Sullivan Highlights Work to Advance Priorities of Alaska Native People at Annual AFN Convention

10.18.24

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA-U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), addressing the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) annual convention today, spoke about the progress that has been made to advance the interests of Alaska Native people at the federal level in the past year, and highlighted work he is doing with Alaska Native communities to address challenges facing rural Alaska, like the devastating crash of salmon runs in parts of the state, limited access to affordable housing, the youth mental health crisis, and the disturbingly high rates of drug overdose deaths driven by fentanyl.

Senator Sullivan discussed his work with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) to secure the renewal of Alaska whaling captains' quota at the recent International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Peru; a new Alaska Salmon Research Task Force report created by his 2022 legislation; his team's relentless efforts that led to a comprehensive ban on Russian seafood imports; and his efforts to address the Department of the Interior's dismal implementation of his 2019 legislation to deliver Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans the land allotments they are due.

Finally, Sen. Sullivan also emphasized the legacy of patriotism of Alaska Native people and the critical ongoing military build-up taking place across Alaska.

Below is a full transcript of Sen. Sullivan's remarks.

It's an honor for me to be here today. AFN is certainly one of the highlights of the year for me, and for my wife, Julie, who is here in the audience today. I always look to her for my strength. She's having a great time with her cousins and buying Christmas gifts for our family and friends.

By the way, we are always amazed by the incredible crafts and artwork on display throughout the convention hall. To all of our skilled artisans, I want you to know I've just introduced two new pieces of legislation that I worked with many of you on to protect your rights as Alaska Native artists-and the next generation-to continue the centuries-old practice of using natural materials, like walrus ivory and bird feathers, in your artwork.

That should be a no-brainer and we're going to try and get a law passed to make sure that happens.

I want to thank AFN leadership: Ana, Joe, and a big congratulations to Ben Mallott. We are excited about Ben's strong leadership and his great experience with AFN. Ben, we are 100% behind you and think you're going to do a great job here.

And, of course, I know Julie Kitka has gotten a lot of accolades, and she deserves every single one of them. On the Senate floor back in D.C., I regularly give a speech about a special Alaskan, who we call the "Alaskan of the Week." I try to get this every week. By the way-[there are] a lot of folks from our Alaska Native community who have been our "Alaskan of the Week."

So recently I gave a speech about Julie as our "Alaskan of the Week," about her great service, and in that speech, I usually love to brag about that person, that Alaskan. But Julie Kitka, always humble, stressed that the great successes of AFN throughout her tenure were accomplished because of partnerships with all of you. She actually said when we were writing the speech, "Nothing I did was ever done alone."

Partnership is such a great leadership model. So, Julie Kitka, one more time-thank you for your great leadership. You've done such a great job.

Alaska Travels

As I always do, my Julie and I spent this past summer traveling to many rural Alaska communities including Saint Paul, Kotzebue, we were up on the Yukon, we were in the Ahtna region, to Nuiqsut and Utqia?vik. As always, we learned so much in our roundtable discussions, especially from our elders.

We saw beautiful dancing. I tried to dance a little bit myself. That's always embarrassing. We ate delicious food, met new friends and reconnected with old ones. So, again, to everybody that we were with-and it was with a lot of folks that summer-thank you for the warm, wonderful hospitality that we experienced literally everywhere we went. It is such a blessing of our Native communities.

And as part of these travels, we were honored to attend Nalukataq in Utqia?vik.

It's magic when the whole community comes out to celebrate a cultural practice-subsistence whaling in this case-that Inupiat whalers have sustainably conducted for thousands of years.

International Whaling Commission Meeting

And this year, like six years ago, these same whaling captains were able to successfully renew-through very hard work-their quota at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Peru.

That is a big deal and deserves a round of applause. A really big deal. This has been a top priority of mine as your senator. As we know, success is never guaranteed at these International Whaling Commission meetings. The IWC has not always been a friend of our Alaska whaling captains. So before the big IWC meeting that was in Brazil in 2018 and in Peru this year, we all came together and put together a strategy with our whaling captains.

We met with the U.S. State Department and NOAA to ensure the United States, as a country, had a coordinated strategy to make sure our Alaska Native whaling captains were able to get their IWC quota. That was part of the strategy. Both in 2018 and this past year in 2024, I hosted a reception in the U.S. Capitol. Here's some photos from that.

The goal of this reception was to invite the ambassadors, particularly from the countries that have not been friends of Alaska Native whaling, because we need their votes at this international convention. So if you see here at this convention, at one point, both in 2018 and in 2024, I looked across the reception area and literally every whaling captain had a Latin American ambassador with their arm around him.

This is great lobbying on behalf of the IWC. And it worked! It worked because in Peru, just last month, our Alaska Whaling Eskimo Commission leaders were able to secure the first automatic quota renewal in IWC history. That is a giant triumph for Alaska Natives.

In that regard, I want to do a big shout-out to AEWC Chair John Hopson Jr., the dynamic father-son duo of Crawford Patkotak, vice chair of the AEWC, and Josiah Patkotak, his son, the mayor of the North Slope Borough, and so many others. They all made it happen again. The children of the North Slope will look back at what the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission has achieved in the last 6 years and they will be grateful for decades to come.

Salmon

These whaling quotas are the kind of successes we can achieve when we unite behind a common mission.

It's more challenging, but this is also the approach I'm taking-working with so many of you-to address our salmon crisis.

As you all know, we've had another banner year in terms of the strength certain salmon runs, like the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run. But in the Yukon and Kuskokwim and other Interior rivers throughout our state, the runs have once again crashed. Representative Peltola talked very passionately about this yesterday, and our congressional delegation has always worked together to focus on these very important issues.

I mentioned this to all of you before, but I'll do it again. Over three decades ago, I was introduced to what salmon means to Native culture and people through my amazing wife Julie and her family's fish camp near Hess Creek on the Yukon River. As a family, we have so many amazing memories and experiences at Julie's family's fish camp, particularly with our three daughters.

And I know so many people have the same memories, learning how to head and gut and strip and smoke salmon on the banks of the Yukon, learning about their culture, about sharing, about family, about working together, about their heritage. When the Kings are running on the Yukon, it's the most spiritual place in the world. When the fish aren't running, and when the smoke houses are empty, it feels like something is very wrong with the universe.

We experienced that feeling at Julie's family's fish camp this summer. We're all worried-desperately worried-that a whole generation of children will miss out on this vital experience. It is soul wrenching.

So here's what I'm working on with all of you and, of course, with our congressional delegation.

Alaskans can agree-we need to identify and address research prioritization gaps with comprehensive data and the best scientific minds, including Indigenous communities, to figure out the causes of these devastating salmon declines.

That's what my bill-the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act-does. This bill was passed into law. And here's what it does. It brings the best minds in the world-state, federal, university, Indigenous, tribal-to figure out what is happening. It includes a specific working group focused on the Yukon and Kuskokwim.

By the way, it probably doesn't surprise you, but this bill was my wife Julie's idea. And the Task Force report was just recently completed. This was required by the law. It's at my booth and if you want a copy, we would love for you guys to take a look at my booth here at AFN. I want to thank so many in our Alaska Native community who took part in this Task Force and the research and the hard work of this report.

This is what the Task Force recommends as we move forward. They call it "Gravel to Gravel," "G to G," which is a strategic approach that coordinates research where individual projects, regardless of whether they are led by state and federal, university, tribal or NGOs, will share information with other projects on what is happening to our salmon.

With this critically important report now completed, my team and I will be working with all of you to build a comprehensive, well-funded salmon research program at the federal level on the goal that we all share: Achieving greater abundance and stability in our salmon stocks all across Alaska.

Now, this won't happen overnight, but you have my commitment that we will continue to work our hearts out on getting our salmon back in our rivers for our children, and our children's children.

We have to get to the bottom of this and address it. I certainly am committed to working with all of you on this.

Another thing I know we can unite on in terms of a goal with regard to fisheries-which we're able to achieve recently-is making sure that Russia can no longer flood America's domestic markets with their cheap, unsustainable fish.

After a long battle with the Biden administration, I was able to finally get them to ban Russian fish from coming into our country. When the Russians tried to circumvent this ban by sending their fish through Communist China, we shut down that loophole too. This will help all of our coastal communities, many of which are Native communities, and our Alaska fishermen.

The Russian oligarchs say they're in a war with Alaska's fishermen. Well, we're finally fighting back.

This includes banning unsafe and often illegal Russian and Chinese trawlers who are likely contributing to depleting our own salmon runs here at home. I'm now pressing leaders from around the world-from Japan, to Canada, to Europe-to ban these fish.

The world should want Freedom Fish from Alaska, not Communist Fish from China or Russia!

Report on Children

Now I want to turn to an incredibly important theme this year: Our Children, Our Future Ancestors. I really want to thank the commissioners, like Gloria O'Neil and Don Gray, and all of those who worked on "The Way Forward: Report of the Alyce Spotted Bear & Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children."

To Gloria's point during that last session, we certainly want to follow up with the work Gloria and others did in that important report. We don't want to let that report go onto a shelf and collect dust. That report was spearheaded by legislation that Senator Murkowski wrote, that I co-sponsored. And, as Gloria and Don said, we know that the statistics are not great. As a matter of fact, they're horrible.

Too many Alaska Native children are experiencing poverty and abuse. Too many are in the juvenile justice system. Too many are experiencing mental health challenges.

There have been many reports throughout the decades on the well-being of Alaska Native people. Gloria mentioned that in her comments just a few minutes ago. 30 years ago, if you look at this report my mother-in-law, Mary Jane Fate, worked on-the 1994 report that was also mandated by federal legislation. When she testified before Congress, she stated:

"Today we find ourselves in a crisis situation. The outrageous school dropouts, high unemployment, hopelessness, and other tragic and sad endings such as the highest rates of suicides and accidents amongst our youth."

That was 30 years ago. The situation then was dire and still is if you look at the report that Gloria and Don just authored. But here's the thing. We cannot lose hope. This is our youth, and we must recognize that there has been progress in the last 30 years since that last report, particularly significant improvement in education, in life expectancy, and in rates of poverty.

So we must do more working together, and again, I want to thank Gloria and Don for their leadership.

Mental Health

One of the key issues in their report is resiliency. We need that, among all Alaskan kids, among all American kids. In that regard, mental health is key.

As outlined in "The Way Forward" report, 31 percent of Alaska Natives told researchers: "My mental health is poor most of the time or always." 21 percent of youth in the report said they had been bullied on social media or through texts.

I know social media can be a great positive for many, particularly for those who live in Rural Alaska. But as we're building out our historic broadband infrastructure in Rural Alaska, we need to understand that there is a very strong correlation between declining mental health and increasing social media use for all young Alaskans and for all young Americans.

I have been very focused on this issue and can report important progress back in D.C. A few months ago, the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act-of which I am an original cosponsor-passed the Senate with over 91 votes. "KOSA," as we call it, gives parents significantly more control over what their kids are allowed to see online and limits harmful and addictive content that kids are bombarded with online.

This is a good start, but we must do more to protect our children. We can have the strongest economy in the world, the best quality of life in the world, but none of that means anything if so many of our kids are depressed or considering ending their lives because of what they're consuming online. We have to get started on this important issue.

One Pill Can Kill

Another issue that I'm very focused on that relates to our youth-this is a huge one-is the deadly fentanyl crisis that's hit our state very hard, especially among our youth.

The new numbers for 2023 just recently came out. Take a look at these slides. These numbers are shocking! The number one cause of overdose deaths in Alaska-particularly among our young people-are fentanyl overdoses, up roughly 45% from just last year. By the way, in other areas across the country these numbers are dropping dramatically. But in our state, they are continuing to surge. To surge!

Alaska Natives account for 33% of drug overdose deaths from fentanyl last year. Our kids need to be educated about this lethal drug. That's why my team and I, working with schools and organizations across the state, have launched the "One Pill Can Kill" campaign.

What is it? It's educating our youth that even a tiny, tiny bit-look at how small that is on a pencil tip-a tiny bit of fentanyl can be lethal. They need to know the drugs they buy on the streets or from friends, including marijuana, can be laced with fentanyl and can kill you. They need to know that one pill can kill.

I would very much like to partner with AFN and other Native organizations across Alaska on this campaign. You can find information about it on my website and at my booth downstairs. But here's the bottom line: If we can save even one young Alaskan's life with this campaign, then it will be worth it.

Housing

Now, as you all know, raising healthy families with healthy children requires safe, affordable housing. Let's face it, in pretty much every part of Alaska, especially Rural Alaska, we don't have that.

Last August, I hosted the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Alaska. A number of you were there at our roundtable that was focused on the outrageously high cost of housing in rural Alaska.

The Secretary of HUD, she runs a big bureaucracy back in D.C. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for HUD's recommendations on how to reduce the federal red tape that is a part of the problem of the high cost of housing in Rural Alaska. But here's the deal. We shouldn't have to wait. We can do so much of this ourselves.

I've seen incredible innovation in housing during all of my travels throughout Rural Alaska. Last summer, Julie and I saw how Native leaders in Huslia and Hughes were building affordable, beautiful housing-just like in this photo-at much more competitive costs.

These great leaders in our state weren't waiting for the D.C. bureaucrats to give them permission to build. I'll never forget in 2018, when I was in Holy Cross, talking about housing with World War II veteran Luke Demientieff and his son Leonard, a Vietnam veteran. Both are master carpenters. Leonard shared with me some wise words from an elder who had been looking out at the vast expanse of an Alaskan forest. This elder said, "There's a house in the woods. You just have to go get it. You have to build it."

In other words, this community wasn't waiting for the federal government to act. They got a sawmill and they started building. That is the kind of can-do spirit we need as Alaskans to address this housing shortage.

Alaska Native Vietnam Veterans Allotments

I think a number of you know that in my AFN remarks, I like to always talk about-and I certainly don't have to remind all of you-about Alaska Native Veterans incredible patriotic history of military service to our country. Already this morning, I've seen several Alaska Native veterans. If you're a veteran or a family member of a veteran, could you please stand or raise your hand to be recognized by this audience?

You all know this, but it bears repeating: Generation after generation, Alaska Native people have served our country in the military at higher rates than any other ethnic group in America. That is what I call special patriotism, particularly when they were still facing shameful discrimination back home.

Alaska Vietnam veterans really got hit hard. They were serving their country when, let's face it, a lot of Americans were avoiding service. They came home, and because they were Vietnam Vets, many were treated disgracefully.

This happened to my good friend Bill Thomas who said one day he was fishing in Haines, the next day he was in bootcamp at Fort Lewis, and then sent to the jungles of Vietnam.

Nearly two years later, after his combat tour, Bill was flown to California, dazed, the smell of jungle still on his skin, fear still in his gut. On the way to being discharged, he had to drive past a group of protestors, yelling despicable things at him.

On top of that, Bill, like so many other Alaska Native Vietnam veterans missed the deadline to apply for their Native allotment-the one that they were legally entitled to but missed because they were serving their country in a war overseas. His story was not unique.

So working with many of you here-I see Benno Cleveland and others-I was able to pass my Vietnam Veterans Allotment Act in 2019 that righted this injustice. That is now the law. It gave our Alaska Native Vietnam veterans the ability to apply for a Native allotment.

Unfortunately, the implementation of this bill has been dismal, despite Secretary Haaland's commitment to me on making this a priority of hers.

In the past four years, the Department of Interior has only certified 38 Alaska Native Vietnam-era [Veteran] allotments out of the over 2,000 Alaska Native Vietnam veterans who were eligible for this. That's a disgrace and time is running out.

That's why I've introduced a new bill to extend the Alaska Native Vietnam Veterans Allotment Program for five more years, and importantly, to expand the lands available, particularly in Southeast, where we have such a high number of Vietnam veterans and where it's been very challenging for our Vietnam veterans to get land close to their home.

Here's the challenge on my bill, and I'm going to need AFN's help on this one: Every radical Lower 48 environmental group is going to come out and try to kill my bill. They don't want Alaska Natives to have their own land and they certainly don't want to honor our Vietnam veterans' heroic service. We all need to fight back against them. Our cause is just. Our cause is so very just on this bill.

I'm hoping that AFN and others-I've asked the Alaska Native Brotherhood, the Alaska Native Sisterhood-we can all work together and support my bill and continue to bring justice to our Alaska Native Vietnam veterans.

Vietnam Veterans Resolution

Finally, as it relates to our Vietnam veterans, like Bill Thomas and Benno and so many others, I was recently able to pass a Senate resolution-which, by the way, passed in the Senate unanimously-commending our Vietnam veterans for their courage and sacrifice. The resolution urges the President, on behalf of the Congress, to formally acknowledge the widespread mistreatment of our Vietnam veterans when they came back home.

It offers a long overdue apology, and it calls for increased education in our schools, for our children, to learn about and understand and respect the courage and sacrifice of these heroes during the Vietnam War.

Kake and Angoon

There is another apology that I want to mention. This one also relates to our military. I think many know that I deeply respect our military. Last February, I retired from the Marines Corps after 30 years of service.

But that doesn't mean our military is perfect. No organization is perfect.

I believe that in instances where our country has fallen short of our ideals and has harmed our own citizens, then an apology can be the right thing to do and it's an important gesture for reconciliation.

The egregious and unwarranted U.S. military assaults on the Alaska Native people of Kake and Angoon in the late 1800s is such a case.

When Dr. Rosita Worl brought these historic wrongs to my attention, and mentioned the Tlingit people's decades-long pursuit of recognition and an apology, I told my team in the Senate that we would work tirelessly with Alaska Native leaders to press this issue at the highest levels of the United States Navy and the Pentagon until these communities received an appropriate apology. That's what we were able to do.

Last month, some of you may have seen it, hopefully some of you were there, the U.S. Navy held a ceremony to present the apology in Kake-an official ceremony. There will be another ceremony in Angoon in a few days. Julie and I will be looking forward to attending.

I am hopeful that these recognition ceremonies will help provide healing and importantly, show our youth that our country is so strong that it can admit its mistakes to become even stronger.

Arctic and National Security

Finally, let me turn to an issue that I have heard about from so many of you in your communities and where I want to compliment our brave Alaska-based military.

We all know it's becoming an increasingly dangerous world. We are in a new era of authoritarian aggression with dictators in Beijing, Moscow, Iran and North Korea on the march and working together. As Alaskans, we are on the front lines of this new Cold War. We've seen this with dramatically increased joint Chinese and Russian patrols in the air and on the seas, near our shores and our skies. You've seen these photos-Chinese bombers, Russian subs, Russian fighters near our aircraft. Very aggressive. Our military here has done a great job of protecting our country, just like Alaska Natives have done over the decades.

Throughout history, our Alaska Native people have courageously served and defended our country. Think about it: the Alaska Territorial Guard, the Eskimo Scouts, the Tlingit code talkers. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the super high number of Alaska Natives who serve their country in uniform. I'm absolutely confident that with this strong legacy of patriotism and service and a continued build-up of our own military here in Alaska, which I am very focused on, we as a country and as a state will once again prevail over these authoritarian dictatorships.

Internships

So let me end with one final plea. It's related back to the theme of our youth and the theme of this conference. It's just a pitch from my office. We have a very robust internship program. Representative Peltola yesterday mentioned one young Alaska Native leader, Sam Hiratsuka, who started in my office as an intern. He rose in my office, then went to Mary's office, and just two days ago, was the youth speaker at the AFN Elders and Youth Conference. Sam is doing a great job and is showing the next generation of leaders how to lead.

So here's my pitch: We need more interns, Alaska Native interns. I have information at my booth, and I urge all of you to spread the word.

We need our Alaska Native people working on Native issues in all branches of our federal government. It's a great experience for them. They are the future, and we want to encourage that kind of service. With that, to the leadership of AFN, to Julie, and others, thank you again. My Julie and I are very honored to be here.

We always love coming to AFN. Thank you, everybody.

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