Fish in Rivers, Game in the Woods: But Not to Eat Congressional Briefing to Address Changes in Alaskan Natives’ Legal Rights to Food

Washington, D.C. —Alaska Native Chiefs and hunter/fishermen are speaking in Washington D.C. March 6, 2013 at the Congressional Visitor’s Center. The 5:30PM briefing will address traditional hunting and fishing rights critical to families across the state. The Briefing will take place in Theatre South. Speakers will address the ongoing legal morass and harassment endured by the Koyukon and Gwich’in of the Yukon Flats, along with all Alaska Natives when trying to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities as their people have for countless generations. Conflicting federal and state legal frameworks and lack of recognition of indigenous rights have left all Alaska Natives without recourse for the criminalization of their hunting, fishing, and gathering practices in their traditional hunting and fishing grounds. Traditional and customary hunting, fishing, gathering, and sharing, often referred to as ‘subsistence’, is the single most important issue facing Alaska Natives as named by the delegates of the 2011 Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. Over 30 cases have flooded the courts in the last two decades relating to Alaska Native hunting, fishing, & gathering rights, exemplifying the need for a resolution to this critical issue facing Alaska today. Compiled in a new report released by Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments and the Alliance for a Just Society, “Survival Denied: Stories from Alaska Native Families Living in a Broken System” details the urgent need for the people of the Yukon Flats, along with all Alaska Natives, to have food security, a meaningful co-management relationship with state and federal agencies. The Alaska Federations of Natives (AFN) Board of Directors unanimously endorsed the Council of Athbascan Tribal Governments’ joint report on the impact resource management and regulations have on the lives of traditional Alaska Natives. Community members are traveling from remote villages in Alaska to Washington DC to make an urgent call to action. They are calling on congress to take concrete steps to advance Native sovereignty in Alaska, protect the political and human rights of Alaska Natives, and ensure cultural preservation of these first Americans. Specific policy recommendations are outlined in the report, Survival Denied. The report will be available to the press on March 5, 2013. Please contact Rahul Gupta for a PDF. A dinner and reception at the National Museum of the American Indian will be hosted by the visiting Alaska Native Delegation to celebrate indigenous foods. Thursday, March 7, 2013 from 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM. The museum is located at Fourth Street and Independence Ave. S.W., Washington DC 20560.