Murkowksi on Indian Affairs Committee

Indian Country Today interviewed Sen. Lisa Murkowski about giving up the Senate Indian Affairs Committee for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee (and no Alaskan will need any explanation as to why THAT particular committee would be a prize for any Alaskan lawmaker.)

Now, as much as I really don't want to like this senator, I've got to say her activities regarding Native people, especially Alaska Native people, have been pretty interesting. Interesting in a good way.

I don't know that I'll ever get over the way she got her job (I'm going to have my dad appoint me as his replacement when he quits just to see if it works, too) but she actually has been PROactive in the Native arena. There are some places I wish she'd focus more, and certainly in issues NON-Native related I have much bigger problems with her. But in this particular area, I will give a grudging "B-" on the Writing Raven politician report card.

It's answers like the one below that make me wonder - it's a very politician answer, yet a politician who can "speak" Native policy will always make me take another look.

ICT: Do you worry at all that Alaska Natives will receive less attention as a result of your move?

Murkowski: I don’t believe that the interests of Alaska Natives will be diminished as a result of my decision to accept the ranking role on the energy committee. The Alaska Native community is a leader in self-determination and self governance. They share common interests with tribes around the country that contract and compact Indian programs.

You see, though the premise of the question is that Native people will suffer without her on the committee, she turns it around to say Alaska Native people are good at taking care of themselves, thank you very much.

Okay, the politic-y part of that is OF COURSE Alaska Native people will be politically better off if one of their elected officials is on the senate committee that addresses their issues directly. OF COURSE their will be some negative effect of not having that voice. But still, thanks for the thought.

CORRECTION: Don't know how I missed it, but Murkowski is still on the committee, just not the vice-chair. I'm hoping for some very good outcomes...

New Anchorage Daily News Village Blog

Hey, when did this start?

The Village

From the little blip about it on the side:

The Village is a Daily News blog about life and politics in rural Alaska. Its main author is ADN reporter Kyle Hopkins. Come here for breaking news on village issues, plus interviews, videos and photos. But that's just part of the story. We want to feature your pictures, videos and stories, too. Think of The Village as your bulletin board. E-mail us anything you’d like to share with the rest of Alaska -- your letters to the editor, the photos of your latest hunt or video of your latest potlatch. (We love video.)

Could be very cool... keep you updated.

Alaska Native Regional Corp. hosting Anchorage mayoral candidate forum

How do you know Natives are people just like everyone else?

Masek to plead guilty to conspiracy

Because a Native representative can be just as corrupt as the white/black/whatever guy next to him.

Or her, as it were.

All right, that's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but not a good day for Alaskans. In something like 72 hours, we've sentenced one and will be accepting a plea from another of the infamous "Corrupt Bastards Club."

For the fortunatley un-enlightened, the Corrupt Bastards Club was a name many of our fine republican lawmakers took on when they decided to take ridiculously small amounts of cash (I mean really, a couple thousand dollars for your soul? At least give us the respect of selling out the voters of this state for a bigger amount!) from the now defunct/renamed Veco.

Maybe there is some satisfaction in "getting justice" or something, but really, I'm so over the whole thing. I would MUCH rather we not have had these politicians come into power and wasted our time and money in the first place. From the Anchorage Daily News article:

Prosecutors wrote that they expect Masek to plead for a further reduction in her sentence, citing "alcoholism, financial and emotional distress, and/or situational depression due to her divorce..."

The guilty plea would be the sixth conviction of a lawmaker and the 11th overall obtained by the government in the FBI's massive investigation of corruption in Alaska.

But ah well, I hope somebody somewhere is learning a lesson here. I hope... Anyone?

Though it does look like Masek has taken a page from the Cowdery defense - show up with some ailments and you might just get six months at home instead of jail time.

For those that haven't followed the Alaskan political circus that has been our government the last several years, I guide you to this handy page from the Alaska Report. The front page of the Alaska Report keeps the tally, "Feds: 11, CBC 0." Many, many more to come. Other "unnamed" states may have the "quality" corruption of major craziness and the pinnacle of sleaziness right now, but what we lack in quality, we're sure making up for in quantity.

Ok, I'm trying to get over the tongue in cheek thing.

But I really am tired of the whole thing. This last one, I am really trying to see it as a loss for the Native community, but Masek never lifted a finger for Native interests, so I think it's just a loss for ... uh... hold on.

I'll get back to you on that one.

Really, I can at least point to this as an example of why you just don't take "any Native," or "any republican" or... for crying out loud, look at their resume at least! I don't vote for any person because of their race, or who they're married to, nor do I assume that because of that race or relationship, they will act in the interest of that people group. I have proudly supported Native candidates because of what they've done, and what they represent. I have proudly supported non-Native candidates for the same reason. This woman wasn't representing Native people, but the point is she wasn't representing anyone except herself.

Maybe my more cynically tinted point is, if corruption can reach anyone at any level, regardless of their race, can we also assume the reverse is true, and excellence, honor and pride can reach anyone at any level, regardless of their race?

I'm going to bed.

An interesting time for Native people

I was reading an article in the Arctic Sounder about the words of Byron Mallot, a well-respected Native leader in Alaska:

He’s an optimist, he said, who sees a future where Native and non-Native neighbors live side-by-side, have a sense of responsibility one to another and responsibility to oneself, differences are held up as strengths and where aboriginal people still live on the land.

I have been looking around with great interest in the last several months. There is a cautious optimism in many Native people, an optimism I haven't seen in my few years on this earth. Despite the continuation of life's troubles, I hear many Native people (and non-Native, I might add) talking about "what could be" instead of "what should have been."

I'm not sure if it's the projects I've been working on, or the articles I've been reading, but I'm going to "re-quote" an Indian Country Today editoral that really latched onto the feel of the now:

Like a freshly sober alcoholic who’s lived too long devoid of hope, I’m still waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me. But I’m fighting to suspend my disbelief and have some faith that change is on the horizon...

It’s often in the midst of the greatest crises that societies finally find the willpower to reinvent their institutions to better serve their people. With the collapse of the banking system and election of a president fully committed to this undertaking, we find ourselves in a once-in-a-generation political upheaval...

And it will be in this turmoil that Native people will be given a window when their voices may once again be heard, and heeded....

We should grab this opportunity and not let go until our roads are fixed, our hospitals are functioning as they should and our children are attending schools that are palaces.

While many will think of hope and change, maybe many Native people aren't *quite* there. "Possibility" is the word I can come up with. Hope might be a bit much, but hope is possible. Change is possible.

Can you feel it?

We SHOULD grab this opportunity - how many more can we possibly have?

_

Monegan article on Sexual Abuse

A MUST READ. Walt Monegan's article on sexual abuse in the Alaska Dispatch.

This is what needs to be talked about - solutions! The stats are bad, so what can we do about it?

From the article:

Too often the abused grow up to become victims or abusers and the ugly cycle of pain continues. Ignoring the violent realities our neighbors and children are faced with daily is not an option. We have the resources, both financially and intellectually, to protect victims of physical and sexual violence and yet few policymakers have dedicated the time and thoughtfulness to a realistic solution would require...

...Every major change in history began in one place with just a few dedicated individuals who believed in something larger than themselves.

I hope the other mayoral candidates will begin addressing issues like these, the "taboo" or just incredibly difficult issues to address. I've been wading in this stuff lately, in projects I am doing, at least with Alaska Native abuse, and the more you look, the more discouraging it can be. But imagine the impact of leadership at the local, state and national level giving these issues the thought and attention they deserve, not just hoping (meager) funding will do it - money isn't going to solve these problems, strategy and hard work is.

Crime and Traditional Punishment

Something I'd be interested to get others' opinion on - in perusing the ADN Newsreader, they highlighted this Canadian "sentencing circle" practice.

From the article:

The sentencing circle is about "community building," he says; it is about "healing" those affected by crime, and those who committed it. It is repairing relations; making victims and perpetrators "feel better" with the outcome of a criminal incident. It is also, he admits, a rebuff of the retributive, let-the-punishment-fit-the-crime philosophy that has guided Canadian justice since this country's founding.

This is an idea I've never been quite comfortable with - and the article even goes to lengths to describe victims and members of the community who are not comfortable with it. Our own brief example here in Alaska was the "banishment" to an island in Southeast several years back for those two young men. Or was it Washington? I don't recall the details - I was in high school I think - but I do remember thinking it was a strange concept.

Some of the problem of that case, from what I remember my grandmother talking about, was that the leadership was all askew. In traditional times, you wouldn't just select a person with a law background to decide - and in that case it was not a clan leader, or a group of Elders - it was a Native guy who also happened to be a judge.

Some of the problem is trying to smash tradition with modern society and expecting the same results as when the traditions were founded. The article says that the offender's chance of recommitting the crime is way, way down from the lock 'em up approach... yet it also talks about the pressure the victims feel to accept and forgive - I couldn't abide that in any form.

I can't speak with any authority on this subject, however, and what little I know comes from articles like this, and knowing how my own community, and culture, handled "justice." In that case, if the state justice system had not stepped in, the crimes would have continued to be committed (as they had before the state stepped in.) I don't think this is a unique characteristic of an Alaskan or strongly Alaska Native small town - I think it is the way we all are now. The objective law must step in.

But then, I am clearly basing mine more on the "personal experience" level, not always the most reliable. What was interesting is that there was also an article in the Juneau Empire today about needing reform in the prison system. There is strong evidence showing getting guys rehab means those people are much less likely to commit more crimes - as unpopular as prisoner rehab seems to be, I'd much rather pay for them to get rehabiliated than for the expense of their public defense and keeping them locked up for the next umpteen years.

At the same time, do I feel the same way about the person that has just committed the crime against me? For all the objectivity we try and project onto law, emotion is one strong motivator.

Clearly, the system we have now for prisoners is not working (and seems even more the case in Alaska.) I can't say I'm for going back to the traditional methods of dealing with these crimes, but I am for looking at a different approach. Locking them up and throwing away the key is not only not working - it is a drain on our community, our productivity, our economy.