December Report 2004
The ANILCA Conference was pretty informative. The Institute of the North, which was founded by Governor Hickel, put it on. Most of the people that attended were agency people, National Park Service (NSP) and United States Forest Service (USFS). Most of issues that were brought up were how to interpret ANILCA.
Al Kookesh, State Senator from Angoon, one of the presenters talking from a native perspective on ANLCA, gave reasons why it was passed after the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act (ANSCA) and discussed some of the problems that led up to the Feds taking away the States rights to manage Fish and Game on Federal lands in Alaska. He also talked about natives dealing with Washington D.C. now instead of State of Alaska when there are problems to be solved.
One of the issues I stated to the group while at the conference was our (NSB Planning Office) inability to get information from the State Fish and Game Offices because of a “confidentiality clause” that would help us manage transporters activity more affectively in Unit 23. Tina Cunning from Alaska Fish and Game, one of the main ANILCA presenters at the conference, said that they are now requiring transporters to register with the State and that we should be able to get all the information about them in terms of numbers, except individual names and addresses.
The consultant group Tryck Nyman Hayes (TNH) that was hired by the Army Corps of Engineers is coming along real well with their study of several sites in the Kivalina area. We have been to several meetings in recent weeks where TNH has presented to the community of Kivalina and it seems that the community is starting to realize that there is a lot of information to go over about the sites before all the interested parties including Kivalina people can make a good decision on what would be a suitable site to move to.
As you all know, Kivalina was hit pretty hard by a big storm on October 21st of this year. This has turned the moving issue into an emergency situation. John Isaacs of TNH talks about how this new development might make the 10-year schedule much shorter then expected.
We have also noted that there is some misunderstanding in some factions of the Kivalina leadership in that they believe that Kivalina will make the decision themselves when it comes to selecting a site. Simply put Tom Bolen says that, “It will take an attitude of partnership to move this project along. No one group can do it alone.” We have noticed that agencies and consultants are partially responsible for this attitude. Many times we have seen them speak to Kivalina people like it was there decision alone.
In a meeting on October 27th with the Army Corps of Engineers and other State Agencies in Anchorage the “lead agency” issue was brought up. In our inner staff discussions here at the borough we have discussed the idea of being the lead agency and will request funding to design and plan the relocation process following ordinances approved by Kivalina City, Tribe and NAB Assembly.