ivayaqtuqtit”?

 

 

 

 

 

Iļatchiq – to know to do something right but failing to do it; being complacent; not caring to do what is right.

When we were younger, our parents would always tell us not to iļatchiq.

For instance, if something needed to be picked up and put in the trash can, pick it up and put it in the trash can. Or, if you see the dishes needing to be done, do them without being told. To help someone that was in need, help them, without them asking.

The teachings we received from our parents and our elders should follow us to the workforce and to our governments. If we utilize every tool that has been taught to us by our elders, we should be thriving at home and at work. To be a blessing to our people.

One way is not to iļatchiq. Do not iļatchiq when someone is doing wrong especially morally and ethically. There is another work that our elders used, it is alġaqsruq, to correct in a loving way so that there is no offense. If that alġaqsruq doesn’t work, then there is a correction that needs to happen, because it has become a choice to keep doing even though the alġaqsruq has taken place and that correction is not pretty.

We have become a people that just iļatchiq a lot. We just wait for someone to fix or correct the problem. We are complacent, we procrastinate. Is it because we are afraid of reciprocation, retaliation or being the minority to do what is right. Do we think we should stick with those who we think are popular and that we might get popular or don’t want to hurt other peoples feelings? While at the same time we know they might be doing wrong? Knowing that and doing nothing about it makes us just as guilty.

I remember elder men would get together and talk about the morality, the ethical behavior and they would come to the consensus to a plan on approaching the individual as a group of elders to fix that problem. We don’t have those people in our lives anymore.

We need to ask each of ourselves, what am I leaving my grandkids with? What about their grandkids? Your grandkids and their grandkids?