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invested in the implimentation of THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE COVENANTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS, THE CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE

CRIME OF GENOCIDE, and THE DECLARATION ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN, (copy enclosed)

Thank You,

Mary Ann Mills

Mary Ann Mills

TESTIMONY OF BART K. GARBER

INDIVIDUALLY AND FOR THE NATIVE VILLAGE OF TYONEK

My name is Bart Garber. I am member of the Native Village of Tyonek and a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund. My remarks today are my own, and where attributed, those of the Native Village of Tyonek for whom I serve as a member of the tribal council, and not those of our village clients around the state. Some of my comments concern activity which began while I served as assistant professor and director of Alaska Native Programs at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

My comments address the AFN Report on the Status of Alaska Natives: A Call for Action and fall into two areas of concern: 1. The need to develop an accurate and complete record before attempting any significant policy changes in Alaska Native programs; and 2. The need to remain sensitive to the needs of the Native population resident in Alaska Villages when balancing their interests against those of Natives who move away. Creating a Record

The AFN Report is a useful starting point to "open a broad debate" on the issues related to the status of Alaska Natives and our communities. Admittedly, the AFN Report does not constitute the final or complete word on the conditions in which Native people find themselves. This Committee should continue to hold hearings and make use of other more workable forums to address proposed changes in Native program policies. Most people would agree that these debates should focus on the policy options and not the verifiable facts. Cooperation should be the hallmark of any fact finding process. Federal, state, tribal and private organizations and informed

individuals should contribute where possible in the effort to accurately portray the status of Native people and our communities.

Native organizations and those which serve Natives tend to develop tunnel vision due to the nature of our missions, funding, or institutional philosophies. For example, most ANCSA corporation executives necessarily focused on the bottom line these past 18 years. Village based tribal and municipal officials concern themselves with local matters like clean water, emergency health care, and public safety. Educators at the secondary and university levels rarely know what happens to students once out their doors. Upon reflection, I believe our collective experiences will reveal a multitude of nuances and correlations which could be critical to any Native program policy debates.

A ripe opportunity to supplement our Native program policy data base approaches in the form of the 1990 United States Decennial Census. For the first time, one out of two households in rural will be asked to respond to census questionnaires versus the one in six in the past. Done well, the 1990 census could result in the most representative demographic profile of Alaska Native yet produced. Standard and special tabulations of this data will be invaluable in assessing the objective situation of Alaska Natives in areas such as age and sex, households and families, marital status. fertility and mortality, migration, education, labor force participation occupation, and income and poverty. Indeed, what we believe is the first comprehensive monograph of the demographic history of Alaska Natives just now nears completion.

Dr. Michael Levin, a small populations demographer at the Bureau of Census and I, with the help of the State of Alaska, the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Bureau, have worked for over

a year to complete a near final draft monograph which is presently being reviewed. The monograph covers demographic change among Alaska Natives from the first decennial census of Alaska in 1880 to the most recent 1980 census. The monograph is intended to provide a broad overview of the demographic, social and economic situation of Alaska Natives in Alaska rather than a detailed analysis of any one issue or community.

Data from the 1990 census can easily be incorporated into and compared with the data in the historical monograph. Special tabulations of more particular indicators and intra-census surveys, such as for subsistence activities (data on subsistence are collected in territories and possessions but not in states), would contribute even more information critical to matters before your committee.

Village Residents and Their Communities

The AFN Report includes preliminary findings and recommendations based upon research by the Institute of Social and Economic Research. The Native Village of Tyonek concurs with some of the particular and some of the broader observations but beg to differ with other critical inferences which could be drawn from the findings and recommendations. Although the number of Natives residing in urban areas continues to increase, a majority of Alaska Natives will remain in the villages. This is our experience and one which will require a continued emphasis on the needs of Natives residing in villages. We differ with the broader inference the AFN study gives credence to--that but for the plethora of government assistance in rural areas, Natives would be moving to urban areas in droves and that village economies are buoyed by an artificially high level of federal and state aid which in the long run is not "sustainable."

We know there are more substantial personal, family and cultural reasons why Natives remain in their communities or desire to do so. Second, the level of state and federal aid to communities should not be the main criteria for determining which economies are "sustainable" and by extension where most people should live. Based on these criteria, the Committee could be forced to expand its mission and consider why every urban and rural community in Alaska, with the exception of the North Slope, Kenai/Nikiski, and Tyonek/Beluga (communities with petroleum resources), should not relocate to Los Angeles. In a state where both the federal and state governments have opted to retain, and properly so, large blocks of public land, redistribution of government proceeds from those properties to local communities has been and will continue to be a fact of life.

We agree that much work remains to facilitate self-help in villages and to improve mechanisms for rural Natives, their families and communities to influence and guide social and economic changes in their communities. This will require significant adjustments in present policy. For example, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act emphasized a settlement scheme based on individual rights and "the right to travel." Since its passage, demographic trends together with the fact that the Native corporations are largely controlled by a diminishing number of Natives who happened to be alive in 1971 has left land use and tenure decisions in the hands of Natives who more and more live outside the village. Realignment of land ownership in the villages and a renewed emphasis on local regulation must be supported by federal policy.

Native residents of rural villages demand more flexibility in

determining the appropriate relationship between tribal governments and ANCSA corporations. We have embarked on cooperative plans for economic

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