Enough with the commercial

I love watching the Olympics - especially when you get to see Phelps breeze through history. What I don't love watching is the ANCSA Regional Association commercial. It takes some historical strides backwards for Alaska Native people.

I am not in support of the Pebble Mine, but I also think that we tend to get into other region's business a bit too much. Alaskans hate it when the rest of the U.S. tries to assert its will on Alaska - but we do it within our own state frequently enough.

It is not the support or opposition that rankles so much. It is the selling out of Native values that really gets to me.

The first statement: "For Alaska Natives, protecting the environment has always been a priority."

In one sentence, the leaders of most of the ANCSA regional corporations took a giant leap into exactly what we fight against every day. Although I think that most Alaska Native cultural groups valued and respected the land itself historically, this cannot be a statement in which we hold our heads high in today. The ANCSA leaders here made a sweeping generalization not based on fact, but on the stereotypes we don't want non-Natives to buy into.

My grandparents take excellent care of the land. If they go into "nature," they tread lightly. When gathering subsistence, they don't take more than they need, or too much from one place. They recycle. They throw chemicals away correctly. They drive as little as possible. They truly respect the earth.

But to say that the corporations make the environment a priority is simply not true. A corporation that clears vast swaths of land for development, clearcuts miles of trees, blasts holes in the earth for mines absolutely does not have the environment in mind as a priority. Profit is a priority, and it certainly doesn't came anywhere near traditional values. I was in a talk once just for Native employees of corporations - how to navigate the seeming contrary values of Native culture and corporate culture.

The trouble with criticizing Native corporations is that many people will read what I am not saying into this. For any other corporation, profit is supposed to be the top priority. Can you imagine what Nike shareholders would say if Nike decided profit was not the top priority anymore? The corporations are just doing what they were set up by the U.S. government to do, and what shareholders prefer they do.

But taking corporate leaders and twisting them into cultural leaders is what is wrong with the picture. The message that "Alaska Natives take care of the land and therefore we're experts on whether this will be good for the earth or not" - it is dangerous and irresponsible.

The CEO's and leaders of Calista, Doyon, Bering Straights Native Corp., Koniag, Chugach, NANA, Arctic Slope Region Corp., CIRI and Ahtna can support or speak out against whatever initiative that could potentially hurt their corporation's financial interests. That is, after all, their jobs. There is certainly an argument to be made about profits and jobs hanging in the balance.

But back off the generalizing and playing into Native stereotypes. Our corporate leaders need to be honest with why and what they are doing.

In this case, they don't speak for me.

Real Native Myths and Legends, #2 - Native corporation dividends

The first of this series is a pretty easy one to answer. Do all Alaska Native people receive big checks from Native corporations?

In a word - no.

And I'd like to add, if this were true, the college loan office wouldn't be calling quite so much.

All the background about why these corporations exist in the first place is incredibly rich and complicated, and most Native people my age don't know half of the history, much less the general public. I took a semester long class on the subject, and we barely scratched the surface. But here's an attempt at boiling a huge, generations-long battle into a few sentences:

The 12 original regional corporations were created in 1971, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA.) The act is what it sounds like, the settlement of Alaska Native Land Claims, although that's a much tighter package to wrap it in than what it encompasses.

Every Alaska Native person born before the act was passed in 1971, and met the qualifying amount of Native blood, was eligible to apply as a corporation shareholder. All those born after the date (like yours truly) can not be original shareholders, and (until last year) could only receive shares through inheritance or gifts. The original funds were a legal exchange between Alaska Native people and the government, payment for land. The corporations invested in many different ways. Now, all the regional corporations - there are now 13 - as well as the dozens of village corporations, have different ways of distributing dividends, if they get one at all.

But I can gaurantee one thing - very, very few corporations are distributing big checks. And ALL of what any shareholder may receive is dependant on how the corporation operated during the year. If they invest well, the shareholders do well. If they do poorly, you see my point...

This is not an attempt to rehash what you might know, but it is an extremely common question, or assumption, about Native people and corporation checks.

Did I leave anything out?

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