ICYMI: Murkowski Addresses Alaska Federation of Natives Convention

10.26.26

ICYMI: Murkowski Addresses Alaska Federation of Natives Convention

Anchorage, Alaska- U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, addressed the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) at their annual convention in Anchorage, Alaska. The AFN Convention serves as the principal forum and voice for the Alaska Native community in addressing critical issues of public policy and government. This year's theme is "Rooted in Land and Tradition, Rising in Our Voices."

Watch the full remarks here.

Senator Murkowski Speech Transcript - Remarks as Delivered

"Thank you to the Board, to Ben, and to the staff. Thank you for the opportunity to be back at AFN yet again. It's always, always, always good to be here. I always feel smarter after AFN. Maybe it's because I'm surrounded by the elders who guide us all. It was so great to sit and listen to the wisdom of Rosita Worl this morning.

"Rosita is the one who taught me, and who continues to remind me, to honor my adopted Tlingit name, Aan shaawátk'i, meaning "Lady of the Land." And she holds me to that, and that's a good thing.

"But it is also right to be here this morning to recognize our honored and treasured veterans who have served, and to witness the completion of some of the well-earned benefits that those Alaska Native veterans deserve, with the final satisfaction of allotments. We appreciate Assistant Secretary Kirkland being here with us this morning.

"But we're looking at the backdrop here in front of us, behind us. Sixty years ago - it was 60 years ago that Alaska Native leaders came together because they knew that they were stronger when they stood together. They came from different regions. They spoke different languages. They faced different challenges. But they were united. They were united around the lands and the traditions that had sustained their people for generations and generations.

"And leaders like Marlene Johnson of Hoonah, who we lost just this past year - we miss them. But there are those who are still with us, still sharing their wisdom: Sam Kito and Emil Notti who we heard from earlier in the week; Willie Hensley; I see Roy Huhndorf back there. They came together. They spoke with one voice, and they changed Alaska.

"Your theme that you see reflected, 'Rooted in Land and Tradition and Rising in Our Voices,' really captures both that history and where we are today. Across thousands of miles and distinct cultures, those roots are alive in your languages, ceremonies, and practices-from the ?u.éex' of Southeast, to Kivgiq and Nalukataq in the Arctic, to yuraq in Western Alaska as you're carrying your knowledge and your traditions forward, bearing the obligations to care for one another and to leave something better for future generations.

"And we've seen that strength. We've seen that strength for 60 years now at AFN.

"We lost one of those leaders, my friend Joel Jackson. Joel was a man who was so identified with his community. For more than 35 years, he led the Organized Village of Kake, including eight years as Tribal President, and he fought for his community. He fought for the strongest. He spoke up for the murdered and missing Indigenous peoples. He helped lead the long, long effort for acknowledgment of the Navy's bombardment of Kake.

"And I was so honored, truly honored, to stand with him on his ancestors' land to witness that historic apology just a couple of years ago. And that was important because it wasn't just Kake he helped - he helped deliver that apology to the people of Wrangell and the people of Angoon that was so long outstanding.

"But Joel also stood for our fish as well. He was alarmed by the decline of our salmon. He pushed for action, especially on trolling and wasteful bycatch, and he did so not only with the sense of urgency that the situation demands, but with the thoughtfulness and the respect that all Alaskans deserve.

"There's a lot of debate about bycatch nowadays. You hear it all, and in fairness, we should welcome that debate. We should also remember, as Joel did, that our people and our communities come first. They must come first.

"And while there's no easy answer, no one answer on this, we can work together without demonizing others to figure this out and to bring our fish back.

"Sixty years gives us a chance to recognize those who brought us here and to talk honestly about where we go next. And we heard that challenge from Dr. Worl this morning.

"I reflect a lot about those who gave much to me, the elders with their wisdom. And I still count as a friend a beautiful man who is no longer with us, Sidney Huntington, a very strong elder from the Interior.

"Sidney was a trapper. He fished. He built boats, and he helped build Galena's schools. He had a third-grade education, but he became one of Alaska's strongest advocates for education. He was an unwavering champion for young people.

"On one of my trips to Galena, we flew into the airport there and got off the plane, and here's Sidney sitting outside on a little bench. And he was waiting for me. He was waiting because he knew I was going to be doing my little meet-and-greet. He wanted a piece of my time to share with me his views on what was important in education. What was I going to be doing for the children, not only in Galena, but all over Alaska.

"He was always ready to give me advice. He believed young people had a responsibility to listen to elders, and elders had a responsibility to share what they knew and to tell the truth.

"Sidney knew that elders are the ultimate 'social influencers.' He was kind of one of the originals, I guess. And, you know, I think about, okay, if I got off that plane and Sidney was still there, sitting on that bench, what kind of wisdom would he want to impart on me? And I kind of think he would say, 'Lisa, you need to give those kids some Auntie advice.' My auntie advice is to tell them to get off their phones and get outside.

"But we know that guidance, that knowledge from our elders, saves lives. And their respect for land, for traditions, for one another, can help heal and help communities adapt to dramatic economic, technological, demographic, and environmental change."

"So we have just recently passed the one-year mark since ex-Typhoon Halong devastated Western Alaska. And I was downstairs last year, again just about this time, and I was talking to some young people from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok at Elders and Youth. At that time, they didn't know the impact on their communities. They didn't know if they had communities to return to. They didn't know if they had a home to go to.

"That's where we were just last year. And that storm scattered those families from Kipnuk and so many other communities. It scattered families here to Anchorage, out to Bethel, up in the Mat-Su Valley, and beyond.

"Now, when you think about the loss, the loss of the house is certainly one thing, but the loss of your community, the loss of your subsistence foods - this has been so devastating for so many.

"Government can do many things to help, but the truly meaningful connections come through us as people, being there for one another.

"I was looking out the window here earlier, and one of the requests that we heard when I visited with many of the Halong families and some of the board from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok -they were commenting that some of the things they missed most were the things that come with spring, like being able to gather seagull eggs and to eat that food that they so identified with.

"And you look around, and there are seagulls all over the place here. We said there must be a way, there must be a way to help them gather during the spring.

"Long story short, we were able to deliver a couple hundred seagull eggs that were plucked from the tops of these buildings that you see out here. It's not exactly beautiful nesting grounds, but the fact of the matter is, we were able to get eggs to families so that they could taste that taste of home a little bit.

"And then in May, at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, there were seven high school graduates who had been displaced from Kipnuk and Kwig, and they gathered in reunion. They held a rose ceremony where the graduates thanked those who had carried them through. Tanqik "Dunn" Igkurak from Kwig made sure that each graduate had a cake to take home, just as they would have had were they in the village.

"And so it's those simple things where, again, you're making that small connection. Those students graduated far from home, and now their families and their communities are deciding what home will look like in the years ahead.

"Tribal leaders, including Kipnuk Tribal Administrator Rayna Paul, have had to keep their communities together while navigating a disaster system that is ill-suited to rural Alaska. They're weighing relocation sites, land ownership, subsistence access, infrastructure, and above all, whether the next generation can live somewhere safe, to just know that their families will be safe.

"We face many of the same questions, and that's why, immediately after the storm, your delegation joined together to press for a federal disaster declaration and needed resources.

"And that's why this spring, as the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, I held field hearings in both Anchorage and Bethel so that you could tell me what was working and, more importantly, what was not working.

"At those hearings, we heard from Lucy Martin of Kwigillingok. She described the terror of her home breaking loose from its foundation and floating in the dark floodwaters.

"And we heard very clearly that the relocation programs are fragmented, that disaster assistance does not fit rural Alaska, and that communities need to be consulted before decisions are made for them. And it's so important to underscore that.

"But this is truly what rising in our voices means. It means Native communities having the power not only to share what they have experienced, but to shape what happens next.

"And we are seeing progress. That's what's happening in Allakaket, where residents are helping to design a water system that fits their community. We're seeing it in the tribal health system, where Alaska Native students are preparing to become that next generation of providers, and also through culturally grounded work being done by CITC, by Tlingit & Haida, and so many more.

"So last year, the crisis as we gathered was Halong. This year, it's energy and high prices.

"It is wrong. It is wrong that fuel prices are so high. For six months now, I have voted to respond responsibly to the war in Iran, which drove the prices up, and is the key to bringing them down.

"We know that high fuel prices are a threat to everyone, urban and rural alike, from Wasilla to Wrangell. I get it. It is hard to buy groceries. It is hard to fill up your fuel tanks. It is hard to run snow machines or to engage in subsistence hunting. It's hard to run a business.

"I fear that many Alaskans will struggle to keep warm this winter as they make a choice between keeping warm and buying food. And this is not right.

"We've seen some pretty historic efforts, really heroic efforts. James Stevens - he pushed to get fuel to Akta - what he did to try to make sure that they had fuel delivered before winter.

"But again, what is happening. What is happening in your communities, what is happening to your families - it is not right.

"And I recognize that even when prices eventually go back down - which they will - many, many of you, many of us in Alaska, are still going to be paying far more for our energy than most of the rest of the country. So there is so much that we need to do in this space.

"We can push for greater federal assistance, and you know that I do that, whether it's LIHEAP or weatherization. We're going to hear some encouraging news from the Department of Energy with regards to grants.

"But my goal, my goal is to help every one of our communities bring down energy prices and bring them down for good. And the solutions are going to look different from community to community, region to region. And it's not easy. It's not. That's our reality.

"But we must work together to meet this challenge, or our communities will not thrive and will not be healthy.

"This week at Elders and Youth, there was some very important discussion about mental health, about bullying in schools, bullying online, and about suicide, as too many continue to lose hope and to take their own lives as well.

"I was really pleased to see the very powerful resolution that passed earlier this week, and it's why I'm encouraged by Alakanuk's plan to address Native wellness and suicide prevention with federal grant support.

"Young people-it's the young people who will shape the response, with traditional teachings alongside counseling, crisis care, and Calricaraq. I really need to work on my languages, but it is the holistic wellness curriculum. But it's good. What they're doing there is solid.

"And then earlier this week, I had an opportunity - and again, I just get goosebumps when I think about these young people. I was joined by two outstanding Alaska Native young leaders, Moses Wiseman and Taylor Higgins, and they were presenting. We were all presenting. We were at the National Congress of American Indians conference. It was down in California. There were thousands of people there, and in front of these tribal leaders and these advocates, these two strong young Alaska Native leaders shared their perspectives on the impact of Typhoon Halong, the importance of language revitalization, the importance of mental health services, housing - all of it.

"I was so proud of them. Those two young people, along with two others - they got a standing ovation from this massive audience for speaking from their hearts as young people and talking about how they can make a difference for others.

"On Saturday, Moses and Taylor will be here at AFN for a panel on the next 60 years. So I'm just so proud of them. They're making a difference for their communities. They're helping to shape the future of the next generation.

"And you should all, when you see them, give them an attaboy, an attagirl, because they are making a difference for all of us.

"But it's listening to our young people. That's how my team and I, in Washington, D.C., and here in Alaska, worked to build and draft our Native Children's Commission Implementation Act.

"This is legislation that you heard Ben talking about earlier, AFN's priority, or one of your significant priorities, focused on the health and well-being of Native children around the country.

"One of the titles in that bill would increase direct Tribal set-asides and expand Tribal self-governance for behavioral health programs. That would allow Tribes like Alukanuk to build a single behavioral-health program instead of piecing together several different federal grants.

"So what we did is we listened. We took years to listen. We were traveling all over the state, traveling all over the country, listening to young people.

"Our bill is guided by the commission's findings: that culture heals and builds resilience, that community control is the key, and that holistic programming better serves our families.

"And this is important. This is important because we have seen, we have seen what happens when government does the opposite, when it separates children from their families, from their communities, from their languages, and from their culture.

"And for generations, unfortunately, that was the policy here in the United States. Native children were taken from their homes. They were sent to boarding schools designed to strip away their identity and assimilate them into another culture.

"This year, another Alaska Native story came full circle at Carlisle.

"Nyché Andrew was an intern for me on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee last year. She's now a researcher at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and she has been helping to find descendants of those students who died at the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania.

"She was going through the archives, and she recognized the tavlugun, which is a traditional chin tattoo. She recognized it in a student photograph and discovered a relative of hers who had died there 125 years ago. And they traced her back to her family. Then she and her mother traveled to Carlisle to guide Tummassak back home to Shishmaref.

"Sometimes things happen in your life, and you're not really quite sure how or why we were placed in the same spot at the same time.

"I was coming back to Alaska from Washington, D.C., and I was in the Seattle airport waiting to board the airplane. A woman comes up to me, and she says, 'You don't know me, but you know my daughter, Nyché. She was an intern for you.'

"And I said, 'Yes, wonderful.'

"And she shared with me that she and Nyché were bringing Tummassak back home. She reached into her bag, and she said, 'I want you to have this keepsake.'

"And she gave me a little beaded keepsake around an antler horn, with a forget-me-not in the center of it.

"Included with this was a little note that she had printed up, and it says:

"'Returning home to Shishmaref after 129 years. Tummassak was just 12 when she was taken from the Teller Alaska reindeer station. She arrived at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on November 14, 1897, and she was only 15 when she passed away from tuberculosis on April 8, 1900. This precious keepsake, made in honor of Alaska's state flower, the forget-me-not, on a reindeer antler.'

"We will never forget Tummassak. We will never forget those who were separated from our families. We will always remember, and we will put our work toward those efforts.

"And that's exactly why I've been working for as many years as I have to advance legislation to address the legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies, because healing requires truth.

"I'll tell you that history also is a reminder of why your voices matter in shaping the decisions that affect your communities and your state.

"More than a century ago, William Paul, a young Tlingit man, was also sent to Carlisle. While he was there, he learned the printing press. He brought that to your home, and he used the printed word, the law, and the Alaska Native Brotherhood to fight for land, for civil rights, and for the vote.

"And in 1924, he became the first Alaska Native elected to the territorial legislature.

"An institution that was intended to weaken Native identity gave William Paul a tool that he carried home, and he turned it toward strengthening Native political representation.

"But having rights on paper is not enough if people cannot exercise them.

"I believe our elections must be secure. Now, I've supported requiring identification to vote. I think we get that. But I cannot support the so-called SAVE Act as it's written because of the barriers that it would create for Alaskans, particularly in our rural communities, where we're seeing many of our tribes working to provide increasingly secure ID cards, including REAL ID-compliant cards, which is great.

"But even those IDs may not necessarily count as documentary proof of citizenship under the bill.

"For an Alaska Native voter in a community off the road system, getting these documents could mean significant additional cost and travel delays. And we do not need new barriers for lawful voters who are American citizens. We need less confusion. We need fewer obstacles to voting.

"For me, saving America starts with preserving your right to vote.

"I don't see Michelle sitting down here, but I was listening carefully to all of her efforts, and I want to thank Michelle and Get Out the Native Vote. They're doing a good, strong job here.

"She has traveled across the state, reminding people of the power that they have when they show up and cast their votes.

"You've also got the Youth at the Booth program, getting 16- and 17-year-olds involved at polling places. This is how you build the next generation of engaged citizens and leaders.

"But we also need to make sure that the mechanics of voting work in rural Alaska.

"I was thinking about Ivalu Blanchett. She was trying to get to Nunapitchuk on primary day to go help elders and other voters, but her flight was canceled. When she called home that morning, she found out that the polling place had not even opened, and it wasn't going to be until about five o'clock before people there could actually vote.

"But I also think about how, earlier this year, 75 absentee in-person ballots from rural Alaska arrived after the certification deadline because of mail delays, even though the voters did everything right. And stuff happens.

"So we have to be attuned to this, because where you live should not determine whether your voice is heard and whether your vote is counted.

"Know that I am pushing to preserve your right to vote. But you - you are the one with the power of the vote. You are the one that needs to get out and exercise that and go vote.

"And you heard it from Michelle: making it easy. Here in Anchorage, you can go across the street at City Hall, Midtown Mall. If you're in the Valley, you can go to the Menards Sports Center in Wasilla or the Mat-Su Borough building in Palmer.

"There's information everywhere. It's all around you, downstairs at my booth. But don't, don't fail to have your vote count.

"When I think about rising in our voices, I think about the people I've heard across Alaska this year: long-term survivors, the tribal leaders in Bethel and Anchorage, when I met with the folks at TCC at the Nenana Health and Wellness Center - exciting what they've got coming there - dancers and language speakers at Celebration in Juneau, leaders working for Native children.

"And at one of those gatherings in D.C. earlier this year, I was very honored to be gifted a name from the Mandan tribe of North Dakota. They gifted me the name Hó I´i?´he which means "strong voice."

"And I thought about that name when I met with tribal leaders in the Lower 48 this week, and I thought about it in Greenland, where I was just last week, when I met with the Inuit people, who are now facing many of the same transitions that you have in years past.

"And I am immensely proud of the respect from Indigenous peoples around the world. But that is only the case because of what I have received from so many of you during my time here at AFN, in your communities, and with all of you.

"You have helped me grow. You have helped me understand that having a strong voice carries a responsibility. It means making sure that the voices of the people that you represent are heard where the decisions are being made.

"And that is the responsibility that I carry with me as I represent you. That is why I work with you to protect our fish, to lower our energy costs, to be ready for the storms that we know are coming.

"And that's why I will continue to work with Alyce Spotted Bear, Walter Soboleff, and so many Native leaders before us and today, to make sure that every Alaskan community has a voice in its future, and every child has the opportunity to grow up strong, supported, connected to their culture, and deeply rooted in who they are.

"Gunalchéesh. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you yet again."

Note: This is a rough transcript of the speech and may contain minor deviations from Senator Murkowski's exact words.

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