PERSONHOOD, DISCOURSE, EMOTION, AND ENVIRONMENT
IN A TLINGIT VILLAGE
by
KATHRYN ANNE FULTON
A DISSERTATION
Presented to the Department of Anthropology
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
March 2008
11
University of Oregon Graduate School
Confirmation of Approval and Acceptance of Dissertation prepared by:
Kathryn Fulton
Title:
"Personhood, discourse, emotion, and environment in a Tlingit village"
This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Anthropology by:
Carol Silverman, Co-Chairperson, Anthropology
Philip Young, Co-Chairperson, Anthropology
Madonna Moss, Member, Anthropology
Michael Hibbard, Outside Member, Planning Public Policy & Mgmt
and Richard Linton, Vice President for Research and Graduate StudieslDean of the
Graduate School for the University of Oregon.
March 22, 2008
Original approval signatures are on file with the Graduate School and the University of
Oregon Libraries.
© 2008 Kathryn Anne Fulton
111
IV
An Abstract of the Dissertation of
Kathryn A Fulton for the degree of
in the Department of Anthropology to be taken
Doctor of Philosophy
March 2008
Title: PERSONHOOD, DISCOURSE, EMOTION, AND ENVIRONMENT IN A
TLINGIT VILLAGE
Approved:
Dr. Carol Silverman
Approved:
Dr. Phil Young
This dissertation observes ways of speaking about environment and community in
Kake, a Native Tlingit village on KupreanofIsland in Southeast Alaska. The study
investigates the functions and values of legal/regulatory and economic linguistic
resources that travel through time and space, linking Kake to other sites, regional,
national, and international. In light of increasing environmental issues world wide, the
study examines how legal and regulatory processes influence beliefs about community
and environment as a whole. Within the dissertation are case studies to show how local,
day-to-day, community and environment-related narratives interact with state discourses.
The study asks how words and stories in everyday conversations express and interpret the
extent to which local Kake people feel emotion and responsibility for their forest and
marine environment and each other. In addition, the study asks how people communicate
their narratives about place, community, and work to government representatives, who
converse using their own specialized language, narrative, and discourse rules. How, in
turn, do local groups interpret and react to law-making and regulatory narratives? In the
vcontext of social attributes that help communities focus on sustainable livelihood
strategies and the importance of environmental integrity, the study assesses what types of
information get left out of discourses between local island people and state
representatives. Communicating with "official" government agency personnel in public
hearings, through documents, and in reaction to state decisions, influences changes in
local words, stories and perceptions about people and place. The discursive and
ideological adjustments that result can enhance or detract from local narratives that
socialize moral codes and attachment to community and environment.
CURRICULUM VITAE
NAME OF AUTHOR: Kathryn Anne Fulton
PLACE OF BIRTH: Weizer, Idaho
GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:
University of Oregon
Wichita State University
The University of the South
Washington State University
DEGREES AWARDED:
Doctor ofPhilosophy in Anthropology, 2008, University of Oregon
Master of Arts in Anthropology, 1999, Wichita State University
Bachelor ofArts in Communications, 1981, Washington State University
AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:
Human environmental relationships
The culture of environmental policy
Tlingit peoples and other indigenous groups
Fisheries, forestry, and agriculture
Narrative discourse
VI
VB
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Faculty Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Colby College, Maine,
2005-2006
Stem Teaching Fellow, Department ofAnthropology, University of Oregon,
Eugene,
2004-2005
Seminar leader, Neskowin School, Oregon,
2005
Adjunct Instructor, Southwestern Oregon Community College, Oregon.
2004
Seminar Leader, Community Forum, Alaska,
2004
Seminar Leader, Community Forum, Alaska,
2003
September Experience Instructor, Department of Anthropology, University of
Oregon, Eugene,
2002-2003
Adjunct Instructor, Lane Community College, Oregon,
2000 and 2003
Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department ofAnthropology, University of Oregon,
Eugene,
2000-2005
Adjunct Instructor, Cowley County Community College Department of English,
Kansas,
1997-1999
GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS:
Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy
Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Alternate Award. 2005-2006.
Stem Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon Department of Anthropology.
2004-2005.
V111
Community Forestry Research Fellowship: Ford Foundation fellowship.
administered by the University of California Berkeley for dissertation field
research. 2003-2005.
Center on Diversity and Community Research Fellowship.
University of Oregon. 2002.
Stephen L. Wasby Dissertation Research Grant. University of Oregon Graduate
School. 2002.
Graduate Student Research Award. University of Oregon. 2002.
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Award, Wichita State University. 1998.
PUBLICATIONS:
Fulton, Kathryn. (2005) When Legal Proceduralism Confuses the Values of
Leadership: 'Official' and 'Unofficial' Law in a Tlingit Community. The
Journal ofLegal Pluralism and Unofficial Law. School ofLaw, University
ofBirmingham, UK.
Fulton, Kathryn. (2004) When Legal Proceduralism Confuses the Values of
Leadership: 'Official' and 'Unofficial' Law in a Tlingit Village. Papers of
the XIV International Congress of the Commission ofFolk Law and Legal
Pluralism: Law, Plural Society and Social Cohesion.
Fulton, Kathryn. (1992) No Show Tonight. Petersburg, Alaska: Pilot Press.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Carol Silverman, a wonderful mentor and excellent
teacher. I also want to thank Dr. Phil Young, whose knowledge about people and the
environment is always inspiring. Thank you to Dr. Madonna Moss, who helped me
immensely to improve this document, and Dr. Michael Hibbard, who gave a great deal of
his time to enhance economic circumstances in Kake, Alaska. I also want to acknowledge
my great appreciation for the support of Dr. Diane Baxter and Dr. Susan Hardwick.
I am truly grateful to all of the people of Kake, who helped me learn about life on
Kupreanof Island, and all of the people in Petersburg, Alaska, who helped me learn about
life on Mitkof Island. Thank you to Loretta and Charlie Gregory, who welcomed me and
gave me a place to sleep, Georgie Reese and all of the Wise Women, who taught me to
bead, Dawn Jackson, who gave her valuable time and energy to help with the project, and
Stu, Donna, Dina, Mike, Edna, Gary, and so many others in the village.
My appreciation extends to the Ford Foundation Community Forestry Research
Fellowship project, which funded the fieldwork for this study but more importantly
provided education about the importance of participant action research. Thank you to the
Center on Diversity and Community Research, which gave me the support I needed to
start fieldwork.
xI dedicate this work to Topsy (Charles) Johnson, a patient and generous teacher, who truly
cares about the people in his village. Wherever you are, I hope you approve. I dedicate this
work to Bill, Guy, and Chad, who inspire me and give me hope.
Xl
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. INTRODUCTION: LEARNING FROM PEOPLE WHO LEARN FROM BEARS 1
II. THE "TOWN WHERE NO ONE SLEEPS" 32
III. LAW AND DECISION-MAKING ENTITES 54
IV. ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND THEORIES 76
V. EMOTION AND LEARNING 85
VI. PERSONHOOD AND SPIRITUALITy....... 113
VII. KAKE TRANSLATORS........................................................................................... 130
VIII. FISH STREAM RESTORATION 178
IX. ROAD BUILDING AND COMMUNITY.. 199
X. TIME, WORK, AND COMMUNITy.................... 243
XI. LAND USE PERCEPTIONS 276
XII. SPACE AND PLACE IN BOROUGH DISCOURSES 304
XIII. PERSONHOOD IN BOROUGH DISCOURSES.. 323
XIV. POWER IN BOROUGH DISCOURSES 357
XV. FISH-AS-FOOD 385
XVI. FISH NARRATIVES 404
XVII. FISH TO SELL 418
XVIII. CONCLUSION: WAYS OF THINKING, WAYS OF TALKING.......................... 454
APPENDICES 464
A. STANDARD FIELDWORK INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 464
B. TLINGIT LEGAL ENTITIES 466
C. U.S. STATE AND CORPORATE LEGAL ENTITIES IN KAKE 470
D. SATP GOALS AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES 474
E. ANSWERS TO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1 AND 2 476
Chapter
Xll
Page
F. GOVERNOR'S SATP SUPPORT LETTER 502
G. ADOT E-MAIL CORRESPONDENCE 503
H. ADOT NOTES AND RECORDS OF KAKE PUBLIC HEARING 504
I. NORTHERN PANHANDLE STUDY ENDED 506
J. NORTHERN PANHANDLE STUDY PARTIAL DESCRIPTION OF KAKE . 507
K.DAY-TO-DAYKAKETALKABOUTTHEROAD 512
L. TEXT OF SENATE CONNCURRENT RESOLUTION 12..................................... 521
M. SENATOR WILKIN'S 2004 SPEECH 523
N. ALBC CHAIRMAN HARGRAVE'S 2004 SPEECH 526
O. ANGOON TESTIMONY IN RESPONSE TO SCR 12 528
P. SELECTION FROM LBC 2005 REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE 530
Q. CITY OF KAKE 2003 LETTER TO LBC 536
R. KAKE TRIBAL CORPORATION 2003 LETTER TO LBC 538
S. KAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT 2003 LETTER TO LBC VIA KAKE CITY................ 539
T. OVK 1998 LETTER TO LBC 542
U. OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC 543
V. ATTACHMENT A OF OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC 545
W. ATTACHMENT B OF OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC 549
X. ATTACHMENT C OF OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC 551
Y. KAKE MAYOR'S 2003 SPEECH TO KUPREANOF 553
Z. HOONAH'S 2006 BOROUGH PROPOSAL 561
AA. SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF LEGISLATORS 564
BE. KAKE TAX AND INCOME DATA 566
CC. ULMAR AND KNAPP RESEARCH SUNIMARY 567
DD. ULMAR AND KNAPP COOPERATION, RESPECT, SHARING ANALYSIS.. 571
EE. BEDFORD 2005 TESTIMONY TO HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES 574
FF. BEDFORD COOPERATION, RESPECT, SHARING ANALYSIS 585
GG.ABRIEF TIMELINE OF EURO-AMERICAN CONTACT 588
Xlll
Chapter Page
REFERENCES 592
XIV
LIST OF MAPS
Map Page
1. Map ofKake from the DOT Northern Panhandle Study............................... 53
2. Map ofDOT Marine Transportation Utility Corridors 274
3. Map ofDOT Ultimate Regional Highway Development Plan 275
xv
LIST OF TABLES
T~k P~e
12A. Wilkin. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 313
12B. Hargraves. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 313
12C. LBC report. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 314
12D. Hoonah. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 315
12E. City ofKake. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment..... 316
12F. Kake shool. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 317
120. OVK. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 318
12H. Kake mayor. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment 319
14A. Wilkin. Articulation of power 366
14B. Hargraves. Articulation ofpower 366
14C. LBC report. Articulation ofpower 367
14D. Hoonah. Articulation ofpower 368
14E. City of Kake. Articulation of power 369
14F. Kake school. Articulation of power 370
140. OVK. Articulation ofpower 371
14H. OVK C. Articulation ofpower.............................................................. 372
141. Kake mayor. Articulation ofpower 373
17A. Salmon permit statistics for Kake (CFEC statistics) 423
17B. Halibut permit statistics for Kake (CFEC statistics) 426
XVI
LIST OF GRAPHS
Graph Page
1. Kake descriptors to define conununity 240
2. ODOT descriptors to define community in SATP....................................... 241
3A. Senator Wilkin. Attributions ofpersonhood 333
3B. Senator Wilkin. Attributions of personhood 334
4A. LBC Chairman Hargraves. Attributions of personhood 337
4B. LBC Chairman Hargraves. Attributions of personhood 338
5A. LBC report. Attributions ofpersonhood 339
5B. LBC report. Attributions ofpersonhood 340
6A. City of Hoonah. Attributions of personhood 341
6B. City ofHoonah. Attributions ofpersonhood 342
7A. City of Kake. Attributions ofpersonhood 343
7B. City ofKake. Attributions of personhood 344
8A. OVK. Attributions of personhood 345
8B. OVK. Attributions of personhood .. 346
9A. OVK. C. Attributions of personhood 347
9B. OVK. C. Attributions ofpersonhood 348
lOA. Kake schools. Attributions of personhood 349
lOB. Kake schools.. Attributions ofpersonhood.............................................. . 350
11A. Kake mayor. Attributions of personhood 351
lIB. Kake mayor. Attributions of personhood 352
1CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
LEARNING FROM PEOPLE WHO LEARN FROM BEARS
In Kake, Alaska I learned to respect bears' strength and to keep a critical distance,
but I also learned how people can coexist with bears. During my first summer I remember
standing on the bridge in the middle of the village and counting nine black bears close by
along Gunnuk Creek and in the long grasses near the beach. Bears and Tlingit people
have cohabited for as long as they've shared Southeast Alaska. In Kake the bears come
and go according to the seasons. During mid to late summer, people who walk in the
evenings often carry bells or make noises to avoid startling a bear; they caution their
children never to tease or aggravate bears; and when the bears are in town, the garbage is
picked up every day. People tell stories about bears, talk about the ones they've seen,
protect their smoke houses, and express enthusiasm when bears pass by. One big black
bear peered into the picture windows at the high school during a school board meeting. I
heard stories about a bear that knocked on people's doors at the KeeK' Kwaan Lodge, and
I listened while a man told about a bear that had taken to sleeping on his porch at night.
People often visited the dump to watch bears. They watched bears with their cubs catch
salmon in front of the fish hatchery. The whole time I was in Kake listening to stories
about bears, I never heard of anyone in town injured by a bear. People simply knew how
to live with bears, while keeping a respectful distance.
One night I was beading with several women in a house near the beach and
Gunnuk Creek when we heard several shots. The women shook their heads, speculating
that the shooter was a non-Tlingit man whose children had been teasing a bear earlier that
day. The women expressed impatience with the man and sympathy for the bear. The next
2day we learned that the man only wounded the bear, and it ran off into the woods. Bear
behavior strained people's patience at times, but people I knew rarely talked about killing
bears. I loved what I learned from Kake people about living with the other animals in the
environment rather than trying to manage and control them. I loved learning from people
who learned from bears.
Not long after the shooting I was having lunch in the KeeK' Kwaan Lodge and
noticed several Alaska Department ofFish and Game (ADFG) officers at the next table. I
introduced myself. They told me they were in town to take care of a bear problem, and
then they talked about how extensive the bear problems were in Kake. Their tones were
somewhat derisive, and they said the problems came from being foolish enough to situate
a town around a salmon stream. I became irritated at what I felt was ADFG
misunderstanding and short-sightedness. The conversation continued, and the men asked
about my project. I said I was in Kake to learn how local people talk about their
community and environment. The men told me to look around at all the clear-cutting and
that would tell me all I needed to know about local people and their environment. I said I
thought there was more to the story, and that there is evidence to indicate that Tlingit
culture was successfully conservationist. One of the men asked patronizingly whether I
had ever heard of the tragedy ofthe commons. Not waiting for my answer he proceeded
to tell me the definition. I said I thought the Tlingits had prevented such a tragedy for
most of their history. "Well, then, we've really messed them up," the man said in a tone
that indicated he believed otherwise.
I went away from the restaurant feeling shaken and even angry and wondering
why I thought I had witnessed subtle racism. I think it was because the men were not only
patronizing to me, but also patronizing to the whole village, and I began to understand
why the mention ofADFG officers in Kake often elicited stories of harassment.
The next year I heard local people lament the disappearance ofbears at the creek.
People asked where they had gone. Some suspected or had heard rumors the ADFG had
3distributed permits to big game hunters from down south (the lower 48 states) who had
hunted out a large number ofbears around Kake. Others thought the bears were up in the
woods eating the dead fish carcasses brought there to make fertilizer. Whatever the case,
the people I heard talking missed the bears, and so did 1.
I do not want to suggest that ADFG officers are uncaring. I expect they were
asked by some people in Kake to come and take care of a bear problem. I have talked
with several ADFG representatives in other towns and circumstances, and I know they
are hard working and serious about protecting the forest and waters from over fishing and
over harvesting. However, in talking with ADFG biologists elsewhere, I sensed tension
about Kake. For example, I remember citing the amount of fish people in Kake told me
they ate per capita per year, which is at least 200 pounds. One biologist said he could not
believe that anyone would eat that much fish. He thought people would get tired of fish if
they ate it every day. He doubted the statistics, just as the officers I met in Kake failed to
give credence to or empathize with local people's knowledge-based-in-Iong-experience
and their respect and enjoyment of bears. I know many people in Kake fish and hunt for
food out of season, but I also know they are more dependent on wild food than most
people who set hunting and fishing rules. It is not so much the fact that ADFG officers
enforce the law that bothers local people, it is the attitude people perceive in the officers
toward people in Kake.
When there are signs bears are being abused, such as when bear carcasses are
found at the dump, people work to take care of the remains properly and to fmd out who
mistreated the bear. Many local people still talk to the bears when they go the woods to
gather tea or berries. One woman told me how she and a friend had just returned from a
meadow where, before entering it, they told the bears they were there only to take leaves
and not to hurt anyone. The women told me that United States Forest Service brochures
advise people to talk softly if they are confronted with a bear in the woods. I have seen
4the brochures. Reassuring bears, as Tlingits have long done, is now a part ofUSFS
education.
Although older stories and knowledge about bears came up in only a few
conversations I heard, one man explained in an interview that "the woods are the
caretakers of our spirits" until such time that there is a memorial ceremony. "Cause they
[spirits] wander around us, whether they're right next to us or above us, below us, all the
way around us ... till we do that memorial ceremony. That's what we call the bear ....
They're caretakers of our spirits. They're the ones that are in the woods. The bears watch
out for the forest. And there's a clan, that's what they do." I was also told that people are
careful to speak positively about bears so bears will leave them alone in the woods. And I
learned that Tlingit people understood (understand) the bear's soul to be closest to a
human's soul. Bears symbolize the relationship between humans and animals. One young
Tlingit man and one middle-aged non-Tlingit man talked about the human relationship
with animals and the rest of the environment:
Young man: And we live in it, exactly. It's like bears coexist with us, you know,
in our environment, and the fish, they do the same thing. They go up the streams
that are right smack dab in the middle of town. So, it's all around, we can't get
away from it. I mean, we put this community here for that purpose ...
Second man: Survival!
Young man: Survival, right, so we can't go away from it. Ifyou go away from it
[respect for the environment] you die! ... [without respect for the environment]
life, it just becomes harder. So, yeah in that respect you do have to keep it all
intact. (2004 taped interview)
My objective in talking about bears is to introduce some of the main "performers" in
this study of human and non-human environmental relationships in Kake.
5Research questions
This study investigates how local, day-to-day, community and environment-
related discourse in a Southeast Alaska island village interacts with state and global
market discourse. How do words and stories in everyday conversations express and
interpret the extent to which local Southeast Alaska people feel emotion and
responsibility for their forest and marine environment and each other? The study asks
how people in Kake communicate their own narratives about place, community and work
to government representatives. How, in turn, do local groups interpret and react to
government regulatory narratives about forests and fisheries? In the case of bears, the
discourses include older narratives and new stories about observations of, and
experiences with, bears. Local knowledge about cohabiting with bears is taken for
granted among most Kake people, but bears do cause problems, and newcomers, police
officers, and ADFG officers often bring varying concepts of animals, methods of control
and management into problem-solving conversations. The question is, do ADFG officers
and other state representatives learn from Kake knowledge when they fly in? How do
people react to ADFG and other state-based narratives about people and place? Is local
knowledge and narrative empowered, changed, or disempowered because of the contact?
These are important questions in Alaska and globally, considering that the words
we use and the stories we tell about the world inform the ways we interact with it (Kuletz
1998). Groups ofpeople learn how to interact with the environment, which includes each
other, through narrative discourse, or words and stories (Redfield 2000; White 1987).
This study recognizes that the narrative discourse of regulatory and politically
"appropriate" communications in Alaska and elsewhere is often different than the day-to-
day narratives in local communities. In order to participate in regulatory and economic
decision-making, people in Kake must learn and incorporate regulatory, political and
corporate discourse. This study asks how "official" government and corporate ways of
communicating change local words and stories. Do changes influence local narratives
that socialize moral codes and attachment to community and environment? How do such
changes affect behavior toward the environment and use of resources?
Understanding more about local narratives that encourage or discourage
emotional attachment to people and place may be an important step in improving
environmental management. According to emerging theories in environmental
anthropology, long-term "moral" interaction with an environment necessitates emotional
attachment to it. Increased realization of the importance of caring and emotion in
environmental integrity is the reason that Arun Agrawal's main question in his study of
community decision making in Kumaon, India (2005: 162) was: "When and for what
reason do socially situated actors come to care about, act in relation to, and think about
their actions in tenns of something they identify as 'the environment'?" Caring about an
environment or place has stronger effect when emotional attachment is shared with a
community, or other social structure, that nurtures personal "feelings" ofresponsibility
toward humans and the rest of the environment (Anderson 1996; Bennett 1996; Ingold
1999). For this project "feeling" values are defined as the "skills, sensitivities and
orientations that have developed through long experience of conducting one's life in a
particular environment" (Ingold 2002:25). Environmental knowledge and "feeling"
values are acquired through direct personal experience, transmitted orally within a
community, relevant to daily struggles of livelihood, grounded in daily life, fragile, and
are specific to particular communities (Hunn 1999).
Southeast Alaska is an important site for studying local knowledge, values and
narrative for several reasons. Alaskans are weighing issues ofconservation and
community survival in an area where wild animal and plant life remain abundant. This is
an opportune time to examine issues of diverse local storytelling about the forest and
marine environment as compared to politically "appropriate" communication because
recent economic issues exacerbate political and cultural tension. For example, Alaska
6
7was once the world leader in the salmon market. Now the 125-year-old salmon fishery is
undergoing major harvesting and marketing changes. Farmed salmon from Norway,
Chile, British Columbia, the United Kingdom and Japan are the primary reason for
oversupply and depressed prices on world markets. In addition, extraction oftimber and
other forest resources in Southeast Alaska has become politically problematic in the past
few decades. In communities that are economically dependent upon forest and fishery
resources, people are weighing social concerns and economic fears with forest and
marine ecology issues. Environmental specialists are aware of changes in local priorities
and attitudes (B. Paust, Alaska Marine Advisory Program, 2002, personal
communication).
I chose to describe diverse environmental and human relationship narratives in
Kake because economic strategies in Kake have long been resource dependent. The
community is situated on the boundaries of a federal forest and surrounded by waters that
are state and federally controlled. As a consequence, local decision-making is highly
regulated at many levels. The multi-generational tenure ofmost families in the village
and on Kupreanof and other surrounding islands, and the changes to their community,
initiated largely through state and federal government and corporate intervention, make
Kake a highly relevant study site.
Kake's population changed from approximately 700 people to less than 550
between 2002 and 2006. Kake is a Native Tlingit village, established in the late
nineteenth century and horne to a federally recognized tribe. Kake Tlingits fished and
harvested forest resources for millennia before Russia, and then the United States,
colonized Alaska (Bowers et. a11996; Davis 1989, 1996; de Laguna 1972; Hope 2000;
Maschner 1997; Moss et. al. 1989; Moss 2004). Kake people still hunt, gather berries and
other forest plants, and they eat more than 200 pounds of salmon per capita per year
(2002 interviews: Organized Village ofKake representatives; ADFG 2005 report to the
Alaska Board ofFisheries; ADFG Subsistence Division 1990 and 2003 Annual Report ).
8In Kake, the health and regulation of salmon and other fishery resources is directly
related to the health and regulation of the Tongass National Forest and state and federal
waters. Federal law has prioritized Native and rural subsistence rights in Alaska
(Anderson 2001), but Alaska state legislative decisions and legal rulings are often in
conflict with federal guidelines. As a result, the federal government claimed regulatory
control of natural resources on federal lands in 1990 and of subsistence fisheries in 1999
(Thornton 1999). Rural and Native Alaskan issues and narratives wield expanding
political power. At the same time, Native Alaskans are "subject to more federal statutes,
regulations, administrative rulings and court decisions than any other indigenous group in
the United States" (Anderson 2001). Non-indigenous Alaskans are subject to, but often
affected differently by, the same statutes and regulations. Learning to participate in
regulatory, political, and corporate discourse about logging, fishing, and other forest
resources is necessary for economic survival in Kake. As one Kake Tlingit said, federal
laws "made businessmen out oflocal Natives."
During my preliminary fieldwork in 2002, I first observed the panorama of tribal
corporation clear-cutting around the community ofKake. I found that some Kake groups
were most interested in Kake Tribal Corporation goals for economic development
through more logging, but I also discovered a resurgence of traditional environmental
consciousness and Tlingit values among several groups. Mike Jackson, a Tlingit/Haida
representative of the Organized Village ofKake and a former United States Forest
Service employee, described the various interest groups in the Kake area. First, the
United States Forest Service (USFS) is the primary landowner and for many years has
been legally compelled to consider corporate logging interests in Tongass National
Forest. Second, Southeast Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporations,
such as Kake Tribal Corporation, were, until logging ended in 2004, fixated on the
monetary value of trees on ANCSA lands. Third, there is the federal tribe, or the
Organized Village ofKake. Jackson said:
9You can't compare the Organized Village ofKake with Kake Tribal
Corporation. They [Kake Tribal] are primarily there for a profit. The
Organized Village ofKake is for the welfare of the youth and the Elders
and to primarily look out for the resources; keep in trust the resources for
generations to come, not just us. Because we were handed those
resources by our Elders. And we're not trying to do anything to it other
than trying to make a living around it, rather than use it to maximize
profit. Because we were only supposed to take what we needed, not what
we greeded." (2002 taped interview).
This study observes and documents the day-to-day conversations oflocal people
such as Jackson, corporation representatives and forest resource users. Jackson's words,
for example, illustrate "feeling" values for community and environment and embody
environment-specific moral codes. This project asks how regulatory, political, and
corporate persons use, accommodate or discourage this type of local narrative.
Because Tlingit people understood, and many still understand, themselves to be
only a small part of the environment, and because respect for nature was, and for many
still is, an integral part ofTlingit traditional culture and self-identity, the word
environment is inadequate to describing this relationship. "We draw our identity, as a
people, from our relationship to the land, sea, and its resources; it is a spiritual and sacred
relationship; based on the need to co-exist with nature," wrote Charles Johnson,
addressing the state Local Boundary Commission in 2003. (See appendix X) For English
speakers, the word environment has come to mean "essentially a 'real entity' ...
substantially separate from social practices and human experiences" (Macnaghten and
Urry 1998:1). I worked to find a word that would mean humanity is part of "nature" and
the environment, rather than separate from or surrounded by it. I refer to the environment
as the inclusive environment, for that reason.
10
Hypotheses
At the outset of this study, I hypothesized that aspects oflocal emotional "feeling"
and attachment to the environment are expressed in limited social and political contexts
in Kake. The less "feeling" that is expressed, the greater the philosophical alliance with
Euro-American scientific, economic, and political ideologies. I hypothesized that western
discourse relies on ideology that defines the environment as a set of resource objects.
Discursive boundaries that preclude "feelings" in western political discourse also result in
dichotomized definitions ofwhat it means to be indigenous in a small resource-based
setting compared to being a political and government agency representative making
decisions about the environment. When "feeling" discourses are a source of
embarrassment and amusement in political settings, their power to influence decision-
makers is less direct and often ignored. Indigenous and non-indigenous people in villages
such as Kake are socialized by association with state and global market entities because
people learn to describe issues about the environment using dominant economic and
conservationist descriptions and discursive codes. This situation, I asserted, means that
people in Kake spend less time remembering or practicing the ways that Elders describe
human relationship with the environment. I hypothesized that state regulatory discourses,
along with global market discourses, influence local emotional values, "feelings," and
attachment to and perception of the environment in Kake. I described emotional values as
"knowledge based in feeling" (Ingold 2000:25). As case studies throughout the
dissertation show, my hypotheses were largely confrrmed.
Why should anyone care about "feeling" language in legal decision-making
conversations and documents? First, certain kinds of emotional attachment to the
environment may be necessary for long-term responsible behavior toward environment.
Second, much of human emotional attachment is realized through direct experience and
language. Third, language and its meanings are learned through communities ofpeople.
11
Emotional attachment to the environment may depend upon certain kinds ofemotional
attachment to a community or other social structures that nurture personal "feelings" for
and responsibility toward the larger environment. If state and global interests listen for
and nurture positive, local environmental values in local language, then they nurture the
whole environment.
This study examines tension between at least two types ofdiscourse, politically
"appropriate" western economic, regulatory, and state discourse, and that oflocal people
who experience the environment through work, family and community. It observes issues
of code-switching between different forms of thought, behavior and speech, and it is
concerned with when and how Kake people switch codes. Who is able, unable, or
unwilling to switch codes? What are the conditions ofpower that compel or discourage
participation?
Tlingits and other rural Alaskans are among those few groups in the United States
who have maintained their rights to a subsistence relationship with the environment. As
such, I surmise, they also have more social freedom than some groups to engage in
discourse that incorporates "feeling" for the environment and narratives that acknowledge
spiritual and other emotion-based values toward their place and their work. Some Kake
people are working to reclaim their Elders' more environmentally-sensitive values. For
example, the Organized Village ofKake is putting together a book called "Technical
(traditional) Ecological Knowledge (TEK)." The book is a means ofkeeping and
recording "the wisdom of our ancestors and Elders" (Mike Jackson, Jan. 2002 phone
interview).
Narratives about ecological knowledge, whether they come from traditional
stories or from the data collection ofresearchers, can be code-switching tools for
communications between local, state, and marketing actors. People in Kake must
participate in state and global discourses because most derive part of their livelihood
12
directly from an environment that is regulated by the state. Which stories do they choose
to tell and why? Who represents Kake and who tells its stories? Who listens?
This study focuses, in part, upon the fishing environment and a fishing industry
that is highly controlled by the state and highly influenced by the global market. For
example, although salmon are plentiful in Southeast Alaska, the fishery has been in
economic trouble because of global market circumstances. The fishery is undergoing
major regulatory, political and philosophical restructuring. In reaction to restructuring,
people in places such as Kake have to know how to defend their life-ways by
communicating within dominant political narratives. In other words, they often need
representation by trained specialists who can switch from local to state to global market
discourses. One question considered is the level of contrast between state or global
market narrative codes and local narrative codes. If the local code is similar to the
politically or economically dominant narrative code, then code-switching requires less
specialization and competency. When the local code differs substantially from linguistic
forms that are valued at the state level, communication requires greater code-switching
competency and translation becomes more complex. I found that much gets lost in the
communication process.
The basic premise of my questions is supported by Bauman's discussion of
communicative competence. Groups communicate in culturally specific ways, which
include frames or codes ofperformance. People who can effectively communicate or
perform within conventionalized frames or codes are considered competent and have
power to influence an audience (Bauman 1975:295). An effective communicator in Kake
needs to know how to perform within village communicative codes and within state and
global market communicative codes. He or she needs to be an interpreter or
communications specialist. Conversely, some state agency representatives need to
become specialists in code-switching when attempting to communicate on a local level in
Kake. State-based code-switching, I suggest, is often focused upon teaching legal and
13
bureaucratic discourse to local people rather than learning local communication meanings
and codes. I found that such top-town education discourages "feeling" narratives about
the environment because it is based on western economic models and western scientific
positivism (Collins and Wingard 2000). A young Tlingit woman, Speaker One, and a
non-Tlingit man in his middle years who is married to a Tlingit woman, Speaker Two,
talked about Kake's political relationship with state agencies and regulators during a
2003 interview. They described issues of privileged language in this way:
Speaker One: I see them come in and politicians, in general, you
know they're ... that's what they are, they're politicians. They're
coming in here trying to get your input on an idea that they want to
work anyway, so they'll always, because of their level of knowledge,
will use words that can be real misleading to some of our community
members. Especially our Elders. Basically that gives me the
impression that they're snowballing them, for lack of a better word to
tell you what I really think. It just, it's like they try to mold it where
they get the feedback they want, and then they have people like, you
know ... maybe not just G and C show up, but other community
members that see it. And they'll stand up and say well why haven't
you answered our question? You're simply answering with another
question. We want solid answers. You don't ever give them.
Speaker Two: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: Then they [agency representatives] get offended at you
because they think you're trying to make them look bad. But it's
because we do what we can do to protect our people, because it is a
lack of understanding. It's two different worlds. It's their world and
our world. And there's no way for my parents to understand all those
terms that they use ... But they use language, I think, to buffalo them
in a way. And I'm hoping they're realizing now, especially with these
last few road meetings, if you listen to the tape, you'll see what I
mean. But I'm hoping they'll realize that we're getting more serious.
(2003 taped interview)
Speakers one and two are local interpreters in that they have experience and
education outside of Kake, but have lived many years in the village. They are both
14
passionate about advocating for the community and about facilitating a local economy
centered on sustainable livelihood and environmental integrity.
In general, my research addresses theoretical questions in anthropology that ask
how environmental responsibility is connected to small community socialization,
commitment and attachment, all of which depend upon human emotion (Anderson 1996).
I offer, in this document, a corrective to the tendency to downplay or avoid aspects of
human emotional connection to the environment in most political ecology, symbolic
ecology, and historical ecology studies. Often within anthropology, and typically outside
of anthropology, scientific studies rely on indicators that provide quantitative information
which "tend to reflect the values of those who develop and select them as measurement
tools" (Schiller et al. 2001). Such values historically focus on the environment as a set of
resources. Increasingly social and other scientists'see this attitude as an underlying
contributor to destructive behavior toward natural systems (Nadasdy 2003; Norgaard
1994; Wollock 2001). As such, I investigated the place of "local knowledge" (Nazarea
1999) in circulation with state and global market "knowledge."
Fieldwork methodology
This work contributes to the anthropological challenge of conceptualizing a
methodology that connects the local and the global (Buraway 2002), while emphasizing
the everyday and face-to-face interactions of diverse groups ofpeople (Marcus 1998). As
a fieldworker, I observed the day-to-day circulation of narratives and other types of
discourse (Buraway 2000) between people who are environmentally, economically, and
politically interrelated parts of Kake as a community, and people who live elsewhere but
make decisions that influence life in Kake. As such, the study is an exercise in multi-sited
ethnography because it examines law-making discourses from Juneau, Anchorage and the
nation's capital that are intended to change life in Kake and elsewhere (Buraway 2000;
15
Marcus 1998). In order to observe and document day-to-day conversations, my methods
included participant research at the Kake fish hatcheries, in community meetings, at the
boat harbor, at a log dump and transfer point, at community and family gatherings, at
government decision-making forums, and in fish processing and marketing arenas. My
methods also included interviews and archival research.
I began this project with experience working in Southeast Alaska. Most valuable
to this study was the time I spent living and working on Mitkof Island in Petersburg,
Alaska between 1983 and 1992. During that time I worked as ajournalist, writing about
the environment, the timber industry, fishing, business politics, history and people's lives.
I began the study in Kake with a basic knowledge about forest resources, fishing, and
local identity issues.
In the summer of2002 I began dissertation fieldwork in Alaska. I volunteered at a
culture camp with Kake Tlingit Elders, who were teaching approximately 45 young
people how to gather and process subsistence foods. I spent time with Kake people who
fish for subsistence, loggers, hatchery workers, Kake Tribal Corporation representatives,
artists, teachers, health workers, city ofKake personnel, and Organized Village ofKake
personnel, among others. In October 2002, I attended North Pacific Fisheries
Management Council meetings to observe conversations between regulators and local
fishermen. Also in October, I attended the Common Grounds Conference in Kake and
listened to conversations between Tlingit people and United States Forest Service
personneL
In 2003 and 2004, I expanded my observations and research to include stories told
at local gatherings, state agencies, federal agencies, legislative forums at the state capital
in Juneau, fishing regulation boards and committees, and timber resource councils and
committees. I attended a week-long workshop on strategies of Circle Peacemaking (see
chapter 9). Throughout the fieldwork process and in writing this document, I worked to
protect the identities of storytellers at local levels. Local people are un-named in the
16
following chapters unless they specifically told me they wanted to be named, or unless
they are cited as the writer of a document. People are referred to as "speaker" and I am
referred to as "fieldworker" unless otherwise specified. The identities of lawmakers and
state agency representatives are not necessarily protected in this document because their
work is a matter ofpublic record.
My original purpose was to study the narratives in two communities in Southeast
Alaska, Petersburg and Kake. I completed fieldwork and have transcribed interviews and
organized fieldwork notes for both communities. In 2006 I decided that to write about
both communities would do justice to neither community. My dissertation is focused
upon Kake, and I incorporate minimal comparisons with Petersburg, a fishing community
on another nearby island. However, my experience in Petersburg was beneficial. By
comparing similarities and differences I was able to "see" aspects ofKake life that I
might have taken for granted, such as the ways people work through political differences.
In Kake people are more likely to work carefully around issues, listening for subtle clues,
taking more time to learn how others feel. In Petersburg people often state their opinions
more directly and politics is a major topic of conversation in the harbors, restaurants and
elsewhere. Debate and expostulation are more of a way of life in Petersburg, for example,
and I might not have picked up on local Kake subtleties had I not spent time in
Petersburg.
The following is a summary of fieldwork experiences in both communities.
During spring and summer 2003 I observed and documented everyday storytelling in
naturally occurring contexts:
on commercial fishing boats,
in local processing plants,
with people practicing subsistence harvesting,
with state and federal regulatory agency representations in the field,
in family and community settings.
17
During fall, winter and summer 200312004 I "followed" (Marcus 1998:90-95) stories and
discourses:
to local board and council meetings (Kake City Council, Organized
Village of Kake, Kake Tribal Corporation, Sealaska Corporation, etc.),
to state agency meetings (Alaska Department ofFish and Game, Alaska
State Department ofEconomic Development, Alaska Marine Advisory
Service, etc.),
to federal agency meetings (United States Forest Service, National Marine
Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, United
States Fish and Wildlife Service, North Pacific Fisheries Management
Council, etc.),
to legislative meetings (Alaska state legislature committee meetings),
to marketing forums (Kake Foods, Kake Tribal Corporation.).
In addition to collecting and comparing narratives, I observed and documented the
physical and cultural circumstances of narrative communication, the reaction of others to
discussions and descriptions, the responding discourses, and whether narrative discourses
were public or "hidden" (Scott 1990). I took note of power relations in the sharing of
stories.
Fieldwork included archival research to examine narrative discourse in state
regulatory and federal regulatory documents such as within the United States Forest
Service (USFS) and the Alaska Department ofFish and Game (ADFG) regulatory
documents, and especially documents related to legislation concerning borough
formation, both legislative and from the Alaska Local Boundary Commission. I examined
documents from the Alaska Department of Transportation concerning the state effort to
connect Southeast Alaska via roads.
18
Locating and documenting Kake narratives about community, the economy and
environmental experiences involved conducting individual interviews with approximately
30 Kake people. Individual interviews were electronically recorded whenever possible. In
community meeting places, I took generalized notes and did not use people's names or
identify them in my writing except when I had permission. I tape-recorded public
meetings, introducing myself, and thereby communicating the reason for my presence in
Kake. (Interview questions are listed in appendix A). People I interviewed received
transcripts of their interviews.
In the process of transcribing interviews and meetings I indicated speaking pauses
with ellipses (... ). I worked to include urns, ahs, and you knows because they are part of
people's speech patterns. In the transcripts that are included in the dissertation, I edited
out some urns, ahs, and you knows if they tended to decrease clarity ofmeaning. When I
used different, unconnected excerpts from the same transcript, I generally indicated the
separation with line spacing between excerpts. Words and phrases within commas
indicate that I could not hear the exact words that were used by the speaker. Words and
phrases within brackets have been added by me for clarity.
Throughout the dissertation people are identified with their narratives by
approximate age, whether they are non-Tlingit or Tlingit, and whether or not they are
male or female. I also indicated the year of each narrative and if it was taped
electronically, recorded through note taking, or part of a written document.
Analytical methodology
I chose to examine language in Kake and within legal decision-making forums
through discourse analysis. Why? Because "our talk and what we are, are one and the
same... Without discourse, there is no social reality, and without understanding
19
discourse, we cannot understand our reality, our experiences, ourselves" (Phillips and
Hardy 2002:2). My explanations for examining talk and text begin with the Boasian
tradition and the principle of linguistic relativity. Differences in linguistic systems result
in differences in habitual thought patterns, meanings and interpretations. Even though
Kake people and legal and government representatives in this study all speak English,
their linguistic systems differ, and thus their thought patterns, meanings, and
interpretations likely differ. Kake "talk" involves use ofEnglish in different social
contexts than those in Juneau, Anchorage and Washington D.C. government offices, for
example. Context as a differentiating communication factor is another reason for using
discourse analysis to answer questions about "feelings," community, and environment.
Ochs and Schieffelin (1995: 470) described why consideration oflanguage and context is
important:
1) The meaning of particular forms [indexical elements] in language,
depends on who says them in what context. Interpretations depend
upon conventions of language use in a given culture.
2) If the pragmatic conventions of linguistic usage for two languages
differ, then differences in the interpretation of indexical elements
and meanings ofutterances may result.
Linguistic relativity and consideration of context are foundations for examining
narratives and language, but the key purpose for discourse analysis is to describe and
reveal power relations. Critical discourse analysis "should describe and explain how
power abuse is enacted, reproduced or legitimated by the talk and text of dominant
groups and institutions" (van Dijk 1996:84). In other words, some discourses are
privileged in certain contexts while others are marginalized. The term "distal context" is
shorthand for the concept that some people are privileged and others disempowered
relative to the social space within which communication occurs. Changes in discursive
patterns result in social advantages for some and disadvantages for others (Phillips and
20
Hardy 2002:25). People often attempt to adjust their language codes to gain access to
social advantages. Critical discourse analysis, then, is a means ofevaluating the
influences that legal and government discourses have on Kake language forms and on
how local people talk and think about their community and environment.
The following Wthen questions illustrate the reasons for discursive analytic methodology:
1) If human behaviors leading to long-term environmental responsibility and
sustainable livelihood are situated in certain types and ranges of emotional
feelings and values about place and people, and ...
2) If the effectiveness ofsuch feelings and values are increased when they
are shared, and ...
3) If such feelings and values must be communicated to be shared, and ...
4) If communication, sharing and long-term efficacy ofemotional ideas and
values is connected with the existence of a community or community
groups of some sort, and .. ,
5) If community groups are to pass along to newcomers and children the
stories explaining reasons for values and feelings, and ...
6) If they can sustain knowledge and share it more effectively with continued
long-term and close association with a place and groups ofpeople, and ...
7) If close association with place and groups ofpeople is to continue, people
need the means of negotiating differences, sharing new knowledge, and
communicating values and feelings that make sense in their particular
social and environmental contexts, and ...
8) Ifpower is negotiated with "others" who work through stories, language
codes, and values that originate in "other" community spaces and
environmental contexts such as legal and bureaucratic forums, and ...
21
9) If "other" stories and language codes fail to include the types and ranges
of emotional feelings and values about place and people that are
conducive to "local" environmental responsibility and sustainable
livelihood ...
Then language and narrative studies, to reveal inequalities of communicative power,
seem essential if people are to work toward improving environmental integrity and
community responsibility. Case studies show how local narratives, knowledge, and
community values that help "grow" local solidarity are unrecognized and unconsidered in
state-based discourses focused on changing boundaries and government structure in rural
areas.
Chapter descriptions
Section One: Historical and theoretical contexts
Section one is a short historical and political overview of circumstances in Kake
to inform the cases described in the study. The section includes an explanation of the
theoretical premises and tools of discourse analysis through which case studies are
examined in sections three, four, and five.
Chapter II
The "town where no one sleeps"
Situating narrative discourse in historical context is essential to understanding its
meaning and significance. If the positions through which people speak are flatly
described within one time period, then the layers of meaning and experiences within
discourses are denied (Blommaert 2005:136). First, this chapter outlines historical details
specifically relevant to Kake and primarily told by local people. Within this historical
22
summary are descriptions ofEurocentric political processes and ideologies that were
once considered "fact" or "truths" but which are now understood to be morally
problematic, including the bombing ofKake villages. These accounts ofassimilative
maneuvers are reminders ofwhat Foucault meant by genealogy, which involves exposing
the fallacy oftoday's assumptions and beliefs by identifying the problems in passing
events, which were at one time considered truths (Foucault 1984:81). Ifwe know now
that pressuring groups to become like Europeans resulted in losses of knowledge,
language, and self-empowerment and created various problems with human health, then
we can more critically evaluate current attempts to pressure groups ofpeople into
economic or political assimilation.
I report narratives in this chapter without subjecting them to analysis. They are a
telling of history through the voices of a few Kake people living in the present. Their
tellings help situate Kake' s narratives in space and time. A timeline of T1ingit history
since the United States purchased Alaska from Russia is included in appendix GG.
Chapter III
Law and decision-making entities
As with chapter two, chapter three provides historical context. The history
described in this chapter concerns political systems, including T1ingit law, current Tlingit
organizational and legal functions, incorporation of western legal systems, and the
existing hybridism of decision-making structures in Kake. Three governing entities
predominate in Kake, the federal tribe, the incorporated first class city, and the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement corporation. Each of these entities is linked with and
empowered differently by Alaska state and federal government agency structures outside
of Kake. As in any community, linkages to state decision making bodies influence the
types of discourse frames through which local representatives articulate needs and issues.
23
Chapter IV
Analytical tools and theories
Chapter four summarizes the main discourse theories and analytic methods that
inform this study. They are especially concerned with ideological changes and influences.
Clifford Geertz effectively explains ideology as "shared meanings" and as "maps of
problematic social reality and matrices for the creation of collective conscience" (Geertz
1973:218-219). In this sense, ideology is a worldview and a belief system (Gerring
1997:969). As Thompson points out, language and ideology coexist. "The language of
everyday life is the very locus of ideology and the very site of the meaning which
sustains relations of domination" (Thompson 1984:89-90).
The cases in this study emphasize the importance of considering how people use
language to negotiate, through narrative discourse, and the crises and changes that require
ideological fixing or rethinking. Working to restate and rethink ideology is a human
method of adaptation and empowerment everywhere. For more than a century, Kake
people have negotiated, through narrative, how to understand changes resulting from
contact with non-Tlingit people.
Section Two: Emotion, personhood, and environment
General beliefs about emotion and definitions ofpersonhood guide the parameters
of narrative discourse in most legal decision making venues in the United States. Some
local discourses about personhood, and some "feeling" signifiers and emotion-based
narratives, travel well from person to person, to local decision-making bodies, and to
state agencies and beyond. Others travel poorly. Chapter five includes an overview ofthe
causes and purposes of "feeling" and "emotion, "especially in the contexts of
community connections and environmental ideology. Chapter six is an appraisal of
24
concepts ofpersonhood, human, non-human, corporate, and state. Chapter seven
investigates the importance of community translators and attributions ofJeeling and
personhood in the contexts of community connections with state representatives.
Chapter V
Emotion and learning
In this chapter I discuss how people learn from emotion. I include discourse
narratives through which several older Kake people learned to feel about their place and
other people when they were younger.
Decisions about environment are always informed through learned feelings
(learned interpretations of emotions), even if those feelings are construed as emotion that
is avoided through legal rules, or as learned objectivity. For this study, I am partial to
anthropological explanations that defme emotion as cultural and biological. The essence
of understanding that emotions are part oflearning is to recognize that what we know
about our relationship to a larger environment is largely influenced by the feelings we
learn to associate with people and place. Learned feelings playa large part in determining
what it is we perceive and pay attention to around us. That means we cannot ignore
human emotion and feeling in conversations about environmental decision-making.
The second part of chapter five extends the discussion of emotion/feeling to
religion and spirituality. Often when I talked with people in Kake the word religion was
used to refer to church, and spirituality was used to refer to older culture values. Older
cultural values were often connected discursively with intimate respect for the wider
environment, human and non-human. This chapter describes some of the history and
current dynamics of church and cultural revitalization in Kake, especially pertaining to
feelings about human and non-human environmental relations. Kirk Dombrowski, for
example, wrote about those people in Kake who choose to identify themselves more as
Christian than as Native and about other paradoxes of being Native (2001: 182).
25
Chapter VI
Personhood and spirituality
Some people see the non-human environment fundamentally as a store ofresources or
objects. Some people feel a personal sense of caring for the non-human environment in
and of itself. This chapter addresses these different view points through considering
concepts of personhood. Bird-David (1999), Harvey (2006), Milton (2002), and others
approach the question of emotions/feelings toward the environment through connecting
beliefs about moral obligation with perceptions of personhood. For Elder Tlingits and
many Tlingit people today, the non-human environment had (has) moral worth because
its entities were (are) persons. In this chapter I describe other types of attributions of
personhood that may influence people's learned feelings about moral obligation. They
include corporate personhood, state personhood, and personhood attributed to legal texts.
Chapter VII
Kake translators
Those people in Kake who work with people in state agencies become translators.
Every community in the United States needs legal and bureaucratic translators. This
chapter includes translator narratives about experiences with state (Alaska state and
federal) agencies and lawmakers. These narrators describe what parts of local feeling and
knowledge are typically left out of state conversations at certain levels of the legal
hierarchy. Based on a history ofexperiences with state lawmakers and regulators, local
people express learned feelings of ambivalence toward legal decision-making processes.
26
Section Three: Community, local ideology, and state definitions
Section three addresses discursive influences on and from Kake people through
two case studies. The fIrst is a short case study about salmon stream restoration. The
second is a longer case study about a state proposal to build roads connecting islands and
villages in Southeast Alaska. Identifying community practices and defInitions of
community is an important part of any study about people and environmental integrity.
Several anthropologists and other social scientists have recognized that human
attachment to people and place is an important component of sustainable livelihood in an
environment (Anderson 1996; Becker and Ostrom 1995; Bort and Sabella 2000; Collins
and Wingard 2000; McCay 2002; Stone 2003; Strang 2005).
Chapter VIII
Fish stream restoration
This case study is about local people working together to restore a salmon stream.
Narratives about what happened during an Alaska Department ofFish and Game (ADFG)
stream restoration application process demonstrate ways that regulatory and legal
communication influence local discourses. The case study account is told exclusively
from a local point ofview to better portray how regulatory processes can potentially
change local discourses. Most likely ADFG representatives would describe the situation
differently, but the purpose of this study is to show how "offIcial" government ways of
communicating change local words and stories that socialize moral codes and attachment
to community and environment.
27
Chapter IX
Road building and community
One assertion in this study is that without community solidarity and
empowerment, conditions that support and lead to long-term environmental integrity and
sustainable livelihood are improbable if not impossible. Chapter nine begins an
examination of human relationship meanings in Kake through a case study of interaction
between the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) and local people. Types of
communities that might successfully practice sustainable livelihood are theoretically and
practically defmed. Kake lifeways are partially described. Local definitions of
community are compared with DOT definitions. The links between discourse and
ideologies considered here include the consequences of failure to discursively
acknowledge community-making processes in state project goals.
Chapter X
Time, work, and community
This chapter continues the case study about proposed road building. Contrasting
discourses about time and work helps show how the production of locality that concerns
everyday aspects of social life (Appadurai 1997:178-188) can be disempowered through
being ignored. When local knowledge about community is not a central part of state-level
planning and discourse, local people's voices are more likely to be heard when speakers
code-switch and speak in legal or economic language forms that have prestige at the state
level. In this case, prestige discourse emphasizes that time and money are primary
considerations for supporting or not supporting road building.
28
Section Four: Perceptions of personhood, power, and place
When I was in Kake, people were creatively working to offset or neutralize state
agency and legislative efforts to require small communities to join together and form
regional governments called boroughs. Chapters 11 through 14 are parts of a case study
of discourses about boroughization. Perceptions of space and place, concepts of
personhood, and attributions of power are examined and compared in this case study. The
same nine narrative segments about boroughization are the basis for discourse analysis in
chapters 12, 13, and 14.
Chapter XI
Land use perceptions
Chapter 11 theoretically and descriptively compares historical and current
perceptions of the land and the sea in Kake with commonly held legal assumptions about
land as jural and private property. To better situate the case study within alternative land-
use worldviews, this chapter outlines social features that assist groups in successful local
"management" of common land and marine entities and resources. Included is a
description of case study circumstances and assumptions about property that are
connected with borough government goals and requirements.
Chapter XII
Space and place in borough discourses
Chapter 12 focuses on comparing the ways that Kake people and state
representatives talk about the non-human environment and places and spaces. When
meanings are derived from the non-human environment through experience, knowledge,
and feeling, human relationships are "placed." When generalized meanings are applied to
the non-human environment that are not based on personalized experiences with or
29
knowledge of it, then places become objectified "spaces." I investigate how discourses
attribute either human attachment or detachment to the non-human environment.
Chapter XIII
Personhood in borough discourses
This chapter focuses on comparing the ways that Kake people and state
representatives attribute personhood to humans, group systems and their texts, human
occupied spaces, and the non-human environment. The ways that people talk about other
humans, human organizational systems, places, and spaces ascribe personhood status or
non-status. Personhood status is important because humans often tend to feel a greater
sense of moral obligation toward those entities that are ascribed full personhood.
Chapter XIV
Power in borough discourses
The last chapter in section four draws specific attention to references of decision-
making powers in discourse examples about boroughization from Kake people and state
representatives. Power to decide which discourse frames prevail in decision-making
forums greatly influences how people present their arguments and who is heard. In
addition, many anthropologists and other social scientists have identified the importance
of decision-making resources and support for grassroots and community-based power as
a key long-term element of sustainable livelihood practices (Anderson 1996; Collins and
Wingard 2000; McCay 1987, 2002; Ostrom 1990; Weinstein 2000). Thus, it is important
to consider how power relations are discussed and implemented.
30
Section Five: Fish as food, fish to sell
This section is about fish, the main customary and traditional Tlingit food resource.
Salmon have long been the "ordinary people" of the non-human environment for most
Northwest Coast peoples, including the Tlingit. Fish were the staff of life, their mainstay
(Anderson 1996:57; de Laguna 1972; Newton and Moss 1984,2005), and so they still are
for many Kake people. Fish, salmon and other species, continue to bind people together
through sharing networks, cornmon history, and work. Fish are a highly regulated food
source in the 21 st century, and this chapter assesses local discourse about fish-as-food in
relation to legal regulations and state agency practices.
Chapter XV
Fish as food
This chapter delves into the local narratives about fish, primarily as food.
Everyday comparisons of how much fish relatives brought to their extended families, the
location offish populations, methods ofprocessing fish, and how fish was distributed as
food are cornmon topics in summer conversations. Four main themes are identified in
Kake narratives: sharing, cooperation, respect, and fish as food.
Chapter XVI
Fish narratives
I examine, in this chapter, narratives about early 21 st century "customary and
traditional" fishing circumstances. Through looking in narratives for what people infer is
missing in food fishing and distribution practices, ideological dislocations are identified.
The narratives show how local knowledge is shared as a part of collective work to fill
ideological voids caused by change/crisis.
31
Chapter XVII
Fish to sell
Few Kake boats were fishing commercially between 2002 and 2007. This chapter
includes a short history of commercial fishing in Kake. It examines local positive and
negative references to commercial fishing, issues of voice and power, and ascription of
''us'' and "them" in narrative examples. Two state-based narratives examples about
restructuring commercial salmon fisheries are included to draw comparisons. I searched
through the state-based examples for articulation of values that are more commonly
identified in Kake narratives. The results showed some of the categorical limitations
within problem-solving discourses about commercial fishing.
Chapter XVIII
Conclusion: Ways of thinking, ways of talking about people and place
Historically, capitalocentric state discourses have been applied to places such as
Kake as solutions to economic assimilation. As demonstrated in this dissertation and
many other sources, the particular methods used for economic assimilation have often
been disastrous to people and place in the long term. Now that we understand the
enormity of our environmental crises, we might find solutions by trying to better
understand what values, narratives, and rituals have worked for people in the past, people
who had a track record of sustainable livelihood, including Tlingit people. We might also
begin to examine the limitations of our legal, regulatory, and even scientific discourses
and the ways they are used as scripts for management.
32
CHAPTER II
THE "TOWN WHERE NO ONE SLEEPS"
This chapter is meant to be an overview to provide historical and geographical
context to local narrative life in the following chapters. Within this historical summary
are descriptions ofEurocentric political processes and ideologies that were once
considered "fact" or "truths" but which are now understood to be morally problematic,
including the bombing ofKake villages. By understanding past historical short-
sightedness we can more easily ask ourselves which current decision-making ideologies
and processes manifest from narrowness ofvision.
Built on the northwest shore ofKupreanofIsland in Southeast Alaska, Kake is
home to more than 500 people. (See Figure 1) At least 75 percent are Tlingit. Kake's
Tlingit name, 'L.ah 0'0 Xex' WK Aan, means the town where no one sleeps, a name that
brings to mind streets full of rowdy and noisy revelers. In fact, Kake ordinarily is so quiet
that people can clearly hear the non-human life forms with whom they share their island.
The timbre of wind and weather transformations in the forest and waterways easily draws
the awareness of a listening village audience. Kake may well be one of the quietest
human-occupied places left on earth. Yes there is traffic, but very little. Yes there are
diesel generators humming at the electricity plant, but the hills and trees stifle the hum.
Visitors observe how time slows and noise levels drop in the village compared to the
places they come from, and people who belong in Kake and leave for a few days often
express relief to get back to their quiet home.
One Tlingit man who was raised in Kake-who worked elsewhere most of his life
and then returned to his childhood home to spend his Elder years-talked about the
peacefulness (taped interview). "When I frrst got back to Kake, I couldn't sleep at all. It
33
was so quiet! [chuckle] You could drop a hammer on this porch here and you could hear
it [across town]. It's so quiet here. But now I can't live anywhere else [chuckle]."
Another Tlingit man (speaker) described how peaceful Kake is 'underneath' the
politics. I refer to myself as fieldworker.
Speaker: You take away the Native organizations, you take away the city
... you have a good group ofpeople that love the area with the setting here
and all that's available here. And kind of the ... it's not isolation but it's
peace and quiet.
Fieldworker: Yes. It's very quiet. Even when I go over to Petersburg
there's always motors going all the time. But you don't hear that here.
Speaker: Yeah. It's like constant noise [unloading and loading fish in
Petersburg] coming in all the time and you're beeping and backing trucks
and yeah, yeah.
Fieldworker: I remember the frrst day I was here a couple of summers
ago, I walked up to the totem pole and I was so startled at how I could
hear the birds so clearly.
Speaker: Yeah. We sleep out here in our addition. Now that addition was a
sun room ... and we moved our bed out there to paint our bedroom. We
never moved back. Especially when you shut these doors, we don't have
any radio ... well, nothing going out there, and it's just dead quiet, and
you open the windows and you're waking up to all the sounds [birds and
water], you know. Just ... where as here [in the main house] it [the forest
and water sounds] seems to be ... muffled. Out there ... it's really
accentuated out there. Yeah. (2003 taped interview)
Kake villagers can hear the birds, the wind in the trees and the weather more
clearly than people in most places partly because their community is in the midst of
forest, fiords and waterways on one of the Alexander Archipelago islands. The closest
neighboring town is Petersburg, 40 air miles to the south on Mitkof Island. As of2007,
no roads connect Kake to any other community. To the west, Sitka is 50 air miles away
on BaranofIsland, and to the north, Juneau is 105 air miles away on the mainland.
KupreanofIsland is part ofa marine ecosystem, interrupted only by logging
roads, that includes hillsides ofwestern hemlock, Sitka spruce, and some red and yellow
34
cedar. Between the tree stands are muskeg (47.4 percent of the island), meadows, and
alpine tundra (above 2,500 to 3,000 feet). Most ofKake's residents can see rising hills
and mountains (mostly logged areas with new growth) out their back windows and a wide
expanse of water from their front windows. The tides ofKeku Straits run directly in front
of the village, meeting the currents ofFrederick Sound to the north.
Some of the animals that share the island with Kake people include Sitka black-
tailed deer, moose (5 Kupreanoflsland hunting permits were issued in 2007), black bears,
wolves, blue grouse, eagles, ravens, waterfowl, and shorebirds. Elk, which are not native
to Southeast Alaska, were recently planted on a nearby island and swam over to take up
residency on Kupreanof (Healy 2002; Kirchoff and Larsen 1998). Medicinal and food
vegetation include devil's club, blueberries (multiple species), huckleberries, cranberries,
Hudson's Bay Tea, and various lichens and mosses. Among the animals, fish, and tidal
creatures that share the waterways are: humpback whales, orca whales, dolphins; harbor
seals; king, coho, sockeye, chum, and pink salmon; Dungeness crab; halibut; rockfish;
sablefish; sea urchins; sea cucumbers; chitons ("gumboots"), mussels, cockles, and butter
clams. Seaweed is a favorite Kake food. Most of the fauna and flora already mentioned
are customary and traditional foods for the KeeK' Kwaan, or Kake Tlingit peoples
(Newton and Moss 1984,2005). While the KeeK' Kwaan have harvested foods for
millennia around their current village site, Kake itself became a permanent village
settlement with a school and church about a century ago (Firman and Bosworth 1990:16;
Johnson 2002:1).
A short introductory history of Kake, Alaska
The KeeK' Kwaan settled permanently in the village partly because the newly
formed territorial government of Alaska required Tlingit children to go to school. I
learned some of Kake's early history during a pickup truck tour around the village in
2003. Elder Clarence Jackson (C), described for me (fieldworker), how the present
village ofKake came to be:
c: But they [Tlingit people] settled [in Kake] sometime in the late
1800s; they made a permanent settlement here. [Before then] there
were smoke houses here, you know. People came and dried fish and
tended to their gardens. But there was ... I think I'll take you out to
McCartney and show you where my grandfathers settled here. The
first group to settle on this island came from this little beach north all
the way around this little creek here. They claimed that. But they
didn't live here. They lived in a place called Point McCartney. I don't
know if we'll go clear to it because the stench is kind ofreally bad
[the smell of dead fish being made into fertilizer]. But at least it will
give you a little appreciation for how scattered we were. And when
they decided ... the government said they would build a school for the
people, but they [the Kake people] had to come together in one spot,
and they decided this was a likely spot because they had a pretty good
panoramic view so that no one could come and try to attack them.
They were pretty conscious of intruders. WelL .. past experiences,
there was some bad ones, you know. They got people attacking them.
But the government attacked our people here too. A battleship came
in to Saginaw Bay, to my family's village, and bombed the village
and then they came here [to Kake area] and they burnt the village
down.... And for years people dug up shells and there are still some
people that have those ... especially when they were excavating they
found shells.
Fieldworker: When the people gathered in Kake because of the
school, that must have been hard to get used to.
C: Yeah. It became a little bit of a hardship because they lived where
they lived because of the food. But when they moved here the food
was pretty plentiful here. And when I think about it, you know ...
35
36
from Klukwan to Klawock this isn't a bad place. We have a lot of
everything here yet. (2003 taped conversation)
At one time, before the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, the
Kee~' Kwaan had a lot of everything at settlement and gathering sites on Kuiu Island,
KupreanofIsland, Admirality Island and on the Southeast Alaska mainland (de Laguna
1960; Maschner 1992). (See figure 1 map) After the United States claimed Alaska, non-
Tlingits confiscated land and resources in larger and larger increments, even though the
Tlingits never signed treaties with the Russians, Europeans or Americans, nor did they
sell their land (Hinckley 1996:75-77).
Key local stories of Kake history
Before the United States Navy bombed Kee~' Kwaan (Kake) villages in 1869, the
present Kake village site had been a 'neutral' gathering place for the Keex' Kwaan clans.
Kake was then called Ta' aan (sleeping town). The site was a sort of 'capital' of the
Kakes (Johnson 2003:Epilogue) "... and came alive when it was used for special
gatherings of the Kee~' Kwaan. It was used only upon occasions ofparticular
ceremony-when the Kwaan assembled in honor of the dead, or to deliberate upon some
important question ofpolicy" (Johnson 2004:2). According to the Organized Village of
Kake historian, Charles Johnson, the Tlingit name for the Kake site was derived from a
'potlatch' which the Was'eeneidi clan hosted. Feasting and protocol went on for several
days and nights so the clan leader of invited guests said, "From now on this place will be
known as 'L.ah 0'0 Xex' w~ Aan, the town where no one sleeps. The original village,
named Kee~', was located among the Keku Islands across from the present Kake. Legend
has it the area used to be much larger but was changed as a result of 'the big flood:" so
the site is now a small sandy beach" (Johnson 2004:2). The holdings and territories of the
37
Kake 'tribe', or Keex' Kwaan, are historically on Admiralty, Baranof, Kuiu and
Kupreanofislands (de Laguna 1960; Emmons 1991; Firman and Bosworth 1990:55;
Goldschmidt and Haas 1946). One result of the bombings was that people began to gather
into a single town, Kake, rather than in various family and clan villages throughout the
territories, although "it is said that Was'eeneidi clan was the fIrst to build a house after
the 'big flood' at what is now called Kake" (Johnson 2003 :Epilogue).
The story of the bombings is a common narrative told to newcomers in Kake;
each telling differs slightly. The narratives about the bombings illustrate some of the
differences in law and worldview between Europeans, Americans, and Tlingit people.
Some of these differences are still evident. Johnson explained in an interview that around
1868, some Keex' Kwaan people went to Sitka for a party or gathering. Somehow a
United States officer got killed so there was a blockade, and the Kake people were unable
to go home. Later the Kake people thought the blockade was lifted and they got into their
canoes. Through miscommunication an American guard shot at the Kake people and
killed someone of high rank. At that time, if a Tlingit person in one clan group hurt or
killed someone in a second clan group, the second group would require retribution from
the fIrst group. In this case, someone had been shot and killed, and the Americans or
Navy personnel involved owed the Kake Tlingits a life or lives or other amelioration to
balance the loss. Because the Navy commander denied the Kakes' retribution, the Kakes
found two European trappers or bear hunters in what is now called Murder Cove, and
killed them. In retaliation, the American government sent the USS Saginaw to bomb
Keex' Kwaan villages. Navy accounts describe the destruction of three settlements,
Johnson said in a 2003 interview, "but according to our eyewitness, our old people, they
actually shelled four villages." Johnson said the old people remembered that the USS
Saginaw shelled a fourth village but the shells failed to explode. Eventually the people
figured out how to disarm the shells and took them apart. "Primitive people", Johnson
said, chuckling.
38
The shelling of the fourth village is apparently unaccounted for in Navy
documents, but the bombings of three villages are described in some detail. Frederica de
Laguna (1960:98), wrote that the Navy's account was lacking in some descriptive detail,
especially concerning the forts
Johnson said:
All the written stuff said that they burned the villages, and then
shelled them. They fIred three shots into the villages. But our own
oral history ... they shelled the villages frrst and then they burned and
destroyed everything else afterwards. And the people, of course, saw
the ship coming, menacing, so they hid. They knew they were
incapable of fIghting cannons or the Army or the Navy. They
watched. Some people were on the islands. They watched the villages
being burned. Then they [the non-Tlingits] not only destroyed the
houses and the canoes, of course, they went to the village '" or to the
campsites, and they destroyed all the winter supplies; and a lot ofour
people, the Elders and the kids, perished for lack of food that winter.
The [non-Tlingits] used kerosene to start the frres to bum the villages.
And some of the people were forced to eat the food they found there
that had kerosene on it, and they were forced to eat it because there
was nothing else, you know, so people died. It is a real tragic story.
(2004 taped interview, Charles "Topsy" Johnson).
In the older Tlingit tradition, warring groups left each other with their tools and
canoes intact so that people could survive, Johnson said. When the USS Saginaw bombed
the Kake villages, the soldiers knocked holes in the canoes, took crests for souvenirs, and
destroyed the winter food supplies, according to the narratives passed on by Kee~'
Kwaan witnesses and Elders.
I heard the story about the bombings several times when I was in Kake. Often it
was told in reference to Kake Tlingits' reputation as antagonistic. Kake people sometimes
laugh about their past (and occasionally their present) reputation as fIerce and unfriendly.
A few people in Petersburg, a nearby fIshing village, tell stories about coming to Kake to
play high school basketball years ago and being chased down the street by Kake boys
39
throwing rocks. Older people in Kake recall going to Petersburg, where rocks were
thrown at them.
Mark McCallum, United States Forest Service archaeologist, who lives in
Petersburg, said the following at a gathering in Kake: "And I had come from the Bureau
ofIndian Affairs (to a new job with the USFS) and there was a strong tradition ofvaluing
the knowledge ofNative Elders and the contributions that they provided through oral
traditions and histories, and when I got to the Forest Service, I started asking around
about Kake because it seemed like a logical place for me to start some of my work, and I
started asking people in Petersburg and they said, 'Well you don't really want to go over
to Kake. Those people aren't very friendly and they'll throw rocks at you' ... and, but my
curiosity got the better of me and so I chartered a flight over and landed at Portage Bay
out at the boat harbor there, not knowing what I was getting into." McCallum continued
his narrative by describing how he was received warmly the flfst day and invited to a
family gathering. When he told his story he was speaking at the Common Ground
Conference in Kake, Oct. 4-6, 2002. The conference was an effort to improve
communications between Tlingit tribes and the United States Forest Service.
Another speaker at Common Ground Conference carried on the theme of rock-
throwing Kakes as he began his presentation. "Anyway when I flfst came to work for the
Forest Service I asked about Kake, and they tell me don't go there. People will throw
rocks at you [laughter from the audience]. But I did come. (Two men) greeted me at the
docks and they had a big bag of rocks, so ... " [more laughter].
Johnson told me more than once that the KeeK' Kwaan's repute for fierceness
may have originated among Russians and Europeans in the very early 1800s when there
was a coast-wide Native effort to rid the area of aliens such as Russians and Aleuts.
"Skirmishes began at the tum of the nineteenth century with Russian sea otter hunters
hunting around Kake's territory; only a few hunters made it out alive. Baranof, the head
40
of the Russian America Company, ordered all structures and village sites to be destroyed"
(Jackson 2003:1).
As part of a Common Grounds oratory, Mike Jackson, Kake magistrate, said the
following about Kake's reputation while he spoke to United States Forest Service
representatives and others gathered in the Kake Community Center:
But in regard to throwing rocks and stones, you look at the
ethnological roots about Kake, that big Tlingit ethnography done up
by Emmons and [the ethnography by] de Laguna ... As a matter of
fact, we had a bombardment by Baranofwhen he was over there in
Sitka. They came to the south end ofRocky Pass and they were
already in through the Klawock area and our area ... killing off all the
sea otters ... We told them to stay out of there; we warned them years
before. But they were back. So the Kake people, the different
organizations here, got together and went down and took 'em out and
let some go back and report. Well Baranoffound out and came back
and bombarded our villages. That was our contact.
And then the incident over in Sitka at the time in 1868 '" Chief
Tom, one of the (head) stones you saw out on the island [Grave Island
where people from Kake are buried], that I saw that you took a picture
of, his name was that because he was a big guy. He had a big family.
He went over to Sitka to trade. During that time there was a little thing
happening there. Not because Kake people were making a row, but it's
been documented. They [the Navy] shut down everybody. They said
[Kake people] couldn't go out of the harbor without permission. (Sitka
officials were afraid of an uprising.) We started out of the harbor
because we didn't know it. Because in the cabin there they said it was
alright to leave, but the (guard in the gun ship) didn't get the word. So
when the Kake boats were leaving, the guy said 'halt'. Halt in the Kake
language, up and down the coast, meant hello or hi or goodbye. So the
people went like this to him as they passed by the big gun ship. The
gun ship sank them. The guy (in the gun boat) took out his rifle and
shot the first guy in the front of the boat [Kake canoe]. That happened
to be Chief Tom's relative. They [the Kakes] said, "What the heck is
going on. This is hi or goodbye!"
Well in the records over there [in Sitka] about the incident, they
[the Kakes] demanded atonement. But Jefferson (the commander in
charge) didn't say anything, just told them to get out oftown. They
came around Admiralty Island on the southern end of Admiralty, a
place called Tyee to us. They came across some prospectors. We have
the names recorded. And they had two guys. Chief Tom met one
walkin' down the beach. And to them all they [the prospectors] were
like the men that shot his relative. They walked right up to them [the
prospectors] and told them what happened in Sitka and said, "You two
just happen to be our (atonement)." And they took them out. They
bundled them up and laid 'em to rest. Put their boat upside down next
to them. Didn't take any of their guns or rifles. Didn't take any of the
hooch that they have. Didn't take any ofthe ammunition or the things
they had. They laid it by them. To this day that place is called Murder
Cove. That was the third [violent] incident for the [Kake] people [with
the Russians and Americans]. They came over and bombarded us with
the battleship Saginaw. So we don't throw rocks just at anybody. Ifyou
felt a rock on your head this time at our meeting, please forgive us. It's
not our intent. But that analogy is true. When people from Kake got up
in a row, people in the Aleutians knew it, people on the coastline. But
that was then. Today we use the protocol that has started all this Native
movement throughout the last century. It wouldn't have been a land
claims if it wasn't for the ANB [Alaska Native Brotherhood]. It
wouldn't be us if there wasn't an ANB, or Alaska Native Sisterhood
[ANS]. So we use the western way to try to get our lands, to make
atonements with us. But that was the rocks.
We no longer use rocks... So don't go away saying that the war
was caused by us, or we were just looking for opponents. ChiefTom
was taken in to prison up in Juneau when they moved the capital to
Juneau. He sat in there quite awhile, some seventeen years. After a long
time the territorial judge looked at it and dismissed the case. The
attorney general said, "How come? He murdered two people over
there."
The judge said, ''No he didn't. He was practicing the law of the
land at that time." So that's a little bit of history of the Kake war that
they say we had. But this is the time that we're bringing up to you
federal people [United States Forest Service] how we're going to go
through the department of defense and ask for an atonement. Maybe
we'll hold you guys all hostage here. [laughter] But ... 'cause we have
some big guys [important USFS representatives] here. Get some TV
time. But I don't want to go too far into that because I could be held in
federal courts on felony charges. [laughter] (2002 taped speech)
41
42
Rumors ofunfriendliness and fierceness may spread through Southeast Alaska
partly because relations between Kake and its closest neighbor Petersburg are difficult,
according to Kake people. Resentment still lingers about the ways that Tlingit parents and
grandparents were treated in the predominantly non-Tlingit town of Petersburg, and
stories about racism remain part of the local narrative discourse. People in Kake accede
that non-Tlingits, for example, are often mistrusted when they first come to Kake and
until they show themselves as trustworthy. For the most part, outsiders who have no
family, friend or clan connections with people in the village may be avoided for a time.
Thus, some ofKake's reputation for unfriendly fierceness may derive from the
importance of having local connections in order to be accepted right away, a community-
wide desire to remain autonomous, and a history of contact with outsiders that forewarns
caution.
Probably the rumors that the new non-Tlingit Kake Foods salmon roe manager
(un-named in this document) heard are connected with this history of cautiousness and
occasional resentment toward outsiders. He said:
This community is a lot nicer than what I anticipated when I got here. I
heard a lot of stories about 'em. I heard a lot of rumors. And it's not true.
They're very nice people. In any city you go to, little village, you're gonna
have a few bad apples. There's no doubt about it. It happens back home.
Anywhere you go. Here I think it's more hearsay than the truth, really.
Every place I go-I go to the store, I go down to the post office, I go in the
city hall-all the fishermen, very nice. I don't get any of this that I heard,
through rumor, that it's cowboys against Indians, and it's not true. I mean
we have an intermix on the fishing fleet as it is. And they all do great
together. The tender boat's a guy from Petersburg, a white guy, and
you've got all these Natives fishing. They love him. They all get along
great. We're all here to make money and make this thing work, so no
matter what the rumors have been, none of 'em are true. As far as I can
tell. (2002 taped interview)
43
One of the first times I spoke with Kake's historian in 2002, Johnson said, with
some amusement, "There's not much written about Kake. I saw Stephen Langdon
[anthropologist] at a conference once. I asked him ifhe knew of information I could get
about Kake. He told me there's not much because people are afraid to corne here."
After the shellings in 1869, relations between non-Tlingits and KeeK' Kwaan
Tlingits continued in a new way when the Friends (Quakers) constructed Kake's first
church in 1879. At least 30 houses had been built in the village by 1903, with sawn
planking, windows, and stoves (Campbell 1988). The homes were "vividly decorated
community or clan homes with distinctly Tlingit design" (Hinckley 1996:279). Twenty
totem poles stood in three clusters. They were painted mortuary poles, some with
clothing draped on them that belonged to the deceased (Campbell: 1988).
The last government-sanctioned potlatch was held in Kake in 1902. In various
collected letters, Alaska Territorial Governor John G. Brady made it known that he was
against recognizing clans and potlatches because they were barriers to breaking up old
customs. In 1903 the governor wrote to Charles Gunnuk in Kake, "I have appointed you a
Native policeman for your village.... The Native policemen are expected to help their
people by encouraging the children to attend school, by watching whiskey makers and
smugglers, to keep their people from drinking. It is now time for the people to abandon
their old ways and customs and be ruled by the white man's laws ... " (Brady and
Gunnok, 21, March 1903). Being an appointed Native policeman to enforce white man's
law on one's own people often meant that the policeman would be persecuted and
stigmatized among his own people (Hinckley 1996:271). In 1904 the Salvation Army
arrived to convert people to Christianity, and the first school was built in Kake. The
Presbyterian Church was organized in Kake in 1912. In 1904, among the Sitkas,
Annahootz, a Sitka chief, gave a speech among the leaders of different tribes and others.
He said that there would be no more potlatches, tribal dances, or feasting and that the
Natives would accept the Christian religion and follow the customs of the white Nazarene
44
bretheren (Douglas Island News, January 19, 1905). That same year, Charles Gunnuk
worked to teach and convince people in Kake about "how to live and be civilized". Kake
people held a meeting to discuss what Charles Gunnuk was telling them. A majority at
the meeting voted to clear out the totem poles and burn the graves. "It was a very sad day.
Charlie Gunnuk stood like a brave man ... " (Stuteen: OVK Archives).
As told locally, Kake's history nearly always begins with the Kake war. It nearly
always continues with the description of how Kake leaders initiated, between 1912 and
1914, formation of a local city government. In 1910, Congress passed the Organized
Village Act. Under this act, a community could set up a form of municipal self-
government by obtaining an official charter. The act, however, did not apply to Natives,
who were excluded partly because they were not considered United States citizens.
Nevertheless, Kake Elders decided to form a local government.
Dawn Jackson, as assistant director of the Organized Village ofKake, wrote that
between 1912 and 1914 (the exact date is in debate) a group ofKake Elders boarded the
boat "Katie" to go to Wrangell and receive the charter for self-government from the
United States Customs agent stationed there. As D.H. Stuteen wrote in his document on
Kake history, and as cited in Heritage, Our Responsibility as Kee:K' Kwaan (Johnson
2003:34), "The U.S. Government requirements for eligibility for U.S. citizenship at that
time were: a government agent or at least five "civilized whites" attest, in their view,
(that) a "savage uncivilized Indian" was willing to accept and abide by the white man's
laws." Those who made the trip to Wrangell, according to Stuteen's history, "signed
papers." "Signing the papers made them the frrst Tlingit U.S. citizens from Kake." The
Elders returned to Kake to begin their municipal self governance, creating positions for a
mayor and chief ofpolice (Jackson 2003:2). "The formerly conservative village of Kake
was the frrst to obtain a charter under this Act" (Drucker 1965:222).
D. Jackson wrote, "My late grandfather, Henry Davis, recorded in his own words
the formal ceremony the village ofKake went through at the turn of the century to
45
abolish the old customs of government and adopt the new government introduced by the
Americans, a radical decision at that time. I will only add an excerpt from the recorded
tape left for our family ofwhat had been said during the ceremony" (Jackson 2003:2, 3).
Charlie Gunnuk, the new mayor, delivered his speech. He was dressed
in his best white man's clothes, a five gallon hat to go with it. There
he said, "Kake has been like a small child in the white man's way of
living, we can only crawl. We're not prepared, we have no education.
So it was like a little child that could crawl, but now with our self
government Kake is going to get on its feet, and we'll begin to walk.
The silver spike that is driven, the cover is nailed on the old custom
ways ofliving we will now be governed by white man's law." And
that is exactly what happened. The white man's law went beyond the
authority of the Tlingit chiefs so some of them see it that there was no
necessity for chiefs anymore. For one thing it was already sealed and
nailed shut to any Indian ceremonies, a penalty was set if anyone put
on a ceremony. And so the practice of selecting chiefs died with the
coming of the white man's law. (Davis 1977, personal family
archives)
Organized Village ofKake archives include the words of Charles S. Newton, who
spoke about preparing for the day of the ceremony. People built a boardwalk to show that
they had started a new life. They left one plank unnailed. During the ceremony Charles S.
Newton's first wife put the final spike into the final board. It was a silver spike and the
mayor said, "Now we pack up our old life like a box and put a cover on and nail it on and
put it away." According to C. S. Newton, the boardwalk was dedicated January 8, 1912
with a parade and speeches. (The exact date is in debate.) C. S. Newton spoke about why
the decision was made to bum the totem poles and put away the old life. He said that the
teacher at the school and the minister told Kake people that they could not be United
States citizens without becoming like white people. Without giving up the old ways,
people in Kake would be unable to obey the laws and rules of the new government.
School would help people learn how to keep the rules.
46
C. S. Newton said that he knew Metlakatla had a council and a jail to rule its
people, and Kake could do the same. Newton described how people in Kake argued:
"some people don't like to leave old uncles law, totem and old fashions. Then there was
argument against each other. We made them put down names, who's willing. We elect
council and we been talking old customs. We had school, minister and we should learn
how to live. It has been brought to us all we got to do is receive it and become citizen.
Otherwise they can't put something unless we live right. We have to live modem. Some
old still did not agree," (Garfield 1945). IAccording to Elder Albert Davis, in his talk
with an anthropology class at Kake High School in the early 1980s, C. S. Newton, as a
young man, attended Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon, where he knew Edward
Marsden and Rod Davis ofMetlakatla. These men told C. S. Newton about their
community's system of self-govemanee through having a city counciL C. S. Newton's
desire to form a local govemment may have been inspired through his relationship with
Marsden and Davis, according to A. Davis.
Gerald Marr (1998: 132) pointed out the paradox ofnailing down the plank in the
boardwalk to " ... pack up our old life like a box and put a cover on and nail it on and put
it away." The purpose ofboxes in Tlingit culture is to preserve rather than discard.
Preserving, discarding, adapting and revitalizing what it means to be Tlingit or Native are
part ofan ever present tension in Kake (Marr 1998).
Paradoxes ofNative identity include being forced to view one's culture in narrow
legal terms. There exists a recurring Native experience of feeling the necessity to
abandon or oppose aspects of the very culture that is, at the same time, one's own
(Dombrowski 2001:183).
Dawn Jackson wrote the following about the paradoxes ofKake's history and
filling the voids left by "nailing down the box."
I Viola Garfield's unpublished papers at the University of Washington Archives. Ms. Garfield had
interviewed people in Kake for use in preparing her dissertation for her doctorate degree in 1946.
47
Since contact with outside cultures Kake has had a strong foot in both
worlds, which often times were/are very conflicting. The Native
community of Kake has always been a headstrong, determined
community. It was a very hard decision for the local Elders of Kake to
adopt western government, for they knew the local history and culture
had to be moved aside to move forward in an inevitable world ofD.S.
government. Although it isn't stated much, due to the pain of that part
of our history, people mourned the passage of the old
cultural/governing ways when the poles were chopped down and
burned for the coming of the new government. Since the inception of
local government, the old-timers always emphasized education to the
younger generations so that local people could better situate
themselves in U.S. government and life (Jackson 2003:4-5).
D. Jackson's grandfather, the late Thomas L. Jackson, Sr., continually stressed to
his children and grandchildren how important it was for them to get an outside education
and bring back tools so Kake could succeed in the changing world. He saw outside
education as an investment for the future. T. Jackson, Sr., gave a speech at D. Jackson's
high school graduation in 1989, where he said:
Education was brought among a few of our people by the Friends
Church. Later the Bureau of Indian Affairs built a school here in the
year of 1912. I would venture to say it is less than one hundred years
since we began to learn the English language, as well as what we call
the new civilization. Sometimes I wonder if we would have
accomplished more if we retained most of our lifestyle along with the
education we received. For those of you who have not given much
thought, we as Tlingit, Haidas, and Alaskan Natives are a tribal
people even though we think our traditional culture is dead and many
of our ancient ways have been lost. But it's just as certain that many
of our ancient values and customs have survived, or they have as we
incorporate them into our new ways. It is imbedded in the back of our
minds whether we are aware of it or not. All cultures change, and if a
culture is to survive it must have the ability to adapt and change. I
maintain that our Southeast cultures have demonstrated this ability
48
and, as such, persist as culturally distinct societies (Jackson 2003:4,
5).
One way that Kake people worked to protect their land and their integrity as a
community after driving the silver spike was to form a Kake charter, in 1914, with the
Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp (ANB). Through ANB, people participated in
promoting and exerting rights for Native people locally and regionally (Jackson 2003:3).
Many people began to avoid the old ways, but they acted in support ofNative rights to be
citizens, to vote and to be represented in government. They refused to give up their ties
with the land. A report in the December 10, 1913, Petersburg newspaper, The
Progressive, titled "Natives ofKake Withdraw: Have started a store by themselves,"
outlines Kake residents' determination to stay on their land. In November, 1913, the
superintendent ofIndian Schools visited Kake and proposed that the whole Native
population move to Klawock permanently. The purpose of such a move was to
consolidate government Indian schools because the government could not provide
financially for a school in each community. "This the Natives ofKake refused to
consider. Good many have lived there for years, have their homes, where they have
buried their dead relatives and friends" (The Progressive: 1913).2
After the superintendent's proposal, Kake people decided to set up their own
general merchandise store to become more self-sufficient. They planned to build their
own sawmill and cannery. They also applied formally to the Bureau ofEducation for
their own reserve (The Progressive: 1913). The United States Forest Service suggested a
smaller reservation than Kake requested, but Kake people said that "the reservation
proposed by the Forest Department is just large enough to give outsiders the chance to
call them "Reservation Indians" and not large enough to do them any good." (Firman and
Bosworth 1990:20). People built their city hall, a cooperative sawmill, cannery buildings,
2 This information is gathered from Charles Johnson's Heritage: Kee:&' Kwaan - A Conspectus. OVK
Archives (2002 Draft).
49
roadways, fishing boats, and homes and formed a Kake band. By 1919 several boys from
Kake left to attend the Chemawa Boarding School in Oregon. In the meantime, Kake
men, who had participated as soldiers in World War II, were given United States
citizenship (Johnson 2003:44).
In addition to working toward community self-reliance, Kake representatives
increasingly joined forces with other ANB and the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS)
chapters to further politicize the organization. The goal of the organization before 1920
had been civilization through assimilation, but by the 1920s, ANB leadership was
pursuing admission ofIndian children to white schools and securing land titles, fishing
rights, voting rights, and legal representation (Drucker 1958).
A major turning point in Kake history was the fire in 1926 that destroyed at least
three-quarters of the village before it was contained. Twenty-one homes were burned and
92 people were left homeless after a [lYe started at Stewart's store and spread to an
adjoining building where it ignited 50 gallons of gasoline (The Alaska Daily
Empire: 1926). Most of the village men were out fishing when the [lYe occurred. Cannery
workers tried to fight the fire but there was no water available in town, as the creek from
which the village got its water was low. There were no fatalities. In response, the Juneau
Chamber of Commerce, the town ofPetersburg, and others immediately shipped tents,
clothing, food and other supplies to help. As The Alaska Weekly put it on September 17,
1926, " ... with the [me progressive spirit that the people of Kake have shown in the past
it will not be long before they will have a bigger and better town. In the meantime there
will be those who will be left destitute and without the necessities of comfort. Alaskans
have always been big hearted in such hours ofdistress and need and we know that the
good people ofKake will have the sympathy of all Alaskans" (Johnson 2003:52-53).
Nathalie Austin interviewed her great-grandmother Amy Paul about the [lYe. This
is an excerpt from the interview as published in KeeJ.' Kwaan: In our Own Words.
50
Well, in that time, the boats were comin' in late ... They saw the
black smoke so they knew what happened. And my father and them
came back and it was still smoking. Our house was gone already. Oh,
my father was just broken-hearted. All the things he bought for the
winter, everything burned. There was a store there, the owner's name
was Stewart, he was kind of old; he was drunk, too, at the time. He's
the one that started the fIre. He lost his entire store and all his things
burned down. Anyway, a Red Cross boat came-a big ship with
supplies. There was food, all kinds, kids' clothes and a tent. That's
when my father broke down when they gave us a tent to live in. My
father didn't like it. Seth Williams is the one that came to my father
and he wanted us to stay in his house upstairs. It's kind of cold, you
know, after September.
The following year my father started to build a home. My
father-in-law, Lawrence Paul, he was the town mayor that time and he
was fIshing at Pybus Bay, and he came back from the fIshing ground,
and he came and took a scow to Wrangell. He made two or three trips
for people, the board he was towing in. That's where the lumber came
from. He came and towed it in for my father and start building a
home. The people started building homes. It wasn't like now; it's not
insulated homes. It's just plain. Long time ago, there was no
insulation. But we survived (Organized Village ofKake [OVK]
1989:9).
By 1927 the entire town of Kake began to work on building a new dam so the
town would have a water system and water for fIre protection. They also worked on
installing a power unit for an electric light system. Petersburg's newspaper The Alaskan
wrote in a celebratory tone, "The entire project ofmaking the dam, laying pipeline and
installation of engine equipment is under the supervision of 'illiterate Indians '" (The
Alaskan: 1927).
Archived materials and newspaper reports often describe Kake as a community of
self-suffIcient people who together constructed roads, buildings, and boats together.
Autonomy remained a community goal in 1944 when Kake, Klawock and Hydaburg
petitioned the United States government for the right to form reservations that would
include the lands traditionally belonging to them. The petition was declined. In 1947,
51
under the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), Kake formed the Organized Village ofKake
(OVK), with IRA tribal status and rights (Jackson 2003:3,4). At fIrst the IRA tribe
focused on buying the local cannery that had just been closed down by its non-Tlingit
owners. Through IRA assistance from a revolving loan fund, OVK was able to buy the
cannery for $362,360. The plant was renamed Keku Canning Company (Firman and
Bosworth 1990:34). The tribe worked to keep the cannery going until the late 1970s,
when it was closed after several poor fIshing seasons. Other problems included lack of
operating money, and a changing market that preferred frozen fIsh rather than canned fIsh
(Firman and Bosworth 1990:34).
The tribe increased its autonomy and was given the resources to do so through the
United States Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, passed as Public
Law 93-638 in 1975. Through grants and contracts, the law encourages tribes to assume
administrative responsibility for federally funded programs that were designed for their
benefIt and that previously were administered by employees of the BIA and the United
States Indian Health Service. Kake chose to be separate, in many respects, from the
Tlingit and Haida Council, formed to help administer grants and contracts for Native
peoples in Southeast Alaska. The Organized Village ofKake writes and administers its
own grants and contracts for onsite services for education, employment assistance,
training/counseling, social services, tribal operations and housing improvement,
economic development, and the realty and natural resources program, which focuses on
protecting local customary and traditional gathering areas for subsistence. The OVK staff
also works to monitor and advocate for protecting cultural, archaeological, and historical
sites for the benefIt of the tribe (Jackson 2003:3-4).
SignifIcantly, Kake people's recent work in peacemaking and restorative justice
in order to heal their community of turmoil caused through alcohol, drug abuse, domestic
violence, despair and other illness has gained regional, state, national, and international
attention (Alaska Department ofHealth and Social Services 2002; Boston Research
52
Center 2005; Honoring Nations 2003; Reiger 2001). Kake's young people are often asked
to teach their peacemaking skills in other communities, including Petersburg. Kake adults
practice and teach how to build community and heal relationships through Healing Heart
and Circle Peacemaking.
In the 1970s Tlingit and Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) began the
work ofbuilding new homes in Kake and elsewhere. Southeast Alaska Regional Health
Corporation (SEARCH) was established to bring improved health care to Native people
and included the building and support ofKake's SEARCH clinic.
Kake Tribal Corporation (KTC) formed in the 1970s under the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act and began its logging operations, both on KTC lands and in
conjunction with Sealaska Corporation on its lands. The corporation built and opened up
Kake Foods, a cold storage operation to process and market fish. In 2004, logging
operations and the cold storage were shut down. Based on local population counts, at
least a quarter of the town's residents had moved by 2006 to fmd jobs in Juneau,
Anchorage, Seattle, and elsewhere. (See appendix GG for a brieftimeline ofEuro-
American contact)
Map 1. Map of Kake from the DOT Northern Panhandle Study
This is an Alaska Department ofTransportation map from the study
referred to in appendix J.
53
.
D
"'"
"'-. '" v
Kake
'*
fiGURE 7-1
Kake Vicinity Map
Northern Panhandle Community
Transportation Assessment Heport
7-1
54
CHAPTER III
LAW AND DECISION-MAKING ENTITIES
When we were growing up ... we were taughtfrom the time we could understand ... to
respect our Elders. The reasons why. ... Well, for one thing, it was always important to
behave ourselves because we respected our clan. And we were always taught to respect
the opposite clan because it was the clan ofourfathers. We belong to our mother's clan.
(2002 taped interview, Elder man)
In general, this study is directed at understanding how "official" government and
corporate ways of communicating alter local words and stories, so a summary of local
government entities that are linked to state government is a necessary place to start. The
information for this chapter was gathered largely from anthropological and other
accounts of the more traditional Tlingit legal and social system. Information was also
collected from descriptions of state expectations of local city government, and from tribal
employee descriptions of Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) tribal jurisdiction and
authority.
An overview of historical changes in law, government, and decision-making
processes is a crucial component for addressing the difficulties of overlaying a
predominantly non-Tlingit legal and corporate system onto a village where people
value(d) the word and advice ofElders, and where problem-solving and decision-making
were ideally accomplished through talking things out face-to-face within and among
families. The non-Tlingit system, with its insistence on majority voting and
representation by a few, often exacerbates the alienation of some families from the
decision-making process and the domination of a few large families in political positions.
The situation is similar in other Native villages, according to Thornton (2002),
Dombrowski (2001), and some state legislators who represent Native communities.
55
While past Tlingit systems were hierarchical in nature, several people that I talked
with felt that their grandparents worked carefully to be more respectful and inclusive
while making decisions. Tom Jackson, in his interview for the book Kee~'Kwaan: In
Our Own Words, said that Kake was an exciting place in the early 20th century. "People
used to stand around on the street, on the boardwalk, discussing problems that we had in
the community, and what needs to be done. The people was just united, all of them"
(1989: 16). One of my readers pointed out that Jackson's and other accounts of town
meetings where everyone attended and had a voice, are somewhat nostalgic. This may be
true, but nostalgia in this case expresses an ideal. No group ofpeople fully lives up to its
ideals, but ideals set a standard of expectations. Other Kake people that I talked with
remembered past town meetings in the same way, saying that such meetings are fewer
now and less well attended.
In times past, Elders were tremendously important in keeping the peace.
People remember their grandparents' quiet and respectful enforcement of socially
acceptable behavior, their work as counselors and advisors, and how Elders shared
knowledge and taught narrative. Although most people in Kake say that respect for
Elders has faded, I found that young people showed a greater respect for their
parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other older people than do young people in
other communities ofmy experience. Some Elders say that young people no longer
have a desire to learn the language, the stories, and the older ways of living. In truth,
younger people tend to be ambivalent about the older ways. I witnessed local efforts
to include grandparents, uncles, aunts and other older people in community events.
The tribal historian and others were working hard to collect knowledge that Elders
were willing to share. People often made sure that older people knew they were
honored in special events and celebrations. In several families, younger relatives
devoted energy and time to helping their parents and grandparents through the last
stages of their lives.
One young woman, who spends time thinking about and studying Kake
relations with United States law, told me how non-Tlingit legal representatives
historically misunderstood the importance of Elders' voices. In a sense, non-Tlingit
lack of respect for the value ofElders contributed to the partial undermining of the
Elders' role in current social, political and legal decisions, but tribal and other Kake
representatives are working to revive the Elders' roles.
Overview of Tlingit decision-making processes and laws
Traditionally, strict formal laws governed the relations between clans, but
formal laws did not apply to the decision-making and internal affairs between
individuals and houses (WorlI998:226). The choosing of leaders as representatives
in clan affairs, and everyday relationships were governed through Tlingit laws and
values that everyone learned and knew. After the United States Navy bombed Kake
villages, and after incorporating as a city, the formal clan laws fell away in Kake, but
many "unofficial" laws have endured and are still evident in day-to-day interactions
and special events. Thornton (2002: 169-176) described Tlingit sociopolitical
organization in the 1700s until the mid 1800s when Southeast Alaska was
experiencing European and Russian contact. Frederica de Laguna (1960, 1972) is
also a primary source for better understanding Tlingit legal systems. The following is
a summary from Thornton (2002) ofTlingit system parts.
1) Nation (Lingit)
The Lingit had only weak political status, but joined people through
common language and culture.
2) Moiety (no Tlingit term)
56
57
The moiety was a means for organizing the reciprocal exchange in ritual
politics. In Kake, Tlingit people are either of the Eagle Moiety or the
Raven Moiety.
3) Kwaan village/region (kwaan means "to dwell")
Villages were usually places that people inhabited together rather than
important political units.
4) Clan (naa)
The clan was central as a sociopolitical entity. Clan membership was
matrilineal. Clans were essential for individual and group identity. Clans
were "caretakers" and "belonged" to particular physical properties and
resource areas. Clans rather than villages "made war and peace,
conducted rituals, and organized material production" (Thornton
2002:172). A single clan might be represented in several non-adjacent
villages or kwaans.
5) House group (hit)
The house group included those people who lived in one house,
especially those people who were part of a segment of a matrilineage.
6) Person (kaa) (persons were ranked)
People were born with their social status. Highborn Tlingits were given
names and titles that were reserved for, and indicated, status (Kan 1998,
1999:10-11; Thornton 2002).
Thornton (2002:188-190) concluded that in the 21 st century, the Tlingit
sociopolitical system has grown in complexity since non-Tlingit contact. In addition to
the six aboriginal political entities, Tlingit sociopolitical organization is made up of six
newer units as well. The power balance shifted, in the last century, to the village (kwaan).
Villages instead became central political entities because of federal requirements that
58
children attend public school and with the fonnation of the Alaska Native Brotherhood
and Sisterhood camps. Village political entities also gained in strength with the federal
passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) in the 1930s. The clan had been the
strongest Tlingit legal organization, but with the IRA, tribal powers were largely focused
on villages (Thornton 2002: 182). Sociopolitical entities organized in the 20th to the 21 st
century include:
7) IRA/tribal governments that have sovereign powers and access to federal
resources.
8) ANCSA (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) village corporations
9) ANCSA regional corporation (Sealaska)
10) Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes ofAlaska (CCTHITA)
11) Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Sisterhood (ANS)
12) Alaska Federation ofNatives (AFN)
Thornton ended his description ofTlingit sociopolitical complexities by writing,
Tlingit sociopolitical organization has become so intricate, elaborate,
and entangled that it risks becoming stagnant and inefficient, if not
retrograde or maladaptive.... In the past, Tlingit sociopolitical
organization has been almost uncanny in its ability to adapt to
environmental pressures and sociopolitical changes.... In fact, the
proliferation of Tlingit and other Alaska Native political and quasi-
political institutions (not to mention those representing all Native
American and indigenous peoples) is almost dizzying. In barely two
centuries of contact, Tlingit sociopolitical structure has been
transformed from a complex, six-level polity to an even more
dynamic and complicated political organization with at least a dozen
layers. While new layers have been added, none have been taken
away_ Even clan and house group affiliation still playa strong role,
and will likely to continue to do so in the identity politics framework
of the post-modem age. (Thornton 2002:188-191)
59
In Kake, the 20th century political formations of a tribal corporation, an
incorporated city and a tribal government all involved various procedural and
symbolic omissions of older ways of governing. According to state and federal
mandates, decision-making processes within city, tribe, and the tribal corporation
should comply with United States legal standards. These include majority voting by
elected representatives. Under U.S. procedural models of decision-making, the
Tlingit "unofficial" law priority of family and clan negotiation, talk and more
negotiation, was systematically weakened, although it continues to operate in the
political background, and in other Tlingit relationship practices.
State and federal governing bodies primarily recognize and communicate
with local Kake entities that follow "official" legal procedures. However, many Kake
people tend to appreciate a different set ofrepresentational priorities, such as the
importance of family and Elders. Local expectations lead to problem-solving
methods that are often considered invalid in formal legal processes. Based on my
experiences and observations in Kake, one result of this clash oflocal philosophy
with official state political methodology is a sense of mistrust and pessimism in Kake
toward local and state leadership and governing entities. Unfortunately, mistrust is a
major hurdle for problem-solving during a time of increasing economic crisis. People
in local governing entities are aware of the issues and are working to unify problem-
solving efforts (Hibbard and Adkins 2005:7-9). (See appendices Band C for
description ofTlingit and state/corporate-based Kake governing entities.)
Local tension results partly from decades of trying to live with incompatible
values. Another source of conflict is the separation of leadership jurisdiction that mirrors
separation ofauthority in a wider political arena. The three major governing entities in
Kake include the city, the IRA tribe, and the ANCSA corporation. The State ofAlaska
communicates with the city of Kake for some purposes and the tribal corporation and the
school district for other purposes. Some branches ofAlaska state government are
60
reluctant to participate in government-to-government relations with Alaska tribes like the
Organized Village ofKake, and they often fail to empower the tribe in state
conversations. The federal Bureau ofIndian Affairs communicates primarily with the
IRA tribe rather than the city. Separation ofjurisdiction fosters competition and
territorialism and constrains the ability of the three major governing entities to cooperate.
This is often the case in many or most United States communities, Native and non-
Native. Everyday narrative in Kake includes critical themes about how people
representing the tribe, the tribal corporation, and the city often work in opposition to each
other. In reality, local governance is competitive and sometimes antagonistic, but not
always.
A basic proposition in discourse theory is that antagonisms, such as those in
Kake, show the points where identity is no longer fixed in a specific system, but
contested by forces that stand outside, or at the very limit, of that order (Norval
1997). Antagonisms reveal limit points in society through which social meaning is
contested and which cannot be stabilized without change (Howarth and Stavrakakis
2000:9). In Kake, ''unofficial'' Tlingit law has been contested by outside forces for at
least fifteen decades, but by the latter part of the 1980s, some groups openly
questioned the values behind the decisions of outside legal and economic entities. In
the 1990s and the early part of the 21 st century, revitalization of older Tlingit values
is growing stronger, stimulating a new and expanded sense ofunderlying tension.
Current political conditions and "unofficial" laws in Kake
Throughout my fieldwork experience I heard about and observed the "spinning
wheels" of leadership in the IRA tribe, the tribal corporation and the city government.
Because the goals and purposes of the IRA tribe, the tribal corporation and the city are
61
felt to be philosophically opposed, and because of family loyalties, the three governing
entities resisted meeting and working together. Social and economic issues were often
decided separately within boards and councils rather than jointly in ways that took into
consideration the interrelationship of local concerns. This situation is replicated to
various degrees in nearly all small and large communities in the United States, Native
and non-Native. In Kake, polarization ofleadership is often performed up close and
personal and exemplifies the juxtaposition between Tlingit laws and "official" laws and
the legal entities formed around "official" United States and Alaska state laws.
Presently Kake and some other tribes find solutions to many social problems
through autonomy and a philosophy of "self-determination." In the meantime, state
lawmakers periodically propose that local governing forces be consolidated regionally.
Federal legislators periodically campaign for regionalization of tribal social programs and
regionalization of city functions into boroughs. Creating new elected positions on
regional boards and councils would likely constrict autonomy and "self-determination"
and further divide or significantly weaken community leadership. Local, "bottom up"
cooperative problem-solving would likely become even more difficult than it is now,
further disengaging the decision-making process from ''unofficial'' laws and values.
Based on fieldwork in Kake, I can identify several traditional values that are manifest in
present day ''unofficial'' or community laws.
Two sets of recent conversations in Kake exemplify how Tlingit laws influence
leadership and cooperation. During the Dog Salmon Festival in July 2004 an Elder
pointed out a "real" Tlingit chief among the dancers from Juneau. I asked him if anyone
in Kake is considered a "real" chief He told me "no," but there are "pretenders". He said
that when Kake people decided to give up their Tlingit ways in 1912, they gave up
having chiefs. In other conversations he described the attributes of a Tlingit chief. First
the chief needed to take care of and repair his house every year and there should be
62
smoke coming out of his chimney. Second, his job was to respect the will of the people
with humility and not for personal gain.
Chief, of course, is an English language term with all of its implied meanings.
Even before 1912 there were no chiefs. "There were just men put forward by the clan to
represent them and, by consensus3 put forward by the village, to represent them for a
specific doing" (phone discussion with Mike Jackson 2005). There were specialists in
every area of life from planting to warriors to medicines, and there were specialists for
every community gathering (Mike Jackson 2005).
Several older people in Kake remember how leadership was practiced after Kake
became a city in 1912, when they were children. One Tlingit woman in her late middle
years described in 2004 how people often solved community problems by calling a
community meeting. Everyone in the village was invited and most people came and
participated, she said. Family representatives had the opportunity to express how they
saw issues and what they thought should be done. The leaders made the [mal
recommendations/decisions, but their decisions were based more upon community
"consensus" and the ''will of the people" than they are now, according to Kake's
historian. The leaders' decisions were generally followed because within family groups
and clans young people were educated to respect their Elders, said the historian and
others that I interviewed.
Although Kake renounced its Tlingit ways in 1912, a study of the village shows
that a decision to give up traditional laws does not make ''unofficial'' Tlingit laws
disappear. They remain a part of behavioral expectations and they influence the ability of
3 The word consensus is used periodically in this chapter because it is a word used often in Kake, especially
among people involved with tribal programs that include restorative justice, Culture Camp, and the Youth
Center. The fieldworker and dissertation writer uses the word in the context within which several people in
Kake use it. The ways that people perceive their own heritage and past and present methods of decision
making belong to them. What all people bring out of their past to describe the present is part of the process
of re-articulating ideology in the context of change and crises. It is not for me to judge whether or not pure
consensus is possible or occurred in the past because such a judgment disempowers what people are
working to do in the present. There exist ranges of consensus practices.
63
ANeSA corporation, tribal, and city leaders to adhere to "official" laws that are in
conflict with local values.
Four Tlingit laws
Here I summarize four laws that were a part of local behavioral expectations that I
identified in conversations between 2003 and 2007, although they were followed to
various degrees by individuals.
I) The inter-relationship of respect for Elders as leaders, belief in the importance
of the will of the people, and belief in the importance of decision-making
through talk within and between families.
2) The importance offamily loyalty, sharing, "pride", and particular reciprocal
responsibilities between families, and, at special times, between clans and
moieties. (See chapter 9)
3) The practice of helping those in need and assisting those who have
experienced losses. (See chapter 9)
4) The values ofrespect for animals, plants, the earth and especially for
traditional and customary foods. Such values are ideologically interwoven
with the values of taking only what is needed from the environment and
thanking the creatures, plants and landforms for their help and offerings. (See
section two, chapters 6 and 7)
Because expectations related to these laws continue to influence Kake people,
their lives are partially situated in the ideals of older resource distribution practices and
social relationship expectations. Such Tlingit ideals and practices often diverge from the
practices and expectations of the state and federal legislative, regulatory and enforcement
64
system inherent in corporate businesses and government agencies. As stated before, one
result of living within and between local, Tlingit ideals and American capitalocentric4
ideals (based in capitalistic assumptions of competitive individualism) is that local
leadership can be fragmented.
Most community-wide gatherings now are funeral dinners, what are called 40-day
dinners, and payback dinners. Funeral dinners are well attended and they adhere to
Tlingit protocol (Kan 1999), as understood in the twenty-fIrst century. They include the
common distribution of labor between families, clans and moieties, and they demonstrate
that Kake people have maintained several organizational networks that might aid in more
unifIed decision-making.
Presently, political decisions are made through the elected offIcials ofboards and
councils in the tribe, corporation and city. Typically people are highly critical of those
who serve on boards, councils and committees. The council and board members'
motivations and rights to make decisions are questioned on a daily basis. People say that
the representatives are almost always elected because they have big families who vote for
them out of loyalty. Some people say that one large family runs the corporation, the city
and the tribe. Others point out that a different large family runs each entity, but that they
are intermarried.
Leadership through respected Elders, such as clan leaders, still seems to be the
decision-making ideal, and such leadership is sometimes practiced indirectly. Older
people, as youngsters, were taught the importance ofrespecting Elders as leaders. In the
past, the respected leaders were Elders who demonstrated through life that they were
trustworthy, humble, good listeners, respectful to others, and generous with what they
had, according to the tribe historian. Family and clan loyalty made sense in older Tlingit
4 Capitalocentric. (Fournier 2006:295). A word similar to ethnocentric. Instead of meaning that people
generally believe their culture and group is the most intelliegent, civilized, moral etc., capitalocentric is a
word to describe people who believe that their neoliberal economic strategies are the most intelligent,
efficient, and superior. Capitalocentric can refer to people who believe that capitalism explains all human
behavior. This view point becomes, then, an ideology, a belief system.
65
legal matters and carries over into current political leadership. In contrast, the United
States political system relies heavily on individuals as voters rather than families and
clans as voting units. To overlay the United States leadership system on top ofthe Tlingit
system creates inconsistencies that are difficult to resolve. Again, many village people
told me that legal power in Kake is distributed unfairly because the elected leadership of
their corporation and government entities is based upon familial loyalties. Family loyalty
is a strong Tlingit value. Dombrowski (200 I), Thornton (2002), and some legislators who
serve Tlingit communities have observed that strong families or lineages are primary
leaders in other Tlingit villages too. Interestingly, for more than 20 years the mayor of
Kake was the same non-Native man, who retained much of his non-Tlingit identity.
When I was in Kake, the new mayor, the superintendent, and the tribal administrator
were all ofEuropean descent. All had lived in Kake for many years but were not raised in
Alaska. As leaders, they were mostly non-voting members of boards and councils. The
mayor only voted to break a tie. These men had grown up in Euro-American
communities and served as local translators of the non-Native legal system and
bureaucratization in Kake. I heard less criticism about the non-Native leaders, perhaps
because they had fewer family ties and shorter histories in the village. Board and council
representatives tended to be Native.
Most people on the island agree that ANCSA further exacerbated local divisions.
Several tribal and city representatives said that without the corporation Kake people
could have learned to govern with greater community cooperation. The ANCSA
corporation became a wedge between them, people said. One young Tlingit woman, who
works in local government, talked about what it might have been like ifKee;K' Kwaan
lands were managed through the tribe rather than a profit-centered corporation.
1'd like to think it [Kake] would be more unified, because it is a unified
community, but with the corporation and then the tribe and then the
municipality, I think without the corporation here, it would have given us [the
tribe] an opportunity to work with the city on trying to adjust some of our
66
needs. And I think it would have made us a stronger community because the
corporation has really caused local people to fight. It would have just been
one whole community adjusting to community needs as a group instead of ...
. (2003 taped interview)
One man who was not raised in Kake, but who is involved in tribal government,
described, in 2003, the polarity of missions between the tribe and the corporation. Kake
Tribal Corporation exists to make money for shareholders. At least half of the
corporation's shareholders do not live in Kake. The mission of the tribe is to take care of
the people living in Kake, he said. A Tlingit woman, who also works in local
government, added to the man's description oflocal political circumstances. She said,
The corporation is just too different. ... If they started to change their
mission, then they'd be looking at a value and a spirituality and
environmental issues [together], and they can't afford to go there if they want
to make money, in their eyes. (2003 taped interview)
The man answered,
Well, I think that's just being pushed into the corporate world. The for-profit
world. You know you don't have a choice. Because that's your survival. You
know that's not to say that philosophically they [corporation leaders] might
not have some traditional values ... (2003 taped interview)
According to my own observations and conversations with people, the city and
the tribe seemed better able to negotiate than did the tribe and the corporation, for
example. City personnel said that they could negotiate and work with the corporation
more easily than could the tribe because the city's mission is more closely linked with
state legaVcorporate mandates.
Mitchell described inevitable cultural changes because of corporate management
of land resources.
67
The social values embodied in the corporate form of organization are well
known: the transformation ofhuman beings into "shareholders," the
transformation of land into an "asset" valued by its worth in the cash
economy, the duty that a board of directors owes to a fictitious entity-the
corporation-rather than to human beings who own the corporation's
stock, .... the equation of success with profitability (MitchellI997:12).
Corporate profit-oriented values clashed with traditional Native values that were
(are) based in a subsistence economy. In the past, economic social status was measured
through hunting, gathering, processing and distribution of wealth rather than retention of
wealth (de Laguna 1972; Mitchell 1997; Oberg 1973).
Native peoples were part of the negotiation for ANCSA, but in Kake people say
that no one knew what the changes would mean. It is primarily through corporate
affiliation that the forest around Kake has been logged extensively. Despite its logging
efforts, Kake Tribal Corporation declared bankruptcy in 1999, then set up a plan to pay
offdebts and reorganize in order to become solvent. In 2004 Kake Tribal Corporation
and the regional Sealaska Corporation shut down logging operations in the Kake area.
Kake Tribal Corporation's fishing enterprises in Kake were also shut down. As of2007,
the corporation remained insoIvent.
Most significantly, ANCSA has been a major factor in how Tlingit people see
themselves as indigenous. Dombrowski (2002) addresses ANCSA's role in how
indigenousness is defined and manipulated at the state and corporate level. Local conflict
over the social, economic, and environmental changes are also huge factors in
indigenous, regional, state, and national politics, according to Dombrowski and others.
In awarding indigenous groups important and valuable resources (on the
assumption that they will use them in ways foreseen by states and their
industry allies), states risk empowering these groups and potentially
creating political and economic dynamics beyond their original vision.
Development forces therefore seek to capitalize on divisions within a
community to ensure continuing cooperation. By encouraging some
68
cultural projects and not others, some visions of alternaty and not others,
states and their allies can be relatively assured that development will
continue regardless of the individual, moral or emotional costs for those
subject to it (Dombrowski 2002: 1068).
Western culture and institutions, logging and commercial fishing have influenced
social and economic priorities in Kake so that some residents, in 2004, were looking for
more resource extraction, cash-economy options to supplement or replace logging. For
many Kake people, corporate logging resulted primarily in short-term wealth and a long-
term loss of old growth forest resources. In reference to the last 20 years, Kake people
often said they had little knowledge of how to operate in a market exchange economy.
The corporate world was thrust upon them. Some saw dependence on money as
inherently leading to overexploitation ofresources. While several Kake residents, usually
associated with the corporation, wanted logging to continue on federal lands for the sake
of the Kake economy, others, usually associated with the tribe, wanted the USFS to stop
offering federal forest timber sales on Kupreanof and Kuiu islands.
One young man felt that the tribe could have helped the corporation stay solvent
through federal grants ifpeople in the two entities had been more cooperative. After the
corporation closed down in March 2004, this man described the corporation's reputation
in Kake. His is a typical representation of how people felt about their corporation over the
years. He said:
I don't think they've set a very good example for your youth. I can go into
the high school right now and ask those kids, and overwhelmingly, I can
guarantee you, I will get a negative response about Kake Tribal
(Corporation). I can go into the junior high and ask those kids what they think
ofKake Tribal (Corporation) right now, and overwhelmingly you're gonna
get a negative report. What's that going to do to Kake in ten years when those
kids are looking for jobs? Will they ever trust Kake Tribal? Will they feel
like champions because they might be able to help Kake Tribal in the future,
like the young men my age feel right now? They think, man, if! could just
catch some more fish. If I could just make this happen, we could get our
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wheels spinning again, and we can get back on the road. I can guarantee you
my son, who's gonna be a shareholder, will not feel that way. He will want to
remove himself as far away from Kake Tribal as possible. And that's a bad
thing. They've never done anything good for him. He won't trust them.
That's the way he's gonna feel, and not because of anything I've ever said.
I've only said good things to him about that corporation. But I listen to him
talk to his friends who are fishermen too, same age. They don't have anything
good to say. That hurts. That hurts Kake. (2004 taped interview)
When I was in Kake, the tribe, the tribal corporation, and the city leaders often
felt at odds within the ideological frames of reference through which their missions were
explained and practiced. Finding common ground was often difficult. I talked with
corporation leaders in their offices about their five year plans, new marketing plans, and
their belief that logging was not as destructive as environmentalists supposed. These
same people participated as leaders in mortuary dinners and other events. I talked with
tribal leaders who felt that with a closer adherence to older ideologies, the community
could create a sustainable economic base without depending upon boom and bust
resource extraction. I talked with city leaders who exhibited various degrees of alliance
with, or opposition to, corporate and/or tribal goals. Local people often saw their leaders
as ineffective, because, they said, leadership as fragmented.
In August 2004, I began asking people which members of the community they
would respect as leaders. Some people could name one or two who tended to be Elders.
Some people were surprised at their own answers because they could not name anyone.
They said that most of the people they respected had died. Where are the Elders, I asked,
to replace the ones passed on? People have been asking that question themselves long
before I visited Kake. There are older people in the community, but most do not
participate as teachers or leaders the way their grandparents did. People told me the older
people are staying quiet for a number ofreasons. First, they are of the generation that was
sent off to boarding schools, or whose teachers in the village punished them for speaking
in Tlingit. They learned to be embarrassed about Tlingit ways ofdoing things. These
70
parents and grandparents often wanted to protect their children from experiencing the
same pain in school and refused to teach them about Tlingit culture and language.
Many Elders, I was told, still see the end of Tlingit culture and language as a way
to save their children and grandchildren from suffering. The tribal historian, Topsy
Johnson, said he was frustrated when Elders told him they would not share stories
because they believe the culture is dead. As an Elder himself, Johnson felt differently.
Culture always changes, he said, and he wanted to leave something for the children and
grandchildren.
Perhaps of more painful significance is the realization that many older people are
of a generation that was caught up in alcohol, drug abuse, violence and other destructive
forms of behavior. Many feel unworthy, according to some of their children, to be Elders
in the traditional sense. Several adult children, now in their middle years, work to
encourage Elder participation in community events. Based in Tlingit law, an Elder is a
leader because he or she is a living example of Tlingit values, Johnson said. Circle
Peacemaking5 has been instrumental in helping some Elders strengthen or regain their
integrity and share their stories.
As mentioned before, a few people aspire to be non-elected leaders. Their
attempts at leadership are typically criticized, although their work is, on the whole,
beneficial to Kake people. I asked why these leaders are often, but not always, discussed
without respect, and I was told, through stories, that they do not meet the behavioral
criteria of a leader. People accuse such aspiring leaders oflacking humility. People assert
that aspiring "chiefs" are too concerned with their own notoriety. There is a sense that
they often behave arrogantly and thus have lost the wisdom that their purpose is to serve.
As one Elder said, pride is important among Tlingit families, but there is a difference
between "pride" and being "proud." One man wants to be "chief' ofhis clan in order "to
make decisions," but an Elder told me that such a desire is not a characteristic of a good
5 Circle peacemaking, see chapter 9.
71
leader. True leaders follow the will of the people after people have had a chance to
express and discuss their feelings and ideas.
Elders-as-leaders is an ideal part of the Tlingit legal system. The social worth of
helping those in need and those who have experienced loss of a loved one, a boat, a house
or a job is another "unofficial" local law. (See appendix E) Ideally what has been shared
will be shared again. These local values sometimes make collecting public utility bills
and enforcing ordinances difficult for the city. Some people may have owed $3,000 in
water and sewer payments, but the city often refrained, in the past, from cutting their
services out of respect for family and other relationships and out of humanistic respect for
people's losses. I was told that few people paid for keeping their boats at the boat harbor,
for example. Ifpolice officers were members oflocal families, they often found that
family and neighbor relationships inhibited equitable law enforcement.
Other Tlingit laws concerning respect for animals, plants and especially
subsistence foods are difficult to maintain within the constructs of United States
corporate and incorporated legal and organizational prototypes. Many Kake people say
they still practice the rituals of thanks when they harvest salmon, trees and other
resources. Related to the law of respect is the law that guides people to never take more
than what they need of a resource. This Tlingit law is one reason that many, but not all,
people in a predominantly Caucasian fishing community 45 air miles away often speak in
critical tones about Kake. In the context of traditional Tlingit values, they judge as
hypocritical the tribal corporation's cutting of its entire forest holdings.
Kake narratives express anxiety about such contradictions. Many, but not all,
villagers emphasize expectations that Tlingit people will practice local and traditional
Tlingit laws concerning the environment, family, and other relationships. At the same
time, people feel they should be successful within the non-Native corporate, economic,
and legal complex. Outside narratives express the same expectations. Kake people feel a
sense of embarrassment and loss because their ANCSA corporation failed within both
72
Tlingit law and "official" non-Native law parameters. As Ford (2001) concluded, United
States legal discourses and parameters in and of themselves create dichotomies between
organic/holistic and jural land relationships, making them contradictory and causing
polarization.
Prioritizing autonomy and self-governance, OVK, the IRA tribe, is closer than
other Kake governing entities to accomplishing a philosophical and decision-making fit
between re-vitalization of environmentality and other Tlingit ideology expectations and
the requirements of working within the state/federal legislative and economic legal
system. As stated before, its successes may be recognized locally, but its leaders are often
criticized. Local, ''unofficial'' laws concerning Elders, leadership, family, loyalty and
"pride" are some of the reasons that local people discuss with non-respect current and
past tribal leadership.
When opportunities for cooperation present themselves, "official" legal rules and
laws often subvert attempts to solve problems through ''unofficial'' local, legal processes.
For example, the city has jurisdiction over the community fish hatchery. The tribal
corporation, in 2004, owed the hatchery a substantial sum of money. The corporation was
in the midst ofpossible bankruptcy (or "financial reorganization"), so the mayor devised
a plan to help the city and the corporation work together to prevent animosity and a
lawsuit. A few years before, the mayor implemented a similar and successful plan to help
the city out of impending "bankruptcy." However, in the case of the corporation, the
lawyer representing the hatchery and the city told the mayor publicly that his suggestions,
while they may have been good solutions, compromised the city's legal position. The
mayor was told that he should have stayed quiet. In effect, the city could only come out
ahead if it sued the corporation for the money it was owed. While the lawyer was
probably correct, the example shows that "official" legal processes often increase
polarization between local governing entities, inhibit cooperative leadership, and
intensify local mistrust ofvillage leaders.
73
Bourdieu (1991 :250) theorized that when the political field is increasingly
professionalized and when only a few people have power to speak on behalf of other
groups, then leadership generates a culture ofpolitical practices from which ordinary
people are excluded. Within such political systems certain types ofknowledge are taken
for granted. Certain subjects are never discussed and certain questions are never raised or
answered. Ideally, within ''unofficial'' Kake laws, people might have solved legal
problems through internal conversations between families and clans. They might have
participated in community-wide meetings where respected leaders listened and made
decisions based upon greater community input.
When I was in Kake, jurisdiction over possible community-wide meetings was
problematic considering the competitiveness between the families that run the three
governing entities and "official" legal separation between the tribe, the corporation and
the city. The tribal corporation, which controls most ofKake land, was uncommunicative.
Its shareholders were uninformed about the reasons and circumstances of possible
bankruptcy or "financial reorganization." The corporation's silence was, at least in part,
an element of United States legal practices, which promote secrecy because of upcoming
lawsuits.
The limitations of United States legal processes have influenced Kake's ability to
achieve wider local communications and representation. Kake' s situation demonstrates
how "liberal law" in the primarily non-Tlingit tradition, is "tendentiously assimilationist"
(Tie 1999:201). The Kake example demonstrates a need for legal process flexibility and
pluralism and supports Warwick Tie's (1999:203) statement that within legal
proceduralism "particular cultural identities ought to be recognized." A re-thinking of
local po litical processes that includes consideration of the local culture, as it is today,
would likely contribute to greater communication, trust, and problem-solving success.
People demonstrate their capacity for working together through the growing
influence of Circle Peacemaking and the community-wide cooperation (albeit
74
competitive cooperation) evident in funeral dinners and other events. (See chapter 9) This
capacity could be strengthened through stronger state and federal recognition of the value
oflegal pluralism within the legal processes that govern corporations and incorporated
cities and tribes. Legal pluralism would involve increasing local legal autonomy and
"self-determination" so Kake people could reconceptualize their legal decision-making
processes in ways that strengthen ''unofficial'' local laws.
Instead of stressing cooperation from within, many state and federal legislators
propose consolidation from without. An example is the state's insistence that Kake and
other communities form regional borough governments and weaken city governance.
(See chapters 11-14) Applicable to the situation is Weisbrod's statement that "the
emphasis on the state is parallel to the historical tendency ofAmerican law toward
centralization ... The master trend is 'to create one legal culture out of many; to reduce
legal pluralism'" (Weisbrod 2002:3, 4).
Other examples of attempts to further reduce local power through centralization
include federal efforts toward regionalization ofAlaska tribes. Senator Stevens stated in
October 2003 that there are too many tribes in Alaska, and Alaska Native "sovereignty"
has become a threat to statehood. He proposed-and later rescinded his proposal-to
mandate state and federal centralization and regionalization. Centralization would
effectively disempower the IRA tribe's social programs and its autonomy to make
decisions about how federal funds are spent. Grant writing and allocation of money
would be done from an office in Juneau. The tribe would be sovereign in name, but
would lose the power to situate decision-making within ''unofficial'' local law. Native
people throughout Alaska organized to challenge Sen. Steven's claims. He eventually
gave up his efforts to centralize Alaskan tribal powers.
Law, whether it is "official" legal law or ''unofficial'' local law, creates the
conditions of culture (Weisbrod 2002:2). Legal rules with a narrow focus are prioritized
in the corporate, incorporated, legislative and enforcement style ofgovernment. Those
75
who understand law as "a system ofprecise rules for assessing responsibility and reject as
irrelevant everything that is not circumscribed within these rules" fare better in the
corporate, legislative, United States legal system (Conley and o'Barr 1990:58-59).
Narrow rule orientation is more typical ofpeople who work in the public and business
sphere, the sphere from which legal rules are most often created.
In contrast, most people from Kake are oriented toward relationships, the stories
behind stories, and the "unofficial" day-to-day laws of community. Regionalizing tribal
decision-making about justice and social programs would increase the divide between
Kake "local" laws and "official" laws, and it would further divide leadership. Without
strong, local, cooperative and respected leadership, Kake's ability to solve its own
problems diminishes.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND THEORIES
The drugs and alcohol ... the more violence. More neglect ofchildren, adults, this is
everyone, adults, Elders, the youth. That never was before. Because a long time ago if
people were doing that, the oldpeople got together and said, "Hey, this needs not to
happen. It need,,; to change. " You know, get them back on track. And it wasn't done in a
way that made them feel shamedfor anything. Because they knew the people, the older
people, were going to come and talk to them if they kept it up. Even when I was young
still, ten to twelve years old, ifI did something wrong out ofmy house downtown, the old
people would stop me right there, right on that road, wherever that was. "You can't be
doing that here. This is not right. " And they never said it in a loud voice to draw
attention to themselves or myself But before I could get home, no direct communications
like CBs [Citizens Band Radio] and telephones and what, very few people had them. But
by the time I got home my dad would know about it and my grandma, because I lived with
them. ... And then (they would say) go apologize. (2004 taped interview with Tlingit man
in his middle years)
But when the Elders get mad and start cussin ' in Tlingit and they won't say it in English.
They say it in Tlingit so you won't know what they're saying. They'll say it in Tlingit.
They won't tell you what they're saying. That just means they're mad. (2004 taped
interview with younger Tlingit man)
These are discourse artifacts, rich and meaningful segments of conversation that
suggest some of the ways people communicate(d) in Kake. Here they are presented out of
historical and explanatory context, so they inspire more questions than answers. One of
the pitfalls in discourse analysis is under-analysis through isolated quotation. History and
context are important to understanding the meanings and circumstances of talk. Another
way of falling short in discourse analysis is under-analysis through summary, or losing
the detail and discursive subtlety ofpeople's talk (Antaki et. al. 2007). Discourse analysis
is a complex balance of detailing the who, what, when, where, why, and how of speech;
letting people speak for themselves; showing, through a compilation of quotations, the
77
examples of commonly shared discourse; showing how some talk derives from shared
ideologies while other talk is a contrast in ideologies; and providing evocative and
adequate analysis. Discourse analysts have no standard method (Potter 1996), which
means that they must choose a theoretical system to guide their analysis and work from
there.
Analytic frames
As Phillips and Hardy observed (2002: 11), discourse analysis is a labor-intensive
and time-consuming method, and the tools of analysis are relatively new. Often analysis
involves working through unproven research methods that take some imagination and
thought to develop. Since language constitutes most of social reality, the effort is
worthwhile.
What are the tools ofnarrative discourse analysis that assist this project in
exploring the relationships between voice, power, community, environmental integrity,
and sustainable livelihood through discursive sharing of "local" values and feelings? I
chose to investigate narratives through the following analytic tools:
1) Comparison ofvalues surrounding key words or signifiers. I evaluated
data using the visual, qualitative data analysis software program Atlas. ti.
2) Examining signifiers through the theory ofdislocation, through
considering the synergy of logics ofequivalence and logics ofdifference
and through considering the effects of code-switching or code-selecting.
3) I also chose to examine code-selecting, or cbde-switching events.
Different circumstances favor the use of different discourse forms and frames.
When people change their ways of talking and word use to accommodate social contexts,
78
they are code-selecting or code-switching. For example, ifpeople have access to a
language form (such as legalese), and if they can interpret language codes according
language functions (if they know how to use and apply legal language), then they might
shift into the cues, registers, word usages, and frames that are more acceptable to the
"game that is being played" (Tannen and Waller 1994). Ifpeople lack access to
prestigious language forms, for example "proper" English, and cannot code-switch or
code-select when "proper" English is the advantageous discourse frame, then they will be
at a disadvantage in some sociopolitical situations.
Explanation of tools
People in Kake and people in legal advising and decision-making forums speak
English. They often use the same words in reference to the same issues. However, the
words are used with varying contextual references, and word meanings vary. The word
"environment" is an example. In the 164-page Report of the Local Boundary
Commission to the First Session of the Twenty-Fourth Alaska Legislature, January 19,
2005, the word "environment" was used only as "environmental" and only in reference to
the name of an agency that someone had on their curriculum vitae or resume. References
to the non-human environment included only place or area names and discussion of
economic resources, primarily mineral. In nine pages of collected letters from Kake to the
Local Boundary Commission about subjects within the 2005 report, there were more than
thirty references to the non-human environment in regard to customary and traditional
gathering and harvesting, animals, fish, berries, birds, harvest camps, places to which
family groups belong, trees, salmon spawning areas, and food. The letters from Kake
were mostly written in 2003 as public comments about legislation to force people from
four areas to form regional borough governments in Alaska. The 2005 report to the
79
legislature is empty ofKake language codes about the non-human environment in
relation to community.
Most of the transcripts and conversations used in this document are part of taped
interviews and conversations. People gave their consent to being taped. Transcripts of
interviews were sent to Kake for their review and response. Only those people who
agreed to or requested to be named are identified. Other transcripts come from official
letters, which are legally part ofpublic information. Some transcripts in section four
come from taped and transcribed legislative committee meetings. I was able to hear and
tape these meetings by connecting to the Juneau KTOO public radio and television sound
feed ofAlaska legislature events. Only in section five are there transcripts ofnon-taped
conversations, and these are identified as such. Tapes of interviews and conversations are
considered private. If interviewees later agree that they want the conversations archived
with the Organized Village ofKake, the tapes will be offered to the tribe. Otherwise they
are currently stored in a fIreproof and locked safe, eventually to be destroyed when their
use as fieldwork data is no longer relevant, and if the interviewees so desire.
With the help of Atlas.ti, qualitative analysis software, I examined the interviews
and meeting transcripts for word usage categories in four case studies, including a project
to restore a salmon stream, borough legislation, the Alaska Department of Transportation
plan to build a road between Kake and Petersburg, and discourses concerning fisheries. I
searched for language use that pertained to environment and "place", community, people,
time, money, data collection and law. The purpose ofthis compilation of data was to
discover the location ofmeanings and values in "local" Kake talk and "official"
regulatory and legal language, written and spoken, about issues that concerned Kake.
Comparing narratives in this way provided the study with a quantitative module.
Atlas.ti was useful as a coding and categorizing tool. For example, I assessed
transcripts sentence by sentence for references to 'place' or 'space.' As I identified
sentences or paragraphs in which people talked about places or spaces, I could highlight
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the reference to place/space, create a copy in a sidebar, and at the same time code it
according to which words were used to refer to place/space. The software then separated
the references by code so that the information was accessible as a printable list. The lists
became data sources from which I could compare patterns ofdiscourse in reference to
place and space and show discourse tendencies on graphs and tables. Often these types of
data were derived from identifying key words.
In addition to examining values and meanings surrounding key words, I looked at
narratives about political crises, large and small, to consider how power-shifts lead to
changes in language forms. I employed theoretical descriptions of language use related to
ideology, ideological dislocation and signifiers (words, symbols, phrases). Below is a
description of theories that contributed to my analysis.
Examining signifiers through the theory of dislocation
Ernesto Laclau is credited with developing a framework oftheory for the purpose
of discourse analysis that assumes the following points (1970):
First, human construction of society and its workings include human attempts to
shape an ideology that is so complete it is beyond question or rupture. However a society
that is ideologically complete is impossible. "All human constructions constitute attempts
to institute an impossible object (society) and master an excessive element (the real)
which always escapes our means ofrepresentation" (Stavrakakis 2000: 100). Perhaps
more simply stated, humans construct and share together beliefs in an ideal social world,
which is never quite possible because of circumstances in the real social world.
Second, because a "completed" ideology is impossible, to understand society is
not the same as understanding "what society is." Rather, understanding society is to
appreciate what prevents society from being what its ideology promises it will be. The
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force of dislocation prevents society from being what it is "supposed" to be. Dislocation
is defmed as the elements of rupture and crisis that threaten and subvert ideological
beliefs and assumptions (Stavrakakis 2000).
The theory of dislocation can be compared with frameworks of "order and
disjuncture" as descriptive terms. Order can be understood as the "ideal worlds" that
people imagine could exist if groups followed the "right" social rules and had the "right"
beliefs. Disjuncture comes from the gap between ideal worlds and social reality, between
intention and outcome (Lewis and Mosse 2006:2). The difference in approach is that
"dislocation" ruptures the delusion of a fixed ideology and the source of dislocation is
caprice or crisis. The force of dislocation compels or motivates humans to try to create
new ideological parameters that will foster a "complete" society, one that succeeds in
being what its ideologies promise it will be. Again, this is an impossible goal because the
world is always changing.
The definition of ideology is essential to consider within the theory of dislocation.
For the purpose of this study, ideology is all belief structures, constructions of reality, and
discursive practices that produce social reality and through which people understand the
causes and directions for their actions, especially political actions. Through ideology
people work to construct fixed meanings and closure about social reality and the world.
People believe in an ideology because they also believe that it brings some sense of
closure to explanations ofreality. "Ideology is thus constitutive of our constructions of
reality since there is no reality without some sense of closure" (Stavrakakis 2000: 101).
What does the theory of dislocation have to do with discourse analysis?
When a caprice or crisis occurs that challenges ideological beliefs and boundaries,
humans work in dialectic relationship with their former ideological beliefs and that which
--------- -------------
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dislocates them. They do this through language, talk, and signifiers. They use signifiers
that were part of their older ideological constructs and connect them with explanations of
and solutions to the dislocation (Stavrakakis 2000: 102). According to Lac1au (1970) as
described by Stavrakakis (2000), signifiers are reference points in an ideological
discourse.
For example, the word "freedom" is a reference point in discourses about
democracy. The incidents of9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers in New York and the
subsequent Patriot Act challenged many people's ideological understanding of what it
means to be in a democracy. Political actors' use of the signifier "freedom" with a new
signifier, the "Patriot Act," was a discursive means of connecting people's ideologies of
democracy with that which challenged them in order to recreate ideological closure. The
meaning of "freedom" was changed when it was connected with "Patriot Act" but the
new meaning was connected in people's minds with the old meaning of"freedom."
When value-laden signifiers such as "freedom" are used in a new context with
words such as terrorism, their meanings change. The power of combining signifiers is in
their association with memories connected with older meanings, according to Howarth
and Stavrakakis (2000:7-9). Of course, the meanings behind signifiers are particular to
various social groups and social systems.
Empty signifiers are words for that which is not. Empty signifiers articulate what
"should" be there for a group's ideals to work, and they describe what people think would
mend dislocations. For example, if there is disorder, order is that which is absent. The
word "order" is an empty signifier. Empty signifiers convey a lack that should be filled.
Political forces compete to present their objectives as ways to fill the lack. To
hegemonize is to carry out the filling function (Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000:7-9). In
case studies, I choose to refer to empty signifiers as voids, or lack.
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Empty signifiers or voids
In identifying voids, the researcher (myself) begins by identifying caprices of
humanity and nature. A caprice is something unexpected that runs contrary to "normal",
ideologically-reinforced beliefs or behavior. Caprices are linked to a moment or period of
time ofunexpected dislocation. For example learning about the phenomenon of global
warming is a caprice. Global warming dislocates people from international, state, and
local political beliefs and behaviors. Global warming dislocates people from their beliefs
that the natural world is something relatively unchanging, or slow to change (Stavrakakis
2000: 105-107). The human relationship with the rest of the world must be re-articulated
in order to re-create some sense of ideological normality.
Identifying social ruptures that threaten identities, ideologies and discourses is a
means of examining the combinations of words people use in their attempts to fix those
ruptures so that there is some ideological closure. The lack that such ruptures create,
generates, or motivates attempts to rearticulate dislocated ideologies and discourses. A
researcher can examine how people competitively "fill" ruptures through combining
signifiers. Through examination of change caused by caprices ofdislocation, the
researcher is able to enhance understanding of the construction and emergence of
ideologies (Stavrakakis 2000: 105-107).
Examining signifiers that are part of discourses focused on "fixing" the ruptures
caused by dislocation is a means to consider how people in Kake respond to legal and
political changes that cause various kinds of caprices. How do legal decisions and
expectations from a state level initiate ruptures in ideologies connected with community
and environmental relations in Kake? Is local language changed as people respond to and
competitively attempt to rearticulate ideology as a means of adapting to the ruptures? If
so, how? The power that people in Kake have through federal law, for example, can also
cause ruptures in state-level ideologies. State decision-makers must competitively attempt
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to rearticulate legal and bureaucratic ideologies in order to "fix" the ruptures caused
because of political challenges from Kake.
This study requires that theoretical tools and analytical methods allow for
understanding power as something which circulates, is never fixed, and is always in
unstable flux. Post-structuralist discourse theories, particularly those originating with
Laclau (1970) and Laclau and Mouffe (1985, 2001), begin to clear a path (albeit a rough
path) through which to examine face-to-face interaction, media encounters and other
mediums of communication as sites of meaningful social and power differences. More
importantly, Laclau and Mouffe help clear a way for legal facts and historic facts to be
considered as part of discursive constructions (Stembrouk 2007:25).
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CHAPTER V
EMOTION AND LEARNING
What they taught us as children was to have respectfor our surroundings. Leave things
pretty much as (they are). There was no thought ofdestruction. There was no thought of
tearing up .... (2002 taped interview with Elder Tlingit man)
Then there's some ... there's about a fourth ofthe people, maybe more than that, who just
pray when they go out, go up fishing. I've heard them say, "Ijust pray out when I go out
fishing or walking. " So there is some spirituality. (2003 taped interview with Tlingit man
in his middle years)
Part I
Emotion, personhood and the inclusive environment: theories and discussion
To situate this chapter in relation to one of the key presumptions in this
dissertation, I restate that long-term "moral" interaction with an environment necessitates
emotional attachment to it. Emotional attachment to place has greater influence through
emotional attachment to a community, or other social structure that nurtures personal
"feelings" of responsibility toward humans and environment (Anderson 1996; Bennett
1996; Ingold 1999). Environmental knowledge and "feeling" values are acquired through
direct personal experience, transmitted orally within a community, relevant to daily
struggles of livelihood, grounded in daily life, fragile, and are specific to particular
communities (Hunn 1999).
Environmental anthropologists are increasingly aware ofhow understanding
emotion and feelings in relation to environmental behavior is critical to finding solutions
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for existing and impending environmental crises. Anthropologist Kay Milton's work, for
example, is focused on why some people learn to care about the environment in and of
itself and why some people mostly care about it as a set of resources. Environment, as
defmed in this study, is the individual in relationship with an all inclusive environment,
one that combines the human social with the non-human environment. John Bennett
(1976) called this relationship the "socionatural" environment. While many people in
North America may give little thought to how the non-human environment influences
their lives, relations with the non-human environment are considered "social" in groups
such as First Nation peoples in Canada's Subarctic (Nadasdy 2003:84). Discourse and
narrative examples in this study come from individuals whose ways of thinking are
influenced through human social experiences that occur in synchronization with, or as
part of, non-human world encounters. Humans learn during all of their experiences and
encounters through feeling emotion. Humans act because emotions motivate them to do
so. Since it is individuals who feel emotion, they are the link that connects the human
social world with the non-human "social" environment.
Milton (2005:206) explained the significance of the individual this way.
Individuals are the only members in a society who can experience emotions or have
feelings. Individuals are societal entities capable of learning from their environments and
then sharing the knowledge they gain with other humans. Culture and discourse studies
are concerned with how people in groups influence each other's learning, why people talk
and think in particular ways, and the power dynamics involved. Culture informs the ways
people learn through emotion. This means that language, discourse and culture studies
might well begin with examining how emotions and feelings are central to learning. My
reason for including the following description oflearning through emotions is to point
out the obvious, a form of radical critique. All human knowledge, legal, scientific, non-
Tlingit, Tlingit, etc., is tied to learning through emotion. The following description is a
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way of showing that privileged "objective" knowledge in legal forums has its sources in
emotion as well as does knowledge learned through narrative and experience in Kake.
New research defining and explaining emotion
Milton (2005:198-211) described the emotion/learning dynamic as biological and
sociocultural at the same time. She proposed the following emotion/learning sequence.
When the body encounters a stimulus in the environment, a physical response occurs.
Perhaps the individual's heartbeat increases, muscles may tense up, and sweating may
intensify. Neuroscientist Damasio (1999) termed this physical response an emotion.
The feeling that occurs as a result of the physical response is the subjective
experience, that of fear or excitement or elation, etc., according to Damasio (1999),
Milton (2005), and James (1890). James explained emotion as the physical response frrst,
followed by the perception of the physical response. "We feel afraid because we tremble,
we feel sad because we cry" (Milton 2005 :200). Damasio labeled our perception of
emotionfeeling. Feelings are what motivate actions (Milton 2005:204).
While most people are unconcerned with whether or not they are experiencing
something called emotion or something called feeling, the distinction is important
because it helps explain the influence of culture on how we learn through the biological
function of emotion. To explain knowledge through emotion is to situate state-based
knowledge compared with local Kake knowledge. It involves examining the sources of
emotions/feelings that inform formal legal knowledge and those that engender local
knowledge ofplace and community.
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The difference between emotions and feelings
If emotions are the physical response to stimuli, then we can often see evidence of
emotions because we can see other people blush or tremble, and we can measure
heartbeats and temperature changes. However the feeling or perception of emotion is
private, and we cannot observe other people's feelings directly (Milton 2005:201). We
rely on people's descriptions oftheir feelings, and their descriptions are informed through
cultural expectations and patterns of discourse.
The relationship between biology and culture becomes clearer ifwe think: about
emotions in animals. Milton cites the work ofDamasio (1999) when she points out that
all or most animals probably experience emotions, and those that are aware of their
emotions, that can feel afraid when there is danger, are motivated to run or hide. An
animal that has feelings and knows it has feelings can plan ahead and act in ways that
avoid unpleasantness. In this sense, emotions are important as motivators for learning,
and they take place and operate in the relationship between people and their environment,
which includes humans and non-humans. Attention, anticipation, and interest are among
emotions that assist humans in learning. Interest, for example, "literally determines the
content of our minds and memories, for it plays such a large part in determining what it is
we actually perceive, pay attention to, and remember" (Izard 1991:92-3 in Milton
2005:202). Some psychologists conclude that emotion influences, in large part, how well
we remember an experience and thus the intensity ofwhat we learn from it. The
experience of emotions, feelings, and actions is biological and cultural.
Milton (2005:204) outlined three areas where learning through emotions may
occur. First, bodies can learn to respond differently to stimuli in the environment. For
example, people in various cultural circumstances can learn to love, fear and get angry
about different things, stimuli and types of incidents. Second, learning may occur
between the bodily response (emotion) and the perception or feeling of that emotion. The
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pattern of how different people perceive the same bodily response, such as the tightening
of stomach muscles in response to stimuli, may not be biologically fixed. Perception may
depend upon the circumstances. Third, learning occurs between the feeling and the
subsequent action. Different groups and different individuals display and act on their
feelings differently. These differences are often learned and thus are cultural.
The essence ofunderstanding that emotions are part of learning, and that learning
results from experiences in the environment, is the realization that we cannot ignore
human emotion andfeeling in conversations about environmental decision-making. We
must also realize that who we are is influenced by more than our human social lives and
our genetics. We are not really organisms plus environment or mutually exclusive
entities, as Gregory Bateson (1973:423) alluded to. We are who we are because of the
dynamic relationship we have with the whole of our environment. Ingold put it this way.
. .. my environment is the world as it exists and takes on meaning in
relation to me, and in that sense it came into existence and undergoes
development with me and around me. Secondly, the environment is
never complete. Ifenvironments are forged through the activities of
living beings, then so long as life goes on, they are continually under
construction. So too, of course, are organisms themselves.
Environmental totality is always a process (Ingold 2000:20).
In Kake many people see themselves as part of the environment, not separate
from it. Others emphasize its value as an economic resource, but all Kake people engage
with KupreanofIsland village/forest/marine environment more directly than law makers
and regulators who live and work in Juneau, Anchorage, or Washington D.C. People
elsewhere engage more directly in the environments in and around their own homes and
work sites. Sometimes, but not always, law makers' environments are largely
experienced through the built spaces of offices and city streets.
As part of their connection with "place," Kake people share narratives ofa long
history of experiences in Kee2f' Kwaan territories. Those who are new to the village hear
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both old and new stories, and while they work to be part of the community, they learn
how to add their own stories to the mix. Changes in ways of thinking and ways of talking
are always ongoing, but in Kake, words and discourses were turned upside down with the
introduction oflocal formal schooling. Many young people left to attend boarding
schools where the Tlingit language was forbidden and children were forced to speak in
English. Even ways of speaking in English changed considerably in the last 50 years
partly through legal expectations communicated in regulatory language codes. State laws
about land and marine resource use and ownership were derived primarily from frames of
knowledge learned through experiences in environments far away from Kake. Local
people and the non-human landscape were transformed by the influx of non-Native
logging specialists and companies that arrived when the USFS issued timber contracts
and when the tribal corporations took control oflands allotted through the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Most ofthe non-Native loggers, their families, and
their companies are gone now, but television reception endures. It was introduced in the
late 1970s, and as it does all over the world, television continues to influence local ways
of interacting. Despite the disorienting speed of such changes, many memories remain of
life before television, before logging and the corporation, and before increases in legal
and bureaucratic regulation. Such memories are intermingled with newer expressions of
identity and environmental experiences, human and non-human.
Re-tellings of old narratives continue to inform feelings, or the perceptions of
emotions, and to be a source of Kake Tlingit ideology about ways to behave toward the
human and non-human environment. For example, many children attend a week-long
culture camp every summer in Kake to learn how to take care of subsistence foods. As
their relatives and friends bring in fish, crab and seal, harvested with twenty-first century
technology, the children hear stories such as the following one. This is a summary of the
story told by a camp leader who spent most of his life hunting and fishing for his own
family and for Elders in his community. (Story not verbatim. Taken from fieldnotes.)
A long time ago there were three boys, probably in their mid teens.
They lived with their families on an island in Southeast Alaska and
they were Tlingit. It was during the late summer, when the salmon
were going upstream to spawn, that the boys set out in their Tlingit
canoe to go and harvest fish in a stream across a large body ofwater
on another island. It took them awhile to paddle across the water.
When they fmally got close to the island, they had to go through a
narrow opening in some rocks in order to get to the stream where the
salmon were. The sun was going down so they built a fire beside the
stream and sat around it for awhile before sleeping.
In the morning they began their task ofpulling salmon out of the
stream and putting them up on the shore to load in the boat. One of
the boys tossed a salmon on shore rather carelessly. It landed in the
fIre, where it flopped around frantically. The boys thought its
contortions looked funny and started to laugh. They put more wood
on the fIre and began throwing more salmon onto it to watch them
flop.
Presently a very short little man stepped out of the woods downstream
from them. He spoke loudly for the boys to stop what they were
doing. He said they were putting themselves in danger by treating the
fIsh without respect. Something bad was going to happen. The man
looked disheveled and wizened and the boys jeered at him and told
him to mind his own business. He warned them again that something
bad would happen to them, and again they laughed.
He spoke a fmal warning, saying that he was sorry for them but their
lack of respect for the salmon would cause them suffering. He told
them that before their canoe got through the narrow opening in the
rocks, on their way home, one of them would fall over in the canoe
and die. He said that when the two surviving boys got to the middle of
the large body of water, a second one would fall over and die. Only
one of them would reach the shore alive. This surviving boy would
tell the village what happened and why.
The boys spoke in scorn, laughed as they fInished loading the salmon
into the canoe, got into the boat and took off for home. Their noise
quieted as their boat entered the narrow opening in the rocks. What if
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that little man spoke the truth? Before they got to the other side one of
the boys fell over in the boat, and was very still. The other two
laughed, because, of course, he was joking with them. But they started
to get mad when he didn't get back up. They told him they'd had
enough and it wasn't funny anymore. When they shook him, they
realized he really was dead.
They looked at each other scared, and knowing that one of them was
going to die when they got to the middle of the body of water in front
of them. And when they got to the middle of the water, one of them
did fall over and die, just as the little man had warned them would
happen. The last boy, by himself, paddled and paddled the heavy boat
full of salmon and his two dead friends. He was so scared, and
worried and exhausted he didn't think he could make it. He took a
long time to cross the water. When he finally reached the shore he
was too tired to stand and had to crawl along the beach to get to his
people. And he told them what had happened.
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This is a teaching narrative about the importance of respect for the environment
and its human and non-human elements. The word respect comes up often in older
narratives and in conversations with Elders and those younger people in Kake who care
about Tlingit ideologies and Tlingit knowledge. It is a concept learned through a long
history ofKee~' Kwaan living, emotional, and feeling experiences in Tlingit Aanee. 6
Long ago, respect became part ofcultural discourses that informed the emotions and
feelings that people had as they learned from their environmental experiences. Respect
for salmon implies salmon personhood.
Older narratives that remain part of local discourse
In order to better convey some of the ways Kake people talk about their
environment, ways that influence what people learn from their experiences, I have
6 Tlingit Aanee is the land of the people.
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included samples of local narratives. The following are narratives I heard and collected,
oral and written, about local moral knowledge and the environment.
This narrative is from an Elder who participates a great deal in Kake community
events and decision-making forums. He was born and raised in Kake, and he learned as a
child to "always take care of the areas you live in and treat animals as you do treat
people. Don't harass any animals. Take only what you need. All your food the same way.
Don't be wastefuL Be courteous to other people" (2003 taped interview). Those values,
he said, are not difficult to practice in everyday activities. He learned them from his
parents and uncles. His training, he said, was hard, tough, and disciplined. He had quite a
few uncles who taught him hunting, camping, and subsistence practices. His brothers
were raised the same way. "I felt in love with the earth. The caring, the trust, everything
was there. You felt secure. They kept track of you all of the time when you went out. I've
got lots of nephews and nieces and that teaching is still going on today ... and
grandchildren." He said he teaches through discipline, not by "bawling kids out," but by
teaching what is expected in life. If there are issues to discuss, never do it at dinner time,
he said, but at times set aside where everyone sits and the talk can be more focused.
"Teaching means giving past examples ofwhat you've seen and what other people have
done."
I noted the following exchange between a grandfather and his grandson who were
helping to dig a hole on the beach at culture camp. The hole was used to hold the salmon
heads to make a Tlingit delicacy called "stink heads." The grandson was poking tiny
crabs with a rock. His grandfather gently told him to leave them alone. ''They are babies
like you."
A grandmother and school teacher at culture camp was helping to clean gumboots
(a type of chiton or shellfish). She commented to the group around her that it is important
to take care ofMother Earth because then things such as gumboots are around when you
are hungry and out somewhere and need something to eat. Later she talked to all of the
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campers about what their ancestors knew about the seasons. The names for the months of
the year reflected that knowledge. For example, January is the month the geese fly.
February is the month the baby bear cubs are born. April is the month of flowering plants.
May is the month before animals give birth. June is the birthing month for animals. July
is the salmon month. September is the month when the animals are abundant. In October
the snow begins to fall. November is the digging month for animals that make holes to
stay in during the winter. December is the month the unborn seals in their mother's
wombs begin to grow hair. G.T. Emmons (1991 :425-426) is one enthnographic source
for how Tlingit peoples understood (understand) time through the cycles of change in
their environment.
In other conversations the grandmother and teacher told campers about going out
to collect Labrador tea in the muskeg and about the courtesies of calling out to the bear
and other animals, telling them that you are not there to hurt or bother them. You are just
there to gather leaves. All things have spirits, she said, and faces. She talked about a place
named after a woman because the water fell on both sides of the rock face like hair. She
said that Kake people were once "caretakers" of other areas on or near Kupreanof Island.
When the white people came, the Kake people would go back to their camps and be told
to leave because white people were there.
The community historian talked about the environment in this way:
We learned to respect everything, and we talked to everything. We
took only what we could use and what we need. Not what we could
get, but what we need to sustain our self. Then we were careful about
disturbing or destroying things. But then the white man came there,
Europeans who were concerned with money. You know, now the
[ANCSA] corporations are focused on money too. So things changed
at that point. You know there's some of us that are still like that. We
care about the environment The environment there is what
sustains us. Spiritual priority making a living. If you're careful
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with the fish you'll make those connections, to help them be
reproductive. You know that's going to die, the grass is going to die,
the fish are going to die if you take too much, and you have to be
careful not to destroy it. Environment, plants, animals that sustains us
and so forth. Spirituality is about respect for everything, everything
around us (2003 taped interview).
Two Tlingit men who have worked together for years talked about what they
learned from their families and practiced.
Speaker One: It's the fIrst things they teach you, to protect the
environment, and to protect what you have, you know. And every
time our Native peoples were gonna take trees down, they talk to it.
And they'd say forgive us. We're going to take you down, but this
will provide food for us, and other stuff like that. So it could be a
canoe, or a totem pole. See. they talk to them, and then they ask for
forgiveness. And it's part ofthat. In fact, certain areas you pass, like
fishing out there, certain mountains you pass you ask for good luck,
and you talk to it. You talk to the mountain, you know. And this has
been handed down for generations. This saying, give us safety, give
us fish, homecoming and all that ... and help for providing the
necessary things we're going after.
Speaker Two: Our old people, if they were going anywhere, they
would talk to the forest. If they were going down the beach, they
would talk. But especially the forest, because that's where they'd get
their food from, you know. They would always talk to the things that
are alive, the bears, the moose ...
Fieldworker: Do your grandchildren know that too?
Speaker One: Yes. The Tlingits believe that you can't talk about bears
if you are out hunting, or if you say anything bad about them they'll
give you a bad time.
Fieldworker: So you say positive things about bears.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: Or any animals, you know, you talk to them. Same
thing when you're fishing, you know (2003 taped interview).
A Tlingit woman in her middle years told how there are many Kake people in the
twenty-fIrst century who understand environmental relationships.
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A long time ago people thought there were spirits in everything, even
rocks, and even in the wind. And even though now with all the
traditional churches, some people chose to ... some people don't, but
I think a lot ofpeople still have a relationship to where we think of ...
that there are spirits in things. And they don't necessarily refer to it as
spirits. And the environment is ... we take care of ... we should take
care of it. Not just for now, but for the future. Even though a lot of
people don't verbalize it, we feel there are spirits in places. And even
like (in some of the churches) people who believe there ... that a place
needs to be blessed by a pastor or something because there's
something evil there or ... that affects things, somebody negatively.
But even there's that kind of spirituality here, and to me that ties back
into our traditional spirituality where there's spirits in everything ...
or everything has a life, a force (2003 taped interview).
These are a few examples of how older Tlingit knowledge remains a part ofKake
discourses. Such local knowledge originated through environmental stimuli, emotion,
perception/feeling, and action, all ofwhich were sources of learning and all ofwhich
were influenced by the anecdotes and instructional stories people shared about what the
environment taught. These examples demonstrate a sense of social relationship with the
environment as a whole, the inclusive environment.
Part II
Emotion and attachment to place and people
Well, the religions, you know, they have a big effect on the community.
Some of it good, some of it not. Because with (my son's) age group [the
people now in their 30s], ten years ago or fifteen years ago they would say
they didn't want to become Christian ... they didn't want to be a Christian
because of all the judgment there [in the churches] that they saw and heard.
So they [churches] kind of drove the younger generation away from it. But
it's just the religion part (they backed away from). The spirituality, like we
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have in culture camp, a lot ofkids come to that, and those ofus in recovery,
we all know what spirituality is. I know the healing heart is spiritual. So it's
... I think there's a lot of spirituality in different forms. (2004 taped interview
with Tlingit woman in her middle years)
Emotion, inclusive environmental attachment and spirituality in Kake
Often in Kake, religion is connected discursively with churches and spirituality
with older culture values. Based on my own observations, some Kake people are open to
talking about how the older narratives are linked to the present in their lives. Some people
are less open, but still feel strongly about the values taught in the older narratives. Others
are somewhat embarrassed about how they feel, but they may practice rituals of thanks to
trees and fish just the same. There are people who give less thought to their Elders'
teachings. Some people feel strongly that intensified logging and other market economy
enterprises are in conflict with the older values. Participating in the market economy, as
defmed through ANCSA, requires a different set of values and has caused people to feel
they have to choose one set ofvalues over the other. Some people feel that the old values
can be applied to new circumstances ifdone in the right way. Still others are opposed to
the old knowledge and symbols and what they represent. Some who grew up learning
about God in the Christian sense have mixed feelings about older knowledge, and others
who are strictly opposed are often members of more conservative Christian churches in
Kake. Dombrowski (200 1) wrote a great deal about the influence of ANCSA on religion
and more traditional knowledge, much of which correlates with my own observations.
This chapter is a compilation of narrative parts or segments that illustrate, in
people's own words, the ideological complexities in inclusive environmental relations.
Decisions about the environment are informed through emotions/feelings. People learn
what and how to feel based on their own personal experiences and the coproduction of
meanings with other people around them. The production of environmental meanings
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matters, whether it is through various forms of Christianity, through Tlingit culture and
spirituality, through ambivalence, or through dissociation from feeling. One reason that
meanings matter is that a community that can effectively manage its own resources for
the purposes of sustainable livelihood must be able to socialize moral responsibility for
the sake of solidarity ofpurpose. People in such communities must work to establish at
least some sense of common belief for how and why decisions are made and why caring
about the inclusive environment is an imperative. As Anderson (1996) and Milton (2002)
concluded after long consideration, morality is most effectively grounded in aspects of
spirituality and emotion/feeling.
In Kake, solidarity ofpurpose for the sake of moral responsibility is difficult
because of the enormity of economic and social changes that people experienced in such
a short period of time. As my interview transcripts and field notes showed me, people in
Kake often prefaced statements with phrases such as, "I can only speak for myself."
These phrases in and of themselves indicate fragmentation of social meanings in Kake.
Ambivalence, environment, and spirituality
As I was interviewing a woman in her upper middle years, a young woman
dropped by who sat down and participated in our conversation. She was non-Tlingit and
had been in Kake more than five years. She told about going into the forest with some
Tlingit friends to get a Christmas tree.
You thank the tree, and then you thank the tree later too. Everything
you get out there you're supposed to thank the creator. People still do,
you know. They sang to the tree before they cut it down. Yeah. I've
never gotten a Christmas tree. It's the most touching thing I've ever
seen. They sang to it before they cut it down. I thought wow. That's
amazing. I don't know. It's different, but really in tune with nature.
Everything is in tune with nature (2003 taped interview).
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While her friends thanked the tree they kind ofjoked around, a little embarrassed,
she said. Later I interviewed one of the young woman's friends who helped get the tree.
Without mentioning the Christmas tree, I asked the former logger ifpeople he knew had a
strong relationship with the environment and whether there were spiritual aspects to that
relationship.
You know people are still slightly superstitious. I mean all human ...
all races have superstitions ofsome sort. And ... the Native's
superstition is really strong, you know, back and forth. So yeah, I
believe there's still some ofthat in everybody ... there's no reason
why it would go away. I mean, I was ... superstition doesn't go away,
so why should ... spirituality go away. I mean it's still here so that ...
you know, the living creature will still remain (2004 taped interview).
A Tlingit man who worked with each of the governing entities in Kake said,
Speaker: I'd say about half the town believes in God there, and [half
of the town are] people that do ... you know believe in spirituality and,
urn, (in relationship with) the land, 'cause everybody in town has got
their own opinion. So ... and everybody knows, you know, that there's
something out there, but everybody in town, half of them believe and
the other half don't.
Fieldworker: So, do they not believe in a Christian god?
Speaker: No Christian God there. But then in the last few years uh ...
I don't know ... just from what I've seen theirs was always the [more
traditional] group and there was people that would go to church and
pray to, urn ... pray to God there and people that didn't go to church
didn't care one way or another so ... it's on both sides so ...
Fieldworker: Is spirituality related to community and environment in
Kake?
Speaker: Hmrn .1 don't know how to put that one there.... There's
a lot of, urn you know people don't pray for some kind of, urn, oil
spill or something that's going to hurt the environment. But maybe
they do, I don't know. But I know that, you know, you've been here
the last few times, and when someone passed away everybody comes
down and comforts the family for ... and whether or not they believed
in (a particular religion or spirituality). Environment and that's what
the family, that's where they're going there ... That's kind of a tough
one to me. But everybody comes down and feels bad and whatever.
Just like congress, [Salvation Army Congress] congress is coming to
Kake and everybody's going to be happy for about a week there and
coming to town there '" everybody will have fun doing this stuff ....
Church thing so (2004 taped interview).
An Elder Tlingit man talked about how people in Kake are confused about
spirituality.
Speaker: (In the past the older people knew there was life in
everything) and then they're talking to everything ... believe there's
spirit in everything. And then we get into the culture of it [knowledge
oflife in everything]. Then we get to (listen to) one day a week (in
church) or something. And then [religion] became more ofa social
event there than spiritual. That's become more of a social event ...
seems like to me myself. I'm speaking for myself here. Then there (is
all) that spirituality (the older knowledge that) left. Somewhere there
was people with drugs and alcohol there. And then churches saying
that we were pagan and worshiping totem poles and their [assertions
were] not true. (Now we have) young people being confused saying I
want to go back to church there but what about my spiritual part, my
culture part? I'll go to hell there if! go to church or if! don't go to
church. I may go to hell or ... But they become confused and scared.
So they just stay in limbo and stumble around. From what I've seen,
my own expenences ...
Fieldworker: The stories that you're telling, and the way people used
to talk, if you bring that back does that help?
Speaker: Mmhmm. It does. It really does. [The Tlingit values] Kind
of a morality thing there (2004 taped interview).
A Tlingit man in his middle years said this about spirituality in Kake.
Speaker: Spirituality in Kake, though, is interesting. When you talk ...
down here in Kake you're looking at, uh, some very strong cliques
that, you know, very religious cliques, and at the same time you have
a very strong background ofjust Native beliefs and different things
and customs and ... you know I don't think I'd be any good at
explaining that, but for spirituality ... for the religious part, there's
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several churches in town. Some are really strong.... It's like rotated.
And I'm not sure other than ... there are some groups that rotate
[small chuckle] through the community and just go from church to
church if they're unhappy with the preacher, or whatever. But the
Assembly of God in our twenty-one years, I think, has lasted the
longest.
[The speaker reads from a list ofquestions the fieldworker gave him.
See page 11 for interview questions.]
How is spirituality related to community? [chuckles] Wow. Vh. I
think, you know, Native spirituality in that aspect is just the concept
of the real love and caring for the environment and one another. I
don't see any spirituality being negative in any way with community
and environment anymore.
Fieldworker: You mean the formal religions, like the Assembly of
God, are not against that ...
Speaker: They don't ... There doesn't seem to be that outspokenness.
I don't know what has balanced that. And maybe it's period of time.
You know, all over something that maybe people are fighting for
position or strong religion here and there. I don't know. But things
seem to be pretty well accepted. Of course I don't go there ... (2003
taped interview).
Two Elders Tlingit men, talk about Tlingit and Christian spirituality.
Fieldworker: Well what does spirituality mean to you?
Speaker One: [Long silence] I don't think it's [churches] because ...
the older people, even before they had ." ministers ... [or were]
Christians ... people (talked to) God ... and prayed and (do you know
about shaman?)
Fieldworker: Yes.
Speaker One: Mmmhmmm. The shaman (years ago), especially on
Tebenkof, and they'd [the village would] take Saturday off, getting
ready for Sunday. And according to the people there, Sunday (was a
day ofpraying. Doing nothing just praying). So they knew something
about religion. [Talks about the Christians coming.] And they [the
Christians] thought that it was wrong the things that they [Tlingit
people] were doing. The totem poles, they [Christians] thought the
[Tlingits] were worshiping totems. But (the totems told stories)-and
they [Christians] did away with them. [Speaker One tells about 1912
when Kake decided to do away with totems and other Tlingit ways.] I
don't know. But it seemed that (Christianity changed the whole way
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of the Tlingit language too. The religion ... people spoke the
Christian religion in Tlingit in the earlier days of acquiring
Christianity. That changed the Tlingit language itself.)
Speaker Two: Well. I'll tell you a good example [of how God was
part oflife before Christianity]. When the Shaman, the Tebenkof
tribes were wiped out .,.
Fieldworker: Smallpox?
Speaker Two: No it's a .... Anyway, the shaman was warning all the
people not to harvest the sockeyes at a certain time. And they
disobeyed his orders and some deaths [happened]. 'Cause he was
talking to the Lord all the time, and '" long before Christianity was
even introduced, you know. But it's still a mystery how they
communicated to the outside, you know. Only certain people ... with
that kind ofknowledge [could communicate outside]. And you had to
be pure in heart, pure in mind, pure in (faith), and that's how you
(became) in leadership in spirit. And so it's surprising how strong he
was, you know. In spiritual ways. And the people would listen
because sometimes he'd predict. He could see what was going to
happen before it would even happen. So that was who a shaman was.
And every village and community had its ... (one).
Fieldworker: You were telling me about your family place and how
the shaman said don't eat the sockeyes.
Speaker Two: Yes. Only at certain times. And then for some reason
they got punished. A lot of them perished and a lot of them left the
area. But in memory of them, the shaman put up a cross on the point.
And long before Christianity was introduced to our Native people ...
why a cross? But that's because the shaman had a vision, so ...
anyway. Just years ago we were there. My brother, my dad and my
uncle. We did go there to look. I really didn't know why we were
going there, even though it was my dad's country. But we did go there
for mink trapping when I was a little kid. And there the main purpose
was to look for the cross to (verify) the story. And low and behold we
found it. There wasn't very much of it ... what was left ... it was really
interesting (2004 taped interview).
A Tlingit man in his middle years said:
And what does spirituality mean in Kake? To me it ... we are corning
back to spirituality. We're corning back to ourselves. Because we're
in this big experiment we call western democracy. And just like you
hear in the courts, there's an argument of separation of God and ... or
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religion and state. Here we are founded on both. But on the other
hand, just as Native people we can't ignore spirituality. It's a balance.
It's kind of a four-prong thing just like the medicine wheel part of us.
So our spirituality is what has kind of disappeared, but we're coming
back to it. And you can see it by the number of churches here. But
before it was always integrated with our Salvation Army and
Presbytery. Just like Kirk Dombrowski talked about "Against
Culture." They thought we weren't addressing our spirituality here.
That's all it was about. About our spiritual needs, of the spirituality of
everything around us. We weren't separate from it, even from God
because like the old people say, God is within you. Your church is
just yourself, within your own heart you have to live with it. It's
because people want power, churches want power. They have these
structures and you form religions around it, whether it's all the way
from the Buddha to the Catholic Church. How can a guy be closer to
God than the [other -person who doesn't go to church] with no
religion, but he has his own spirituality. To me that's always been a
big question. Is a colonel in the Salvation Army closer to God? No
it's because of a power structure that's set up about his
responsibilities. About how many people he commands ... but
commands. Setting up small gods. I don't have a problem with it, it's
just the way I look at it. So spirituality for me, I only can talk on me,
it's not about Kake, it's how it's been around us. It's always been part
ofus ... , we can't separate ourselves. Because everything around us
has a spirit and the spirituality is within us. And who can say that one
place to find God is the Zen ofchopping wood, when you're in the
zone? Or playing basketball with your fellow man, with good
sportsmanship (2003 taped interview).
Two non-Native men in their middle years, who have been adopted
by Tlingit families, talk about the meanings of spirituality and environment in
Kake.
Speaker One: Uh, well, I mean, a lot of different things to a lot of
different people, I guess. It's a definite meld and things. There's to
some the idea that spirituality and culture are the same thing. And,
you know, there's also a strong belief in God.... practiced or not, they
believe it's there.
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But there's difficult sometimes reconciling how all that fits together
with people, so there's one area where, you know, I think that
spirituality here in Kake, for a lot ofpeople, there's a certain degree
of, conflict. Confusion.
Speaker Two: That's what I would say. Yeah.
Speaker One: Yeah, people are confused.
Speaker Two: They're confused. They really are. Urn, about which
way to go. You know, and in some cases, it is actually conflict. There
are some people who, in town, who are very disturbed by the
inclusion of Indians and Native deities in a Christian atmosphere.
Like in the Presbyterian church, where the youth pastor, there are a lot
of people who are disgusted with the depictions that exist in the
church there.
Fieldworker: Of Eagle and Raven?
Speaker Two: Uh huh. And they don't, they (feel the old and the new)
were never meant to exist together. And that it has to be one way or
the other. Whether there's some common ground between those two
... or belief There's some people that will not, I mean, they, you
know, we offer sometimes our building. I mean, it's always open to
community gatherings or whatever, somebody wants to do it and the
people absolutely won't have a community gathering in there
because of the mural on the wall. [The mural was created by a group
of men and a few women who were learning how to carve. The results
of the class were incorporated into the new construction of the
conference room.]
Speaker One: Right.
Speaker Two: I mean they won't come.... And it goes even deeper
than that. You know, it goes (in claiming that the traditional beliefs
were) a spiritual belief that it was supposed to have to been laid to
rest. Consequently, in the Christian, well the Native Christian
community, there is, there's a lot ofpraise and a lot of pride in the
(older) stories. Uh, and at the same time, the confusion, the conflict
about why things like that exist, and the dancing and why
congregational leadership would engage in things that were a lot of
times considered dirty and you know, and of (impure) nature. You
know, and I just go occasionally (to the dances). My, members ofmy
adopted family still (advise against it) occasionally. 'Cause they say,
'Oh, you shouldn't go to that." Because if you knew what the music
meant, that you wouldn't want to be there, because it's their moral
[belief].
Speaker One: I know what they tell you.
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105
Speaker Two: Yeah, I know what they tell me. And that's always been
my [personal inner beliefs]. I know what my spirituality is. I don't
need somebody else to tell me that this is, that this is wrong. It doesn't
mean anything to me because it's not a part of my belief system. So.
But, family does that all the time (2004 taped interview).
I asked the same question about spirituality to a Tlingit woman in her middle
years. She said that her family's experiences in church have made a positive difference in
their lives.
The only spiritual thing I know about is like I told you with the Lord
and Jesus and the heavenly father. That's the only spiritual
relationship I have right now. And with the community and people's
different opinions, I have no idea. Because I don't relate to them that
closely. And I do relate to a lot of Christians because we understand
each other and what we mean in spirituality. We know about God's
holy spirit. We know about God and his spirit. You know. That's the
Christian point ofview. And for the environment I don't know how
spirituality would be related to environment except that God created
what is there. And he did it with the power of his words. And he asks
(us) to take care of what he made. You know. But still I don't see
spirituality connected to that. Yeah it's a physical thing. You know
for us to keep an eye out for and watch. So I cannot see it involved in
environment. I just can't. I mean it's physical, physical, you know.
So (2004 taped interview).
Another woman in her middle years who is committed to her church and its
teachings responded to my question about feelings, spirituality, and the environment with
a long, uncomfortable silence. Eventually she said, "I wouldn't know how to answer that
one." She was interested and articulate during the rest of the interview.
As a fieldworker and writer I respect the choices people make about their spiritual
or religious lives. The following discussion about religion and more traditional
spirituality in Kake is not meant to criticize or judge any of the statements people made
106
about the subject. It is to situate local ideological changes in their political, economic,
and historical circumstances.
Kirk Dombrowski (2001: 182-183) described religion and its conflict with culture
in some Alaska Native villages, including Kake. He wrote that membership in many
conservative churches increased after ANCSA was initiated because ANCSA corporate
mandates resulted in a decline in community values and an increase in alcoholism, drug
abuse, violence and other negative behavior. Church was a place to try and find solutions
for the anxieties and hardships that ANCSA caused. Other people in Kake and elsewhere
worked to find solutions through revitalization of traditional culture. Finding a solution
through culture, which included all of the political relationships offamily, clan, and
moiety, was difficult for people who felt marginalized in that system. People who felt
most at economic, emotional or political risk often chose church as an alternative.
Through Christian ideologies that united people as a collective, equal under God, they
often came to believe that groups who claimed differences from each other and that
exhibited 'truth' as relative and arbitrary, inhibited people's abilities to work together as a
whole community. As such, some churched people rejected traditional Tlingit culture
itself
In particular, Pentecostal resistance to older Tlingit ways asserts an ideology that
describes differences in beliefs as not rooted in truth. Truth, instead, involves 'the mutual
interdependency of collective representations, that is all collective representatives'
(Dombrowski 2001: 182). Thus, fundamentalist Christianity in Kake has been against
more than just Native culture, but against the diversity of cultures. Cultures, by being
different, are deemed arbitrary and thus do not reflect truth, which must be universal.
Such an ideology is problematic to identifying self as Native.
In addition to the complexity of religion, Dombrowski discusses how the U.S.
legal system influences what it means to be Native in Tlingit Alaska.
107
In a second way, though, Native Americans are forced into an even more
ambiguous relationship to their culture than marginal people elsewhere. For
Native Americans are forced to view their culture in particularly narrow
terms, mainly by laws (like ANCSA and the Indian Reorganization Act) that
have linked their participation as natives (i.e. people with a historical claim to
special status and participation based on past and present ownership of
disputed resources) to their ability to maintain an acceptable level of cultural
distinctiveness.... Native culture, unlike many other kinds of culture, is an
all-or-nothing endeavor for its members, according to the laws of the society
in which Indians are embedded. (Dombrowski 200 1: 183).
Yet there is more to Kake people's sense of identity than the polarization or
exaggerated Nativeness that Dombrowski summarizes. People keep their identities as
Tlingit, family and community through the strong ties that are maintained with those who
move away from Kake, most ofwhom are expected to return for family gatherings,
especially if someone in the village dies. Responsibilities between moieties, clans, and
family groups continue to be important for many (but not all) families, as is the protocol
for accomplishing those responsibilities. While protocols, special events, mortuary
practices and decision-making forums have changed a great deal since the 1869 village
bombings, the changes are distinctly local.
Sometimes churched people's rejection of traditional Tlingit culture manifests
itself in claims that cultural expressions of art, dance, storytelling and traditional
knowledge about the environment are "evil," as are those who participate in cultural
revitalization. For example, when I was in Kake one summer a new minister and his
family had just arrived. I heard people talk about how he and his family were looking at
Kake's tallest totem pole. One ofhis parishioners told him not to look at the pole because
of its connection to 'witchcraft' and other bad phenomena. In another example a woman
said she was part ofa healing workshop where they burned sage as part of their
fellowship. A janitor saw them bum the sage and subsequently told his church that the
people at the workshop were worshiping the devil. (Burning sage is a Native American
ritual brought up from the lower 48 states to Southeast Alaska to use in ceremonies.) For
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their part, some people who work to revitalize culture talked about going through periods
of anger towards Christians and Christianity. They said they regretted the way that some
people used religion to reject others who believed differently.
Before the years of ANCSA, Christian churches were more integrated and
perhaps more compatible with other aspects ofKake life. Many people told me they went
to church for many years, until attending became a negative experience. Two people in
their middle years, who were, at one time, trained and educated leaders in a local church,
spent Sunday mornings, when I was in Kake, counting the cars parked near each church.
They could 'read' the ebb and flow of church politics by watching where people
attended. They recalled memories when church was an inclusive center of community
life.
The following is a conversation between two Native adults in their upper middle
years who actively organize and participate in community functions to improve local
mental and physical health.
Speaker One: It's changed from when I was growing up. The only
two churches that were here then were Salvation Army, not where it is
now, (and the Presbyterian Church). But they'd arranged it where
they wouldn't have church at the same time. The Presbyterian would
have their time and all the people went. Then when they were out,
Salvation Army had their time and all the people went there too. And
it was like that when I was growing up. I thought how come we (don't
go to one church)? And they taught different but there was ... no
saying mine's better or this is the right way. It's changed now though.
I've been to both since I've come back. I don't know where it came
from.
Fieldworker: The competition?
Speaker One: Yeah. My church is better ... and all these other
churches are here, like [Speaker Two] was saying, I think it mixes
people up ... the way I see it from when I was growing up here.
Because long ago when churches still got together they did things
together as a unit. Now it's just one over here, one over here ...
Speaker Two: They don't help each other though.
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Speaker One: No.
Speaker Two: (Except for funerals).
Speaker One: But before ... and they did projects for the community
and got together and helping out. The churches did. Now I don't see
that. I don't know when it [the change] happened. I was gone.
Speaker Two: And then the church over here, some ofthe people they
don't want to associate with any other people because they think
they're ungodly. So that's kind oflike prejudice amongst ...
Speaker One: Because they weren't here when I left. Then [names a
church] was here when I got back. And I noticed the difference. What
happened? You see people that weren't talking or mingling with each
other anymore, like before.
[Pause]
Speaker One: Yeah. They were all against the Native culture, which
kept the Natives alive for many years, but now they're throwing it
(Native culture) away. [They] were throwing it away. It's coming
back (2003 taped interview).
Dombrowski (2001:182-183) connects the anti-culture movement, and even
church-related incidents ofburning Tlingit regalia, with the disintegration of community
morals. Almost overnight ANCSA laws transformed people into shareholders, and their
economic interests were directed toward greater monetary wealth. In my own research, I
can identify at least two time periods when political upheaval was linked closely with a
clash between religion and culture. The fIrst time was in the fIrst decades ofthe twentieth
century. Christian missionaries, who "misinterpreted" (Johnson 2002) Tlingit beliefs and
culture, influenced people to destroy their totem poles and organize a city govemment.
(See chapter 2).
During the same time period, in Kake and other Native villages, the Alaska
Native Brotherhood (ANB) movement began. It was a movement inspired by a group of
charismatic Native leaders for the purpose of advocating Native rights. In its ftrst years
ANB promoted assimilation in order to gain citizenship, voting rights, land claims,
desegregation, and equal opportunity in education. "Borrowing heavily from the
missionary paradigm, ANB leaders fIrst adopted a code that was hostile to traditional
110
Tlingit political organization and cultural customs ... " (Thornton 2002: 181). Instead of
organizing according to clan or house group divisions, ANB membership was connected
with villages or kwaans. Through the work of the ANB and Alaska Native Sisterhood
(ANS) indigenous people gained the right to legally own property, attend desegregated
schools, and initiate major land claims suits. Over time, with the successes ofpolitical
organization, ANB began to change its assimilationist philosophy and to build support for
traditional Native values, knowledge, and customs (Thornton 2002)
A second political upheaval linked with a clash between religion and culture
occurred with the introduction of logging as an economic opportunity and then with the
realization of ANCSA. Native peoples were finding a sense of equilibrium with their hard
won civil rights and the place of older Tlingit values within the new political order when
ANCSA was established in 1971.
In keeping with Laclau's "theory of dislocation," ANCSA legal expectations
initiated a dislocation (the elements ofrupture and crisis) that threatened and subverted
ideological knowledge systems in Kake. People moved to work in dialectic relationship
with their former ideological constructions and that which dislocated them. They worked
to re-explain local knowledge systems within the new circumstances. Some people chose
a more conservative style ofPentecostal Christian religion as a way to speak and think
about the effects ofANCSA on their community. They worked to accomplish a sense of
ideological closure by separating themselves from older, newly dislocated ideologies and
from much of the new legally-imposed market economy circumstances and ideologies.
Some people who isolated themselves from church and what seemed to be dislocated
traditional values, found their sense of community in partying and drugs and alcohol. It is
well understood that trying to live within the inconsistencies of incompatible value
systems leads to contradictions in behavior (Hsu 1983; Kim et al. 1994:93). When the
suicide rate and violence reached epic proportions in the 1980s, a group of people
organized to help heal the "rupture," partly by working to "bring tradition into the future"
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(Glassie 1995:395) as a means to help heal the "rupture." Reviving Tlingit value
narratives meant a resurgence of environmental knowledge and ideologies as well,
especially through the work of the IRA Tribe, the Organized Village of Kake.
Mike Jackson, who does a great deal to revitalize Tlingit values, described how he
sees those values fitting into current circumstances.
We see the environment as our self Like our grandfather said, is,
you're the ones that give the face to that land. To your customary
traditional use areas. They [non-Natives] call it ownership, they call it
territories. We call it just our stewardship. I can't differentiate myself
from a piece of seaweed or kelp or gumboot or an urchin because
we're ... the way I see it is that they benefit me, and I should pay it
back to them and take care of what I can ... of environment.
... I can only speak for myself. And I just explained that. It's that
we're ... we're the environment. We belong with everything else.
What we do ... what has been done to the forest is done to us. Now
it's upon us to try to make it a better place rather than just let it sit
there. And our grandchildren not being able to share what we've
grown up in. Because we used to hike that area and be covered by the
forest. But now you can't. You can't even walk in the forest because
it's a jungle. It's a virtual desert. It's all one species, kind of. It's not
got everything [a variety ofplants] because of that. But anyway that's
the environment. We really have to live with the consequences of that
impact ... that ... what corporate life has done to us. But our
environment, the impact, whether it's with our own backyard, Kake
Tribal Corporation or Sealaska, but we also know that we've been
dealing with the Forest Service in our backyard. But also the state
regulations on DEC [Department ofEnvironmental Conservation].
And it changes with administrations. Because for awhile we were in a
roadless [designation], now we aren't. Now we're in the DEC's real
strict parts ofno pollution, no air or water pollution, stufflike that.
And now they have a (new) DEC commissioner that just is pro
development, everything. And when you look at development in
Alaska, whether it's here in Kake or not, it's in the rural areas. It's all
about extracting the environment (resources) around ... parts of the
environment around rural areas. That it [development philosophy]
really has affected small communities (2003 taped interview).
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Tlingit traditional knowledge fosters a sense of historical continuity in
environmental relationships, a continuity that is missing in formal legal approaches to
resource management. Constant changes in political parties, the locus of power and
administrations always results in ideological rupture locally. To understand self and
community as part of everything in the forest and marine environment, is a form of long-
term ideological continuity that the Organized Village ofKake is working to strengthen.
It is a type oflocal "feeling" knowledge based in learning through experience that many
environmental anthropologists see as essential in world-wide efforts to validate
environmental integrity and sustainable livelihood.
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CHAPTER VI
PERSONHOOD AND SPIRITUALITY
Elder: I'm beginning to believe in the old superstitions again. Can you believe that? And
here 1 ... in (a big city) 1 lived right next to the cemetery, didn't bother me one bit. But
here, boy, [chuckle]). Ohjust ... everybody's teasing me all the time, but 1 saw a little
man running around here. [laughs] So one guy saw him, they saw him, and they got a
confirmation on him. They described him and everything.
Visitor: What did he do?
Elder: To my knowledge he didn't do anything. He was just standing there. Some little
guy out picking berries or something. 1 don't know. (2002 taped interview with Elder
Tlingit man)
Little men are examples of "other" people in the forest. One night a family I knew
came home early from a camping trip because they had seen, in the dark, a little man
standing near one of their evening beach fIres. Little men are part of a story that was
written up among the Norwegian immigrants in Petersburg called "The Strangest Story
Ever Told." These little people are part of many local stories in Kake and elsewhere.
Tiny forest men are only one kind of forest people. More significantly, for many
people in Kake, the salmon, bears, trees, deer, seals, mountains, and each aspect of their
forest and water home has personhood.
Learning, emotion, and the inclusive environment
Respect is an important word in Kake. In older knowledge forms (ofwhich many
are carried into the present) the central message is to be respectful, grateful, and to
recognize the power of animals and plants. Humans and other parts of the environment
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depend on each other. People were (and many still are) careful to explain to a tree, plant,
or animal why it was (is) being harvested and to apologize for taking its life, albeit
knowing that it will come back if the correct rituals of respect are practiced.
For most groups of Northwest coast and Southeast Alaska Natives, respect for
food resources was a culturally emphasized "feeling" through which to interpret emotions
elicited by harvesting, processing, eating, and sharing food.
A properly socialized individual had a powerful sense that the wild
world was feeding him, and he ought to be as grateful and anxious to
act decently as he would to any human who fed him out of sheer
kindness. Naturally, wanton killing was virtually tantamount to
murder, and ungrateful murder at that (Anderson 1996:64).
People knew (many still know) that they should avoid taking more fish or other
foods than they need(ed) or than the environment could (can) spare (de Laguna
1972:814). Their knowledge of how to behave was (is) informed through understanding
the moral worth of all persons in their world. Personhood and spirituality are some of the
most difficult concepts for Kake people to communicate in state-based decision-making
forums and studies. This chapter is a description of recent theoretical thinking about
personhood and the environment. The purpose of this chapter is to create a new
theoretical foundation from which to think about narratives in chapter 13 about
personhood and state communications.
Animism revisited
E.N. Anderson (1996), Nurit Bird-David (1999), Tim Ingold (2000), and Kay
Milton (2002) are among anthropologists who are studying and contemplating the value
ofJeeling knowledge that recognizes and respects personhood in more than just humans.
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Bird-David in her work on animism asked why western society has so long rejected the
possibility ofpersonhood beyond humans. She placed part of western short-sightedness
on social theorists such as E.B. Tylor and his late nineteenth century definitions of
animism. His definitions remain part of mainstream western assumptions to this day, but
they are situated in the old theories ofuniIinear evolutionism. Graham Harvey (2006:6)
summarizes Tylor's point ofview, through which he categorized groups as primitive if
people believed that natural phenomena have souls, more civilized ifpeople believed that
there is one ruling god, and the most civilized ifpeople adhered to objective scientific
facts about the world.
It was in this context and for these purposes that Tylor offered his thesis
that animism was not only the earliest religion but remained definitive of
religion. Religion is an animist mistake about the nature of the world in
which people 'believe in souls or spirits' or discourse about non-empirical
beings (Harvey 2006:6).
Ty10r's view of animism remains a predominant theme in western society, according to
Harvey and Bird-David. Tylor (1871) saw "animists" as understanding the world from a
childish and erroneous position. His assumptions coincide with the view that only formal
science leads to a "true" understanding of the world. Although Durkheim (1914) re-
explained animism as natural to humans because humans create dualisms between self
and other, inside and outside, he wrote as if animism came from child-like thinking. Levi-
Strauss (1966) decided that animism was simply a means that indigenous peoples used to
symbolically represent their knowledge of nature.
In 1993 Guthrie concluded that animism is a universal biological function.
People, like other animals, are constantly "scanning the world for what most concerns
us-living things and especially humans ... " (Guthrie 1993:62). Sometimes what people
see while scanning is alive. Sometimes what they take to be alive is illusory. When
humans mistake illusory things with living things, they are animating (attributing life to
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the nonliving). Animism, he said, is a "mistake", but a survival mechanism because it is
safer to see life in something that is not alive than to mistake something that is alive and
dangerous (Guthrie 1993:4-6).
Bird-David disagreed and pointed out that people are more likely to attribute
personhood or life to objects with which they have long-term relationships. In western
society, people do not form relationships with computers, house plants, or cars because
they mistake them for something alive, and later discover their error. "We do not fIrst
personify other entities and then socialize with them but personify them as, when, and
because we socialize with them" (Bird-David 2001 :S78).
Even scientists who study animals and are trained to regard them as objects tend
to see animals as persons the more they work with them (Bird-David 200l:S7l). People
are inclined to animate the non-human subjects that they know best in their environment,
which counters the idea that animism is a short-term survival technique. Guthrie observes
that a frog is more likely to survive ifhe/she sees life in something that is not alive, as
opposed to mistaking something that is alive for something that is not. So seeing life in
something that is not alive is a survival mechanism that produces tendencies toward
animism. Bird-David responds, "So Guthrie's theory downgrades indigenous ability even
more, because now they cannot do what even frogs can do, namely, 'after the fact'
recognize their 'mistakes'" (Bird-David 200l:S7l).
Bird-David approaches the subject of animism by looking at "personhood" and
what that means to various groups. For most people in western society, personhood
means whole, bounded individuals. For other peoples, such as the Nayaka in South
India?, personhood was an aggregate of relationships. A person consisted of his or her
7 The Nayaka are a tribal people, who live in the Nilgiri Hills in south India. They are food gatherers who
barter with neighboring groups (Bird David 2001).
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relationships and was thus a "dividual" rather than an individual. Sharing space, things,
and actions was the essence of social life for the Nayaka (Bird-David 2005:S72-S73).
People expected to share with all who were present at any given time, and to give what
others asked for. Kinship relations were based more on who people shared with on a
regular basis than on blood or descent. People understood and knew each other based on
knowledge of how others "dividuated." For example, people knew others-not by how
they talked or the way they talked-but rather by how they talked with other Nayaka,
according to Bird-David.
Nayaka also worked at creating a sense ofrelatedness with other beings, knowing
that humans and non-humans shared the environment. Other beings were differentiated
from humans, but because they all shared the local environment, differences were
superseded. Sharing produced a relationship and a we-ness. Humans were avaru and
other beings that shared the environment were devaru. Through the act of sharing, devaru
became kin and were made persons (Bird-David 2001 :S74-77). Gibson (1979) concluded
that meaning is discovered through action with an environment by means of attention, or
perception. For the Nayaka, then, emotions were interpreted through feelings that were
often based in knowledge and expectations about sharing. As Gibson (1979) pointed out,
things are perceived in terms ofwhat they provide the actor-perceiver because of what
they are for her/him.
People more likely pay attention to those things that their social groups emphasize
as important. People in Kake, Alaska, for example, have long emphasized respect for
Elders. People pay attention to those things in their wider environments that they have
been educated to see. They have also been educated, through culture, about how to
understand what they see. Education about what to perceive and how to perceive it occurs
with the aid of stories, descriptive words and pictures, which are not so much knowledge
as much as they facilitate knowledge (Gibson 1979). In other words, knowledge is
relative to educated experiences and aids-to-perception, such as language and narrative.
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For example, older stories in Kake often describe a tragedy that resulted when a young
person failed to heed the words of an Elder. These stories have longed helped educate
young people about how to perceive elders, whose words are aids to perceiving the rest of
the world.
While Gibson (1979) focused more on how people and animals are educated
through their attention to things around them, Bird-David learned that the Nayaka focus
on events more than things. For example, an elephant passed by a man as he was walking
in the forest, and the elephant looked straight into the man's eyes. This elephant was
devaru. It walked harmlessly and looked straight into the eyes. The animal responsively
related to the man. Because Nayaka engage with devaru through ritual and on a day-to-
day basis, Nayaka are educated to understand that their environment is relational.
In contrast, a western scientist trained within an objectivist paradigm more likely
views her/his subject of inquiry as separated from self. The idea is to break down the
parts of the subject to know it better, such as cutting down a tree to examine its parts. In
contrast, the Nayaka learn about the tree through being in relationship with it. Many, but
not all, scientists learn through perceptions ofemotions that are informed by beliefs in a
dichotomous relationship with the environment.
Considering that many groups ofpeople have a relational understanding of their
environment, Bird-David (2001 :S78) asked why Tylor and others separated themselves
from a natural, shared, human tendency to animate things. She pointed out that animation
of things is "engendered by human socially based cognitive skills, not by 'survival' or
mental confusion or wrong perceptual guesses. Cognitive skills have evolved within and
for a social kind of engagement" (200l:S78). They are socially based. Humans employ
these social skills whether they involve other humans or other beings. Even though
animism is likely a shared human tendency, cultural mediation and context frame our
animistic experiences. A diversity ofanimisms exists. (Bird-David 200l:S78-S79)
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As Kan (1999:14) tells his readers, "the Tlingit language makes no distinction
between animate and inanimate." De Laguna wrote that for the Tlingit people, all
"natural elements" were animate, or had souls or spirits (1972:810). "The same was true
of mountains, glaciers, rocks, bodies of water, plants, animals, manufactured objects, and
even some human activities and qualities (gambling, strength, etc.). Disrespectful conduct
toward these nonhuman persons and other sacrilegious actions were believed to cause
ligaas ('bad luck')" (Kan 1999:14). While Kan writes in the past tense, acknowledgement
of personhood in non-humans is still an undercurrent in Kake, and many people still
understand, based on my interviews, that humans who act respectfully will gain
reciprocity from non-human persons.
Who are persons?
Milton (2002) asked about concepts ofpersonhood after studying
environmentalists and environmental groups. She asked why impersonal, scientific views
of nature are considered the soundest basis for decision-making in the western world.
Why, she asked, have relational ways ofknowing lost authority within the modem state?
She, like Bird-David, found a partial answer by looking at concepts ofpersonhood.
In westernized culture a person is defined as an individual, a single and
irreducible entity. Three criteria seem to be common in this definition ofpersonhood.
(Milton 2002:27). First, persons have a capacity to act autonomously and intentionally.
Second, persons are able to have emotional experiences. Third, persons have moral
worth.
Those who tend to attribute personhood to non-humans more often see nature as
governed or populated by intentional beings who feel emotions and have beliefs and
intentions, according to Milton's observations. Those people who understand nature as
impersonal tend to see non-human entities as acting without intentionality and without
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feeling. This is the paradigm evident in most westernized scientific endeavors, most
"official" policy-making forums, and most economic definitions and formulas.
Why does personhood matter if we are talking about environmental integrity and
sustainable livelihood? Concepts of personhood matter because they influence how
people treat "nature." Persons have moral worth. Because persons have moral worth they
have rights from a Eurocentric perspective (Milton 2002).
Ifpeople believe that Tylor's perspective of animism is credible, that perceiving
personhood in non-human entities is erroneous and childlike, then giving the non-human
environment moral worth becomes a problem, or even an embarrassment. On the other
hand, ifpeople decide they have moral obligations towards non-human entities, then
those entities are accorded rights as moral beings. The simple act of according rights to
non-human entities means that they are the kinds of things that can have rights. As such,
they are persons. As Milton so astutely points out, humans in the western world are
expected to feel and exhibit their strongest moral obligations toward those beings that are
most obviously persons.
If something is believed to lack personhood, then it lacks intentions, emotions,
and feelings. Without emotions and feelings, it cannot suffer. As such, westernized
humans often feel they need not be obligated to treat it with moral respect for its own
sake because respect is attributed to persons who feel. Questions to consider in a global
context include these: Is the ability to perceive personhood in the non-human
environment a necessity for treating the non-human environment as though it has moral
worth? Is treating the whole environment as though it has moral worth a necessity for
achieving sustainable livelihood and environmental integrity? While I cannot answer
these questions, I can observe that many case studies from around the world show that
treating the non-human environment as though its parts have feelings, personhood, and
deserve respect quite often accompanies(d) sustainable livelihood economic strategies.
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Animism may be a strong social safeguard and a means of socialization for sustainable
management for the sake of environmental integrity.
To recognize animism as an important human condition conflicts with the
impersonal formal scientific understanding of the non-human environment. When natural
things are defined primarily as resources and when science is the most powerful arbitrator
because it is considered the most reliable basis for decisions, then perspectives that
personify nature are marginalized. If discourses about respect for the environment are
marginalized, then they are given little consideration in political or scientific
conversations. What gets marginalized in mainstream western discourse is the
fundamental understanding ofpersonhood that is based on direct perception and
experience in an environment (Milton 2002; Kuletz 1998).
When people in Kake talk about their parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents
teaching them respect for the animals, fish, plants and the environment as a whole, they
almost always talk about learning to respect other people too. Traditional Tlingit values
focus respect on all persons, human and non-human alike.
Personhood attributed to state and corporate systems
Perhaps ironically, personhood is ascribed in the United States to legal and
corporate entities. Characteristics ofpersonhood, such as the capacity to act
autonomously and intentionally, the capacity for emotional experience, and moral
worth, are attributed in legal and everyday discourses to texts, laws, boards, councils,
legislative bodies, and agencies. It can be argued that the syntactical arrangements of
English as a language may indeed facilitate and encourage human tendencies to fmd
qualities ofpersonhood in systems and in organizational structures. Corporations, as
systems, are often ascribed personhood status (lyer 2006:393).
- - - -- --_._--_._------------
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International relations scholar Alexander Wendt (2004) wrote that ordinary
citizens, the media, policymakers, lawyers, social scientists, and "just about
everybody" in the United States gives personhood to state governments. States are
often discussed as having "rationality, identities, interests, beliefs and so on" (Wendt
2004:289). Law professor Janet McLean researches the ways that government is
conceived as having personhood in international and contract politics and policies.
"International and contract law both tend to conceive of the government actor as a
determinate legal person: a single authority representing all branches of the state and
able to make commitments on behalfof the whole" (McLean 2003: 175). Such a
perception tends to unify branches of government into one "person", the executive
branch actor. When contract and international law conceive of a unified government
legal personality, the role of public politics is reduced and public processes tend to
become private. McLean wrote that in common law traditions, governments were
more likely looked upon as rival, component parts. In contrast, "International law has
always regarded the state as a unified legal person with the capacity to bind itself
into the future.... the state always enjoyed a legal personality distinct from the
constituted governmental order" (McLean 2003:178). McLean's and Wendt's
discussions about states as persons are rich arguments about the consequences of
attributing personhood to state governments. For this discussion, it is enough to point
out that states can and are given personhood status as part of legal and day-to-day
public discourses.
Corporations are also routinely discussed and described as if they are
persons. Contemporary debates about the nature of corporations often center around
whether corporations themselves are persons or whether they are simply groups of
individuals who come together to work on common goals. Those who advocate
corporate personhood describe reasons that corporations are persons in and of
themselves, functioning over and above the individuals who are part of them. The
structures of corporate institutions "help translate individual decisions and actions
into corporate decisions and actions" (Iyer 2006:393). Each corporation has a
personality that is evident through its internal decision-making structure. The
corporate internal decision-making (CID) structure (Iyer 2006:394) is an entity
independent ofpeople who are part of the corporation. People may come and go
while the decision-making system or structure remains. Individuals in corporations
have intentions as persons, but the CID reflects the intentions of the corporation.
"This style of functioning gives the corporation its individuality and grants it a
personhood" (Iyer 2006:394).
Opponents of the corporate personhood-view advocate that corporate
structures are not persons, rather, corporations are the individuals who work within
the corporation. They contend that corporations have no identity separate from the
people who are part of it. "They hold that corporations do not have any real existence
like human beings, trees, animals, insects or other occupants of the earth" (Iyer
2006:395).
The argument between advocates of corporate personhood and corporations
as aggregates ofpersons is centered on issues of responsibility. Who should be held
accountable for irresponsible behavior toward the rest of society, the corporation or
the individuals within it? People on both sides of the debate acknowledge that United
States law categorizes corporations as having the same legal protection as other
persons. Those who advocate that corporations are not persons believe that moral
responsibility should legally be applied to individuals within the corporation because
corporations are not morally responsible, only individuals are. Individuals are
responsible for making decisions that harm others so it is individuals who should be
charged and punished. Those who advocate that corporations have personhood point
out that the corporate internal decision-making (CID) structure establishes how
decisions are made and converted into action. The rules in the corporation defme
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how people relate to one another, the decision-making processes, how people should
perform, and how an action becomes a corporate action (lyer 2006:396). Through the
CID structure corporations perform actions and can be said to exist as a person. If
corporate behavior harms others, then reforming the CID structure is the most
effective means of changing corporate conduct.
The purpose of including this debate about corporate personhood is to
demonstrate how the ability to have beliefs, intent, and moral responsibility are
discursively applied to a human organizational and decision-making systems. The
ways people discuss organizational systems, corporations and legal institutions, often
imply personhood.
Below are examples of discourse segments from Alaska conversations that
imply personhood for systems:
SCR12 (appendix M) refers to a state legislative bill that would have affected Kake
by pressuring village people to form regional government bodies with people in
other small communities. The following statement is taken from a speech by state
Senator Gary Wilkin to the State Affairs Committee, March 2004.
SCR12 requests the local boundary commission to review these areas in
depth and make a recommendation for borough incorporation for each of the
model boroughs that is determined to have been the applicable borough
standards.
During the same March 2004 State Affairs Committee meeting, then Local
Boundary Commissioner, Darroll Hargraves (appendix N) said the following:
The commission recognizes that the legislature has a duty-per our
constitution-to determine fundamental state policy on the matter of which
boroughs will be organized.
Ifpersonhood implies that persons have feelings, intention, and can feel pain,
then does speaking as if states and corporation systems are persons influence human
thinking about systems? Do some ofus feel less embarrassment about referring to
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systems as persons than to non-human elements of the natural environment as
persons? Ifso, where will our empathy and sense of responsibility be directed?
Learning through feelings of "shame-anxiety"
What happens when memories ofshowing respect for personhood in the non-
human environment are linked, over a long period oftime, with moods associated with
defense or shame? Moods that are uncomfortably situated in feeling defensive or shamed
about animist ideologies become part of the feeling memory and repertoire ofwhat it
means to have a relationship with the non-human environment. Several people in Kake
told me a little bit about their own personal relationships with the non-human world by
frrst telling about their grandparents' relationships. People in the past sang and talked
with the other elements in their environment everywhere they went, on the beach and in
the woods. "Our old people, if they were going anywhere, they would talk to the forest. If
they were going down the beach, they would talk. But especially the forest, because
that's where they'd get their food from, you know," said an Elder during a taped
interview in 2004. The next two speakers attribute to Elders the practices that accompany
respect for the personhood within the non-human world. More tentatively the speakers
divulge some oftheir own feelings.
This next segment comes from a conversation between the fieldworker and a
Native man and woman in Kake. The subject was emotions and whether or not people
would take better care of the world if they had a more personal relationship with the non-
human environment.
Speaker One: You know it's ... my grandma and grandpa told me too,
I don't think of it enough. I think I (realize) more now like the world
and all of it, the earth, the water, the air, everything are all one.
Really, we're all one. Take care of it, they'll take care of you. That's
what they used to tell me. Take care of it, it'll take care ofyou.
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Respect it and it will respect you. [long pause] Yeah. It's simpIe, but
then a lot of people can't ...
Speaker Two: Grasp it.
Speaker One: Exactly.
Speaker Two: Trees are dead. [laughter] ... It's just ... got a spirit to
them [grandparents and others] and they have to pick the right one
and ...
Speaker One: Yeah.
Speaker Two: 'Cause I walk all over these woods and pick berries and
the fIrst time when I go to pick berries ... I haven't in the last couple
of years 'cause I don't have any cigarette butts ... I used to take them
along and just dump the tobacco out on there ... thank them for
coming back, for the berries and ... And I talk in there too about
myself.
Speaker One: Yeah.
Speaker Two: You know ... I act weird in the woods. [laughs]
Speaker One: My grandma and (others), they were like that all the
time. [Speaker One remembers hearing voices in the woods as a boy.
He'd go in to investigate and see his grandparents.] I'd come back up,
"Who are you guys talking to?" You know. [They would say] "Don't
take it wrong, but (there's 'people' there to thank). I'd say, "What do
you mean?" I was still too young to understand but then I remember
them saying that. Even when they'd go out to the beach, thank (the
salmon, seals, others). They won't come back until a certain time.
Speaker One: And I guess you could reach a certain level in your
spiritual growth to where you could actually hear the trees.
Speaker Two: Yeah. (2003 taped interview)
In the above examples the speakers describe the past, when their grandparents
were more comfortable with non-human personhood communications, and the present,
when talking with the forest might be considered "weird." Even in Kake, there is a
strong chance that some people, who think, or claim to think, "trees are dead", will make
fun of acknowledging non-human personhood. Some people may react as though such
thinking and talking is dangerous. To feel that non-human personhood may be a weird or
dangerous way to think comes, in part, from parents, grandparents and great grandparents
having to defend it, hide it, and even dissociate from it as part ofcontact with non-Tlingit
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missionaries, teachers, and others. Feelings associated with personhood in Kake are
informed by contact history relative to Kee~' Kwaan history and ideology. The
consequence is mixed emotions. Use of the word "weird" very probably identifies one
mixed emotion that is common in Kake discourses about non-human personhood.
Gregory M. Simon (2005:494) calls the emotion "shame-anxiety," which is the sense that
there may be a looming threat of shame.
The feeling of shame-anxiety does not necessarily mean that the person feeling
the emotion has done something shameful. Rather, in this context, it is the feeling that
someone else mayor may not interpret behavior or narrative as shameful or
embarrassing. Emotions such as shame-anxiety suggest a type oflearned knowledge
about the world that comes from experiencing or seeing others experience both negative
and positive reactions to a particular type ofbehavior. Reactions may be unpredictable or
tentative in Kake in response to articulation about spirituality and non-human
environmental personhood.
Simon (2005:494) describes the relationship between cultural constraints and fear
this way: "Knowledge of our own relationship to the world manifests itself in our
emotions: a feeling of fear embodies knowledge of danger to ourselves, for example."
Fear can result from experiencing variable reactions to the same behaviors. Currently in
Kake's village culture, feelings about non-human personhood are conflicted. In some
Kake groups people feel internal inconsistencies. Many follow through with the
traditional rituals associated with respect for natural resources. Some are comfortable
with rituals of recognition and thanks to non-human persons. Others wonder if they might
be ridiculed for participating in ''Native superstition." A few groups ofpeople have
chosen to disassociate themselves from traditional respect rituals, often because of
biblical interpretations that portray Tlingit rituals and beliefs as offensive within
Christianity. Still others are helping to bring back the older knowledge of inclusive
environmental relationships. Because the topic of non-human personhood stimulates
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emotions that activate strong feelings, discourses about non-human personhood may
include shame-anxiety signifiers such as "weird" and/or the language ofdefense. In the
following fragment, the Tlingit speaker directly defends spiritual relationships with the
environment.
Oh, I know I was just reading a letter in the Juneau paper the other
day. Somebody was kind ofbelittling the people for putting the
spirituality label on places. It's in one of the letters to the editor this
last week. I looked at it and I thought, God, what person is this, I
mean ... we're not real strange for doing that. To me it's real bizarre, a
lot of stuff that goes on in different religions ... putting spirituality on
certain kinds of icons. I mean to me that's real weird. I mean I guess
I'm more of a generalist I ... in that my church isn't in one building ...
or-that the icons that are in there are holy. I mean my church is all of
the environment. I think that's how my father felt. And his father. So
... that's my church (2003 taped interview).
Older ideologies about respect for human and non-human persons in the
environment have undergone cultural dislocation through formal education, religion,
experiences with workers from "outside," television, regulatory agencies, legal
representatives, and other culture contact phenomena. As a consequence, Kake people
construct a variety of explanations for how they feel about the old ways. Each group's
explanations include features of older Tlingit paradigms that have been rearticulated
many times to "fix" the ideological ruptures caused by recurring social crises. Groups in
Kake share differing cosmological narratives so that non-human personhood is discussed
through a range of feelings, including defense, disassociation, forthrightness,
ambivalence, and internalization in order to escape criticism and other discomfort. The
feeling-contradictions among community members create strong sensitivities, a key
reason for the commonness of shame-anxiety in talk about non-human persons. Several
people, especially those associated with the IRA tribe, claim openly and with conviction
a personal and cultural connection with the whole of their environment, human and non-
human.
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Learning through having experienced doubt and mixed emotions in the past, leads
to feelings such as shame-anxiety in the present. Such feelings are likely based in
experiences that are embedded within the forces that dislocated some aspects of culture
and ideology in Kake, although culture and cultural dislocation never detennine
emotiona11ife (Levy 1984). Levy concluded in his ethnographic and theoretical work that
emotions (as in feelings) are neither biologically universal nor purely cultural constructs
(Simon 2005:493). However, there exist recognizable emotion/feeling patterns.
Commonly held and enculturated respect for human and non-human entities in an
environment has been an important condition of 10ng-tenn sustainable livelihood for
groups such as the T1ingits. When the language of respect and emotion/feeling for the
entirety of a place and community is left out of legal, regulatory, and market-based talk,
people are educated to focus their attention on objectifying others, human and non-
human.
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CHAPTER VII
KAKE TRANSLATORS
And a lot ofthem do ... the government agency and ... as well as the market economy
representatives ... they do ask us for written things. And it helps because in having Mike,
Topsy [Native people who have college educations and governmental experience], all
those ones that understand, you know, in tying our ways with the non-Native ways, and
they understand the importance ofit. Andso they use the language that we need to have
in the contract, andyou know, you've got to be realistic. You do have to have contracts
now days. You have to have a paper trait. So ... a lot ofthem [agencies, etc.] do tend to
go with what you say. They put it down in their own words but they're saying what we
did. And the parts that they exclude are usually the parts that we feel are (strong with)
emotion ofholding back sacred (connections), tying us to that part. You know, that's
really important to us; they kind ofexclude that. We kind ofexpect that because they
don't understand that. So it's usually excludedfrom the contract. But one thing that a lot
ofthem don't understand is the feeling as well as the importance that we put into what we
feel. They don't tie that to our words. Our words aren't contract enough for them, I guess
you'd say. But they are to other Natives, you know. Or to afamity. (2003 taped interview,
Tlingit woman in her middle years)
What happens if and when Kake people talk about the environment in its entire
human and non-human social capacity and as something that deserves respect? Are they
heard or must they change their discourse to reflect the hegemonic ideological frames of
science and public policy? What gets left out?
Translating emotion and personhood
All people speak within norms or rules of language (indexicalities) that are
connected with being part of a social group, such as seine fishermen indexicality or Texas
ranching indexicality. Some indexicalities are associated with "standard" English, or
131
"prestige" English. Some indexicalities may be connected with talking with a particular
group of friends. Some dialect varieties are attributed higher value than others in certain
social contexts. They are ranked along with people who use them. Orders of indexicality
are stratified at all levels of social life. To be part ofa group involves orienting one's self
to its indexicalities in order to be sociaL Most people can re-orient indexicalities to be
part of more than one group or overlapping groups. They select various language codes
or switch codes according to the social context (Blommaert 2005:74-76). Abilities to
speak or write or read within indexicalities are a form ofresource, or what Bourdieu
called social capital (Bourdieu 1982:230-231). That people have varying degrees of
access to legal and political expertise brings up crucial questions about power,
Speakers can/cannot speak varieties of languages, they can/cannot
write and read, and they can/cannot mobilize specific resources for
performing specific actions in society. And all of these differences-
different degrees of proficiency ranging from "not at all" to "full
mastery" of codes, language varieties, and styles-are socially
consequentiaL Resources are hierarchised in terms of functional
adequacy, and those who have different resources often fmd that they
have unequal resources, because access to some rights and benefits in
society is constrained by access to specific communicative resources
(Blommaert 2005:58).
Translators
The speakers highlighted in this chapter are practiced in switching codes between
various local Kake indexicalities and state-based and legal indexicalities. As Organized
Village of Kake (IRA tribe) members and employees, they interpret for legal and
regulating agencies the needs and feelings of local Kake people. They interpret for many
people in Kake the laws relevant to Kake and the rights and benefits that belong to local
people. In order to be translators or interpreters, most have gone to college and worked in
132
places outside ofKake where they learned communicative resources necessary for
dealing with state political and legal codes.
Many village people have ambivalent feelings towards the tribe. They often enjoy
the services, education programs, and housing assistance that the tribe organizes, but at
the same time they may resent tribal representatives because of the power they wield as
interpreters and advocates. Some people complain that tribal employees write grants
simply for the purpose of funding and keeping their own jobs. For many of us in social
science and other scientific fields, writing grants is "common sense" because we feel that
our work is important enough to warrant funding. Many people, in Kake and in other
communities of my experience, find it hard to understand how grant writing and
administration could be "real work." Although I heard some stories about a few
politically powerful families of which some members abused power, I found tribal
employees to be passionate about their roles as community advocates. They are in their
positions as interpreters and advocates because most have lived in Kake for many years.
When I was in Kake, certain families did seem well represented in the tribe, the
corporation, the city and the school district. Dombrowski (2001 :40-49) wrote that every
Tlingit village has four to eight families that dominate local politics. While he asserted
that "families have emerged where other forms of social organization have disappeared"
(Dombrowski 2001:47), Thornton (2005:481-483) suggested that families, the clan
system and other layers of social organization are part of the workings of increasingly
complex layers of social structure in villages such as Kake.
Interestingly, several local people who helped as leaders to interpret and translate
Kake discourses to state representatives and vice versa were (are) of European descent.
For more than 25 years the mayor ofKake was the same non-Native man, who retained
much of his non-Tlingit identity. When I was in Kake, the new mayor, the
superintendent, and the tribal administrator were all of European descent and had all lived
in Kake for many years. Perhaps unconsciously, some non-Native leaders often referred
133
to the Tlingit community as "they" during interviews. I sensed that most non-Natives in
Kake felt at once a part of and apart from their Tlingit counterparts. Several non-Native
people expressed a sense of feeling alienated.
Significantly, I heard less in the way of criticism toward current non-Native
leaders than toward family-connected Tlingit leaders. Non-Native separation from multi-
generational family affiliation was (is) a buffer between city and tribal politics and the
family and clan loyalty that is an important part of Tlingit social structure. However,
there was a lot said about the past non-Native mayor, who served for over two decades.
He brought infrastructure funding and projects to the community, but he also made
himself wealthy, many people said.
Native leadership, in negotiating between local and state and global market
forums, is imperative, but it can be difficult. I have talked with Native American college
students from other tribes who say that many educated Native Americans, who return
home to help, suffer criticisms and resentment on their reservations or other communities.
One young Kake woman who works in Kake still grieves about how her formal education
put a wedge in her relationships with friends and the community. She mourns having
gone to college but at the same time she works hard to use what she learned to assist the
tribe.
Among the group ofpeople who organized to strengthen traditional culture and
the tribe in the 1980s were those who were educated outside of the community. The
parents in a few families in particular were adamant about their children and
grandchildren getting a college education. In one family the parents were strong church
leaders, as well as being knowledgeable about Tlingit values. Their granddaughter, who
is an excellent grant writer, administrator, and researcher for the tribe, said this in 2003:
"My other grandpa, the late _, was the driving force behind my pursuits ofhigher
education when he was still with us; he never let a moment pass with his children and
grandchildren without saying in some way the importance of getting an outside education
134
and bringing back all the tools necessary for Kake to succeed in today's world.
Everything was done as an investment for the future" (2003 taped interview).
Not every young man or woman who left Kake to go to college returned to use
their education at home. That a few families have been particularly involved reflects, in
part, their matriarch's and patriarch's emphases that they should be concerned about
family and the community as a whole. Tribal board members are elected in the
community, and the tribe works to employ tribal members as workers. For the purpose of
this section, I point out that I heard very little, if anything, about tribal level
mismanagement of funds and programs. I heard several narratives about city financial
mismanagement and a great deal about tribal corporation fmancial mismanagement.
Four narratives
Following are five people's narratives about communicating local knowledge to
legal regulatory agencies and law-makers. The narratives are part of informal taped
interviews using the questions outlined in appendix A. Each speaker has experience
working with agencies and lawmakers on a personal level. I retain these narratives within
the text ofthis dissertation and not in the appendix out of a desire to provide space for
local Kake people to tell about circumstances in their own words.
Illustration 1
[About the corporations] Yeah, this, this is exactly what I was talking
about. Lots of them won't listen. I don't know what you do to make
them listen.
And, like I said, state subsistence office, the staffs real good. In fact
__ works with some of them on doing studies on our streams, and I
don't know what exactly is going on with that .. but I'm sure local
knowledge is used in that. I know .. I know we have more accurate
information as far as stream usage. And every once in awhile the
Forest Service sometimes listens " about local knowledge. And it's
surprising what it takes to make them listen. I mean year after year
sometimes we've told them about important places to us and .. it just
goes over their heads for years and years and years. And then .. you
almost have to .. you have to almost get angry or cry or .. to get their
attention, and then maybe they'll listen. "Well we didn't realize this is
such an important area to your spiritual ... " I've seen that happen.
"I've been telling you." But to them, they don't think culturally
modified trees .. they call them .. what do they call them CMTs .. they
call them CMTs. I mean .. get real. I mean to us that's important
because it was a place where ancestors went and got bark or branches
or medicine or whatever. And to them that's not a historical place.
And to us it's important. I mean it's important spiritually and
culturally. And I don't know if they still have the same attitude. I
mean there's a whole different way oflooking at the land than they
look at. And I think some ofthem, it's [mally starting to sink in a little
on how important some areas are to us, or things like that. '" It's ...
some ofthem, a lot of .. well they're from down .. come from a
logging background or background they went to college to study
management of trees that's .. research development for either
recreation or for .. for to cut down .. You can't call them money trees
because they're not making money. (laughs) They're being
subsidized. But I don't ... but anyway they come from that mentality
and not from a tree that possibly has a spirit..... Because, you know,
whenever we get bark or roots we talk to the tree. It's just .. it's a
good thing to do. But that's one of the agencies. They're the Forest
Service gradually coming on to recognizing our view of the forest.
And our view is that they're not there just to not make use of, it's just,
again, it's wise use. The wisest use.
Oh, I know I was just reading a letter in the Juneau paper the other
day. Somebody was kind ofbelittling the people for putting the
spirituality label on places. It's in one of the letters to the editor this
last week. I looked at it and I thought, God, what person is this, I
mean .. we're not real strange for doing that. To me it's real bizarre a
lot of stuff that goes on in different religions .. putting spirituality on
certain kinds of icons. I mean to me that's real weird. I mean I guess
I'm more of a generalist I .. in that my church isn't in one building ..
or ---- that the icons that are in there are holy. I mean my church is all
ofthe environment. I think that's how my father felt. And his father.
So .. that's my church. (2003 taped interview with Tlingit woman in
her middle years)
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Illustration 2
Well we tell the people, just like some of these politicians are starting
to use the word ... they use spirituality in the forest, in forestry. I
know there's the head guy or one of the guys that has been against
environmentalists, I think I read it somewhere, in the Juneau paper or
Ketchikan, where they [the guy] said (in sarcasm), "Now they're even
trying to bring spirituality" (into the way we talk about trees) .. but to
what level? Like we say to the agencies that come in here, meeting
with the Forest Service, that the woods are the caretakers of our spirits
until such time that there is a memorial ceremony. Cause they (spirits)
wander around us, whether they're right next to us or above us, below
us, all the way around us. Till we do that memorial ceremony. That's
what we call the bear .... They're caretakers of our spirits. They're
the ones that are in the woods. The bears watch out for the forest. And
there's a clan, that's what they do. I don't know if you were at that
one memorial, but they sang a memorial song for my aunt. The (clan
song) their song, __ and his son. And they did one at the church
about the spirituality of God.
[About the man in the paper criticizing the use of the word
spirituality] And that's why he was wondering how they can bring
that into the woods. And he has .. like I say, they just don't
understand it. They never will until such time as their values change.
We're never going to change ours. This is who we are. Because this is
the only way local feelings ... what words are used. We use those
words, we use the songs about our history and we tried to tell them
certain areas, certain bays have that sacredness to them because we
believe that we've lived before and our history is there. Those places
are sacred. And the ways today's agencies say, "Well, no one's there
now. No one's ever been there. It's pristine area." That's the way our
grandfathers left it, just like Glacier Bay. The Hoonah people up in
that area. They lived there prior to the glacier. To them it's sacred.
But they've always fished and hunted there. Now they can't. They
have to get a permit to go into their own bay. So that's how they have
to work with the different agencies and try to educate them on what
we're doing, and the kinds of stories that we do tell. It's not stories
but how can we tell our history. How this is related to us. How we're
related to those areas.
136
.. well the environmentalists and conservationists have no problem
with that. Because a lot of times for them, if they're like John Muir,
they feel it. They see something there, so it must exist. We don't have
to prove that 95 percent of what is around us, what we know is
spirituality. But 5 percent of what we know in our life is what we see.
The other things we accept it because they're there. It's like we can
never say, "Hey, watch this. Knock knock on the tree. Come out
spirit. Talk to us." We can't. But we know in our prayers and the way
things are related back to us by just the lives that we do live, that we
know we're a lot calmer; we're a lot more spiritual when we
recognize other things have that spirit. Even today scientists at
universities, whether you're here or there, they believe in the atom,
but they've never seen it. Now they're even starting to say there's
something even smaller than the atom, 100 million times smaller of
wiggly things. And to them they try to explain it with mathematical
equations, things that they can see. But they really can't, whether it's
a warp in space or not. So to them, it has to be spiritual. That's their
foundation. In order to live by these theories that they've built, and try
to prove to be truth. So, we .. all we exist as, to me, we're spirits, that
all we can do is relate to one another because we have this eyesight.
For someone else, like the tree people, who knows. They might not
even see us. I don't know. But I could believe that could be true too.
Just as a rock can feel us walkin upon em. And how we might be able
to pick it up and add to the beauty of it by tumbling it, by carving it,
by its being so close to us we give it a name. Just like if we carve
something, we give it a name. To us it might be soothing, it might be
pleasing, but to what we do with it, all we can ask for is forgiveness
because we don't know how it feels. But that's just part of relating to
it and their history.
[Reading from a list of interview questions, see appendix A] What
parts oflocal knowledge andfeelings do government agencies and
market economy representatives accept or incorporate or use in their
decisions .. .All they know is that we use like subsistence, our
customary and traditional use areas. And what we do gather,
customary and traditional, that they call subsistence. Plays a fact in
there, but it is a necessary part of the EIS's [Environmental Impact
Statement] because that word necessary is left to interpretation by the
decision-maker, that they should log or not, ofthe subsistence use of
these areas. Like Woodpecker Cove just recently. They're building 27
miles .. or 9 miles or whatever miles of road that's going to be in
137
there, but there's going to be like (four, twelve) into the roadless area.
So it's going to be a big impact on those people that usually went
hunting and gathering there or whatever. Or just sitting there
meditating. Because part of our spirituality is going into the nature
itself to try to gather our balance. Whether it's going to the extreme ..
what I call the extreme .. of fasting or just going there for a day to
meditate, to get that energy again. So that part, how they use and
accept and incorporate our use just because this kind of culture, the
Forest Service tends to do that in their logos and stuff. "Oh there's
weird people that live out there. They say they're natives and they
have stories to tell." It's not stories. It's not that we're different, it's
just that's who we are in that area .. our area. Then we have this
artwork that we do. But they like to use it in their brochures. They
like to use it to say, "Oh yeah. That's something." It's not because
we'll make money on it. It's because it's a spiritual thing. It means
something. So that's how they tend to use us as something ofa rarity.
For them, oh yeah they're Kake people. They're Tlingits. They
[USFS] have a label for everything. And depending upon if you're for
or against them, you're rewarded by you can have offices there or not,
campgrounds there or not. They do things in the community or not.
But they love to come and get all the resources out of there if they
can, and it's primarily timber. So it's a reward kind of system, and to
us we don't care if they're here or not, but we'd rather not have them
here because all they're interested in is in the wood. Because it's their
number one priority.
What parts of local knowledge do they tend to drop orforget or
exclude from their decisions? Spirituality. It's about relationships.
That's what they forget, tend to do. So that's how they tend to ignore
us. So they don't believe that we depend upon the woods, that there
are things, decisions that they make, that impacts our customary and
traditional use and our spirituality. It does. They tend to ignore that.
Because (taking trees) its "necessary" for them. That word necessary
[in USFS documents regarding timber contracts] we were trying to
mitigate one time. But I think the judges weren't going to try to get
into that as much as what the impact on tangible things.
Then what parts of local knowledge andfeelings about community
and environment are included in written contracts or permits or other
official documents? Maybe when they go and do a memorandum of
agreement or understanding they start deleting. There's the other part
138
of special uses of the woods products, which is the plants, and they
agree not to give any permits or anything for people to gather devil's
club at any large commercial sense of the word, pharmaceuticals.
That is the only plant that they agreed not to put in .. to exempt from
this special use permit. And we argued for five years on that one, one
plant. So they agreed to do that for now. And what they have in their
written documents is when they do archaeological digs and
anthropological interviews and they accept them as truth because
they're written down by somebody else other than the native.
So the parts of permits and official documents, like I said, there's
memorandums of agreement, which parts are excluded and a lot of
times they'll never include spirituality because it's intangible. It's the
tangibility of it. What, when, where and how, what are the examples?
Which parts of local knowledge are reinterpreted or changed during
communications? We try to skip over the spirituality, but we also say
that we come .. every clan comes from a certain part of the geological
area. Like we come from __, which is over there on Admiralty
Island. And it's who we are. It's back down to the environment, back
down to the resources and how we're part of the ecosystem there that
creates and maintains the viability because ofthe wilderness there.
We can't say it's pristine (you can't say it belongs to anyone person)
But if you go over there and there's certain areas that have little dams
built to help facilitate fish to get up a steep part of a falls .. used to be
a falls, short one, but they (fish) weren't able to manage it. But the old
people built little pools for them to get up past it and it opened up a
watershed. So .. that's part of who we are, where it's coming from.
(2003 taped interview with Tlingit/Haida man in his middle years)
Illustration 3
But our people have, they have learned to communicate with all the
government agencies, their representatives, and everybody that comes
into Kake. You know they, I think they communicate a lot better than
we did back in the 80s. Dh in the 80s we were just coming to the
realization that we had a say so in what we wanted and what we could
get and what people were getting to give to us. And now, but now
everybody in the community knows what we're entitled to and what,
you know, what people are giving us money for. So I think they do
communicate their needs and how they feel to the government
agencies and representatives and the markets. And what words are
used? The words they use are simple, you know. They don't try to get
complicated because that's the way they understand it. They're not
139
words that could mean something else. You know, they're not .. they
can't be mistaken for anything else. And they .. we've all learned that
you know the government agencies can tell you one thing but they
have an out when they say, "Okay we meant this," so .. you know.
And they never bother to tell you until it's too late so .. But uh our
people are very outspoken and they know what they want. They say it
and they wait for the response. And the kinds of stories they use are
the real life stories. They don't just say, you know, this could have
happened or this might have happened or this will happen. They go
right into a story from something that happened a long time ago and
then another one that just happened or can .. will happen, you know.
Cause our parents, our grandparents were always saying, we could
miss something once in awhile, or, you know, something can happen,
or something can come up. And they always go into a story that
doesn't necessarily scare us, but (helps us) think to stop and use our
heads.
What parts oflocal knowledge and feelings do government agency
and market economy representatives incorporate or use in their
decisions. (Sigh) (Pause) They don't really, they don't really bother to
know our local ... (sigh) I shouldn't say that. I guess .. like with the
Forest Service. They find themselves, they always fmd themselves in
hot water with us, you know. Because they try so hard. They .. you
know the archaeologists work like everything to understand us. They
bring us things, you know, and it's useful to us .. but .. there's always
going to be a knowledge, you know, that we have that they won't ever
have. Maybe it's .. what I'm trying to say is it's ownership of us, of
our tribe and our people that they will never know....You know they
can bring us a scientific knowledge but then too, ours is a knowledge
that we'll always have the local knowledge. And .. they bring us lots.
The government agencies, they do have feelings for our ways.
Sometimes they go about it the wrong way, but they do have feelings.
And of course we have real bad feelings for [them] (laughs). But they
are working on it. They're not all bad. Of course we're all .. you know
we always just all have to work at it .. to get along. And sooner or
later they know what they're doing with us and we know what they're
trying to do with us .. so .. eventually it works out. So . it works out to
where they can accept it or they can use it or they can incorporate it in
their decisions or our decisions. It's not necessarily that we want to be
hard or be difficult; it's something that we need to work out in our
own minds. You know they can't just come in and say, well, this is
this and this is what you're going to do. That's good to do, but we
140
need to know that. We need to work it out ourselves. And, you know,
it's probably for the better ofus, We need to come to grips with it
ourselves. We need to come to our own understanding about it. And
maybe it'll take years and years, but you know it will come. So ..
that's just like the Indian health service, or the public health service. I
think 99 percent of the time we don't like what they're doing. But you
know, they are coming in to do it. And they listen to us if we take the
time to tell them. And not be constantly chopping at them. And the
same with the Forest Service, like they want to take some place for a
national park service. But that belongs to us. You know, it's got
religious ties, it's got family ties and it's very important to us. And
then we'll stand up and fight. And then they don't have that
knowledge of us. But sometimes you know they'll ... listen to
understand why we're being so adamant about them not taking it. And
you know, they'll usually back off ... But then too, you know, they
kind of forget that we should have a say so in it. They kind of exclude
us from their decisions half the time. And .. but then too, like I say,
it's different because they are coming in and talking about it with us.
You know and .. maybe they'll still go ahead with their idea, but
they'll make some .. or they'll change a little bit here and there that
will kind of soothe us over.
So .. okay. Are parts of10cal knowledge andfeelings about
community, environment, or spirituality reinterpreted or changed
during communication ... Yes it is. Because the people we're talking
to in any of those agencies or representatives with the permits and
contracts and official documents, like I was saying, they can't put it
down the way we want them to because it can't be explained ... the
importance of that thing we feel that they're trying to tie us to. You
just can't do that. You just (sigh) like the permits. They say they're
giving us a permit to get sockeye. How can they give us a permit for
something when we go in there and we take only as much as we
need? And they say you take this many, but you know we only need
ten. But they say we take 20 or 50. And the contracts ... it's ..
everything's changed once you start putting it into writing. And
talking you can get more across in talking because you can see the
feeling or the changing of expression on a person's face. You can't
necessarily do that in writing. As well you cannot put the importance
down. Because in written contracts or permits or anything, you have
to be concise. You have to put it down and leave it at that. You cannot
go off randomly just saying something else about it. But we feel that
141
we have to put this in because it carries weight to us. So .. I say it's
reinterpreted and changed .. everything, once you start putting it into
writing.
Okay. Have people in Kake learned what parts of their local
knowledge andfeelings will be accepted and which rejected during
communications with govern .. , yeees. As a result do people
leave out certain knowledge andfeeling language when talking to ...
(sigh). I don't think they necessarily leave anything out, but it's you
know they just get tired of repeating it. So they touch on it but they
don't harp on it. And like they always say, "We said before, we'll
continue to say" you know and they'll leave it at that. They won't ...
nothing is ever left out. ... how we feel, what things are more
important to us, you know, but nothing is ever dropped or rejected. So
.. yeah. So, we never leave anything out. We just continue to harp. I
love it when I have to harp. (chuckles)
Conversely have government agency and market economy
representatives learnedfrom people in Kake ... Yup, they have not.
And they know what will not be accepted. (chuckles) Like you don't
just come in and say you're gonna do this. You know. Like we tum
around and we say we're not going to do this. Like the Forest Service
comes in and says we're gonna open this up for bid and like we say,
"No you're not." They learned you don't do that. You come in and
you beat around the bush about it because (sigh) in a way, like I said,
there's always something, something important to us in the
environment around us. And they're slowly coming to that knowledge
that maybe it doesn't necessarily mean a lot to them, but it does mean
a lot to us. So they have to come in and talk with us about it. So..
They have learned to change their ways of thinking and talking when
communicating with us. They all come in and talk with the people.
They always have meetings. So..
It does change the way that you know they feel about us. Especially
the spirituality part of it because they don't really actually tie their ..
any spirituality to anything like we do. You know they don't have
that. But with us, it's spiritual. No matter what we do. Because we
know we're taking something, or we're using it, so we have to thank
the .. you know, put our thanks in the right place.... Yeah. Well they
[legal and regulatory representatives] have to (think about Kake's
way), you know. They can't help but think about it. Because you can't
142
take things away from anybody. You just can't come in .. huh .. they
do but you know I'm sure a lot of them are thinking about it now.
Because we feel so strongly about it. So .. Yeah. Right. They have to
think twice about it now. They just can't come in and say you know
this is gonna happen or this is what you're going to do. Because a lot
of them do come in or they start contacting people in the community
before they do come in. And then they're armed pretty well .. to come
in to talk to the people because they know what the people want, or
what knowledge they need to know. (2003 taped interview with
Tlingit woman in her middle years)
Illustration 4
Speaker One: I think we're fmally gaining some ground. and fish and
game is a prime example of that. You know before states and the
government, (tripped) across Alaska, and even the Russians or anyone
else. What people I feel don't realize is all of our natural resources
were managed by our ancestors. You know we didn't have to have
something in black and white telling us, "Okay this month you can
only take this much" ..and I strongly believe they did a much better
job at it than any of these agencies are because this was their area,
probably all of southeast. Then they start coming in with regulations
and mandates and then they opened our natural resources up to
commercial, of course. I think that's where a lot of the conflict comes
in, at least in my opinion. Because they don't really care what we
want, in my eyes, as far as what we live on, what we gather and ...
I'm surprised we don't need a permit, and maybe you do, I'm
unaware of it, for clams and seaweed and you know gumboots. The
fish is a fine example. You've got real low numbers or no returns and
they just say well it's because of subsistence or whatever, but it's a
combination of other things .. the number of users, it's nature, it's
poor management practices. And they wait until it's too late, where ...
I mean these are just stories I've heard from my grandparents that
they heard from their grandparents about how there was times they
had to help (the environment recover). They knew when to leave it
and let it replenish.
Speaker Two: Yeah, clearly the tribe in the past and (Tlingits as a
larger group) had a government of .. it might not be defmed in the
past by contemporary definitions, but clearly there was a governing
body, and they took action based on needs, like what Speaker One
was just talking about. If they need to quit harvesting a run because
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they needed escapement to go up, they did that, and they knew what
had to be done. And when I debate with the agencies over things like
(fisheries) management, my basis is on the fact well the (Tlingits)
have been doing it for several thousand years pretty successfully. You
know, who better to be involved with today's management? And I
think we're making some headway. But it's a long slow uphill battle.
Speaker One: Well I think generally they have to struggle with it (the
local knowledge and its credibility). A lot depends on the people that
are there. You can get somebody won over to understand our logic,
but if their boss is against it, it's not going to (matter). But we have
made headway. Quite a few of them are trying to work with us.
But when we're communicating to them, we, I think we tend to use a
mixture of their terms and also our terms. Like we many times
emphasize customary and traditional gathering ....Subsistence is a
state word. And I don't really like that word because it's just
traditional gathering. It's something we've done inherently. But
because the state has another need, or had another need, commercial
or whatever, who knows why they came up with all those. Now we're
labeled as subsistence gatherers, which I mean it doesn't really
matter, but they make it sound like something was newfound when
it's just .. it's traditional. Our land is (what's out there).... at least
when I have communicated with some of the state .. I like to, without
coming right out and saying it, let them know before you guys .. and I
don't say (tripped) on us, but before your time, everything we had
(before everything was valued according to dollars) was valued and
controlled and managed adequately, I think. Because you don't ever
hear (in the old narratives) of, well, there's no more deer or there's no
more fish or grouse or berries, you know. It's hard to explain to
government and other agencies, mainly because you don't ever get
them here in Kake, you know. How many of these agencies visit
Kake? Probably none.
Speaker Two: Okay one thing I was thinking, as much as we attempt
to communicate, using their words and some of ours, there's some
stuff that I don't think they can really understand. And the few that do
understand it, are the ones .. that have taken the time to come here and
these are the ones that have actually spent some time here to
experience it. Because it takes awhile I think to get the grasp of what
it means and it's so much an internal feeling.
Speaker Two: Well yeah like an example would be you know a
biologist (Speaker One groans with frustration, "oh" and then laughs)
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they're going to strictly look at it from the scientific aspects and until
you get them out and spend time with it, they're going to have tunnel
vision as far as the resource. And it means so much more to the
people in Kake then just the scientific aspect. Or the commercial,
yeah.
Fieldworker: And do you get biologists who go out with you?
Speaker Two: Oh yeah. Some do. Certainly not all, but ... But yeah
we've got some. You know there's a handful of folks from different
agencies that have become, you know, good friends, I think. Yeah.
But when they go back, ifthey're down the ladder a little bit, in the
hierarchy of things, it's marginal the effect they can have.
Speaker One: But we don't even have senators and representatives
come to these communities, and yet they all stand up before congress
and swear to God they know what our needs are, you know. So that's
just the way that whole system is. People are making decisions for us
that probably haven't been to Kake and if they have, it's been
probably 30 years, you know. And that's just using Kake as an
example. I can't even imagine what it is like in southeast or even
Alaska in general.
Fieldworker: Do agency representatives know and use a kind of
language to effectively communicate about Kake?
Speaker One: Not with their mind set.
Speaker Two: Well .. yeah. (laughs) well you're probably right. And
certainly, if we're talking legal documents, it has to include words,
you know, in a European type words and concepts. Either that or big
definitions .. of what the native words or concepts might be.
Fieldworker: Is time taken to include native words and concept
definitions?
Speaker One: No
Speaker Two: Typically not, probably. Maybe in some management
Speaker One: No. They wouldn't even include anything we wanted, I
mean, because as it is, to be real honest, they're doing everything they
can to wipe out environmental review processes, you know ... That
answers everybody's question right there as far as agencies and
corporations and what ... There's a major disconnect and it's just
getting bigger. And I think it's because of the approach they're using,
because like I said, all they really care about is making the dollar at
any expense. They have no .. they have, in my opinion, lost their
sense ofvalues. And that's sad.
Fieldworker: Can the local values be expressed in words?
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Speaker Two: Well. I think at certain levels we can, but .. And like
there's a document we've been working on with an agency and at
certain levels we came to an agreement on the language. But once it
got to a higher level, then it got stalled.
Speaker One: mmhmm
Speaker Two: So .. but even that document was very much their
words. I get some ofour thoughts in it and a couple ofpoints but ..
you know which one I'm talking about?
Speaker One: Yeaahh
Speaker Two: But yeah, it got stalled once it got to a certain level,
whether it was not understanding the premise, or perhaps, I think a
big part of it was fear of giving up some turf I think that's probably
the biggest reason. Because they don't want to release their control.
Speaker One: The Forest Service, you know, because of the number
ofprojects that go on here, and they do come out and get our
comments and invite us to participate, but as for the language that we
use, I don't recall it ever get used .. Speaker Two: I don't. I don't.
Speaker One: I'm trying to make sure that I haven't ever seen it. And
I usually just get all their EIS's (Environmental Impact Statements) so
.. But at least they're opening the doors to the tribe for more
involvement, if nothing else to hear our concerns.
Speaker Two: And well, like I say, ifwe're involved in the drafting
process, they can be inputted in that way too.... Of course, when it
comes to getting it signed, it gets stalled at a higher level, but ...
Speaker One: And I mean that some of the ones that, you know the handful
that I mentioned that have come to Kake repeatedly and have worked with us
and even gone out with us and .. I don't know if they're necessarily using our
terminology, but I'm getting the impression they have the begiIming of an
understanding. (2003 taped interview with a young Tlingit woman, speaker
one, and a man in his middle years, speaker two, who grew up in a non-
Native community)
Again, the speakers in narratives 1-4 are representatives of the IRA tribe, the
Organized Village of Kake. For the purpose of this study, the questions I ask about
these narratives are nested in the larger purpose of better understanding the
influences of legal and regulatory language on local discourses that socialize "moral"
environmental and community values:
1) What do the narratives show about philosophies of personhood?
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2) What do they reveal about the contexts of emotion and feeling as part
of learning?
Personhood
The concept of spirituality was discussed several times in the above
illustrations. Its use refers, in part, to personhood within the inclusive environment.
In the Tlingit Language and Cultural Resources Tlingit Elders Traditional Education
Checklist (2001), traditional spirituality includes the following (Sealaska Heritage
Foundation 1984):
Relationship to the natural world (land plants, animals, fish)
Relationship to the spiritual world
How to speak to the natural and spiritual worlds
Concept of at. 'oow
Spiritual dimensions ofvisual art, songs, dances
Stories and public speaking
How to keep clean in body and spirit
How to treat the kill or catch
Fasting for spiritual power
Respect for self and others
This list includes many ofthe social/relational elements within local use of
the word spirituality. Perhaps unsurprisingly, spirituality and environmental
personhood were discussed in illustrations 1---4 as the elements oflocal knowledge
that are most often left out of government documents and conversations. Spirituality
and its recognition of non-human personhood is the value least understood by
government legal and regulatory representatives, according to tribal employees and
leaders. The United States legal and decision-making system is ill equipped to
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integrate basic Tlingit knowledge about moral worth, respect, and the "rights" of
non-human persons.
Speakers in illustrations 1-4 recognize that some people in the USFS and the
state ADFG subsistence division are working hard to understand, but what they do
with their newly acquired feelings and information is guided by the parameters of a
legal system that has long excluded as problematic most local spiritually-based
environmental knowledge. Speaker Two in illustration 4 describes how biologists
and other state representatives who take time to experience Kake, learn a little more
about local knowledge and "feeling" about place and people. When state
representatives go back to their job centers, the hierarchical nature of state systems
limits their potential to influence decision-making presumptions and language,
according to Speaker Two in narrative 4.
Tribal representatives talk about times when they have had initial input in the
language of memorandums of agreement or contracts only to have their words
changed or deleted at higher levels ofgovernment management. The United States
legal and regulatory system has the [mal say about definitions, meanings, and values
and how they influence decision-making about forest and marine resources.
Culturally modified trees (CMTs) are an example that the speaker brought up in
narrative 1. The Forest Service labeled trees CMTs that show evidence of use by
Tlingit ancestors. Within that label is an assessment of value, that is, CMTs typically
are not spiritually or culturally important enough to protect from logging, as there
have been several timber sales that included CMTs as part of the harvest base.
The words Native American spirituality and culture, from a regulatory legal
point of view, have become values to measure because federal laws require they be
considered in land use decisions. Regulators must ask ifplaces have spiritual and
cultural significance to indigenous peoples. Can the significance be proven? Ifthere
are spiritual and cultural connections, are they significant enough to warrant
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protection? This legal perspective fosters a discursive practice ofjudgment in
association with the words spirituality and culture. Regulators, to do their jobs in the
structure of the legal system, must decide whether or not people will use these words
simply to protect their own economic or other interests.
The legal system itself sets up conditions that cause regulators to learn more
about spirituality and culture at the same time they are interrogating the validity of
these concepts. This stance, based in legal discourse, is part of a long history of
United States Native interaction, which often resulted in the necessity for Native
peoples to defend their spirituality, legally and to Christian missionaries. The
necessity of speaking about spirituality and culture, primarily to defend their validity,
influences how spirituality and culture are perceived by self, children, and others.
Ideological understandings of personhood, for example, were dislocated in
assimi1ationist projects and had to be "filled" or "sutured" by being rearticu1ated
and/or defended in the contexts of colonialist expectations.
Defensive postures influence the feelings/moods that are part of discursive
exchanges. In general, subjects and issues often become associated in memory with
the moods that people felt during previous social exchanges about the same or
comparable subjects and issues. For example, people who are in a positive mood
during events remember those events more positively than do those who were in
negative moods, according to Lawler and Thye (1999). Studies also show that people
who are in a given mood state will have greater recall for material they learned when
they were in a similar mood state in the past. "Overall there is little doubt that
emotions (both positive and negative) affect how information is encoded and
retrieved from memory" (Lawler and Thye 1999:230-231). Ifmemories about
showing respect for personhood in the non-human environment are associated with
positive moods, then a personal and social relationship with the non-human
environment is strengthened.
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Feeling
Illustrations 1--4 describe in several ways how personal experience is an
important element oflocal knowledge. Kake people who work with legal and
regulatory representatives conclude that legal decision makers will have a difficult
time understanding the significance of spirituality and culture without personally
spending time with the people to whom these values are important. What happens
when local knowledge is retrieved, however imperfectly, and taken back to a
government agency office in Juneau, for example? Locally-gained knowledge will be
re-interpreted at the office in the context of emotions, feelings, and previous
experiences of people at the regulatory agency.
Those who study emotion, such as Heise (1987) and Frank (1993), outlined
several socio-cultural and biological facets of emotion and learning that continue to
be supported in social and neuroscientific studies. One basic understanding about
emotion is that when someone is a salient part ofan environment, his or her learning
perceptions are influenced through participating in, and witnessing, the exchange of
emotions and feelings between self and others. Lawler and Thye (1999:130)
described how knowledge of things learned in such an exchange is swayed by the
emotions felt at the time oflearning. For example, a legal interpreter/decision maker
in Juneau might spend most of her/his time surrounded by people who broadcast
perceptions of emotions (feelings) that are concerned with adhering to legal and
bureaucratic processes. Perhaps they feel strongly that following agency rules and
legal guidelines is a large part of everyone's job. People in the office culture group
may believe in the fundamental purposes of laws and regulations. Their feelings
might be derived from the desire to reproduce positive rather than negative relations
within the social unit of the office or government agency. Then again, they might
prefer to retreat from work and be out fishing or hiking.
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When discourses and knowledge from Kake are discussed in the office, the
interpretations of "local" knowledge information from Kake will be informed-at
least in part-through the mood states associated with previous "office" discussions
ofKake-sourced knowledge. Perhaps past "office" conversations were centered on
the difficulties of incorporating local knowledge into mainstream legal ideologies.
Conceivably, office compatriots might have felt incredulous, irritated, angered,
inspired, interested, saddened, or embarrassed during previous conversations about
Kake knowledge sources. New information brought from the field about Kake will
be received through memories ofprevious "office" mood-state biases, positive or
negative, about Kake. Mood-state memory and current mood states are important
considerations for how emotions/feelings affect the learning and knowledge
acquisition process.
The same understanding of mood-state learning can be applied to culture
groups in Kake. People who work for the tribe share a knowledge of legal and
regulatory agencies that is informed by a history of perceptions learned through
participating in, and witnessing, the exchange ofemotions and feelings between
Kake Elders and other local leaders and lawmakers and agency representatives.
Memories about encounters decades ago still inform Kake relations with lawmakers
and regulators.
One Tlingit woman told about the effort and care Elders used to take to
consult the people and prepare their words for public testimony with agencies such
as the USFS. When the Elders' words and efforts seemed to have little positive
influence, people participated less and less. The woman said she is unsure whether or
not the ways Kake people were treated in hearings had to do with lack ofrespect on
the part ofgovernment agency representatives or if the USFS and others simply
failed to realize the power of Elders' words in Tlingit communities. As a researcher,
she has gone through transcripts ofpast hearings with the USFS and read the public
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comments from Kake Elders. "You can almost hear the passion in the transcripts,"
she said during a 2004 interview. Some years ago the woman looked through the
pages and pages ofhearing transcripts from the "1944, Department ofInterior
Hearings on Claims ofNatives of the Towns ofHydaburg, Klawock, and Kake,
Alaska." The hearings were "to determine fishing and other occupancy rights of the
Natives of these communities" (DOl 1944:1).
Each community wanted to be its own reservation, said the researcher. Elder
men from Kake, Klawock and Hydaburg traveled all the way to Seattle by boat to let
the government know what bays and creeks and trapping areas their families were
from. The community ofKake took a great deal of time and effort to get the men
ready to testify. Their journey was of immense importance to local people. The
words and narratives that the men brought to Seattle were carefully discussed and
considered. The process was an emotional one for the whole community, she said
about information she learned from her grandparents' stories, interviews, and other
sources. (See appendices V and W; Goldschmidt and Haas, 1946, 1998; Thornton
1998)
When the men attended the hearings and gave their testimony the lawyers for
the government instructed them to answer only those questions that were asked of
them. The lawyers' responses to the men were "kind of abrupt and almost rude ... no
real understanding ... ," the Tlingit woman said.
And just reading through the pages and pages of transcripts '" You
know they had interpreters. They were actually speaking in Tlingit,
recording the testimony .. , but they had a translator so that whatever
they said the translator was speaking for them. I think my great-
grandpa was a translator, and that was transcribed, and just hearing ...
the lawyers for the government going over the territories of that
specific person's family. "Why are you petitioning for this area? Why
is this place part of the (Kake or Klawock territory)? Who owned it?
Where is the paperwork for it? Not really paperwork, but you know,
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153
"why, how can you prove this is yours" type of thing. And just the
fact that they were there testifying should have been proof enough....
You know the old guys from Klawock and the old guys from Kake
had knowledge of what families were in there and ... they [lawyers]
were trying to get details out of, "Well okay, where are the boundaries
... from what to what" ... (there weren't boundaries in the sense that
the lawyers wanted them described). (2004 taped interview)
The woman who studied the transcripts said that lawyers asked questions in legal
.language that the men testifying wanted to understand before they answered. The
translators, who were college-educated, were sometimes unsure about legal word
meanings too. Some of the legal words had no correlating Tlingit word. The woman said
she could read the exasperation in the lawyers' words as the Tlingit translators and the
Elder men who were testifying carefully worked to understand the questions. They
wanted to give the best answers they could. There was a sense of impatience, and the
lawyers limited the types of information they would accept.
Past experiences, such as those with the USFS and with the Department of the
Interior are part of accumulated memories that predispose Kake relations with lawmakers
and regulators even now. State and federal agencies have reputations that are built upon
in every encounter, positively or negatively, in tribal, city, and office discourse and in
everyday conversations in Kake. For example, the very mention of ADFG often triggers
emotions that are interpreted through feelings ofresentment. New knowledge about
ADFG is filtered through previous mood-state biases. Emotions, then, and the learned
perception and culture-based interpretations of emotion-meanings (feelings) are
significant factors in local community life, government agency life, and conversations
about community, environment, and sustainability solutions.
Because emotions are what motivate humans to act, they are always part of
decision-making, even when moderated by legal processes, which frame and limit
potential discourse. In state-based legal decision-making, which is motivated by feelings
informed by culture-specific values, some emotions are considered proper and others are
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considered "extralega1." Nonetheless, emotions and moods that are considered
"extralegal" always have some influence on decision makers, according to Feigenson and
Park (2006: 143), who study the effects of emotion on judgments of legal responsibility.
They write that emotions and moods influence the social judgment of decision makers in
at least three ways:
1) By affecting their information processing strategies;
2) By inclining their judgments in the direction of the valence of the emotion
or mood (valence being the positive or negative value of the person's
mood and emotion/feeling); and
3) By providing informational cues to the proper decision.
Speculatively, because lawyers in the DOl 1944 hearings were apparently
impatient and exasperated with the need that Tlingit people had to carefully consider
their answers and the meanings ofquestions, mood and emotion/feeling were highly
relevant factors in the proceedings. The information allowed in testimony, the
lawyers' reactions to information, the emotions/feelings of those testifying in
response to the feelings and moods ofthe lawyers, and other emotion-related factors
predisposed information content and tone. Those reading the transcripts later, and
making decisions about land and fishing rights, would be inadvertently affected by
the moods and emotions of the lawyers, as well as their own moods and feelings at
the time of their analysis.
Some legal theorists claim that the rules oflegal proceduralism temper the
role of emotions on legal judgments. The very structure of the process guides
judgments toward rationality and dispassion (Feigenson 1997). However, Feigenson
and Park suggest that pure rationality and dispassion is always difficult if not
impossible. "The law then confronts the daunting challenge ofaccommodating
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decision makers' emotional responses to integral legal emotion sources but then
"educating" those emotions to reduce the likelihood of incorrect judgments"
(Feigenson and Park 2006: 158). Judgments, of course, are themselves culturally
relative. If emotions/feelings are admittedly part of all decision-making processes,
then some feelings and moods go unrecognized or unacknowledged because they are
believed inappropriate for decision-making forums. Thus principles ofdecision
making are to be questioned that assume top-down judgments-based in legal
processes-are more rational and dispassionate and so, more trustworthy than local
decision making.
In places such as Kake, emotion/feeling biases are more likely to be
identifiable and known by others in the village. When local people perceive in others
what are thought to be inappropriate biases, these are likely to be pointed out through
a third party, gossip, or other means of indirect communications. Miles away from
Kake, translation ofKake data into official legal documentation through government
agencies is incomplete without an understanding ofhow local knowledge is passed
on and learned through emotions/feelings derived from indirect communications.
Deeper levels of local representation than are engendered in current legal processes
and procedures would be required for more accurate recognition of emotion/feeling
knowledge. Many people in Kake feel that state-based legal representatives know
about Kake primarily what they are required to know by law, and little more.
From Narrative 2: ...All they know is that we use like subsistence,
our customary and traditional use areas. And what we do gather,
customary and traditional, that they call subsistence.
In Alaska, the importance of customary and traditional resource harvest is
recognized through federal laws such as the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation
Act (ANILCA). Over time, agency offices have been established that hire employees to
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learn about and to be sensitive to customary and traditional food gathering practices.
According to statements in illustrations 1-4, some Kake residents recognize that
employees of the Alaska state subsistence office (ADFG) are open to learning about local
environmental, cultural, and spiritual knowledge about the uses of customary and
traditional foods. The purpose of the state subsistence office is to collect data for fisheries
decision-makers who divide the natural resources between customary and traditional
users, commercial users, personal use harvesters, and sports users. Protecting customary
and traditional uses is a legal priority. In a 2003 spoken presentation to the Alaska House
Special Committee on Fisheries, ADFG Division of Subsistence director Mary Pete
summarized her division's job description: (Taped and transcribed meeting)
The division was established in 1978 as a section, and then made into
a division in 1980. And it is the social science research arm of the
Alaska Department ofFish and Game primarily to aid in
implementing the subsistence priority law.... We're a research
division and we compile existing information on hunting and fishing
from harvest records, but primarily our main contribution to
management of fish and game and understanding subsistence are
community-based studies where we do social economic research,
quantify the subsistence harvest, examine how wage employment or
money figures into the local economy, and how rural mixed
subsistence cash economies work. ... I think we've been instrumental
in defining subsistence needs so that opportunities for other uses, such
as commercial or personal use, can be provided, because the state
constitution requires that we provide beneficial uses, including, not
just subsistence, but other uses. (2003 taped meeting)
These are the legal parameters through which employees in the ADFG
Division of Subsistence learn about "local" knowledge. They share their knowledge
through reports and presentations to the State Board of Fisheries and the federal
Subsistence Board. The staff includes field researchers who work with communities
to design studies, and research analysts who maintain databases. The field
researchers often learn directly from local people about culture/environmental
ideologies. Much ofwhat they learn through direct experiences of feeling emotion in
"local" conversations is condensed, ranked, and restated through the information
measurement boundaries of context-selective, economy-focused, quantitative data
that is passed on to the fishery boards.
The information that ADFG Division of Subsistence fieldworkers gather is
shifted from the local context to the division office context. Narratives and talk are
written into notes, recorded on cassettes or CDs, summarized, sorted through, cited
and quantified. This process of moving texts between contexts, or re-entextualization
practices (Silverstein and Urban 1996), is about access to power based on expertise
in text-making procedures. People have differing ranges ofaccess to the spaces in
which talk and narratives are re-entextualized (Blommaert 2005:62).
Emotions/feelings and moods are always part of the re-entextualization process. The
same is true for all text-making procedures in all legal regulatory agencies. It is true
for this dissertation. Kake people are likely to have greater influence on the
emotions/feelings ofpeople who shape text-making processes if the writers spend
time conscientiously listening and learning from local people in their environment.
Ambivalence
According to tribal employees, some USFS employees make an effort to
learn about Kake by spending time in the village. Even so, local feelings about the
USFS/Kake relationship are expressed most often as ambivalent. Feelings of
ambivalence are based in historical and current relationship experiences.
(Segments from narratives 1-4 to show discursive ambivalence):
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They're the Forest Service gradually corning on to recognizing our
view of the forest. (Narrative 1)
So that part, how they use and accept and incorporate our use, just
because this kind of culture, the Forest Service tends to do that in
their logos and stuff. "Oh, there's weird people that live out there.
They say they're Natives and they have stories to tell." It's not stories.
It's not that we're different, it's just that's who we are in that area ...
our area. Then we have this artwork that we do. But they like to use it
in their brochures. They like to use it to say, "Oh yeah. That's
something." It's not because we'll make money on it. It's because it's
a spiritual thing. It means something. So that's how they tend to use
us, as something of a rarity. For them, "Oh yeah, they're Kake people.
They're Tlingits." They [USFS] have a label for everything. And
depending upon if you're for or against them, you're rewarded by you
can have offices there or not, campgrounds there or not. They do
things in the community or not. But they love to corne and get all the
resources out of there if they can, and it's primarily timber. So it's a
reward kind of system, and to us we don't care if they're here or not,
but we'd rather not have them here because all they're interested in is
in the wood. Because it's their number one priority. (Narrative 2)
Spirituality. It's about relationships. That's what they forget, tend to
do. So that's how they tend to ignore us. So they don't believe that we
depend upon the woods, that there are things, decisions that they
make, that impacts our customary and traditional use and our
spirituality. It does. They tend to ignore that. Because [taking trees]
it's "necessary" for them. That word "necessary" [in USFS
documents regarding timber contracts] we were trying to mitigate one
time. But I think the judges weren't going to try to get into that as
much as what the impact on tangible things. (Narrative 2)
They don't really, they don't really bother to know our local ... [sigh]
I shouldn't say that. I guess ... like with the Forest Service. They find
themselves, they always fmd themselves in hot water with us, you
know. Because they try so hard. They ... you know the archaeologists
work like everything to understand us. They bring us things, you
know, and it's useful to us ... but ... there's always going to be a
knowledge, you know, that we have that they won't ever have.
(Narrative 3)
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159
The government agencies, they do have feelings for our ways.
Sometimes they go about it the wrong way, but they do have feelings.
And of course we have real bad feelings for (them) [laughs]. But they
are working on it. They're not all bad. Of course we're all ... you
know we always just all have to work at it ... to get along. And sooner
or later they know what they're doing with us and we know what
they're trying to do with us ... so ... eventually it works out. (Narrative
3)
Speaker Two: The Forest Service, you know, because of the number
of projects that go on here, and they do come out and get our
comments and invite us to participate, but as for the language that we
use, I don't recall it ever get used ... I don't. I don't.
Speaker One: I'm trying to make sure that I haven't ever seen it. And
I usually just get all their EIS's [Environmental Impact Statements] so
... But at least they're opening the doors to the tribe for more
involvement, ifnothing else to hear our concerns. (Narrative 4)
Speaker Two: And well, like I say, ifwe're involved in the drafting
process, they can be inputted in that way too.... Of course, when it
comes to getting it signed, it gets stalled at a higher level, but ...
Speaker One: And I mean that some of the ones that, you know the
handful that I mentioned that have come to Kake repeatedly and have
worked with us and even gone out with us and ... I don't know if
they're necessarily using our terminology, but I'm getting the
impression they have the beginning ofan understanding ... (Narrative
4)
The above segments are examples of a common emotion expressed in Kake
discourses about government agencies. Ambivalence, as defined by Christina Ting Fong
(2006: 1016), is experiencing positive and negative emotions simultaneously. Considering
current and historical relations between Kake people and state legal representatives,
ambivalence seems an apt emotion/feeling. In general, ambivalence as a feeling-based
attitude indicates the complexity of a social situation (Larsen 2001 :692), is a signal that
"one is in an unusual environment, where other unusual relationships might also exist"
(Fong 2006: 1019), and is often correlated with increases in creative thinking ability that
results from new combinations of existing ideas. In essence, experiencing emotional
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ambivalence is highly relevant in innovative learning because it leads to an augmented
sensitivity to unusual associations (Fong 2006: 1019). I found many Kake people to be
inspired by highly creative ideas. People were involved in innovative problem solving
such as restorative justice through circle peacemaking, culture camp, invention of
environmentally consciousness products such as fertilizer made from fish and wood
waste. People were brainstorming and conceptualizing ways to keep Kake's community
integrity while finding economic solutions.
Studies show that people whose attitudes remain relatively unchanged retrieve
those attitudes fairly quickly. People whose attitudes are changing take more time to
respond because they are working through more deliberate, conscious processing. They
take more time to work through the features of both older and newer attitudes, especially
if they are integrating "evaluatively incongruent attributes" (Harreveld et al. 2004:433).
Of course, culture and language patterns influence how ambivalence is expressed. Petty
et al. (2006:24) and other researchers have identified several common consequences of
ambivalence among English speakers. Three consequences appear relevant to Kake
discourses about legal and regulatory agencies. They include:
1) Ambivalent individuals tend to appear more neutral in their global
evaluations than do unambiva1ent individuals because of the joint
activation (or inhibition) ofpositive and negative information;
2) Individuals who are ambivalent typically report greater conflict,
doubt, or mixed feelings with respect to the attitude object; and
3) People who are ambivalent tend to engage in increased information
processing with respect to the attitude object, presumably in an
attempt to resolve their ambivalence. (Pettyet al. 2006:24)
I asked several people in Kake whether or not government agency and legal
representatives had changed their ways of communicating, or had learned from Kake
people how to communicate. I received three levels ofresponse. 1) For many people their
immediate response was "no", government agencies had not learned from Kake. People
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often gave a short explanation ofhow outside agencies come in and conduct meetings
with what local people perceive as self-serving motivations. In this first level ofresponse
people answered quickly and demonstrated an unambivalent attitude. 2) Other people
answered, "no", and then qualified their answers to say that some agency representatives
had become better communicators in the recent past. They often told about good and bad
experiences. 3) Some people-especially people who work regularly with legal and
regulatory representatives-said "no" almost automatically, and then spent time
explaining communication relationships in more detail. They qualified negative
observations with examples ofpositive and changing interaction patterns.
Narratives 1--4 are segments from interviews that fit into this latter category. I
interpret the automatic "no" responses to mean that government and legal representatives
remain poor listeners and communicators. The quick and unthinking "no" responses
reflect a long-standing and shared attitude in Kake about state-based relations. I interpret
qualifications to the "no" answers, and the longer descriptions ofpositive and negative
relationships between Kake and the state, to mean that change is occurring. Based on the
contents of local discourse, there have been enough positive encounters to foster
changing attitudes, but there are enough negative encounters to sustain the old attitudes.
The result is ambivalence. Noone I talked with said state representatives were good at
listening and understanding. The levels of local ambivalence about government agency
communication skills correlate with the levels of attitude changes Kake people identify in
some state agency representatives.
Ambivalence is important in discussions of discourse and ideology changes
because it is emotion/feeling that accompanies the work of "fixing" ideologies that have
been dislocated through crisis. Ambivalence is part of the process of
undermining/creation ofold/new social antagonisms/hegemony in the
disruption/establishment of new, partially-fixed meanings (Stembrouck 2007).
Ambivalence is, in essence, what happens when elements ofrupture and crisis threaten
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and subvert ideological beliefs and assumptions and the subsequent discursive process of
"repairing" or "suturing." It is also emotion/feeling that leaves ideologies open to further
challenge. In short, ambivalence is an emotion/feeling that is also an indicator/instigator
of change.
Ambivalence is descriptive ofemotion/feelings that people expressed when Kake
Tribal Corporation closed its doors in 2004. On one hand the insolvency of the
corporation meant the loss ofjobs and job prospects for Kake. "The community estimates
at least 150 working age residents were forced to leave the village from 2002 to 2005"
(Hibbard and Adkins 2005:6). People had few positive expectations for the corporation.
They had seen the corporation fail so many times, they reacted almost without surprise.
On the other hand, the loss of corporation jobs meant that local people might begin to
rethink their goals. Some said the corporation had been in charge ofproviding jobs for so
long that most local people lost incentive or practice in creating their own economic
opportunities. Without the corporation in charge, people could begin to imagine their own
solutions and work toward a more sustainable economy, one based less on the boom and
bust ofresource extraction. A man in his younger middle years, a former logger who was
putting a lot of energy into forming a Chamber of Commerce and brainstorming ways
that Kake might survive, said,
I think looking back at what's happened in the timber industry, where
we've .. .I am going to say mismanaged grossly.... I think we've
learned a valuable lesson from that. And government agencies, they
know that, you know. And right now a lot of 'em say, "Well okay. I
see you guys are starting to conform a little, but, you are calling." I'm
calling them, you know, for help, and, yes they are being more than
helpful about what I have to do, to get our economy back on its feet
again. They're giving me a lot of ideas, on ... we don't have to
overdevelop [tourism for example] '" That, yeah, I think we can do
this thing on a pretty low budget, you know. (2004 taped interview)
[Why the corporation chose to log in the 1980s] I mean it was a quick
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way to get the infrastructure into place and it was just a lot easier. It
made for a boom economy! And instead of a sustainable, you know,
a long-term economy, just like the oil-thing did up in...North Slope. It
made for a boom, and you've inherited the Republican, you know,
kinda state of mind. They're just thinking, "Well we need another
boom," because who gets rich off it, you know. A bunch of people
will get rich off of it, especially the people who ... are in the early
stages of facilitating the whole action. They're the ones who have
their hands in the pie, so. You can, you know, if you listen close you
will hear people talking about what the next boom might be. And
they're trying to get ready for that because...because that's where you
are going to make a lot ofmoney fast. Yeah, so we don't want a boom
economy. We want something that is going to be sustainable. You
know, and diversified... because with what's happened. (2004 taped
interview)
In the meantime, as Hibbard and Adkins (2005:6) observed, "without their rights
to subsistence living, it is hard to imagine how the people of Kake can survive season to
season. The enormous clear-cuts that have provided Kake with industry and jobs for the
last three decades now threaten the habitat of the wildlife that Kake residents must have
in abundance to live on. Forested lands in and around the community of Kake need to be
restored."
Loss of local jobs in both fishing and logging is a crisis, a rupture in economic
boom-bust cycle through resource extraction connected with ANCSA. At this point many
Kake people are working to reshape ideology and the language with which they discuss
their economy. They are working to understand what prevents their community from
being what its ideologies promise it could be. The force ofdislocation motivates humans
to make new ideological attempts to reach the impossible goal of a "complete" society
that succeeds in being what ideologies promise it will be (Laclau and Mouffe 2001).
Hibbard and Adkins of the University, of the Oregon Institute for Policy
Research and Innovation, helped facilitate local cooperation. Through a community
meeting and planning meetings local people worked in dialectical relationship with their
former ideological construction and that which dislocated it, the loss oflocal jobs. They
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discussed their priorities, what they learned from past mistakes, and their desire to take
control oftheir own economic vision. Those who participated, developed a preliminary
strategic economic development plan. Representatives of the City, the school district, the
Tribe, the hatchery, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Corporation agreed to cooperate
in establishing a vision for Kake's economic future. Their plan includes hosting tourism,
but on their own terms, without saturation via a large tourism corporation or cruise ship
market. They wish to maintain their "private dignity" and the habitat of island animals
and plants. Their plans include helping local people establish small businesses, working
to revitalize the forest areas that have been logged, facilitating education through a local
vocational training center, and providing services as a shipping hub for the region
(Hibbard and Adkins 2005:9-11). "Thus, from a distance Kake does look very much the
same [in 2005] as 15 years ago. However, it has seized its economic independence and
shaped the social invasions that come with progress, change and growth" (Hibbard and
Adkins 2005: 10). These are some ofthe words and phrases leaders have chosen to re-
articulate economic circumstances in Kake.
In the meantime, state law-makers and agencies are working with a different set
of language codes to describe and define economics and community. Efforts to join Kake
to the national highway system and coerce local communities such as Kake to form
regional governments with other communities are "normalizing" or homogenizing forces.
State plans for consolidating regional governance and creating a Southeast Alaska
highway system mean that the language with which many Kake people choose to discuss
their future is mingled with their dialectical discourses with the state.
The words used to describe community-based priorities in state-based decision-
making establish the boundaries for how local people can effectively describe themselves
in conversation with agencies such as the Department ofTransportation or the Alaska
Local Boundary Commission. Palsson (1993), who studied fishing communities, wrote
that local discourse is increasingly silenced by the more public discourse of marine
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biologists, politicians, and state bureaucrats. He cited Foucault (1980) when he wrote that
shifts in language use are rooted in relationships of power. Some discourses are
suppressed and others gain the status of an established truth. Foucault later wrote about
the means ofresisting the normalizing forces ofroutine practices and decision-making
discourses within modern institutions. McNay paraphrases Foucault's observations about
counterbalancing techniques of domination through techniques of the self
Through the formation of a "critical ontology ofthe self' it is possible
to formulate an alternative ethical standpoint from which individuals
can begin to resist the normalizing force of the "government of
individualization" (McNay 1994:133)
By thinking about the "ethics of self' Foucault was able to better incorporate and
understand concepts of autonomy, reflexivity, and critique, thus overcoming the idea that
conformity is inevitable. Bourdieu also brought insight into how culture "normalizes" but
how resistance can occur. Bourdieu (in Gledhill 1994:134-141) attributed the power of
social systems to reproduce structures ofdomination that inform the ways that actors
understand their world. The ways people understand their world have been shaped by
participating in the workings of relations ofdomination which produce the structures of
domination. Ideological transformation most often comes through changes in political
and economic circumstances (Bourdieu 1977:72-80).
Change less often comes through radical critique. Radical critique involves
questioning processes and discourses that are taken for granted and not normally
questioned. Doxa is knowledge so taken for granted that it is never or very rarely
discussed (such as whether or not the local government system of electing a few
representatives is really best for local empowerment). Questions are rarely raised about
doxa in social discourses relevant to power and domination, but to raise those questions is
to create a radical critique (Bourdieu 1977:168). Because political, social, and linguistic
capital is typically in the hands ofpolitical professionals, who control systems of
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classification and the authority to speak on behalf of groups, radical critique is often
difficult (Bourdieu 1991: 174-184).
Radical critique can circulate in the form of 'hidden transcripts." Scott (1990: 1-
17) described "hidden transcripts" as the discussions and performances that are
conducted between people outside of the public performances. In contrast, public
performances are the conversations between dominating people and the rest of the
people. When subordinates and those who dominate converse, it is frequently in the
interest of all parties to tacitly conspire in misrepresentation so that a sense of social
order based in power relations is maintained. Hidden transcripts are the offstage
speeches, gestures, and practices that confIrm, contradict, or inflect what appears to be
public transcript, according to Scott. Those in power conversing with each other discuss
subordinates within hidden transcripts, and subordinates discuss with each other those in
power using hidden transcripts (Scott 1990).
If, through radical critique, hidden transcripts become public and openly
challenge power regimes, those in power have only a few choices if they want to keep
their power intact (Scott 1990:70-105). If they are willing to share power, they can listen
and acknowledge the critique. If they are unwilling to share power they can: ignore the
radical critique; discredit the questioner; or enforce, force, or punish the questioner.
Because of the danger ofquestioning, "Many, perhaps most, hidden transcripts remain
just that: hidden from view and never "enacted." And we are not able to tell easily under
what precise circumstances the hidden transcript will storm the stage" (Scott 1990:16).
Radical critique and dissociation
In Kake, radical critique is possible through local incorporation of older
knowledge forms with newer forms. Radical critique can be shared through experiences,
stories, and the rituals of everyday life. Some USFS representatives yield themselves to
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change (and radical critique) through personal experience in Kake. They subject
themselves to possible change partly because local and even traditional knowledge is part
ofUSFS decision-making conversations. Federal laws require federal representatives to
"listen."
Under the Federal government's "trust responsibility" to Tribes,
agencies, such as the Forest Service, are obligated to protect and
conserve Tribal resources and the rights of indigenous peoples to
govern themselves on Tribal lands. This unique legal status creates
the need for Federal agencies, such as the Forest Service, to consult
directly with Tribal governments when contemplating actions that
may affect Tribes and their lands, resources, and welfare (USFS Desk
Guide, distributed at the 2003 Common Grounds workshop in Kake.).
Whether or not USFS visitors to Kake "feel" and allow radical change ofmind
depends on how they defme and interpret their experiences. Normally people reproduce
structures of domination onto new experiences through the collective order that
constrains them to "improvisation on a theme," according to Bourdieu. This means that
when USFS representatives take their Kake experiences home and to work with them, the
doxa they take for granted at home and at work, and orthodoxy (the positively expressed
aspects of dominant class ideology) will influence what they make of their new
knowledge. The dangers ofusing new knowledge forms as radical critique of dominant
systems could result in loss ofreputation for USFS personnel (being embarrassed or
discredited), or possible punishment (being demoted or fIred, etc.). Alternatively, they
could inspire change, but Bourdieu claimed that true change was rare.
One consequence of new experiences and the "emotion/feelings" that may result
from alternative explanations of them can be ambivalence. Another result can be
dissociation, or what Gilligan (2006:57) defInes as knowing, but also not knowing what
we know; "how it is possible for our experience not to become part of our story."
Dissociation occurs when knowing becomes associated with the intellect, what goes on in
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the mind, rather than feeling associations that include the whole body. The mind "leaves
the body", according to Gilligan, as part oflearning to fit selves into social expectation,
such as gender roles. For example, boys in western cultures, usually when they are five,
six, and seven, are "initiated" into a dissociation of their own knowledge of, and ability to
read, the human emotional world. They are earliest to divorce emotion from thought.
Feelings become something to avoid because boys learn early to disassociate from what
society considers femaleness (feelings). In girls the learned dissociation of
emotion/feeling from thought occurs more typically when they are nine and ten, when
they learn that honest emotion can be dangerous to having friendships and relationships
(Gilligan 2006). The "mind leaves the body" when people need to control what they feel
in order to confonn to the expectations and requirements of the social world around them.
The symptoms occur in all ofus and they are a fonn of trauma, Gilligan writes. "Except
in dreams and flights of fantasy, the mind leaves the body when it becomes, for whatever
reason, unbearable or untenable to know what in our bodies and our emotions we know.
The return of the mind to the body then undoes a dissociation that however adaptive or
culturally valued is psychologically problematic" (Gilligan 2006:58). It leads to a
hovering between knowing and not knowing.
When the mind is forced to leave the body in the name of intelligence
and for the sake of education, when thought becomes divorced from
emotion as a way of avoiding conflict and trouble, when the self
moves out of relationship in order to have "relationships," an honest
voice-the voice of the core self that registers experience--eomes to
sound stupid. Thus we become wedded to what within ourselves we
know is a false story. (Gilligan 2006:59)
But dissociation can sometimes be undone through the power ofassociation, a
stream of consciousness, the power of talking and listening, and through certain kinds of
experiences and relationships (Gilligan 2006:64). The power ofassociation, I assert, can
be a kind of radical critique. When the mind resists "false" stories, and reframes the
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world on the basis of experience, orthodoxy is threatened because orthodoxy is revealed
as a human construction, a way of thinking.
Encounters with the non-human environment can be a means of gaining direct
knowledge based on emotion/feeling, at least partially returning the mind to the body.
Emotionologist Robert C. Fuller (2006:2) calls such encounters a way oflearning through
the emotion of wonder. To illustrate are segments of separate taped conversations with
two young Kake women, who talked about knowing and "feeling" place through their
whole selves and what they learned through their experiences.
1) I don't know ... environment is some place for us to go. We have
certain memories here and there and in around Kake.... I'm thinking
ofKeku Straits, just like the places to go. But once you're ... when
you're out there, as beautiful and peaceful as it is ... it's kind oflike
... underlying all that you can feel the tension that at any moment
could change. And there's so much power in that environment. It's
almost intimidating sometimes ... if you really think about it when
you're out there. And it's peaceful. It's peaceful but yet there's kind
of like a constant reminder. (2004 taped interview with young Tlingit
woman raised in Kake)
2) ... because this summer I was out on the water a lot. Way out. Way
far away from everyone, and that's a really strange feeling. I mean, I
was raised in the city so you don't get that sense of ... there's not a
lot ... It's almost more spiritual out there. You get the sense that
there's definitely something there but it's not ... I didn't feel like it
was maybe the same as what I was raised with. I don't know what it
is. But it would be easy, I could see ... nature is so powerful. When
you're by yourself, then there's no helicopter that will take you to
the hospital and no this and no that, and you're dependent on nature.
It really is ... I don't know. I can see how people tied their religion
to nature and animals because that's all there is out there. That's it. If
you didn't know from spending long periods of time by myself
out there ... yeah it's I don't know. It feels more ... It feels
very natural but it's just yeah when you're out there I just wasn't
thinking as much'Jesus.' You think more in terms of like creator of
nature. You think more nature oriented out there. You have to [voice
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raises]. You're ... you're stuck. That's how you survive. I could just
see a difference. (2003 interview with young non-Native woman
raised outside of Kake)
Fuller asserts that the emotion of wonder is an "immediate feeling" that arises as a
response to experiencing awe and mystery in relationship to something other than the self
(Fuller 2006:4). Fuller cites the Oxford English Dictionary as defming wonder as "the
emotion excited by the perception of something novel and unexpected. (It is)
astonishment mingled with perplexity or bewildered curiosity" (Fuller 2006:8). Fuller
adds to this definition by saying that wonder is something that "strikes us as intensely
powerful, real, true, and/or beautiful." Wonder is connected with learning partly because
it stimulates curiosity and the human need to understand the environment. Curiosity is
triggered by emotions other than wonder, but wonder-inspired curiosity differs from other
kinds of curiosity. Wonder leads more to cognitive reflection about meanings of
perceptions, rather than to simply active exploration, according to Fuller. Curiosity in
other forms is connected with analysis and by breaking down events or objects to try and
understand their parts. "Wonder, on the other hand, is the experience of contemplating
how the various parts relate to a greater (even if unobserved) whole. Wonder prompts us
to consider how particularly vivid displays of vitality, beauty, or power might reveal a
purpose or intentionality of the universe as a whole" (Fuller 2006:9). So, wonder focuses
human perception and learning on trying to understand intrinsic value or meaning (not
simply utilitarian value or meaning). Learning through wonder, then, often inspires
attempts to understand a more "harmonious relationship with, rather than active mastery
of, our wider surroundings" (Fuller 2006:9).
Learning through wonder may be possible in a legislative assembly or
government agency offices where legal decisions are made and implemented. However, it
would be safe to say that the experience of wonder occurs more frequently in places such
as Kake, and it might be safe to say that people in places such as Kake have knowledge
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gained through experiencing the emotion of wonder to which many law-makers have less
access. People on KupreanofIsland live more closely with non-human environmental
elements that reveal themselves in novel and unexpected ways or are simply beautiful or
powerful beyond the scope of humans and self It is hard to identify in state-based legal
and regulatory "text-artefacts",8 the knowledge that comes through feeling the emotion of
wonder in relation to the non-human environment.
Emotion and state reliance on "text-artefacts"
Tribal representatives who work with the Forest Service feel that some agency
representatives subject themselves to experiencing the non-human environment through
local perspectives. USFS representatives who actually come to Kake "listen" better than
USFS employees did ten years ago, people say. Still, local people often express doubts
that their input makes much difference in Forest Service decisions about land use.
Nevertheless, USFS employees who come to Kake in order to fulfill consultation
requirements go through the rituals of a listening process. With every communicative
event, learning and change occurs. Change may constitute a strengthening ofexisting
viewpoints through repeated or new information. Over time, USFS/Kake
communications may result in viewpoint transformations when communicators
experience emotions as part of novel interpretations of feelings. The capability of
experiencing emotion differently through new feeling interpretations may arise from
hearing narratives or co-producing narratives. As Ochs and Capps (1996:22) observed,
"Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created." Narratives are
formed out of experience and they give shape to experience. All people tell stories about
8 From Jan B10mmaert (2005:186-187). Discourse. A text-aratefact (policy paper, a draft bill, etc.). Texts
are adopted, confirmed, revised, submitted, voted on, and adopted. The actions of opposing actors in
debates are, consequently, inspired by a reading of the text-artefact."
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the past, present, and future. Their accounts create plots and build theories of events, but
not just any plots and theories. People's accounts are framed through the linguistic
repertoires of their cultures. The events people describe in their narratives are evaluated
according to community or group concepts of appropriateness, sense making, and ideas
about what is rational and moral. (Ochs and Capps 1996:26-31).
Many Kake people understand that respecting human and non-human personhood
is rational and moral. They value their clan and family places of origin and resource
gathering areas. In illustration one, the speaker narrated the importance of trees that had
been sung to and thanked long ago for the bark and other tree parts that the ancestors
used:
And every once in awhile the Forest Service sometimes listens ...
about local knowledge. And it's surprising what it takes to make them
listen. I mean, year after year sometimes we've told them about
important places to us and it just goes over their heads for years and
years and years. And then you almost have to ... you have to almost
get angry or cry or ... to get their attention, and then maybe they'll
listen. "Well we didn't realize this is such an important area to your
spiritual ... " I've seen that happen. "I've been telling you." But to
them, they don't think culturally modified trees ... they call them ...
what do they call them? CMTs ... they call them CMTs. I mean .'. get
real. I mean, to us that's important because it was a place where
ancestors went and got bark or branches or medicine or whatever.
And to them that's not a historical place. And to us it's important. I
mean, it's important spiritually and culturally. And I don't know if
they still have the same attitude. I mean, there's a whole different way
of looking at the land than they look at. (2003 taped interview from
Narrative 1)
In her narrative, the speaker expressed feelings about trees, ancestors, culture,
spirituality, and the difficulties of communication with the USFS. She felt as though
Forest Service personnel make more of an effort to understand iflocal emotional
expression is heightened. Ironically, including some types of feeling language in official
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study narratives is likely to be inappropriate and an impediment to legal, regulatory sense
making.
As a means for discourse comparison, the following segment was taken from a
draft USFS cultural resource survey for a timber sale on KupreanofIsland. This cultural
resource survey tells a narrative about how and why USFS personnel examined the area
of an upcoming timber sale for historical and cultural sites. The narrative describes USFS
fmdings and ends by explaining which sites are eligible for nomination to the National
Register ofHistoric Places. The USFS description of culturally modified trees reads, in a
draft report called "Cultural Resources Investigation of the Scott Peak Project Area,
KupreanofIsland, Alaska," the following:
We found 36 CMTs with a total of42 scars in the project area that
represents five of the nine types. The majority of the scars identified
are Type E (31), followed by Type A (4), Type F (3), Type B (2), and
Type D (2). We found one tree with a combination Type ElF scar and
one with a Type AlE scar. Two trees had multiple but separate
scarring, one with Type A and D scars and one with two Type A scars
that were later modified with Type D and Type E scars.
Most of the Type E (hack) CMTs are spruce and probably represent
gathering dry and pitchy scraps of wood for kindling. A few hemlock
trees also exhibit hack markings. They occur on the coast and suggest
temporary camp locations, probably those of hunters and trappers.
Alaska yellow cedars represent the second most common tree species
with modifications. Bark stripping, hack markings and alcove
modifications are CMT types normally associated with Native
traditional activities in which cedar bark was gathered for textile,
ware and shelter production ... (Smith and Esposito 2002:25).
Spirituality and the "feelings" that living Tlingits might have toward discovered
CMTs are unidentifiable in the Forest Service resource survey. Past indigenous economic
relationships with such trees are detailed. In general, current personal and cultural feeling
connections are constrained by USFS and federal law determinations about what parts of
the forest are important enough to save during a timber harvest. Culturally modified trees
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are often harvested. The writers of the above example mayor may not have agreed with
CMT policy. The authors described CMTs within the sense-making norms of their
discipline and work place, and their narrative is the legally correct version. It is public
record. However "objectively" and conscientiously written, it is based in feelings about
what constitutes rationality. The norms for "official" text writing are learned, like Kake-
based knowledge, through "feeling" perceptions of emotions. Speculatively, we could
assume that the feeling-perceptions of emotions that motivated this text were partly
elicited by stimuli such as explanations of the scientific method. The meanings of
feelings were informed by the norms and values that the writers experienced in their
lives, including a formal college education. Some meanings were possibly derived from
the writers' experiences in Kake. The point is that the document is based in
emotion/feelings that have been culturally categorized as rational and dispassionate.
Alison Richards (1997: 1) wrote that scientists think and feel about their work
using the same psychological apparatus as the rest ofus. Physicists, chemists and
mathematicians are no less passionate about their work than are animal behaviorists or
anthropologists. But emotion is suspect in science because the requirements for scientific
observation are to be free ofbias. The assumption is that emotion creates bias. The
problem is that everything humans do involves emotion (Richards 1997).
Because of its perceived dispassionate rationality, the USFS document is
considered scientifically trustworthy, but what if inattention to emotions/feelings, through
which people have learned about and perceive the meaning oftrustworthiness, constitutes
missing "data?" What if public sharing of emotions/feelings between groups, such as
those who care about culturally modified trees and those of the USFS writers, are
necessary for land and water management for sustainable livelihood? What if text-based
acknowledgement of emotions/feelings is an indispensable component of managing for
environmental integrity? These questions are important to consider because state-based
methods that rely primarily on dispassionate rationality, simplification of definitions of
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people and environment, and tendencies toward widespread social engineering have yet
to demonstrate a capacity for long-term environmental sustainability.
Most official documents that I examined throughout my fieldwork experience
were written in similar "objective", descriptive, dispassionate, and formulaic styles. I
would categorize the discourse within most legal documentation and description as a kind
"fundamentalism" if fundamentalism is, in the words of Socio10gist Charles Notess
(2007:3G), "an approach to a belief system that emphasizes following a particular set of
basic principles and opinions often called doctrine." Notess wrote that there is an
assurance and peace-of-mind that accompanies fundamentalist responses to uncertainty.
Dispassionate rationality, quantitative measurement, and conciseness have
become a type ofbasic communication principle and doctrine that is expected in most
legal forums. It is a communicative doctrine that provides a source of consistency, but the
danger of relying on such dominant narrative styles, and of "writing out" discursive
inconsistencies, is that the process engenders a false sense of psychological stability
(Ochs and Capp 1998:30-31). Relying primarily on "objective" descriptions often leads
"to oversimplification, stasis, and irreconcilable discrepancies between the story one has
inculcated and one's encounters with the world" (Ochs and Capp 1996:30-31), a world
where people feel emotion as part of everything they do. Through rationalized discourses
people learn to interpret their emotional feelings in the context definitions which portray
people and the rest of the world as "officially" objects. Blommaert (2005:187) refers to
inflexibility of discursive forms in legal processes as textual dogmatism. Venues of
expression are ranked hierarchically. Text drafts are ranked lower than fmal publications
and written words are ranked higher than spoken words.
People in Kake remember that older Tlingit legal discourse was a matter of
trusting what people said. People's words were "contract enough." Villagers and clan
members knew that if someone was dishonest, they would feel the repercussions through
social isolation, gossip, ridicule, or more serious retribution. One woman told me about
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her family's land. She said a non-Tlingit man took advantage of the Elders in her family
and basically stole their property, disrespecting the verbal agreement they had between
them. Family Elders did not fight the man because they had grown up knowing that
people like him would suffer the consequences of their actions. It was an example ofa
non-Tlingit taking advantage of the local legal code because the state-based legal codes
recognized written rather than verbal contracts. According to the woman speaker in
narrative 3, people in Kake continue to value verbal contracts in day-to-day relationships.
They also realize that written contracts have become necessary.
"Official" documents, such as the cultural resource survey cited previously, are
text-artefacts (Blommaert 2005: 101). They serve as a type of selective memory, generally
limited to "rational" rather than "emotion" signifiers, or what legal language gatekeepers
have learned to feel is "rational." Text-artefacts are often the longest lasting products of
bureaucratic processes. Centering institutions, such as schools, courts, legislatures, USFS,
ADFG, etc., regulate which linguistic forms are privileged in text-artefacts. Centering
institutions are those that impose "stratification ofvalue" on a particular group
(Silverstein 1998:404). "The centering function is attributive: it generates indexicalities
to which others must orient in order to be "social" ... (or) to produce meanings that
"belong" somewhere.... The functions of centering institutions almost always involve
real or perceived processes of homogenization and uniformisation." (Blommaert
2005:75). In other words, centering discourses reduce differences to create recognizable
scripts of "normative" meaning (Blommaert 2005:75).
One part of centering is the writing of text-artefacts and also their distribution.
When people involved in decision making processes receive the same descriptive and
explanatory written material, then varieties ofpreferences and approaches are neutralized.
This is an important factor in how legal and regulatory language codes influence ways of
speaking and understanding relationships in Kake and elsewhere. The domination in legal
discourse of rationalist language forms leaves out the essential ingredients
(emotions/feelings) of human relationships with other humans and non-humans.
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CHAPTER VIn
FISH STREAM RESTORATION
In 2002 and 2003, Kake tribal representatives and the city school district began
collaboration on a project to restore salmon to Cathedral Falls, a customary and
traditional salmon fishing location. Eggs for the restoration project came from Hamilton
Creek on KupreanofIsland because Cathedral Falls and Hamilton Creek are part of the
same watershed. The restoration project was done as a pilot project using new methods
and technology and a restoration system refined and perfected by "local" people and
people on another Southeast Alaska island.
With the leadership of a nonprofit organization, Alaska Resource and Economic
Development, Inc. (ARED), the Organized Village ofKake and Kake students worked
together on the plan. After becoming familiar with the methods and technology, Kake
people expected to serve as consultants to other groups desiring to restore salmon to
streams in their areas.
During the late summer of2003, everything was set to begin the project. All that
was needed were salmon eggs. The salmon season was coming to an end, and it would
soon be too late to collect salmon eggs from Hamilton Creek. At the last minute
representatives from the Alaska Department ofFish and Game (ADFG) balked about
giving their permission to take the eggs from Hamilton Creek to Cathedral Falls.
Eventually the project was approved, but only after the salmon run was over. Kake
people were able to get a few salmon, but were unable to collect as many eggs as they
had planned.
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Because tribes work with the federal government, tribes can often avoid asking
the state for permission to do projects on federal forest lands. People in Kake decided to
work with the United States Forest Service (USFS) to initiate their project. They received
Bureau ofIndian Affairs (BIA) funding and USFS approval. Because the Organized
Village is a tribe with government-to-government relations with the federal government,
project organizers felt they could probably go ahead with fish restoration without ADFG
approval. In order to avoid future communication and power problems, the school district
and the tribe attempted to work with ADFG.
A 2002 conversation between two people involved in the project provides some
"feeling" background. The two speakers indicated that there was a major problem with
ADFG and its lack of effort to understand "local" situations or communicate with "local"
people. "People are getting irritated," the men said about ADFG. To illustrate local
frustration with the agency, one narrator described the recent diminishing of salmon runs
in a Yukon area waterway. People involved in Kake's ARED fish restoration project
offered to help ADFG bring salmon back to the northern stream. "The guy managing that
stream didn't even look at the proposal. He is worried about defending ten years ofbad
management," a man in Kake said. Some people in ADFG who were supportive of
ARED's offer to help, saved e-mails that went back and forth in the department. In one e-
mail the ADFG manager apparently warned other ADFG representatives to watch out for
projects like ARED's because he said it was an example of capitalizing on other people's
misery (2002 written fieldnotes). The above narrative, albeit one-sided, circulated among
fish restoration project participants as one means of explaining ADFG reluctance to
approve their plan.
ARED is a nonprofit organization focused on helping communities help
themselves. As a fieldworker I spent time with people involved in the fish restoration
project. Their discourse almost always included impassioned references to human and
ecological issues around Southeast Alaska and the rest of the world. Making a profit was
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never mentioned in any of the conversations I heard. To exemplify some of the "feeling"
discourse behind the effort, an originator ofARED told this narrative. One day he was
giving a presentation to a Native group about salmon restoration. An Elder man came up
and asked him why he was doing this. The presenter knew that he should wait and take
time in answering the Elder's question. He took three weeks to compose a story in the
form ofa legend. It emphasized his own concerns about environmental degradation and it
gave voice to people's spiritual connection to the land. He gave his story to the Elder who
read it and then cried.
People in Kake told me that human assistance in fish restoration is an old practice.
They heard Elders talk about Tlingit people in the past who transported eggs in moist
baskets from one stream to another in order to begin a salmon run in an empty stream. In
comparison, ARED described its methodology this way: The first step is "intercepting the
adult salmon as they are returning to their natal watersheds to spawn. We collect and
fertilize the eggs and protect them during the most delicate stages of their early
development through use of our Portable Moist Air Incubation System. This provides
high survival rates with no chemical use. When the eggs reach a stage ofresiliency they
are planted into their stream of origin (before they hatch) using our egg planting
technology" (ARED 2006:http://www.ared.netD.
The following transcript comes from a recorded conversation between two
women, a man, and the fieldworker. The conversation took place soon after the
Organized Village ofKake and the school district learned that ADFG sent back their
permit application indicating that there were problems with it that had to be rectified
before the restoration project could begin. One problem ADFG reviewer(s) had with the
application was its lack of written documentation that Hamilton Creek (the egg source)
was connected in the same watershed with Cathedral Falls (the restoration site).
The length of the transcript and explanation around it reflects the methodology in
discourse analysis of providing context to narrative examples. Phrases or words in
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parentheses indicate that the words on the transcribed cassette tape were difficult to hear
and are not the speaker's exact words. In review, words and phrases in brackets indicate
that the fieldworker is filling in information to add clarity.
Following is a conversation between three Kake people involved in the salmon
restoration project and the fieldworker.
1) Speaker One: But the recovery rate on this is-well-when you're
putting, like, the natural fertilization and all that, you put maybe
50,000 eggs in the ground in the stream, you might get 50 fish back.
And the way they're doing it now with this, they'll get back a huge
number. And it also indoctrinates the fish to the stream that they want
'em to.
2) Speaker Two~ And it's still wild and that's what the beauty of it is,
it's wild salmon. It isn't hatchery fish, it isn't ...
3) Speaker One: But the whole beauty of the thing is that the [the
Portable Mister] is so small and on top of that it creates jobs for local
people in the village. It'll take about six people year around to take
care of these. And they can go out and regenerate any stream. Another
thing that's in the works with this is that they take the heads, guts and
feathers9 and they grind 'em up and they make 'em into pellets. Well
he's got a video that shows it. When a stream is dying, it turns red.
And like at the mouth of the Yukon where the fry come out of the
stream, they get out into the stream and they live within a certain
radius of the stream for a period of time. Well, like in the Yukon, it's
all dead. They're not getting the plankton, they're not getting the
nutrients out of the streams to sustain 'em. So they're dying off.
4) Fieldworker: The nutrients aren't there because ... ?
5) Speaker One: Because the fish ... see what happens is that the fish
go out, they lay their eggs, the males spawn 'em, they die. They
disintegrate. The nutrients go back into the water and then it feeds the
plankton and all the rest of that into the stream. And it's not getting
that. So part of this deal is when they take up there and they're
plantin' these eggs in the stream bed, they're throwin' these pellets
9 Heads, guts, and feathers simply refers to the whole fish and all of its parts.
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out and the pellets dissolve in the water. And regenerate the stream. to
About the only real drawback to this thing, really, and it's something
that can't be helped, is the fact that when the fish go out it takes
anywhere from three to five years to come back. That's the natural
part anyway.
6) Speaker Two: But that's the beauty is the science, the technology
and then the grassroots of it, having the tribe, because of the
traditional knowledge, and that was something that [name of
organizer] reeeally, that's his big excitement, is getting it to (work
together). It's like it's such a wonderful project, and we have enough
funding to get it started. Now from this point on it's just finding, and
securing more funding, and getting the right people involved, and
keeping them interested and onboard and that's something that we'll
be more like .... almost like a consultant type of thing for all these
other tribes that are interested in it, because we'll go out and help with
all the headaches we're dealing with now, like the permit, the
justification, because a lot of it is federal funds, and you know they
really ...
[Here both Speaker One and Speaker Two talk at the same time.}
Speaker One says that some people in Kake are concerned that the
restoration project is using hatchery fish, or using the same process
used in hatcheries.
7) Speaker Two: Yeah, because of the hatchery, and this being for
some reason a similar project, which it really isn't but some people
are saying it is. It has nothing to do with that. You eliminate the cost,
you eliminate the ... you're not as susceptible to diseases because
they're going right back as soon as they hit the eye stage, and that's
what's makin' their survival rate more is because they're taking them
to the eye stage and putting them right back into their-you know-
right back where they belong. This whole Cathedral project, of
course, is going to be a really, I should say once it is successful, it's
gonna be something that everyone will probably want to be a part of
that needs ... , you know. And we're not doing it to try and eliminate
hatcheries, but we're just trying to fmd a way to address our concerns.
I mean hatcheries, to my knowledge here, you know you have the
10 Fish pellets are made from the carcasses of salmon that come to the Gunnuk Creek Fish Hatchery in
Kake or the fish processing plant. In a healthy salmon stream the carcasses of spawned salmon revitalize
the stream with nutrients, which are necessary as a food source for salmon fry, once they hatch from the
eggs. If a stream is empty of spawned salmon carcasses, and eggs are planted in the stream, the are likely
to die without a food source. Pellets are a substitute for the missing salmon carcasses. They provide the
stream with missing nutrients.
dogs and the, what is it, the pink. And (what people) prefer, I don't
know, it depends on who you talk to. One it's halibut, it's sockeye,
it's coho, steelhead. I don't know much about what's involved with
steelhead, but I'm hoping that's one of the things we'll increase. You
can't increase it for the sake of it, but if you know there was
thousands there before and there's ten now, then that gives you a
reason to say it will survive here.
8) Speaker One: Which [species are they going to go for]
9) Speaker Two: Coho at Cathedral.
10) Speaker One: I thought they were going to Hamilton.
11) Speaker Two: Ummm
12) Speaker One: They're getting the eggs from Hamilton.
13) Speaker Two: Yeah. And see that's the same, that's the same
watershed. But yeah, [Speaker two goes to the map on the wall]
there's Big John's Bay, but just part ... Hamilton Bay is here. But this
is all the same. They [the streams] all go back there. And that was one
of the concerns, you know, the [ADFG] reviewer had, is because we
mentioned Hamilton in connection with Cathedral Falls. "How do we
[ADFG] know [the streams are connected]?" Well, because you
[ADFG] have the data.
14) Fieldworker: Does ADFG trust local knowledge?
15) Speaker Two: I won't even comment. I don't knooow [laughs].
I'm not sure if they do or ...
16) Speaker Three: [Yells over to speaker one and speaker two] The
Forest Service? ... They'll listen. They're required by law.
17) Speaker Two: But do they trust it? And I think that's what I mean,
I think that's a part of the concern is because they're taking traditional
knowledge and comparing it to '" because they add science to that.
They forget we've lived here all our lives and we know what should
be here and (what works), you know.
18) Fieldworker: I went out the road with [name of Elder]. He told me
what fish used to be there in the stream we crossed. Does the Forest
Service and ADFG trust information like that?
19) Speaker Two: Some of it. I don't know, and I think that's pati of
it. I think it's [the restoration project] an untried ... I think because
it's so new, [people talking at once and hammering sounds, etc.].
Then you have us who, and I'm sure I don't know what's involved in
becoming a fish biologist or whatever. Maybe they feel jeopardized
by the fact that pretty soon people will take traditional knowledge and
use that as opposed to their data. I don't know, but because of the
jobs?
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20) Fieldworker: What's at stake?
21) Speaker Two: What's at stake.
22) Speaker Three: What's at stake is that it's the opposite of their,
what they've studied, they've gone to school for. It's a completely
different system than what they're doing. Most of them are from that
mindset of ... how did what's-his-name call it down at workshop? It's
more like (local traditional knowledge is holistic). The scientists'
system is (specialized - taking things and separating them out to study
them).
23) Speaker Two: Oh yeah.
24) Speaker Three: And they kind of focus on ... they separate things
out that are specialized and it's two different (ways of viewing the
world).
25) Speaker Three: And so I think that's the kind ofpeople that (are
in those positions now). You know the thing is though, [names
Speaker Two] is that the fieldworkers, they come out here, they agree
with us. They say, "Oh yeah, Cathedral's part of Hamilton." I think
they know. They've been there, and we know it too. But the ones that
are doing the permitting, we have to prove to them, well how is
Cathedral part ofHamilton?
26) Speaker Two: Hamilton.
27) Speaker Three: It's frustrating. I see [names SpeakerTwo] getting
frustrated over having to deal with all of that.
28) Speaker Two: It's so trying. That's an understatement. [laughter] I
don't even know where I found this [Speaker Two points to a map on
the wall], but just looking at this you don't even have to be a biologist
or anything to look at that body ofwater and know that (they all tie
together) [Speaker Three is laughing] you know?
Yeah. And that's what I mean they act like, I don't know ...
29) Speaker Two: It's a lack of trust and maybe a fear that we might
know more than we're supposed to. Because ...
30) Speaker Three: We're just rural people.
31) Speaker Two: Yeah [laughs] we're the village people.
32) Speaker One: You know a perfect example of that is that our dam
went out.
33) Speaker Two: uh
34) Speaker One: And [they start laughing] the people here told 'em
where it should be. Because of the Corps ofEngineers is-"let's do
it-we know where." So they took a million dollars. They did a
complete survey. They get back and they say we found the perfect
place for it. [Speaker One chuckles].
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35) Speaker Two: Yup. Yup.
36) Speaker One: Where is it? "There." Geez. That's where we said it
should go in the fIrst place.
37) Speaker One: Now you know they've hired (someone who) came
up and did a whole analysis and knew all about it, everything. Spent
two days here.
38) Speaker Two~ [Mumbles agreement.]
39) Speaker One: He got in one afternoon, the third day, so he didn't
get in three full days, and he wrote this big analysis ofhow everybody
lives here and the whole bit, you know. What can you get in two and a
half days, you know? The guy was an idiot anyway to start with.
[laughter]
40) Speaker Three~ They tried to pull the wool over our eyes. Pulling
in all these numbers and curves and blah-blah-blah.
41) Speaker Two: Terms that they hope we'll never understand.
42) Speaker Three: And we didn't, but the hatchery people, that's
their language, they were shooting holes in it.
43) Speaker One: The guy talking about all this analysis he'd done
and we found out that he'd come from Oregon, wasn't it?
44) Speaker Two: Oregon. Yeah.
45) Speaker One: Yeah
46) Speaker One~ So he'd done his research in Oregon
47) Speaker Two: And then came up here.
48) Speaker One: Applied it to Kake.
49) Speaker Two: Oh yeah..... And you know there should be data
for everything (which there is) until you take some fIsh and extract
some fIsh from Hamilton, and whatever, and then you want to fmd
out what the differences are between that and Cathedral Falls. It
should be right there in their [ADFG] archives, or somewhere,
wherever they keep their data, if they've got it. And that's what I
mean. That's a disconnect. It's a strong disconnect, in my opinion,
because you can go to the fIeld version offIsh and game [ADFG] and
I bet some of them know this off the top of their head, a little like we
do because it's traditional. They know it because of their work. Then
they're dealing with administration, who for lack of better terms,
don't have a clue what goes on here. They don't know the fIrst thing
about this area, you know. That's why when they see Hamilton and
then Cathedral, to them it's two separate, and it isn't. And if they
would pull up a map, you know what I'm saying ... as simple as that.
Instead ofbeing, "Oh no no no no, this isn't gonna happen unless you
prove this or prove that." Well, that was what was frustrating, but the
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186
interesting part is when [names ARED representative] went to look
for the data that they wanted us to submit, he went to them to get it.
He went to the Forest Service and Fish and Game ... the fie1dworkers,
the people that come out and do the work. And so the reviewer, I
mean it's as simple as maybe he/she had to walk across the hall to
look for it, but instead of even trying to do that, just assumed because
they don't know the area that they're two separate watersheds, and
they aren't. And it's just things like that because, which makes us
look good because we know it traditionally, [laughs] you know.
[Pause in Conversation]
51) Speaker Two: ... Because to them, "I'm educated and that's all
there is to it." To them ... because they don't live here. We do. You
know most of them, even the fish and game people, maybe they're in
here ten, twenty days out of the year. They come in, and this is my
other problem, they'll do their data, maybe it's not the right time. The
seals are a perfect example. They come in, they do the count, thinking
they're an endangered species. Well, two days after they left we had
thousands of seals come up, because that's when they do. You know
what I mean? We knew that. They don't ask us these things. They
come in and like [Speaker One] said, they come in, they do their
studies, they take their data, they don't stop by, they don't
communicate, they don't get our input because it isn't valid. It isn't
... they don't have a person's input from twenty years ago or data she
collected to compare with today. Because we don't put that in writing.
We just know. And I know that sounds crazy, but it's our natural
environment, and like I said, that's how we see it. It's a natural
environment and maybe that's where the problem is. They don't (see
it that way). They see it right here. They see what they have and in
years past, and that's the way it should be. But what should be and
what reality are, are two different things. You know. (2003 taped
conversation)
Evaluation through Laclau's theory of dislocation
The loss ofwild salmon in some area streams is a 'rupture' that runs contrary to
ideologically reinforced beliefs among many people in Kake. Aspects of that ideology are
articulated in the 2002 version ofHeritage: Kee~' Kwaan - a Conspectus.
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'Tlingit Aanee," the land ofthe people, is more than just a place to
live. It exemplifies our culture, which is the embodiment of life, mind,
soul, and utmost respect for all living beings and things in our
environment. We owe our very existence to 'Tlingit Aanee', and all
that it provides. Culture is not simply song and dance, a quaint
assumption. It is really a working relationship ofpeople with the land
and sea around us. There is a natural law that we must observe: and
there is a natural power that is greater than ours. Our culture, our
heritage, is built upon respect for each other, and every other living
thing. We draw our identity, as a people, from our relationship to the
land, sea, and its resources; it is a spiritual and sacred relationship
(Johnson 2002).
The signifiers "fish restoration" or "salmon restoration" project carry with them
meanings associated with present circumstances but also meanings associated with older
Tlingit values, outlined in the above description of"Tlingit Aanee." In the transcript
example, the signifier "restoration" is associated verbally with signifiers such as wild fish
as opposed to hatchery fish, grassroots community, traditional and local knowledge, jobs,
and the natural environment. Throughout conception stages of the project, which
occurred over several months, people often used emotion words and words about caring
for people and the environment to describe what they were doing and why. Body
language and tone ofvoice were indicators of strong emotions and feelings. The
ideologies behind the project were reinforced through USFS support and Bureau of
Indian Affairs funding. People organizing the project within the school district and the
Organized Village ofKake talked about "fish restoration" in celebratory tones. Speaker
Two~
And I think just the dialogue between the tribes and ARED .,. and I
saw that it was always so positive, it's so proactive. It's everything a
person could dream of wanting to happen, and then you get back to
the bureaucracy. And that's where it's frustrating, and that's where
we're hoping if we start meeting with the governor's staff, with the
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commissioner, that we can get them to sit, you know just all of us sit
down and discuss a possible solution for the future. Where we
shouldn't have to go through this permitting process but be a part or
utilize their knowledge, of course, their data, keep them in the loop,
work together and make this just an all out holistic approach to
salmon restoration. (2003 taped conversation)
Kake organizers of the restoration project talked about going through the
memorandum ofunderstanding process with the USFS and then, at USFS urging,
applying for a permit from ADFG. Permit writers did the paper work, submitted it, and
then rewrote it based on ADFG reviewers' comments. Everything seemed to be in place
and those involved were ready to begin the project when a caprice occurred in the form of
legal decision-making at the ADFG level. Speaker Two explained the situation.
And then about a week or so ago, actually a couple ofweeks, when
we were waiting to hear if it was approved ... because we were gonna
start August fIrst, you know, we get this e-mail back from one of the
reviewers telling us that this isn't right, this isn't right, this isn't right.
And we questioned the data (they asked for) that they should have it.
In their fIles they probably do, but the frustrating part is we're ready
to go into the falls now ... I mean, with everything and it's already
kind of stressful, but you're under this time crunch because you can't
tell fIsh to wait a week. [laughs] Don't show up until the twenty-
second. Don't you spawn before I say ... you know. [laughs]. So it's
those types of things. And see that's my point with them. If they saw
that application, knew we wanted to start on the fIrst, they shouldn't
have sent us their rejection a week after, whatever it was, it was a
week after the day we wanted to start, and tell us what we needed.
They could have sent that to us in July, or whatever, and that would
have given us the time to get it back, and it would have been done and
in place. (2003 taped conversation)
The level of stress, anxiety, and indignation that people expressed was high. New
ADFG criticisms came "at the last minute"; people had to work quickly to meet ADFG
demands for data. Some individuals in Kake expressed suspicion that the timing was
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purposeful, and a few narratives were shared about possible deceitfulness on the part of a
few ADFG administrative representatives involved in the application and review process.
Someone said they called some of the ADFG reviewers who were listed as people who
disapproved of the permit. At least two of the listed people said they knew nothing about
the permit or the project.
At a certain level, by questioning the application data, ADFG reviewers were
challenging the application writers' system ofrepresentation, their scientific
explanations, and their social paradigms that are connected with how things are done in
Kake and why. ADFG was also challenging local discourses, the way things are
explained locally. Since ADFG representatives seemed to be obstructing the project,
people feared that ADFG decision-makers were questioning the integrity of the project
itself
Kake people, who when talking connected the project with environmental
stewardship and grassroots community ideologies, had to go through a rearticulation of
the project and the new circumstances in order to come to terms with the ideological
rupture. The ADFG-initiated caprice (source of rupture) had somewhat dislocated the
project from people's ideologies about how the world should operate. A means of
rearticulation and "repairing the rupture", in Kake, was to challenge discursively what
ADFG claimed were lacking, even as the tribal and school representatives worked to
comply with what ADFG permit reviewer(s) demanded.
The discursive exchanges focused on key empty signifiers (words and concepts).
In review, empty signifiers are words or symbols that suggest or infer what is "lacking"
in a political situation. In this example, ADFG permit reviewers claimed that data was
lacking. Data was an empty signifier or identified void. As with any empty signifier, the
concept ofdata is connected in people's minds with past meanings and experiences.
These become linked with the new political context. This linking of older meanings with
a new political context, influences people's understanding and feelings that are associated
190
with the signifier, in this case data. In power relations, people compete to promote empty
signifiers, to defme what those signifiers imply is missing, and to advance what are
always political solutions to filling the implied lack. In Kake, several people articulated
their competition with ADFG over the defmition of data, requirements for who should
gather it, and the inadequacies of ADFG data collection. Because ADFG employees
identified data as missing, the concept of data became political. As Kake people worked
to rearticulate their ideologies in response to permit requirements, they had to discuss and
rethink the concept ofdata in the context ofADFG actions and power. Their experiences,
feelings and perceptions associated with data were either changed or re-enforced.
In review ofLaclau' s theory of dislocation in association with discourse, when a
caprice occurs that challenges ideological beliefs and boundaries, people tend to work in
dialectic relationship with their former ideological beliefs and that which dislocates them.
They do this by using signifiers that were part of their older ideological explanations and
connecting them with descriptions of and solutions to the dislocation (Stavrakakis
2000: 102). Signifiers are the reference points people use as they negotiate how to repair
an ideological rupture caused by a crisis.
From its inception, the fish restoration project was connected with signifiers such
as traditional and local knowledge, grassroots community work, local jobs, children and
education, new technology, wildfish, natural environment, Tlingit values, culture, and
respect for life. When Kake people rearticulated, to each other, the circumstances
originating with ADFG and the permitting process, they evaluated ADFG decision-
making behavior by incorporating the signifiers that had come to be associated with the
restoration project. Restoration project ideological signifiers included descriptions of
Kake-based knowledge or data. Kake data was discussed in terms ofknowingfrom the
experience ofliving in the environment and ofhearingfrom Elders and others about the
way things used to be compared to now and why. Local data was signified in terms of
traditional knowledge.
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As part of the political "competition" with ADFG to fill what was "missing"
(data), local discourses compared ADFG knowledge types with Kake knowledge. Much
of Kake knowledge was acquired through decades of sharing stories and information with
Elders and others about the environment. In contrast, ADFG knowledge was described
locally with signifiers such as disconnect (meaning disconnect between local knowledge
and formal education knowledge). ADFG data was described with signifiers such as
mindset (the scientific mindset separated things out to study them rather than
understanding through the "holistic" traditional knowledge system). ADFG data was
associated with the wordjear (ADFG's perceived lack ofrespect for local knowledge
was described as fear that local people might know more than biologists, and that ADFG
representatives might fear for their jobs). Government agency data was linked with
pulling the wool over the eyes ojpeople (scientists using words that are not part of local
language as a method to fool people). Data was connected with being an idiot (applying
research done elsewhere to Kake). Agency data was associated with mistakes and
inaccuracy (because many fieldworkers and biologists fail to communicate or ask for
local knowledge and spend too little time in Kake to get accurate information).
The discourse in the transcript example demonstrated a dialectic relationship with
local value constructions about the fish restoration project and that which dislocated those
constructions, ADFG data requirements. For months people had been using signifiers
that associated the fish restoration project with ideologies about people's respectful
relationship with the land and sea. When the project permit was temporarily denied, the
same or similar signifiers were used to describe the integrity of local knowledge. Local
knowledge was compared with ADFG's competing defmition ofknowledge as data that
is primarily written and documented. By identifying the challengers (ADFG
representatives) as lacking in local knowledge, and by discursively maintaining the
integrity of local ideological priorities, the conversants helped each other repair the
rupture.
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At the same time that antagonisms were reconstructed as part of a critique of
ADFG decision-makers, conversations became a means ofreducing antagonisms locally.
This is because when antagonisms occur between local entities and non-local entities,
people in Kake (and most communities) often attempt to find things in common; they
weaken their own differences in order to communicate with each other about the conflict
and in order to oppose (as a group) others who are in conflict with them. In this case,
reducing local antagonisms through discourses that were opposed to ADFG behavior was
easily achieved because of narratives about past experiences with ADFG. More
importantly, fish restoration goals tied older Tlingit values about the environment with
new, minimally-invasive technology. The project involved children, Elders, the school
district, the tribe, the fish hatchery staff, and other members of the community. In
essence, it was mostly a nonthreatening project, from a local perspective, and thus a
means to include several village interest groups in conversations that relocated
environmental discourses as part of local empowerment.
The question most relevant to this study is whether or not the experience of
having to rewrite the application, based on ADFG data requirements and definitions,
changed local discourses, narratives, and perceptions about the environment. What
knowledge did people gain about how to accommodate ADFG data requirements, and
how will they use their new knowledge in the future?
A single experience with ADFG might have minimal language-changing power,
but several experiences over time are likely to influence local discourse.
Language/thinking transformations are liable to occur if local people prioritize
documented, written data over local knowledge in order to avoid the stress that occurs
when applications are denied or delayed. When pain is reduced because people practice
orthopraxy (writing and speaking as ifthey share ADFG agency representative beliefs
about how things should be done), a subculture is likely to develop within which people
express alternative feelings about ADFG requirements. Change in thinking occurs
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because a different discourse is cultivated, or what Scott (1990:85) called a "hidden
transcript." Practicing orthopraxy also necessitates a second type of code-switch or
change in "thinking" because permit applications, and what they must contain for
approval, are imbued in particular ideology. Local permit writers must anticipate ADFG
expectations to avoid rejection.
Thinking, Mead(1936) said, is the process of conversation with one's selfwhen
we take on the attitude of the other in order to respond to her or him. In order to talk to
other people, if we want them to understand, we work to reply with words and gestures
that they will relate to, in other words, within their language forms and meanings. When
we are communicating with others, we are communicating to ourselves as well, and we
are influenced by our participation in the experience ofwhat we believe to be other
people's language forms and meanings. Even ifpermit application writers consciously
"think" about the application process as a disconnect from local knowledge forms, and
even if they include both local and formal scientific and legal types ofknowledge, they
have had conversations in their own minds about how to communicate in ADFG
language codes. To include feeling language, ideological language and local, traditional
knowledge in applications or "official" documents indicates determination to
communicate local knowledge and ideology, but it is also risky. "Official" permit
application gatekeepers may fail to understand the significance of including local
discourse forms or they may find it administratively problematic.
Whether or not change ofmind through orthopraxy or empathetic thinking
influences positive or negative socialization of respect and moral responsibility for place
and people is another question. According to my interviews and discussions, most people
in Kake see state-based ideologies as fixated on resource extraction and profit, or they are
ambivalent about government agency purposes. Some see that state fixation on resource
extraction as positive or inevitable while others see it as negative and destructive.
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One example of rethinking in order to communicate with others is the following
official description of goals from ARED's website, http://www.ared.net/. The site uses
words such as sustainable, community, collaboration and stewardship, but it conveys only
a little of the passion expressed in day-to-day conversations in Kake about the project or
ARED's mission.
Alaska Resource and Economic Development Inc. develops initiatives
that advance healthy, sustainable community development. An
emphasis is placed on finding consensus within the social fabric of
communities and regions, while encouraging an advance in the
understanding and approach to proactive stewardship of our natural
environment.
ARED's Salmon Restoration Initiative facilitates strategies for
assisting in restoration of wild salmon. We have developed an
effective methodology and supporting technologies for these
restorative efforts. Nature provides "extra" eggs to compensate for
early stages of high mortality in the life-cycle of the salmon. Wild
salmon runs can be enhanced by enabling survival of a greater
number of these eggs from salmon returning from the ocean to spawn.
In times of decreased survival and threatened sustainability, we can
assist the salmon by helping increase survival of those available eggs
while preserving the integrity of the salmon's complete life-cycle.
This is accomplished by intercepting the adult salmon as they are
returning to their natal watersheds to spawn. We collect and fertilize
the eggs and protect them during the most delicate stages of their
early development through the use of our Portable Moist Air
Incubation System. This provides high survival rates with no
chemical use. When the eggs reach a stage of resiliency they are
planted into their stream oforigin (before they hatch) using our egg
planting technology. This technology has been successfully employed
in Alaska to reintroduce and restore wild salmon to their natural river
systems. By utilizing those extra eggs that nature provides, we
increase the yield of emerging wild salmon from their natural
spawning grounds. The salmon hatch in their natural environment and
continue their life-cycle. Using the natural fecundity ofwild salmon
and supporting their natural processes, we maintain attentiveness to
their complex ecosystem and genetic patterns ofbehavior. This
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initiative researches, compiles and develops methodologies and
technologies to support community-based stewardship efforts. We
blend this approach with current disciplines in partnership with
resource managers to promote sustainable wild salmon runs in our
rivers and oceans.
ARED has successfully demonstrated a model of community
participation by including high school students and local community
members actively engaged in all aspects ofartificial recruitment.
This project is based on the following sequence of operations for
enhancing survival and rejuvenating spawning beds:
1. Collaborate with resource management agencies
2. Identify carrying capacity and current baseline conditions including
nutrient levels
3. Presence or absence of other listed species both abundance and
distribution
4. Habitat evaluation/site selection
5. Brood stock capture of wild salmon
6. Egg take/fertilization/sterilization (during water hardening)
7. Incubation of eggs to the "eyed stage" of development (Portable Mist
Incubation, Patent Pending)
8. Otolith marking salmon for assessment
9. Planting eyed eggs in their stream of origin (Egg Planter)
10. Nutrient supplementation (where and when appropriate)
11. Assessment of operations, monitoring egg-to-fry survival, out-migrant
smolts
12. Collaboration effort (through all phases ofplanning and operations)
Having spent time with a least one of the writers of this website, and hearing how he
described his efforts in day-to-day language, I can conclude that code-selecting for the
website language leaves out many of the feelings, emotions, and "talking from the heart"
speeches that motivated ARED's founders to keep trying, despite initial ADFG and other
government agency discouragement. The passion becomes a "hidden transcript" and lost
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information for people who read the website but never speak to its writer(s). The same is
likely true of Smith and Esposito (2002) cited in chapter VII.
Discursive fields influence thinking, such as ADFG permit application expectations,
and anticipating others' expectations of professionalism while packaging one's self on a
website page. Discursive fields influence thinking, but they cannot determine the exact
direction of that thinking. Each person who works with application guidelines, for
example, will choose thinking directions in and by the act of communication. Parole is
the ephemeral individual's will, acts, statements, and utterances in language events.
Parole is the act of speech, which according to Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure,
... is the product of the will and intelligence of the individual subject and never
more unitary than the simple summation of all the idiosyncratic events in which
it happens (Culler 1974:30, 38).
Yet the application itself sets up language frames, and influences the choices and
directions that are possible in the "idiosyncratic events" within which people learn to
respond. The ADFG reviewers have power to decide, within those frames, whether or not
Kake explanations meet ADFG application guidelines and qualify them for a permit.
Their interpretations are forever in flux. In Kake, people questioned ADFG reviewers'
interpretations of permit application frames, demonstrating that frames and choices are
never completely fixed, and discursive fields are always subjected to changes or
"ruptures." These ruptures lead to the undermining/creation of old/new social
antagonisms/hegemony in the disruption/establishment of new, partially-fixed meanings
(Stembrouk 2007:25). IfKake people effectively challenge the discursive field of ADFG
permit applications, then ADFG permit reviewers will have to rethink the application
language in the context of ignoring or refuting challenges, or making changes.
The fish restoration circumstances, and the ways that local people explain them
become part of local memory, as well as the memory of state agency personnel. The
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processes that people experienced in dealing with the crisis, and the language, words and
explanations people shared with each other, become part of a repertoire of narratives
attached to ADFG and to Kake. They are narratives that were created and negotiated
through the discursive process of connecting past and present ideological constructs
(which vary even within groups and communities) with pressures that challenged or
ruptured those ideologies.
The fish restoration case study is an example of how tension always exists between
temporarily fixed meanings and the infinitude ofambivalence toward meanings and
ideologies (Laclau and Mouffe 2001). The challenge in discourse analysis and the theory
of dislocation is that there is no straightforward way to describe ever-changing,
circulating narratives and power. As such, there is no fixed method for accomplishing
analysis of texts, interviews and conversations. "The main challenge here seems to be
how to reconcile the need to be explicit about methodology with a non-essentialist and
non-positivist view on the production ofknowledge" (Stembrouk 2007:25).
Discourse analyst Jonathan Potter (1996) wrote that working with discourse is more
than a particular method. It is a perspective about social life that involves a range of
theoretical assumptions. Because of the nature ofdiscourse study and its lack ofan all-
encompassing method, Howarth (2000) proposed that analysts focus on Foucault's
genealogical method, that is to work at "dissolving" power/knowledge complexes. My
interpretation ofgenealogical method for this study involves describing socio-political
phenomena that people take for granted as "facts." It also includes describing what
people believed and took to be obvious as fact in the past, but which is now understood to
be morally problematic.
To describe the obvious is a "radical critique" (Bourdieu 1991:174-184) because it
emphasizes how conceptions of time, history, "capitalocentric" readings ofthe economy,
and legal processes are simply social constructions, rather than essential truths.
Foucault's genealogy focused on "breaking history" and inserting "points of rupture" at
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which "new beginnings" could be imagined (Fournier 2006:295). One way to "break
history" is to examine it from other points ofview. From a reflexive standpoint, much of
Kake knowledge is new to me. Discoursesaround issues such as fish restoration are
"points of rupture" for my own ideologies. Through rupture I can begin to identify what
has been invisible to me in legal discourses that I take for granted about the environment.
My own thinking and narrative explanations are changed.
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CHAPTER IX
ROAD BUILDING AND COMMUNITY
There's a lot ofgood here in town. And we're really ... pushing the culture thing. Ruth
[Demmert] does (a goodjob). People ... we're supposed to be the best dancers in
Southeast. (2002 taped interview with Elder Tlingit man)
You know a long time ago I would say the values were a lot better than it is now. I think
greed has come into the picture. What can I do for myselfrather than the community. So
"myself" is number one. And there's a few ofus that have honest values, put it that way,
that will stand up for what is right and not compromise. (2004 taped interview with
Tlingit woman in her upper middle years)
In this chapter I describe definitions of community in the context of state efforts
to change the dynamics of Southeast Alaska economies, transportation systems, and
quality of life by building a highway to connect island towns and villages to each other
and to the national highway system. I begin, in part one, with some theoretical definitions
of community and reasons why defmitions are important in considering issues of
environmental sustainability. Second, I describe community in Kake as local people
themselves defme it. I detail some of the ways that people perform community in
contexts of education, healing, conflict, power, and other everyday rituals that create
local subjects who can help others to become local community members (Appadurai
(1996: 178-182). Third, in part two, I describe the Alaska Department ofTransportation
(ADOT) proposal to build a road connecting Kake with the rest of Southeast Alaska.
Fourth, I show how community is defined in the DOT transportation plan, and fifth, I
compare local and state defmitions of community as part of road-building decisions.
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Part I
Connecting islands by roads
Transportation is a crucial means for any state to exert itself in contested
hegemony. The Alaska Department ofTransportation's Southeast Alaska Transportation
Plan (2004) is a clear exertion of state power over accessibility. Currently, most island
villages can be reached only by plane or boat, but the plan proposes to build and connect
several hundred miles ofAlaska panhandle islands by roads, small ferries, and eventually
bridges. Tourist trade and better access to federal transportation funds are some of the
major reasons given for replacing Alaska State ferry transportation.
During my fieldwork experience, I noted in radio accounts and newspaper stories
that many Southeast Alaska residents in several communities expressed opposition to the
plan. People were concerned that roads would change the quality of life in their villages,
a quality oflife that most said they preferred. In the 2004 approved plan, efficiency, time,
and money take precedence over concerns about change. As such, state decisions about
accessibility are strong expressions of power, especially considering that, to date, villages
such as Kake have had more control than most United States communities over who
enters or stays within their boundaries. The transportation plan would connect Kake to
Petersburg via roads, and both communities to the rest of the nation's road systems, a
proposition that Kake people voted two-to-one against in late 2003. Maps from the DOT
plan are included at the end of chapter 9.
When public roads are built, people who plan, construct, and use those roadways
change the dynamics ofpower in communities. Access via public roads is governed more
by federal or state laws than local social expectations and conditions. Tlingits have long
understood the importance of limiting accessibility to resource areas to maintain
environmental integrity and sustainable livelihood. Their legal system insured that clans
alone had jurisdiction over resources in their territories.
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If anyone beside the clansmen or those invited were caught taking fish
from clan territories, or if they were caught hunting there, they could
be killed. This was also true if anyone trespassed on clan domain or
used their trade routes. Sometimes when a powerful party came to
fish on another clan's territory, the owning clan would invite the
transgressors to a feast, treat them well, and give them presents. This
they did to shame the aggressors, who generally withdrew after such
treatment (Oberg 1973:149-150).
Tlingit laws were part of a resource management system that, as it appears,
worked well for many hundreds and probably thousands ofyears, as documented by
cultural anthropologists such as Hunn et al. (2002: 19-51) and Thornton (1995), and
archaeologists such as Ackerman, Hamilton, and Stuckenrath (1979), Langdon (2000),
Moss, Erlandson, and Stuckenrath (1989), Moss (2004, and 2007), Newton and Moss
(1984 and 2005). In the 21 st century, local control of access, with support and help from
the state, is one social priority that several researches have identified as essential to
sustainable livelihood practices.
To better understand the social dynamics of access control to sustainable
livelihood, cross-disciplinary efforts are increasing to examine the sociocultural
conditions within groups, such as the Tlingit, who depend(ed) upon natmal resources and
manage(d) them successfully. Becker and Ostrom (1995) summarized many common
local management features that researchers found in examples oflong lasting, self-
governing groups, whose livelihood practices did not devastate their resources. They
called attention to the necessity of clear boundaries and memberships, congruent rules
(rules that fit the local situation), collective-choice arenas, monitoring, graduated
sanctions (in the Tlingit case a few graduated sanctions included shame or killing),
recognized rights to organize, and nested legal or decision-making units (the clans, in the
Tlingit case, made broad decisions and the house groups made everyday decisions).
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Anderson (1996), Becker and Ostrom (1995), and others observed that good
resource management is more likely if it is vested in the hands of small user groups that
are relatively stable and more or less mutually trusting. Effective "nesting" ofpower in
the twenty- fIrst century occurs when small user groups are supported, protected, and
monitored to a limited degree, by state (national and sub-national) government. OffIcials
in a system that supports local sustainable livelihood need to be interested in assisting and
empowering user group efforts to make a living while sustaining environmental integrity.
Long-term investment and commitment among user groups to a human
community and the whole environment are important components that the state would
need to recognize and support if and when sustainable livelihood becomes a goal. Many
Northwest Coast Native systems, including the Tlingit social system, integrated clear
boundaries and membership, and management rules that made sense in their natural
environment (Weinstein 2000:375-380). Tlingit laws and social practices included
monitoring the environment, graduated punishments for infraction ofrules, recognized
rights for clan and house group order, and nested organizations. People understood the
laws and enforced them, often fIercely, to keep the system sound. As Hunn et al.
(2003:S83) pointed out, "The Huna Tlingit have occupied their traditional territory for
millennia, with no evidence that they have degraded it" (which is not to claim they had
no impact on their environment: see Hunn et al. 2002: 19-51).
In many ways people in Kake still work to protect accessibility to resources and
their community. Now they do so politically through the tribe, the city, and sometimes
even the corporation. As Thornton (2003) suggested, commitment to family, house
group, clan and moiety remain important components ofTlingit society in the twenty-
fIrst century. In Kake, people are careful about who they accept whole-heartedly into
their community. One non-Tlingit man, who has lived in Kake for more than 25 years,
said it took him awhile to fIgure out why people would scowl at newcomers to town. He
said, "This community, by scowling [at newcomers], that would be their way of
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understanding if the newcomer was a friend or foe, because the survival of the
community depended upon knowing whether someone was a friend or not. They could
feel it logically and intuitively."
Another way that people work to practice accessibility to places is to maintain ties
to clan and family by working hard to hunt, fish, and pick berries in places where their
parents and grandparents did the same. Their efforts help them keep their relationship
with long-held clan and house group resource areas.
Access to historical and current fishing, hunting, and gathering sites will be
opened up to more non-Kake people ifroads are built. The Southeastern Alaska
Transportation Plan (SATP) calls upon the United States Forest Service to build more
roads to connect existing sections of logging roads on Kupreanoflsland. If the federal
government follows through with the state's plan, then Kake, on KupreanofIsland, will
be joined with Petersburg, on MitkofIsland, at first with a small ferry and eventually
with a bridge. Accessibility through roads will cause repercussions that remained
unaddressed in the 2004 Department ofTransportation (DOT) plans and documents.
While SATP writers described how social and environmental concerns will be attended to
in upcoming environmental assessment procedures, the initial frames for discussion were
already established in SATP documents, including criteria for defining community.
What is community? Why is it important to consider how community is defmed
in state projects? Anderson (1996: 151) writes that particular kinds of communities-
groups ofpeople who interact with each other, depend on and feel deeply involved with
an environment and the use ofa resource-are the critical variable in resource and
environmental conservation. For Boswell, sustained economic performance is
unobtainable without a community renaissance. Sustained economy within an ecological
system requires "full practical and ethical sense only in and with as well as for
community ... economic health and a community renaissance are inseparable. Of the two
it is a community renaissance that would come first" (1990:201). Relatedly, Robert
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Bellah et aL wrote that it is through community solidarity that humans can deal with
threats and take advantage of opportunities. "Much ofwhat has been happening in our
society has been undermining our sense of community at every leveL We are facing
trends that threaten our basic sense of solidarity with others ... Yet this sense of
connection, shared fate, mutual responsibility, and community is more critical now than
ever" (Bellah et aL 1996:xxx). Anderson is concerned that world economic growth and
internationalization are increasing pressures on local systems so that mutual
responsibility breaks down and self interest takes its place (Anderson 1996: 154). He
showed that when many traditional peoples worked through issues ofsharing and
managing common resources and environments, there existed "a general ethic of mutual
responsibility" within a community. Community solidarity was evident in shared values,
frequent interaction, and the practice ofworking together for a common cause.
Community, but more specifically community solidarity, is directly relevant to
conservation (Anderson 1996:151).
While many theorists agree that community is an essential component of "moral"
environmental behaviors, there exist varying defmitions of community itself. Hannerz
(1992) points out the trend to label the whole world a global community and a common
humanity. As such, the whole world is seen as a single ecosystem and a common
resource. Problematically, if all people on the earth are part of a single community, then
all have equal access to the earth's resources, and conversely, should be responsible for
all of the earth. "As a result of this global outlook (Gott 1992), environmental problems
seem to be impossibly complex and difficult to resolve" (Milton 1996: 179). People feel a
combined sense of helplessness rather than solidarity. I would add that a global outlook
can result in a sense that the world's resources belong to whoever can get them, but the
resulting responsibility for environmental degradation is often left to local communities
to live with and try to resolve.
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Mayo (2000) points out that community might be a shared place or shared
geography. It might be a group ofpeople with shared interests, conditions, problems, or
values, but mostly community is about "shared meanings" (Lash 1994). Meanings are
socially constructed, and meaning is often based on common struggles (Mayo 2000:45). I
am partial to Anderson's defmition of the type of "local" community that has the capacity
to manage common resources. This type of community consists ofpeople in relationship
with and deeply involved with their human and non-human environment. Community
members are in a position to negotiate with each other to decide management purposes,
to understand pressures on the environment, and to organize to deal with those pressures.
They maintain social solidarity through ethics, norms, values, morals, spirituality,
specific laws and an enforcement structure (Anderson 1996: 151).
Tlingit peoples, before westernization, lived in communities whose values and
laws promoted environmental sustainability. Keex' Kwaan peoples had a sense of
solidarity when it came to shared social meanings. Even when conflicts meant that groups
split to form new clan groups, people knew the law of the land and the expected social
protocol. According to local memories, clan and house-group solidarity was integral in
passing on to young people the knowledge that inspired emotional attachment to the
human and non-human environment. Such knowledge, through experiences and
narratives, connected human relations with environmental integrity and with social
morality.
The advantages of allowing communities, if they are deeply connected with their
places and each other, to be caretakers and decision-makers concerning environment
include the following. Communities socialize their own members, foster emotional
support for other people and for environment, have a common history of memories about
place and people, are directly concerned about children and grandchildren who will use
the environment in the future, are attached to place and environment, need solidarity, and
have the emotional and cultural resources to create it (Anderson 1996: 152, 153). I
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suggest that to create long-term holistic projects and regulatory solutions, government
projects, plans, and law-making enlarge in scope to include detailed conversations about
attachment to place and people as part of the "essence" ofa community.
Elements of community in Kake that are "uncounted" (see appendix J)
So much ofKake's strength comes from the community-making rituals over
which its people have the greatest power: the mortuary events; Culture Camp; Circle
Peacemaking; celebrating veterans; the youth center; teaching children about their clan
and family relationships and the Tlingit language; and almost everything that goes on in
the community center. In Wise Women, women come together for health education and
exercise. In other venues people participate in workshops for hands-on learning about
local medicine, weaving, beading, carving, dancing, singing, drumming and other older
and newer Tlingit knowledge. Most of the community either watches or participates in
basketball, and many people go to Juneau for the regional competitions. Visitors from
outside come to the yearly summer Dog Salmon Festival, apparently abandoned by the
tribal corporation and recently adopted by the tribe, the city, and the community at large.
Even in light ofphilosophical differences, grudges, and local anxieties, some
events in Kake almost always bring the whole community together. These events are a
strong part ofKake community-building rituals because they are some of the ways that
people perform solidarity. Some sense of common ground or solidarity is the means by
which communities are empowered to create their own solutions. Solidarity is rarely
easy, and preparations for mortuary dinners, for example, are fraught with leadership
pressures and distribution ofwork negotiation and tension. Community performance
rituals are often sources of conflict, or places where conflict is dealt with. Funeral dinners
are events practiced over and over that educate people to be local subjects who share
certain commonalities. It is the community performance rituals at the heart ofhuman
relationships that are most likely left out ofstate decision making discourses about road
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building, resource extraction, and property. Here I include a description of a few
powerful community practices. I begin with a discussion of mortuary expectations.
The fall, winter and spring of2003-2004 were difficult months in Kake. At least
one dozen people died. Some were Elders, some were ill, and some were part of an
accident on the water which took three young lives. By spring, people were tired and
exhausted. One young woman talked in March 2004 about how grateful she was that the
Salvation Army Congress was coming to Kake to bring a sense of hope and relief. She
talked about the winter.
It was draining. Really draining. I'm still kind of ... I still feel like the
community is kind of numb. I'm really happy Congress is going to be
here. It's going to be a time to ... it's almost as if that's the way it was
supposed to be. So I'm looking forward to it. Some of the services.
I've never been to one before. My grandpa and grandma grew up in
the Salvation Army and they always went to Congress. And I don't
know exactly what goes on in one. So it will be interesting to see what
their agendas are ... and going up to sing in the evening. (2004 taped
interview)
Just as with funeral dinners, when the Salvation Army Congress came to town
different family/clan groups hosted the dinners for the town and the visitors. They did so
even if they rarely attended church. Salvation Army Congress is a meeting of Southeast
Alaska Salvation Army church leaders and representatives. It includes services, speeches,
singing, and re-affrrming church goals and visions. One clan leader, whose family was
hosting the dinner one night, said that many Kake people were not attending the congress
because ofpast hurts. Some felt they were not invited. Yet many still opened their houses
to visitors and helped prepare and serve food. He told me this as we sat on the bleachers
listening to speakers formally thank the family group that had prepared dinner.
People also help out when someone dies in Kake. If a Raven passes away, for
example, the opposite moiety, the Eagles, help the family grieve, prepare the funeral
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arrangements, prepare the mortuary dinner and arrangements and assist in raising funds.
Forty days later, the family provides a send-offdinner for their relative and a thank you
dinner. In another year, the Ravens will likely give a pay-back dinner to formally thank
the Eagles, distribute gifts, and to honor the deceased. The same cycle is brought to
fruition if an Eagle passes away. The Ravens and Eagles help by staying with the
deceased until he/she is buried. They help with the funeral services, traveling by boat to
Grave Island for the burials. The mortuary events include most of the community in some
way. All are invited, although not everyone comes. There is cooking to be done, setting
up the community hall, speeches to prepare, funds to be raised, and all of the work of
grieving. Later people pitch in to make or find gifts for the pay-back dinner. Older
protocol is practiced and performed to varying degrees, but throughout the mortuary year
people have responsibilities as family, clan, and moiety members. As one man told me,
during the mortuary cycle, people in his clan family are expected to help and work with
others that they may be in conflict with. People may have to sit across the same table
from relatives they are having problems with. They must at least look at each other and
practice some level of respect. As a result, funeral dinners, 40-day dinners, and pay-back
dinners can initiate healing and amends, he said.
In the winter of2003-2004, people focused a great deal of their time, without
reprieve, on mortuary dinners and grieving. In the spring, at the same time that people
from all over Southeast Alaska prepared to gather in Kake for the Salvation Army
Congress, Kake Tribal Corporation shut its fishing and logging operations, shut down the
electricity to its office buildings, and shut its doors. It was the death of an era begun by
ANCSA, but people seemed to talk very little about the closing of their corporation.
Fieldworker: Since I've been here, and Kake Tribal shut down, people don't
seem to be surprised. They aren't saying much about it.
Young woman: Some of it is that they knew it was going to happen, the way
things were going. It's a bad situation. (2004 written fieldnotes)
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Local people not only spent the winter saying goodbye to people who passed
away, they spent the spring and summer saying goodbye to family and friends forced to
move to look for jobs.
In the winter, as Kake people listened to and gave funeral dinner speeches, they
were revisiting the history of their community. They told personal stories about the
people who had died and the stories of the clans to which the deceased belong. In their
homes they were revisiting Kake's corporate and ANCSA history. It was a winter to
intensify the process ofre-thinking Kake as a place and people. Re-thinking a community
and its economy takes a great deal of time and anxious energy. The process is fraught
with politics and competitive needs and ideas
Losses through death and losses ofjobs influence ideology. Explanations of how
the world works must be revisited and revised in the context of crises. Some rituals, such
as mortuary responsibilities and practices, assist people to work in dialectic relationship
with their former ideological beliefs and that which dislocates them. Mortuary dinners are
about community producing ritual and ritual producing community. As Appadurai (1997)
pointed out, community rituals socialize time and space. In community rituals, such as
mortuary practices that involve most of the community, a "sitedness of belonging" is re-
enacted. Such community practices, Abramson (2000:8-11) noted, are essential to
mending dislocations or fractures "that would disconnect the thread connecting land,
inner ancestry and externalized descendants." From a holistic view of human
relationships with land, the connection "has to remain unbroken if the collectivity is to
prosper" (Abramson 2000:8-11). Mortuary responsibilities and practices help educate
and re-educate people as subjects of their communities/environment, as family members
and as Tlingit and other Kake people. They anchor belonging and make belonging
tangible through social practice.
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Culture camp
Another practice that socializes time and space is Culture Camp, a yearly project
organized and sponsored by the Organized Village ofKake. It involves Elders, children,
teens, people who come from Hoonah and other Tlingit communities, teachers, health
care providers, singers, dancers, and others.
On July 13, 2002, the frrst morning of Culture Camp, I woke up in a tent with
several young campers to the sound of soft drumming, rattling, and singing. As time
passed, the drumming and singing got a little louder and a little more persistent. Some of
us slipped out of our sleeping bags and joined the camp leader at the frre, and he began to
sing a Kake song that people might have sung when coming in their boats to a potlatch.
The camp leader explained that such songs could be heard a long way over the water. In
essence the song meant, "We hear you are having a potlatch. We've come in peace."
The night before, the leader sent us to bed with a story that was passed on from
many years ago. It was about a boy who was playing on the beach and caught some baby
salmon in a horseshoe crab shell. His behavior toward the salmon and his lack ofrespect
for his parents' instructions about how to treat little animals resulted in tragedy.
Toiling together to set up camp and hearing Tlingit narrative and song was the
beginning to a week full of work, play, and learning. Every morning we (more than 40 of
us) spent at least an hour before breakfast cutting fish to smoke, cleaning crabs, braiding
seal intestines and preparing seal meat and seal oil, gathering and cleaning gumboots, and
taking care of whatever food the fishers and hunters in the village brought to camp. At all
hours of the day the campers might spot a skiffgetting closer to shore and go out to meet
it, bringing back with them halibut or salmon or crab. After lunch the kids who were too
young to camp overnight came for fun, to learn about water safety, and to make things
out of plants and shells. We made beads out of devil's club and tea out ofleaves from a
muskeg plant, Ledum palustre, or Labrador tea. We made rope out of cedar bark,
frreweed honey out offireweed flowers and clover. We learned Tlingit words and
211
grammar. We settled in at night around the camp fire to hear Tlingit songs sung by
groups from Hoonah and Kake. We listened, with shivers going up our spines, to the cries
of dancers who had become, in the dances, their clan animals, and we heard more
teaching stories. We heard the older visitors and parents talk together in groups about
putting up fish, their children and grandchildren, and stories about past encounters with
animals and places. Down the beach many campers and some adults learned about
respect, contemplation, and sharing in the womb of a sweat lodge.
All of the fish we were boiling, smoking, and canning and all of the jam we were
making was set aside for the last day of camp when people from town would come and
share what the campers had prepared for them. Some of the canned food was set aside to
give to Elders in the village to teach sharing and respect.
One organizer said this about Culture Camp:
That's one reason for culture camp, to teach the kids about who they are and
about this place and to take pride in who they are. This coming generation is
trying to bring it back and the older ones are teaching it, but the older ones are
dying faster than the younger ones can bring it back.
They [the young people] don't know what it was like here in the
1950s. The camp teaches them how to survive if they have to. Few
people now have to spend a night in the woods, but if they did
because they broke down or something, then they would know how.
Some people would rather live the way they are living now, and not
worry about the old ways. [The way people are living now is] to be
concerned about having more and more. Some people think that Kake
people have very little, but I feel we have enough here. (2002 taped
interview with Tlingit woman in her middle years)
Two people in conversation talked about the camp as a way to help young people
practice local knowledge:
Speaker One: You know there's always a point where you may have to
accept and adapt to certain things and whatever it is .. [changes caused by
non-Native influences].
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Speaker Two: But you're still not going to give in.
Speaker One: You're still not going to get rid ofus.
[They both laugh]
Speaker One: We'll be there. And we'll still have things to say, values that
we have, or at least I hope.
Speaker Two: Yeah. Our .. probably one ofmy primary missions is to pass it
down to the next generation.
Speaker One: Mmhmm.
Speaker Two: I think yeah (that it's happening). It's definitely, like we were
talking about earlier, it's more of a challenge when you have to be more
vigilant because of the distractions.
Speaker One: And that culture camp, you know, that's a good ... Ifnothing
else, they'll always remember, ... they sponsored culture camp where
children had an opportunity to go out there and be a part of the gathering and,
who knows, twenty years from now, it will be more of a [given knowledge]
in kids, because like I said, I see where electronics will [have a bigger
influence] on a child than going out with fishing or hunting, or something
like that. As long as we continue to have those youth related activities and
community involvement ... (2003 taped conversation between Speaker One,
a young Tlingit woman, and Speaker Two, a man in his middle years who
was raised non-Tlingit)
Culture Camp has been part ofKake life for more than 20 years. Its beginnings were
part of the local effort to begin healing the community through revitalizing Tlingit values
after the difficult 1970s and 1980s and the social turmoil caused partly by ANCSA-
initiated changes.
Two people who experienced the 1980s talked together and to the fieldworker about
what happened. Speaker One is a Tlingit man who grew up in Kake. Speaker Two is a
Native woman who grew up in one of the lower 48 states. Their conversation is included
here because they tell about how local people instigated their own solutions to problems
that were caused when Kake experienced economic and ideological changes that
occurred too quickly and with too much intensity for adequate and healthy adjustment.
Theirs is a story of local empowerment that included attention to emotion/feeling,
personhood, and community involvement.
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Segment 1
Speaker One: Just like that suicide epidemic hit for a while.
Fieldworker: Was that when people started to have more money?
Speaker Two: It's a combination. People were getting monies. The drugs and
alcohol. It wasn't that much of it till then. It was here, but it wasn't .. I think a
lot of old things got ... (Old values were broken. People did things they knew
were hurtful and disrespectful) that people were just ashamed. And then
families were ashamed and .. It was terrible.
Speaker One;.. I think it was some alcohol and drugs that gave them the
courage to do it [suicide], but it was things that happened ..
Speaker Two: In the past, yeah. Not just to them, but their families. Some of
them were multi generational.
Speaker Two: Six in one month ..
Fieldworker: Six suicides?
Speaker Two: In one month. It was like .. every few days we had a funeral.
But then we got together again and (talked about giving them a quiet funeral).
We started doing that and (it seemed to help). I think that if they make it [a
funeral] too elaborate, people go, "this is the way I want to go, ifI'm gonna
go." They saw it was (the way the ministers did the funerals) and it got
changed.
Speaker One: I think it was the ministers [talking about those who had
passed], "They found peace now. They're in heaven. And they're happy."
Speaker Two: Yeah. Wrong message.
Segment 2
Speaker One: Because there's a lot of people here that don't like me just
because I look within cultures. I'm ungodly to them. No. But really. Even
said it to my face at a public meeting.
Fieldworker: At a public meeting?
Speaker One: This was way back when we frrst quit drinking in 87. We had a
big public meeting at the community hall because in 87 in [the fall] the New
Directions training came here, and that's a really good personal development
training. It came here for three days, and some ofus took it, and then the guy
who [a man working in the building], is one of those Christians [evangelical],
and they [the training leaders] were using sagell and he ... He didn't
11 Using sage in rituals is not traditionally Tlingit, but as Native American groups work together, they often
share their practices. I saw sage used several times in Kake in peacemaking circles and in the sweat lodge,
which is also a new addition to Kake.
understand it, I guess. But he started spreading it around town what we were
doing there, you know, was ungodly. Then there was two reporters sitting in
there with us from the Anchorage Daily News. They were down here doing
interviews, happened to get in on the workshop, but they conducted
interviews with families ofpeople who committed suicide. And that was the
fIrst time that was brought out. So they [people in town] associated that
[reporters] with that workshop too..... Like we were the ones exposing it.
But it was those two reporters. So they went back to Anchorage, wrote this
big, have you seen the article? You should read it. But it's ofpeople in [Kake
who committed suicide]. And it showed all ofus that took the workshop on
the front page. [Names the people] were hugging each other on the front
page.. ,. Then all the articles about the suicides were in there. So, you know,
they were mad, the people were mad. First time suicide was ever talked about
.. They were really just confused too. They just put us together [the reporters
and the people at the workshop]. And then there's some people who just like
that kind of stuff and will run with it, you know. So that happens. Next thing
you know we had a big public meeting, and the Christians were on one side
and people who were against sobriety or quitting drinking or talking about
suicide, you know they were just .. everybody had their say. Yelling. Crying.
Preaching.
Fieldworker~Wow. And did it help?
Speaker Two: Oh yeah.
Speaker One~ That was what helped Kake. It was like an intervention. Instead
ofon a person it was on the whole community. And that's the bad part of
how it happened. Yeah.
Speaker One: It was an explosion.
Speaker Two: Cause it was simmering all these years and the [secretiveness],
you know. Suicide, we can't talk about it. Alcohol and drug abuse. [Names
someone at the Alaska Native Brotherhood meeting] ... he went and talked
about his family, what alcohol did to them, lost a nephew to it, and his family
was mad at him.
Fieldworker: In public ... yeah.
Speaker Two: But it was known.
Speaker One: I think everyone knew it.
Speaker Two: It was known already but he just confIrmed it. You know and
[telling the truth] like that, confIrms more or less (truths) that need to come
out. To a lot ofpeople, they took it wrong.
Speaker One: You just don't talk about those things.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One~ But it was brought up and just wheeew.
Speaker Two: It was exploding.
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Speaker One: At the time we didn't think it was good, but afterwards, as I
look back, right afterwards you could see the difference. And when I started
getting to (understand) more about, you know, recovery ..
Speaker Two: Yeah
Speaker One: Then (I could see), hey that was intervention and .. It was a big
bang. And things started getting better after that. Suicide went down. Cause it
wasn't hidden anymore.
Speaker Two: Well we started getting together and we weren't called Healing
Heart then [the group that organized from that situation is now called Healing
Heart], more just concerned. There were about 20 ofus that started. Got
together and we were looking at different things. We invited all the churches,
of course, all the Indian people in town, all (people) and just a certain few
(would) keep showing up. It didn't seem like we were getting anywhere for a
long time, but there were minor improvements, and all of the sudden [our
efforts started helping and participation went] up. Then things started coming
our way that we needed to do or learn about. And we jumped into doing it
and without knowing why. And that's the way it's been going since. More
positive things, that's the one thing we're saying to the whole town. We need
to do more positive ... and the intervention of the suicides ... I was an EMT
then. (When people talked about killing themselves they started sending
people out.) A few words, we took it seriously. There was no more, "Ahhh
that's drunk talk. They'll get over it." We were real serious about it.
Eventually a few more people started coming. After awhile we started
targeting the youth. Cause they're our future. The ones that had their ways
set, had their ways set. Gonna be hard to .. there's a few that changed that's
come around, but .. it's a struggle. But we're not paying them no mind
anymore. A few words are said every now and then that comes up, but we
just take it in stride and don't let it (cut) into us anymore. The pain we felt ...
After awhile, wow, you'd never know that was the case, coming here now.
People come here they feel .. they feel the goodness ofKake, of community.
[Healing has stepped up for the whole community through efforts such as
Healing Heart, Circle Peacemaking, restorative justice, the youth center,
Culture Camp, celebrating veterans, Wise Women, learning Tlingit language
and values etc.]
Fieldworker: I do.
Speaker One: Mmhmm
Speaker Two~ They can feel the calm.
Speaker One: It's always been kind of friendly but ..
Speaker Two: Yeah
215
216
Speaker One: People have come around who were against it before but
changed their minds. They found out that .. there are people that would care
for them.
Speaker Two: Yeah. Because one way or another it's helped their family.
Maybe started with one person in that whole family and then three or four.
I've seen because .. I know a few times people come up .. they come in here
every now and again and say thank you. I'll say, "Oh?" "For what you said to
me a few years ago." "Oh." Then I have to think back to that day, "Oh,
okay." And then it really helped them. Sometimes just a word or a just a hug
or something that they were lacking at that time. And it helped them go on.
Speaker One: I think we could have started like on this .. the healing part a lot
sooner too, but after that big meeting, people were afraid to .. afraid of that.
Speaker Two: It was a change. The beginning of the change.
Speaker One: Just a few of us continuing on. Yeah like most people thought
it was because of our work and then being sober. We're more abnormal now
then when we were drinking. When you're drinking you're normal then.
Part oflocally-initiated change for dealing with the crises that cause ideological
dislocation in the community, has been through the Healing Heart group that provides
positive support for people needing help. The group's efforts help people rearticulate and
rethink ideology in the context of social ruptures caused by change and crisis. The tribe
has been instrumental in opening a youth center, a youth circle, and youth activities.
Culture Camp, helping young people get scholarships for college, the Tlingit dancing
group for younger and older people, and sweat lodges are all part of community rituals
that socialize time and space. Celebration ofveterans and sensitivity to keeping older
people included and involved are part of the positive changes that many Kake people
have initiated. Schools and some churches assist in affrrmation and re-articulation of
positive older values, including respect for the "inclusive environment." One powerful
source of change is Circle Peacemaking.
217
Circle Peacemaking
Circle Peacemaking is a new form of restorative justice in Kake. It is another
example of local people empowering themselves in ways that take into account
emotion/feeling, personhood, and community involvement. Those who started the circle
method of restorative justice did so without the permission of the state legal system. If
they had asked the state for permission, the local magistrate said, the circle would never
have happened.
People, especially youth, who have committed misdemeanors, have the choice of
going through the circle or the formal Alaska state justice system. The city magistrate in
Kake supports the circle process, he says, because for a long time he felt helpless to
prevent young people from coming through his court door as repeat offenders. He said,
"The justice system as we know it doesn't work because it's adversarial. It really doesn't
involve the victim. The state becomes the prosecutor and the state is the victim. It doesn't
resolve problems; it just adds to problems in the village."
In the circle, any victims and their families, offenders and their families, members
of the community, judges, police officers and other people involved in a criminal case
meet each other in a circle. When they sit in the circle, they ideally shed their roles and
become equals. Within the boundaries ofritualized communications, participants enter
into frank and emotional support of the victim. They may spend three to ten hours doing
what they call "talking from the heart," helping the victim to avoid blaming himself or
herself, and assisting the offender in understanding the result ofhis or her actions. The
circle's work includes encouraging the offender and victim to begin the work of
forgiveness, and setting out a plan for the offender to make amends and retribution, and
to change his or her life. As part of the circle sentencing, the offender may be required to
spend time helping out an Elder in the community, someone who once caused others hurt
and learned how to change, or someone who is willing to teach Tlingit values.
218
Those who participate in the circle, work within a philosophy that justice can be
transfonnative, not only for individuals, but within a whole community. For the past eight
years Kake tribal members and other residents have experimented with how to create a
circle process that resonates with the complexities ofKake culture, including people
connected with Tlingit tradition and people who have joined fundamentalist churches and
avoid association with older Tlingit practices. Despite some fear among conservative
church members of the circle's traditional leanings, Circle Peacemaking in Kake has
become a way of instilling, in many young people, pride in Tlingit heritage and culture.
Circle members emphasize that Tlingit values are important as tools for healing self and
community. Young people fonned their own circle for helping each other to deal with
family problems and other issues, and they have been invited all over southeast Alaska to
teach other teens how to create circles. For many participants, connection of the circle
with being Tlingit and with Tlingit values and traditions is one of the reasons for its
success.
Folklorist Henry Glassie (Glassie 1995:395) wrote that "tradition is the creation
of the future out of the past." Tradition is a continuous process connected with change, a
conversion of the old into the new for usefulness in the future (Glassie 1995). In Kake,
the innovative art of adapting older values and rituals into new circumstances - for the
sake of a better future - is evident in Circle Peacemaking practices. According to local
narrative, KeeK' Kwaan people always practiced discussing and resolving issues in a
circle of family or clan, or kwaanlvillage members around a fire or other setting. One
community member said that Kake circle peacemaking "is a revival of something that has
lain dormant in the community since people began to try to assimilate to main-stream
western ways" (Reiger 2001:7).
Some people in Kake recall, when they were children, how their grandparents
might sit in circles with others talking for hours. A few people talk about how the whole
town used to gather together to talk about community problems. Again, as Glassie wrote,
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tradition is a conversion of the old into the new for usefulness in the future. Re-
remembering tradition for the sake ofpresent circumstances does not invalidate it, but
makes it useful. To Anthropologist Nadia Lovell (1998), we remember the things that
have the power to legitimate the present. What matters is that collective memory is
believed. Whether it was fIrst introduced or re-introduced in the late 20th century, the
circle became a part ofKake' s justice system in 1999. Since then, circle peacemaking has
expanded as a ritual for community healing, problem solving and celebration.
Awareness of the circle process was re-vitalized when the city magistrate, new to
his position, attended conferences where Canadians, including Crown Judge Barry
Stewart, described their implementation ofAboriginal self-government. Self-
determination was augmented partly through creation of community justice practices
rather than relying on western justice systems and courts. "They started talking about just
what I learned from my grandfather and father," said Kake's magistrate during a
presentation for visitors to Kake. "Before, my grandfather and other people would sit in
circles around their houses or some other neutral place and would talk over issues that
came up about offenses. When I heard Judge Barry Stewart talk, it brought back what I
used to do with my father and grandfather ... what they did."
Kake was recognized in 2003 by the John F. Kennedy School of Governnlent,
Harvard University, for its Circle Peacemaking work. Part of the award included funding
to teach the circle process to other Native American groups. I include a description of the
circle in my dissertation because it was a growing part ofKake discourses and
community performances when I was there, although some people in the community
remained skeptical of its effectiveness. Some of the skeptics in 2003 had become part of
the circle when I returned in 2004.
Interestingly and signifIcantly, Tlingits in Carcross, Canada were at the forefront
of creating a circle-sentencing model that included community consensus and
involvement and would be effective in healing of victims and offenders and thus the
220
whole community. Canadian Carcross Tlingits taught Kake tribal members and others the
basic philosophy and process. Now Kake Tlingits are teaching the process to other
villages in Alaska and elsewhere with the help of Harvard's Kennedy School of
Government, Honoring Nations program.
The narrative discourses people use to explain and perform the circle are
important means to "repair" ideological ruptures caused by extreme change in the past
several decades. The discourses combine older narratives with newer explanations of
problems in communities and how to heal them. They also assist local people to explain
the difference between the goals ofprojects and purposes such as DOT road building
initiatives and local values anchored in community-building.
Within Carcross and Kake Tlingit narrative, circle peacemaking is described as
being based on older indigenous values. The Kake magistrate wrote:
The underlying concept ofusing these traditional circle peace-making
processes is based on what is referred to as a consensus approach. The
contemporary justice systems tend to be based on an adversarial approach to
justice. We do not advocate that one is better than the other but that one
needs the other, and when applied in a good way, as determined by the
community, it creates stronger and healthier communities.
In a 2004 workshop in Kake, Carcross Tlingit Harold Gatensby and Tagash clan
member Mark Wedge, compared more traditional Tlingit and other indigenous justice
with contemporary western justice. They said that laws and justice can be distinguished
between Creator's Law or Woman's Law and Man's Law. Man's law is based on
hierarchy. It includes punishment, power over others rather than shared power, property,
money, persons becoming objects, judgment of the whole person for his or her infraction,
fear, and belief in a world made up of winners and losers. "In man's law you are going to
be punished. In man's law if you're rich, you win, and in man's law forgiveness is like a
cuss word," said Gatensby.
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Gatensby and Wedge teach that creator's law is based in the circle. Everybody
lived in creator's law at one time. All tribes had circles, even European tribes. Circles are
not new. They are old, inclusive, and belong to the universe. Circle members teach that in
the past, the circle was about survival because a group or community could not survive if
there were problems between its members. In the past, decisions were made about what is
best for the community, and what is best for the community is that the people heal. The
same is true today. The circle is still about survival and "creator's" law, which includes
love, respect for all life, forgiveness, the knowledge that what goes around comes around,
the knowledge that all things are connected, the importance ofhonor, giving and sharing,
and prayer. At the Circle workshop Gatensby said,
In creator's law, if you tease people, you more than likely will become like
what you are teasing. That's the law. Ifyou're greedy, the law is that
something will happen to you because of your greed. In man's law you can
get away with things. Nobody gets away with creator's law. Man's law is
written everywhere, like a blanket over everything. These laws can destroy
your life. These laws make us think creator's law doesn't apply to us. (2004
taped speech)
Justice researchers and theorists, Albert Dzur and Susan Olson wrote that, in most
communities, when the public participates in justice on a personal level, the community
has a means to exercise its responsibility for its members. This is an improvement over
suffering crime passively and being dependent upon the coercive power of the state for
protection and order. Dzur and Olson (2004) wrote about the key virtues of public
participation and dialogue in matters that are usually practiced by professionals at the
state level. When people in a community participate personally in justice matters, they air
their values, re-state them, and re-negotiate them. Community solidarity and common
purpose comes from community performances of local people discussing their values.
Regular opportunities for community-wide airing of values are missing from mainstream
state procedures. When people participate more personally in justice and political
222
matters, they learn something about themselves, their values, and the reasons for other
people's values and behaviors, according to Dzur and Olson.
The circle, culture camp, and mortuary practices are a few of the ways people in
Kake have combined older narratives and knowledge with information and discourses
from the 21 st century to enhance local solidarity_ These are examples ofmany crucial
social processes that were absent from DOT descriptions ofplace and people in Kake.
Without attention to community-building performances and rituals, state agencies
fail to name and recognize the very processes that are sources ofcommunity solidarity. In
Kake, the processes described in this chapter contribute to socialization of moral
environmental values that are connected with community values. They are part of the
"essence" of community. Recognizing the "essence" of community is necessary to
understanding how people are motivated to care about people and place. Failing to name
and recognize the "essence" of community at a state agency and law-making level, in
formal decision-making about road building for example, most likely disempowers
community-making processes because much of the "essence" is ''uncounted.'' The
question becomes how would decisions about road building change if "community" was
defmed in the ways local people define it and if a wider range ofvalues that are co-
narrated as part oflocal interactions became part of the state decision-making
conversation? Instead, state planners and representatives tend to defme "community," as
a population with a median income, bounded by lines on maps.
Part II
Community concerns about the road
Consequences of building roads include inevitable changes to community
relationships and presumably changes in people's commitment to the integrity of a larger
environment. When I was in Kake, conversants talked about the road jadedly. They
expressed a sense of inevitability and feelings ofpowerlessness to influence state
223
decision making. Most people I heard talking wanted Kake to remain autonomous and
protected. They worried about loss of ferry services because of the road, increased sports
hunting on the island, road maintenance problems, and effects on the wildlife and other
parts of the environment. They brought up prospective mineral extraction plans that
would likely profit Petersburg, but not Kake. Many people felt the road would mean a
loss of culture and closeness. Others worried that it would mean more deaths because of
alcohol-related road accidents. Some local leaders brainstormed alternative ways Kake
could organize a more self-sufficient economy that would be less dependent upon cash
flow and that would allow people to maintain independence from road traffic. Some
people thought the road would be necessary for building up Kake's struggling, nearly
non-existent cash economy. (See appendix K) In 2002, when I began fieldwork in Kake,
an Elder told me in a recorded conversation that he hoped very much that a road to
Petersburg would not be built.
Speaker: And they want to connect us to Petersburg and I keep telling
them that's a dead-end connection. I mean where are you going to go
from Petersburg? You still got to catch a jet and fly out of there. I said
the only thing that's going to happen is they're going to flood us.
They're going to come out here and hunt, and they want the road
because of the minerals on our island. But I'm ... kind of feel I think
the people want that capability.
Fieldworker: The people in Kake want the road?
Speaker: I think they do. Most of them do. I feel like I'm out there by
myself when I speak against it, you know. We had a mayor that really
wanted that road. He lobbied all kinds of ways. He's not here now. He
was from Mississippi. I told him, "You know, if you want to be in
Petersburg so much, why don't you just move?" I said, "Move over
there. And we'll stop having this great need for you to be there." ...
but one day I got up on the wrong side of the bed, and I felt bad I said
that. I told him he should move over there. He moved to Juneau
though.
Fieldworker: The people that have mentioned the road to me are
against it.
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Speaker: Well I hope so. I was kind of a lone voice there for awhile,
'cause .... I've been around the country. I've been around the country
and I have not seen any beauty like we have. And the problem with us
is we don't appreciate what we have. Yeah, your vision, you know,
what is this? But it's beautiful, you know (2002 taped conversation).
In 2003, after the election in which two out of three voters were against the road,
a Tlingit woman told me that creating sustainable jobs that foster good environmental
stewardship would help Kake, but Kake could manage that without a road.
Speaker: Hmm. Kake and Petersburg have always been real, real way
far apart ... in communication.... Petersburg is real notorious about
... they never come out here, a lot of the people.
Fieldworker: That's a problem. Many don't know Kake.
Speaker: But actually ... and this might be small-minded of me ... I
don't care if we never get connected by roads to other towns or get
increased ferry service. I'd rather keep it a small town. And lots of
other people feel the same way. It's gonna change. It could change. I
mean, if you look at Prince ofWales, all their towns are connected by
roads. And it's good in a way, but for some of the towns ... but then
it's a real struggle for Hydaburg. They're almost like they're a
disappearing community because most of the people drive to Craig to
shop.... I started to realize that there's all these other issues that
come along with it. And at this point some ofus think that some of
those problems we could do without.... a big problem they have
down there is people going to the remote areas and building meth
labs. It's a huge problem down there. There's this access to remote
areas, first of all, easy access to remote areas, and I don't know if it's
local people or ifit's people that are coming on the ferry and park a
trailer and set up a lab.... And I figure anything that they're doing,
we need to watch them, 'cause anything they're dealing with now, if
we set up a similar system on this island, could possibly '" we could
be dealing with what they are down below us (2003 taped interview).
The speaker's concerns were similar to people's objections throughout Southeast
Alaska. The Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives traveled all over
Southeast Alaska during parts of2003 and 2004 to gather public comments about plans to
225
connect Ketchikan to the Cassiar Highway in Canada and build roads across many of the
islands. Headline after headline declared lack of community support in 2004, for
replacing the current ferry system with a road system. In its 2004 Southeast Alaska
Transportation Plan (SATP), the DOT wrote that the highest level of feedback the
department received concerned whether Southeast Alaska would be better served by
continuing to rely on ferries, also known as the Alaska Marine Highway System
(AMHS). Approximately ninety percent ofthe comments it received about this question
were against constructing the roads. People were troubled that the roads would change
community and regional quality of life. Comments also focused on environmental and
aesthetic "impacts" ofroads and "impacts" to wilderness areas. High costs and uncertain
feasibility of road construction, emergency services on road corridors, inconveniences for
travelers, including those who lacked vehicles, hunting pressures on the environment, and
loss of ferry jobs were all reasons people gave for avoiding road construction. Travel,
people pointed out, would be less safe and dependable than ferry travel, especially in bad
weather and in avalanche conditions. In response to concerns DOT planners wrote this:
There is no question that the substitution of a land highway on a link
currently served by ferry will bring change. Ifcosts to travel are
reduced, this change will bring substantial benefit to the traveling
public and the state. The estimated size of these benefits needs to be
quantified and compared to the impacts associated with road
construction. The environmental process during project development
is the ideal forum for these comparisons and impact assessments. In
preparing the SATP (Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan) update,
the state recognized specific legal barriers or obstacles to road-
building, such as designated wilderness areas. Many of those who
commented prefer that the state should simply accept the existing
situation (ferry access only) for Southeast communities and not try to
change it. This approach ignores the rising cost of operations and
opportunities to seek capital funding (from the federal government)
with which to construct roads that would end the need for ferry access
(DOT 2004: 112).
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In reviewing the 2004 SATP document I found no particular definition of
"community," but goals applied to communities include: transportation system
efficiency; mobility and convenience; economic vitality; safety; long-term funding
stability through greater access to federal funding; and the goal of consulting with
communities, tribal entities, business, and the public. (See appendix D for a more detailed
description of SATP goals in regards to communities.)
In Alaska Department ofTransportation discourse, the most important points for
consideration were costs of services, reduction of travel time, enhancing tourism,
economic viability, and "efficiency." People's expressed trepidations about roads
changing their quality oflife are mentioned at the end ofthe report, but always qualified
with the state goal of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The legal requirements for
consulting with communities, tribes, and other groups are measured in numbers of
meetings and opportunities rather than in levels ofconsideration for public input.
Comparing DOT and Kake definitions of community
In order to consider how discourses influence people's perceptions of, and
decision-making about, community, it is important to detennine more specifically how
state-based and local defmitions of community differ. In order to compare DOT uses of
the signifier "community" with local Kake uses, I compiled several samples from
interviews I did in Kake in 2003 and 2004. My questions about community in those
interviews were:
I) What does the word or idea of "community" mean to you? What
might it mean to other groups of people in Kake?
2) How is community created and sustained in Kake?
227
Below are two examples of answers to the above questions. The remaining
recorded and transcribed interview segments from which discourse data were extracted
are included in appendix E.
1) Tlingit woman in her middle years who grew up in Kake.
Okay, what does the word or idea of community mean in Kake? Well in
Kake the community has always meant everybody's together, and you
know, all my fifty-eight years that I've been here, I've seen it work over
and over and over. Urn, the people or individuals, they are family
orientated, but when anybody's in trouble or even the good times, you
know, we come together as a community. And I think the most important
part in the communities is the unity in there, that it means that we stand
together. Not one person goes through their troubles alone. We're always
there for them, and it's always been that from the time I can remember.
And that's why I love coming back home ... some people think people are
nosy, but they're not really, you know. They're interested in you as a
person. And they're interested in your family. You know they, like my
grandparents and my parents always told me, anybody's in trouble you go
to them. You don't have to talk to them. You don't have to do anything.
Be there if they need you. Be there to help. But just be there. Just show
your face. So, you know, it's always been that way. So ... that's what I
like about Kake. We're a community, a real community. And our kids too.
Our little ones, they all know who is family. They all know who isn't
family. But still there's a ... they have ownership to them. They have
always ... it's real noticeable in our grandson, you know, he's got family.
He calls everybody uncle and aunty and grandma and papa and ... so you
know he's comfortable in doing that because no one had ever told him that
they weren't his papa or his grandma or his aunty or his uncle. So ... but
that's what community means in Kake (2003 taped interview)..
2) Young Tlingit woman raised in Kake.
Speaker~ [long pause] There's all the bonds. There's a lot of animosity ...
just like any town. But I think when times get really rough, I think all of
that is put aside, and people do what they can for each other. You know ...
the last couple of months. That was really hard.... But I think when ... I
don't really know any ways to defme it ... until we're at something and
then you can feel it. You just look at somebody and you know; there's a
lot of smiling, a lot of joking around. And that's what community is to me.
That's what I don't get when I'm not here.... It's frustrating at times, and
you just feel like leaving sometimes. And sometimes I leave and just get
lost in something that's not Kake [laughs]. And really value what's here
when I come back, and look forward to coming back and getting back into
my community. Go places like where we have (can get a new perspective).
I think it's a thing with a lot ofpeople that are here that it's really tough to
leave. I think. I see people are here a short time and then they leave and
come back and leave and come back, and, you know, it's financially
restraining [living in Kake]. They still fmd a way to come back. But it's
hard, like in a recession right now. It's really depressed. So it's really
going to be something to see how this year is gonna turn out. The next five
years.
And for other groups ofpeople in Kake, what community means? Well it
depends on who you ask. I think that ... I know that people who have
married into the community ... it's hard to say. People with the same
background as me feel that way [the way she described] about Kake. I
don't know about the loggers who come into the community [for work].
I'm not sure what their perspectives about Kake are.
I know like my son's father, it was really unsettling for him to be here. He
felt my family is too intrusive. He wasn't used to the closeness and the
environment. It just felt like people needed to know what we were doing
all the time. He goes, "None of them need to know what we're doing all
the time." It was something I kept forgetting and ... I didn't know it was
that intrusive to anybody else. I never thought that way.
Fieldworker: And he was raised in (a town on another island)?
Speaker: Yeah. The families are kind of dispersed through the community.
. ,. You know I kept up on some of the family style kind of things. I know
they're a little different in what they value, what they do over there. But
it's not like here. And there's a lot oflittle ... people know what people
are doing pretty much here. In __ you can kind of be anonymous to a
certain point. But you don't get that here. People even start things [about
228
229
what you did but didn't know you did] without you even knowing it (2004
taped interview).
Concepts of community in Kake interviews
Within the examples of local discourse from 22 informal interviews, I identified
and compiled the following common descriptions and word usages.
1) Community as "family": More than 70 occurrences. Only a few
interviewees did not use the word family.
Family was used in the following contexts:
a. Blood and marriage relations and extended family. 60 percent of
the references to family as community.
Example: "The people or individuals, they are family orientated, but
when anybody's in trouble or even the good times, you know, we
come together as a community" (appendix E).
b. The sense that all of Kake is family. 40 percent of the references to
family as community.
Example: "To me it means that a community is one big family no
matter if you don't like the person or dislike the person we're still
there for them, for whoever and however we could help them,
fmancially or do whatever we can to help one another" (appendix E).
c. Community as clan family relations: Only a few occurrences.
2) Community as reflective of individual relationships and friendships: At
least 12 occurrences.
3) Community as everybody/together. At least 40 occurrences.
4) Community as evident because people help each other when something
230
bad happens, no matter what the personal relationships. At least 20
occurrences.
5) Community as caring, sharing, helping (not necessarily when something
bad has happened). At least 15 occurrences.
6) Elders and grandparents as community teachers: At least 20 occurrences.
7) Kake as a home that people return to even if they have to leave it for
economic or other reasons. At least 5 occurrences.
8) Community in Kake as part of a physical environment or place. At least 5
occurrences.
9) The importance of special events such as funerals, dinners, basketball
games, etc., as builders of community. At least 20 occurrences.
10) Kake's history and the stories that belong to Kake as an important part of
community. At least 5 occurrences.
11) The smaller groups within Kake, or sub communities are important to the
larger community. Alaska Native Brotherhood, Alaska Native Sisterhood,
churches, drinking and partying groups, Healing Heart and Circle
Peacemaking. At least 10 occurrences.
12) Community as an economic entity. Only a few occurrences.
In Kake, the themes of family, helping in times of need, Kake as a home place,
Tlingit and other local history, special events and rituals, and grandparents, parents, and
other Elders as people who teach about community, are all characteristic ofwhat
Appadurai (1996: 178-182) referred to as necessary elements of creating local subjects
who can help others to become local subjects.
Community in Kake is a rich blend of family life, friendships, feuds, dogs, ravens,
eagles, churches, drinking parties, school events, basketball, boats out on the water,
newer houses, houses falling down, gossip, and support. People know a great deal about
231
each other and word spreads fast. People take their familial connections to each other
seriously and talk about them often. I learned a great deal about family in everyday
conversations, and Native newcomers to town typically spent time explaining who their
families were and the relationships that brought them to the village.
Knowing about self, from a Tlingit perspective, means knowing one's Tlingit
name, moiety, clan, father's clan, grandparents' clan, names of one's major clan crests,
immediate family names, house group, and the house groups ofone's ancestors. Relating
to others involves knowing the names of other clans, names of other people, crests of
other clans, extended family and community and participation in memorial feasts
(SEATC 2001). While many people in Kake have lost much of this information, they still
work to understand familial relationships and to try and find relational connections with
newcomers. Young people are presently learning their names and clans in school as
Tlingit values, language, and knowledge are revitalized.
Community in Kake is also about shared memories-the good ones and the
difficult ones. It's about shared histories, shared time, shared knowledge about people in
the community, shared resources, and shared place. Significantly, most Tlingit clan
names are associated with the places where clans were formed. " ... the linguistic
construction of such clan names evokes a sense of belonging or being possessed by the
named place" (Thornton 1997:297). People are tied through their clans and clan symbols
to the places and ancestors of clan origin. Knowing one's clan and the foundation of its
beginning strengthens clan-based and other familial relationships. Solidarity derived(s)
from sharing a place of origin, the collective ties to a particular dwelling place, and the
power ofplace names that "metaphorically transport" the hearers of such names to the
landscapes of origin. Ancestors are also transported through the stating of such names
(Thornton 1997:301). Clan and house group resource areas are important places for
people, and so is the place where Kake is built on KupreanofIsland. People are strongly
232
tied to each other through histories and memories of their present location. One Elder
explained the following during a taped 2002 interview:
And they moved here [before the twentieth century] and what they did
fIrst, they had gardens here. And one family, I'll tell you about it after
we get to it later, built a home here. But they liked the beach because
it was nice for the canoes. You know the canoes had to have a nice
beach. A lot of passing ships stopped here, I guess, and they buried
foreign people all in the woods here, what was the forest. One time
they dug up ... they were putting a water line into my great
grandparents' home ... and at the base of where our steps ended down
to the street. They dug up human remains that had been there for
maybe a hundred years. But the lady had a rising sun ring on her
wedding hand. She was buried right there.
Fieldworker: From passing ships?
Elder: That's all I can surmise. It had to be a passing ship. Basically
the only visible house is that one right there with the lean-to garage on
the side over here? Yeah. It was painted kind of yellowish when I was
a child. But that one and the white-bottomed house and the green one
were basically the only three homes when I was a child in the 40s.
Then the place grew up and from 400 to maybe ... we're almost up to
800 people. Then probably 400 died in my lifetime here. But they
settled here because they could see all around, they said. No one
could ambush.
The local memories and shared histories belong primarily to generations ofKake
families. Non-Native people who were part ofboom and bust resource extraction
industries have mostly come and gone as the markets changed, but a core group of
Tlingit, mixed Native and non-Native, and a few non-Native families have remained.
Some people I talked with in 2004 contemplated moving because of the struggling
economy. Others had little desire to move elsewhere or for strangers to move in.
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onOT definitions of community
What is community beyond DOT state-based signifiers that simplify social
priorities to mean costs, time, and efficiency? Which values have been empowered and
which have been disempowered in the bureaucratization and "capitalocentric" (Fournier
2006:295) changes of Kake life? More specifically, what are the ideals of community in
Kake that are unnamed or unrecognized and, thus, lose credibility in DOT analysis?
We can begin to answer these questions by looking at the signifiers used with the
term "community" in the DOT written report. We can examine, in comparison, what
people in Kake say about their community, how people experience and practice
community, and people's reactions to the forces that put stress and pressure on
community values and practices.
Texts as dialectical and dialogical parts of discourse
Much of the social and legal definitions and memory in state systems are stored in
written documents like the SATP. Before comparing local talk about community with
DOT written codes about community, it is important to define and categorize text in
relation to verbal discourse. Is written text discourse?
First, discourse is briefly defmed as language-in-action (Hanks 1996), language-
in-use and real language (Brown and Yule 1983). Blommaert stresses the social nature of
discourse, stating that there is no non-social, non-cultural, or non-historical use of
discourse (2006:4). For Blommaert discourse goes beyond linguistics in that it:
... comprises all forms of meaningful semiotic human activity seen in
connection with social, cultural, and historical patterns and
developments ofuse. '" What is traditionally understood by language
is but one manifestation of it; all kinds ofsemiotic "flagging"
234
performed by means of objects, attributes, or activities can and should
also be included for they constitute the "action" part of language-in-
action (Blommaert 2005:3).
Second, what is text? Putnam and Cooren defme text, in the context of
organizations, as "collections of interactions, mediums of communication (i.e. print or
electronic message), or assemblages of oral and written forms" (2004:324). While DOT
discourse cannot be entirely reduced to written texts, the SATP and other DOT texts are
prepared by the state agency and are part ofDOT production and reproduction of
knowledge and memory. DOT employees and commissioners refer to texts as guidelines
for what they can legally and professionally say and do. They distribute and refer to texts
as the basis for conversation about projects and proposals. The language-in-use at any
given time is likely to refer to and be informed by text-based discourse.
In general, and all over the world, organizational charts, memos, policies, rules,
studies, contracts and other texts have particular features that make them essential parts
of discourse and in very particular and powerful ways. They tend to have permanence,
meaning that they can be stored, copied, and are "often treated as real even if not
immediately present in a situation" (McPhee and Poole 2001:529). The abstractness of
text means that it can be transferred to various locations and obeyed and interpreted
relative to context. "Members thus orient to these organizational texts as resources and
constraints to control and stabilize organizational behaviors to bracket space and time"
(from Giddens, 1979, 1984 cited in Putnam and Cooren 2004:327). Thus text is created
through discourse and has its own agency in ongoing and future discourses. It is part of
language-in-action within most organizations.
Robert McPhee defmes text or assemblages of texts as characterized by symbols
on relatively permanent "readable" medium, such as paper or CDs. Texts for McPhee can
be "read," although the symbols may be more than letters, words, and numbers
(2004:357). The same texts are often enduring guides to conversation and other kinds of
235
action in several locations at once because they can be copied and distributed (McPhee
2004:362). In the organizational world of the twenty-first century, texts are essential to
surveillance, to guiding actions or constraining outcomes, and to reproduction of
hierarchical and less formal power (McPhee 2004:363). McPhee emphasizes that texts
have become a condition for creation and durability oforganizations. Texts inform
organizational members about the formal structure of their organization because authority
is stipulated in formal documents. As such, texts are a frame of reference that serve to
constrain and guide communications. Systems change through human reflexive
discourse, but they do so through text-dependent processes (McPhee 2004:365).
Institutional texts are part of the internal decision-making structure in an
organization that remains as people come and go and reflects the "intentions" of a
corporation, commission, board, agency, etc. If corporations, states, and other
organizations are perceived as having personhood because they have an ongoing structure
independent from individual members (Iyer 2006:394), then texts are an important aspect
of organizational personhood in the United States.
In this case study, and in the everyday work environment ofDOT organizational
members, state discourse is centered around, or at least influenced by texts. Mission
statements, commissioner minutes and carefully stated and written decisions, legislative
documents, the SATP study, and the texts gathered by the DOT at various public
meetings are examples. These texts are agents in language-in-use or real language. As
such, these texts are part of discourse.
Everyday talk in Kake is less constrained by written texts or documents.
However, it is interesting to note that the Kake community discourses cited in this study
were gathered during informal interviews, transcribed, and made into texts by the
fieldworker.
236
The compilation of data
In order to understand DOT defmitions of community in relation to road
building, I examined the agency's main text-artefact, the 2004 Southeast Alaska
Transportation Plan (SATP). I looked for references to the signifiers community,
local, population, people, and environment throughout the document. Appendix D
includes statements of goals and performance measures within the SATP Goals and
Objectives section, pages 34-38. The SATP is 195 pages long, including maps and
charts.
The graphs at the end of the chapter show the nine main categories or
signifiers that were used most commonly in conjunction with the word "community"
in the SATP. Discursively, community was a signifier used most commonly in
reference to: DOT statistical, map and chart data; "connecting" communities to each
other; access to and between communities; costs; efficiency; time; economy;
requirements that DOT must meet in its study plan to include community
representation; and DOT's timeline in relation to community studies, contacts, etc.
Examples of SATP text-based discourse
The following examples are taken from the SATP. Some segments are examples
of more than one category and were analyzed as such for the charts at the end of the
chapter.
1) References to DOT statistical chart data
Figure 8 presents community graphs depicting travel activity. There are major
differences in the level of activity, and the scale is adjusted accordingly. Six
communities are regular ports of call for large cruise ships, and these totals are
included in the graphs for these communities (ADOT 2004:29).
237
Estimates ofroadway travel demand for Mid-Region Access are based on earlier
SATP development, and include resource extraction trips and increased latent
demand to proximate communities, including Wrangell, Petersburg, Prince of
Wales Island, and Ketchikan (ADOT 2004:72).
2) References to "connecting" communities
The road to Petersburg could serve Kake as a community connection to the
regional transportation system (ADOT 2004:60).
This new route would also include connections to Wrangell and Petersburg.
Initially these highway routes would require several shuttle ferry links, which
ultimately would be replaced with bridges. With these links in place, travel
between these communities and trips into Canada, would no longer require a
lengthy ferry trip (ADOT 2004:ES-I).
3) References to community access
A Public Forest Service Road program in Alaska would allow rural communities
to enjoy the benefits of a basic transportation infrastructure for the movement of
people and goods between communities and would improve access to National
Forest Lands (ADOT 2004:23).
4) References to costs
Decisions should be made to promote the most free and unrestricted movement of
the greatest number of users possible between the communities and through the
region by using the available transportation resources at the least cost to both the
user and the state (ADOT 2004:34).
5) References to efficiency
Development of the corridors is necessary to efficiently connect communities to
the regional transportation system, establish a regional power grid, and optimize
service to the public (ADOT 2004:ES-2).
This plan seeks those opportunities where highway construction will boost
mobility in the region and establish more efficient community access (ADOT
2004:33).
238
6) References to time
Long-Term Vision Page 54: ... Reduce the average cost to the user where
possible by taking advantage of road extensions to shorten ferry connections.
Reduce travel time between communities within the region (ADOT 2004:54).
7) References to economy
Independent travelers are critical to local economies, especially in smaller
communities (ADOT 2004:8).
8) References to requirements that DOT must meet in its study plan
SATP Transportation Goals, Objectives, and Performance Measures. Goal 6:
Consultation with Affected Communities, Tribal Entities, Business, and the
Public and Provision of the Opportunity for Public Comment (ADOT 2004:37).
9) DOT timeline in relation to community studies, contracts etc.
In response to circulation of the Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan, Draft
Update for Public Review, January 2004, comments were received on six major
topics. Summaries are generally by subtopic, and do not indicate community
origin. Comments were submitted through letters, e-mails, completed
questionnaires, and the SATP website, as well as verbally and in writing during
public meetings held in 18 communities throughout the region (ADOT 2004:103).
Anderson (1996) discusses the importance of an emotional attachment to
environment and to other people as necessary for the existence of environmental and
social morality. Bellah et al (1996) make the same point. They reason that lack of
community in modem life is problematic for many people in the United States and
elsewhere. Morality, they say, is tied to community. According to Anderson, in the types
of communities where long-term sustainable livelihood is more possible, there exists
persistent, loyal, and moral commitment to a community ofpeople, which correlates with
persistent loyalty and moral commitment to the non-human environment as well.
Standards ofloyalty and of right and wrong are agreed upon and negotiated on a personal
level within community. In any state endeavor, failure to discursively acknowledge
239
community-making processes (in official and unofficial discussions and fixed text-
artefacts) results in decisions that are based on incomplete data and that potentially
undermine local investment and commitment.
Graphs 1 and 2 show the ways that speakers and writers referred to the signifier
"community." All of the references to community in the 22 Kake interview samples were
categorized. All of the references to community in the 2004 SATP were categorized.
Graph 1 shows the categories that people in Kake used to refer to "community," broken
down in percentages. In other words, references to "community" correlated with
references to "family" 31 percent of the time in Kake interviews. Graph 2 shows the
categories that SATP writers used to refer to "community," broken down in percentages.
In other words, references to "community" correlated with references to "connecting
communities" 23 percent of the time in the 2004 DOT Southeast Alaska Transportation
Plan. The two graphs show how words and meanings about community are very different
in Kake compared with the focus on communities in the Alaska State Department of
Transportation SATP.
Why do the differences matter? First, local multi-generational investment and
commitment among user groups to a human community is a major factor in
environmental integrity. Sustainable livelihood is evidently not a goal in the SATP, but in
the future, if sustainable livelihood becomes a goal, then the state would need to
specifically recognize, support, and emphasize, in each project and plan, local definitions
ofcommunity, community health, social networks, historical memory, local community-
building rituals and events, and other aspects of human relationships.
240
Graph 1. Kake descriptors to define community
Local descriptors to define "community" in Kake
1
24-
o
32 +-'><..!.-f----j---+--+---t---j---j--I---+---t--+-----l
• 16Percentages
of signifiers
used to
describe 8
"community"
Interviews with 20 Kake residents
Graph 2. ODOT descriptors to define community in SATP
DOT descriptors used to define "community" in Southeast Alaska
30 --,-------,---,---,--------r----,-------,---,---,------,
24 +----,2=-=2=--f-----+---+----t-----t---t---+---t-------1
241
18
12
6
o
Costs Time Plan
Requirements
• Percentages
of signifiers
used to
describe
"community"
Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan 2004
242
In review, Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan (SATP) writers focus
discursively on community access to larger transportation networks, costs, efficiency,
saving time, and increased cash economy. Signifiers and phrases common in Kake, that
convey the everyday practices and performances of community relationships, are absent
from the SATP. Clearly SATP discourse contains little recognition of the actual
processes and practices of community building that are articulated in Kake or the effects
of road building on those processes. The SATP is largely about gaining access to federal
transportation monies. Its focus demonstrates how large-scale projects descriptively
homogenize people and landscape. Decisions that are informed from descriptive
homogenization arguably disempower the local processes through which people co-create
standards of loyalty and right and wrong that are agreed upon and negotiated on a
personal level within a community. These are the very processes and relationships that
are necessary parts of sustainable livelihood practices. Many Kake people would like to
work toward a sustainable economy, the foundation of which is environmental integrity.
In this chapter I showed some ofthe ways that people negotiate values, loyalty,
and right and wrong through mortuary dinners, special events, culture camp, and circle
peacemaking. Some of my readers felt that this chapter included too much detail about
community practices that seem unrelated to the road building issue. I struggled with how
to best present some of the "essence" of Kake as a community. Yes, mortuary dinners,
culture camp, circle peacemaking and other day-to-day performances of community are
typically considered unrelated to large-scale state purposes and projects. My work in
Kake leads me to understand that the absence of more serious consideration of
community-making rituals in our legal and regulatory discourses is likely an impediment
to finding long-term solutions for preventing wide-scale environmental degradation and
poverty. What would happen if the "essence" of community became part of most or all
government project conversations?
243
CHAPTER X
TIME, WORK, AND COMMUNITY
I think with the different representatives, whether they're market or government or ...
somebodyfrom Texas, you have to want to communicate with them ... to each other. I
mean ifyou don't want to ... there's no way that will happen. And a lot oftimes we see
these agencies come here because they're required to by law, to do tribal consultation,
and they just do it because ... when they go through the NEPA [National Environmental
Protection Act] review it's one ofthe things that they have to do, consult with tribes. And
some ofthem are to the point where they think ifthey call Tlingit and Haida and talk to
so-and-so that's tribal consultation. I mean, there's all different levels ofthis with the
agencies, and a lot oftimes they have to be corrected on that. And some, like some lady
up in Klukwan, she had to correct somebody and tell them, "Your phone call to me
isn't ... I don't consider it tribal consultation. My council is. They're tribal
representatives. I'm just a staffperson. " I mean you get those kinds ofagency people that
we have to deal with. .. .And then even ifthey do come and do tribal consultation, it's
another matter about ifthey listen. But there's progress. (2003 taped interview with
Tlingit woman in her middle years)
Narratives about state procedures and processes
State-based political processes are guided by requirements to allow for public
comment, usually about written plans and proposals. Governance is guided through the
production, distribution, evaluation, adoption and institutionalization of written text.
Blommaert (2005: 186) wrote that considering how much decision-makers depend on
text, "it would be accurate to characterize debates as historical episodes oftextualization,
as histories of texts in which a struggle is waged between various texts and metatexts."
Text-artefacts of greatest value to policy-makers are those viewed as written in language
that is stable, precise, coherent, and clear-cut enough (they believe) to apply across
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diverse social spheres. Such text-artefacts should also provide continuity with other legal
text-artefacts such as other policy actions.
This chapter considers power in public meetings and the power of text-artefacts.
In this case the meetings and texts concern the 2004 Southeast Alaska Transportation
Plan (SATP). Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) reasons for designing a road,
and a small ferry, and bridge infrastructure focus, in part, on the value of time. In this
chapter I compare SATP time values with those expressed in Kake discourses and I query
the lack of attention in text-artefacts to human emotions, especially those expressed in
public meetings.
Public participation
The Alaska Department ofTransportation goals are justified, in the SATP,
through global market economics and based on a rather simplified description of
community. Kake people and others must direct their own feelings and descriptions
through state-based processes in order to participate in the conversation about Southeast
Alaska transportation. One DOT goal is to consult with affected communities, tribal
entities, business, and the public and provide a venue for public comment. As stated in
the SATP, DOT staff measure their performance in this goal by the number ofmeetings
and opportunities they provide for consultation rather than on intensity of consideration
for local concerns. The SATP 2004 report summarizes public comments from pages 103
to 124. Comments at public meetings in 18 communities and comments collected in
writing, in large part, disapproved of the prospect of road building versus ferries. The
DOT responded by writing that "Over the long term, roads do far more for the traveling
public in terms of lower costs, increased capacity, and greater choice. The ongoing cost
to crew and operate large ferries on a 24/7 basis are substantial, and have no counterpart
in comparison to the costs ofkeeping a rural highway open" (SATP 2004:112).
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The first public Kake meeting with DOT about the road
Clearly, feelings and values that are relative to various local processes in various
communities, and that contribute to local social solidarity, were inadequately addressed
in DOT planning. The passion in Kake about protecting community autonomy and self-
determination exploded at a 2003 special meeting, called by the Kake City CounciL
Petersburg City Council representatives, DOT representatives, environmental group
representatives and others were asked to come to Kake and explain the reasons for
building a road to Petersburg. I was not in Kake at the time of the meeting but I heard a
great deal about it from Kake residents, who related how people were yelling, swearing
and making accusations toward DOT representatives. If the actions at this meeting are
indicative ofpast Tlingit ways of communicating that have adapted to new
communication circumstances, it was an occasion for public shaming.
1) A Tlingit city representative described some of the passion.
Speaker: Oh, lately we've been having ... meetings maybe every three or
four months apart ... and more and more the community's starting to
come out to these meetings and I'm happy about that. They let the
outside agencies know about (how they feel by) telling the stories about
a long time ago and then telling them about how they feel about what's
going to be affecting our near future like the road to Petersburg or the
Department ofTransportation plan or ... the borough issue ... and the
ferry ... the same as the DOT, there were four different meetings here
that people came down here and tell them ... oh and the forest service
too. And everybody came down and expressed their opinion and then
told the outside agency what they felt ... and told the city council how
they felt about how it's going to be affecting us ... so ...
Fieldworker: Are people worried about change?
Speaker: Pretty much change '" I guess what happened there when the
Petersburg City Council came over '" there's some things that people
expressed really should have been kept to themselves.... Made me feel
bad about some of the stuff those people were telling those [DOT, USFS,
city council] people to do or go ... and ... I wasn't out there at the time
there. I was in the kitchen getting sandwiches and stuff ready for the
meeting there ... but I heard __ was telling the people there, telling
them that "you need to sit down." They were just worried about what
was going to happen, worried about people from Petersburg coming over
to this side, but I don't think that's going to happen. Alright?
Speaker in another part o/the conversation: WelL Like I always said,
the Forest Service likes to have their meetings; come in and do a survey.
And you see that all over. They have it down south. Come in and have
public meetings. Then they'll do what they're gonna do anyway. [laughs]
And that's the same thing. DOT's doing that now. They ... we had a
councilman that we sent to the DOT meeting in Juneau last ... on the
eighteenth ofNovember ... and they gave us till the end of this month to
respond to what they're going to be doing for us and in our area there,
and even though we had our meeting with all the big shots there about
two months ago there, that public meeting I was talking about, uh,
they're going to go ahead and do what they were planning to do anyway
(2004 taped interview).
2) An Elder Tlingit man mentioned in passing what he heard about the meeting:
We've had hearings and stuff; one last hearing they had-l wasn't here
but I heard about it. [A meeting about the road to Petersburg] It seems
(they already made the decision to attach the road to Petersburg.) And
the hearing that they had, they were just going through the motion. That
was the impression they gave. They had a good turnout for that too, but I
was out of town. I wasn't here for that. (2004 written interview notes)
3) Two non-Native men talked together about the meeting and how people in
Kake reacted to government agency representaties coming into the village.
Speaker One: lithe audience [listening to public comment] is outsiders,
uh, the communication is very antagonistic. And they [local people] are
very quick to rise to conflict ... with people from the outside. Because
they don't want to be told anything about how, you know, they should be
or what they should be or whatever. You know, they want complete
control. And they want to make their own minds up. Dh, which for the
road system, I was really, really surprised that an outside, well, I guess
I'm not surprised because an outside agency or agencies really don't
think about those sorts of things, but if they had taken the time to really
understand what Native communities are all about ... and about, you
know, uh, Native ways of thinking and ...
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Speaker Two: Understand and to care.
Speaker One: Understand or to care, it could've had a completely
different outcome. I mean, it [the meeting] could've been seen as
something positive. And instead, it came off as "Those white people are
trying to tell us." And I mean, it was a train wreck ...
Speaker Two: It's not real smart. I mean, because the biggest issue with
that, and we're talking about the meeting, when they presented the road
to Petersburg and all those other things ... and to me, I mean, as soon as
I show up there, and they give the Petersburg City Council front seat
table and it's like, "Why are you even here"? All that did was to create
suspicion in people that those people came here because they want
something that we've got. And they can't get their hands on it.
Speaker One: That's right.
Speaker Two: And that was really the feeling that was there. I mean, but
you know, I looked at it, I mean, a bald-headed white guy, I'm still
thinking, you know, why are they here?
Speaker One: [mumbles agreement]. What do they want?
Speaker Two: Yeah. What would prompt them to come to this meeting
just because we're going to connect [by road]? Why do they want to
come and hear our discussion? ... I have no clue. I mean, they came
probably because they were invited. What I don't understand is why they
were invited. Because it just really, you know, to me it ended the
discussion and it just raised the level of ... aggression.
Speaker One: Before it even got started it was over. I mean because ...
Speaker Two: Because they wanted something.... They want, and you
know, part of it is they want our schools, they want our kids, they want
our, you know, they want our money. SOS [Kake's major grocery store]
is formed primarily by people who live there [in Petersburg] already, and
our biggest store in town already goes, you know, all the profit is already
going over to Petersburg anyway.... and yet they continue. That's not
the first meeting that they've invited them to.
Speaker One: And it seemed that way. It seemed that way ... very much.
About the only time it's not like that is when ... it actually, well ... it's
when our people, from the community, go out. And it's because they're
initiating it. ... Every, any time that we have delegations oflocal people
that go, like, to meet those representatives, it's always very positive and
very cordial and business-like. Yeah. It's ... none of the stufflike that
happens here..... Then, you know, with the people from DOT, the
answer to one of the questions that was raised, was ... I mean, it was
very business-like. But it was the wrong way of approaching things. It
was the wrong terminology. (To say that this is your only chance to
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248
support the road and the DOT proposals). You know, well, you gotta
give me a story. And consequently, they [DOT] want it [community
approval] now. But now they're not going to get it. The message was
very clear. And in business (to say this is our offer, take it now because it
won't be offered again) that's a very accessible factor. But in a Native
community, when you go and (give ultimatums) that's not very sensitive
to the people. It was completely inappropriate. And, I mean, no wonder
everybody's hackles went up. Because the message was very clear. If
you don't take this now, forget it. You'll never have this opportunity
again (2004 taped interview).
People in town talked often about the passion at the meeting, but when I wrote to
the Department ofTransportation to get a copy of the meeting synopsis or a tape of the
meeting I was answered in this way: (Appendix G)
In response to your request for a tape recording of a 2003 hearing on
roads, I believe you are referring to a town meeting arranged by the
mayors ofKake and Petersburg conducted in Kake, attended by the City
Councils and mayors of both communities with representatives from our
department and the US Forest Service present. I estimate attendance at
50-60 people. This was a community organized meeting and the
community may have recorded the meeting. We did not. We have no
record of this town meeting. (Hughes 2005 e-mail)
Kake City personnel had taped the meeting, but the tape was temporarily "lost." I
asked for the tape three times, and I got the impression that it was "lost" out of
embarrassment for the passion expressed at the meeting. I bring up this meeting to point
out that the emotions/feelings people felt and expressed failed to be incorporated in the
"official" conversation about building the road. According to the e-mail message I
received from DOT, "The Department has since conducted meetings on January 27,2004
and on January 25,2005 in support of the Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan update
and the Northern Panhandle Transportation Study-ongoing, respectively. While not taped
they are recorded by note takers" (Hughes 2005). (See appendix G)
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Significantly, in reviewing DOT note summaries of January 27,2004 and January
25,2005 meetings in Kake, I found that if DOT representatives responded to people's
questions, "official" responses were left out of the summaries. Approximately ten people
attended the 2004 official DOT public meeting, and an approximate total of twenty
people variously attended the three official DOT 2005 meetings. Comment
summarization was cryptic and without narratives (appendix H). The brief
summarizations are problematic if one takes into account that stories/histories are
important ways of communicating in Kake. They are a memory technique that connects
knowledge gained in the past with current situations. Such stories/histories told in
particular circumstances are mechanisms of strong community socialization.
Histories/stories are centered in the southeast Alaska inclusive environment and, so, are a
place-based part of the process of consultation. They bring local knowledge about people
and place into decision-making about present circumstances. Such stories make sense out
of the present through long-considered past experiences.
One Tlingit woman told me in 2003 about the importance, to her parents and
grandparents, ofhistories/stories and of speaking carefully:
Speaker: They were very soft spoken people but they knew how to get it
across. They always had a story, and it was a true story so ... They
always had good stories. They were ... you know ... whenever they
talked they always knew what story they were going to use. You know,
and they ... whenever they went into a meeting they knew what they
were going to say. They knew the stories. They knew what any ... just
everything about what they were going to say. So their communication
was never lacking or, you know, they never lacked communication. I
guess you can see that.
Fieldworker: It was well thought out.
Speaker: Very well thought out. And they always talked with no
intention of hurting people. Or making fun of anyone, so ... Our people
and right even today many of our speakers, you know, speak like they
did. They don't hurt people. They don't make fun of people, and they
speak on the subject that they, you know, that they have (2003 taped
interview).
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According to the Kake people, when local people, especially Elders, talk with
government agency representatives, they often use historical anecdotes to illustrate
deeper social meanings.
1) Tlingit city employee.
They let the outside agencies know about (how they feel by) telling
the stories about a long time ago and then telling them about how they
feel about what's going to be affecting our near future, like the road to
Petersburg or the Department of Transportation plan or ... (2004
taped interview)
2) Tlingit tribal employee.
. .. our people are very outspoken and they know what they want.
They say it and they wait for the response. And the kinds of stories
they use are the real life stories. They don't just say, you know, this
could have happened or this might have happened or this will happen.
They go right into a story from something that happened a long time
ago and then another one that just happened or can ... will happen,
you know. (2003 taped interview)
The meeting that took place during fall of 2003 was one of the fIrst DOT attempts
to publicly discuss the SATP and the road from Kake to Petersburg. It represents a clash
of communication methods and expectations. The meeting exemplifIes the confusions
that result when powerful state decision-makers lack knowledge about local
communication practices and values. In a sense, every government agency group that
comes to Kake represents to people all of the past dealings with government agency
representatives. People feel that very few government representatives in the past heard
what was being said outside of their own communication expectations, although many
Kake villagers say that communications have recently improved, especially with the
USFS. Still, there is a long memory oflocal people repeatedly going unheard even as
they spoke within respectful protocol. Such memories, and continued lack of sensitivity
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in the present, lead to high levels of frustration, thus the rising up of emotion at the 2003
DOT meeting.
In "official" DOT meeting summaries, stories/histories and feeling/language told
at public meetings or in individual conversations with government agency
representatives, have been left out. Lack of attention to such details changes the meanings
of local communications. Leaving out emotion/feeling language and historically-based
teaching narratives involves picking and choosing those parts of communications that fit
into the project goals and agency-established criteria for evaluation. Leaving out, in
"official" meeting summaries, DOT representatives' responses to people's questions and
observations minimizes DOT's legal, political and ethical accountability.
The DOT criteria for examining "community" include categories such as costs,
economic vitality, connecting communities, time, efficiency, and accommodating
tourism. Categories for examining the reasons for building roads and reducing ferry
services leaves out scrutiny of local social priorities, family relationships, village
relationships, sharing, helping in time of need, and avoiding conflict, as examples.
Community relationships that foster solidarity are key to cultivating local feelings that
lead to caring for people and place. As such, local Kake values are more conducive to
sustainable livelihood and environmental integrity than are those which the DOT focuses
on. While DOT values in relation to community are important to consider, they are
homogenizing when enforced without greater attention to local community values. To
illustrate, defmitions of time are good indicators for comparison. Time is an apt subject to
show how agency definitions ofpeople and place have been simplified in order to make
large-scale decisions easier for planners. When people and villages are defined through
averages and with minimal criteria for specific local evaluation and comparison, the
transportation plan becomes a homogenizing form of social engineering.
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The value of time
In the SATP, appendix B, the DOT outlines its methods for cost-benefit analyses
for models that were used to evaluate scenarios of possible transportation systems. The
models were developed first for the 1997 SATP. The preliminary screening criteria
included: capacity; travel time; convenience to users; cost to state, and cost to user
(ADOT 2004:B-l). The principles of least-cost planning (LCP) were used to measure
criteria within various scenarios to derive the cost-benefit model. According to SATP
writers:
... framework and tools of the LCP provide the best approach for
systematically addressing the relative benefits and costs of
transportation alternatives. In practice, estimating with precision all
benefits and costs of a proposed transportation system is impossible.
In particular, a wide range of spillover costs and benefits of
transportation facilities and programs have yet to be estimated reliably
... The appropriate use ofkey outputs from this process permitted
ADOTandPF [Alaska Department of Transportation and Public
Facilities] to directly evaluate the inherent uncertainties in estimating
long-term benefits and costs and determine whether consideration of
these uncertainties alters the relative rankings of the system
alternatives (ADOT 2004:B-2).
The SATP report appendix (2004) below explains more about the methods
employed for ranking transportation alternatives. The examples in the 2004 SATP report
cited here pay special attention to the value of time.
User Benefits from Transportation Improvements
The volume of future trips is input directly from the travel demand
module. This module transfers annual person trips by trip purpose for each
origin and destination pair within Southeast Alaska, including links to
external zones. The following user benefits represent the majority ofuser
benefit of any system alternative and are the focus of the quantitative
analysis within the benefit-cost module:
Changes in travel and waiting time
Changes in trip frequency
Changes in out ofpocket costs
Changes in total number oftrips made
The benefits associated with changes in accessibility and economic
development are not measured, but are closely correlated with these user
benefits and can be indexed to the changes in user benefits. For the SATP
update, out-of-pocket costs are also estimated for additional driving that is
introduced between certain origins and destinations where roadways
replace all or a portion of ferry travel.
Value of Time
The value oftime is determined by interaction ofeach individual with the
marketplace. Each individual has a unique set of skills, knowledge, and
personal values that they hold and present to the labor market. It is the
interaction of the individual's personal values and need for employment
with the labor market (versus individual preferences for spending time
engaged in other activities) that determines each individual's value for
time. Different individuals will perform a given task at a different price
based on a large range ofpossible combinations of needs and values held
by workers and employers.
Everyone views the value of their time differently. Although no two
people value time the same, everyone agrees that time holds value to each
individual and to each employer. The question is, what is the most
appropriate value to place on time for purposes of comparing systems (in
this case, transportation systems) that involve different time periods to use
or complete?
Transportation systems move multiple people and goods with varying
sensitivities to time differentials depending on their unique demographic
and personal values. Although some broad user profile information is
available on travelers who use the regional transportation system and their
trip purposes, this information is quite limited, often dated, and varies
among the different air, marine, and land transportation services. The user
profiles vary by transportation mode, transportation route, and season.
Southeast Alaska traffic contains a very high seasonal tourism component
that exceeds in volume the entire annual resident traffic volume through
the system. In addition to adults, the traffic data include infants and
children whose time holds little immediate economic value. Recognizing
the variability discussed above, the following methodologies for value of
time and range ofuser benefits were employed in the benefit-cost analyses
for the SATP update:
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Average Time Value. Because current, consistent, and detailed user
profile information is not available for air, marine, and land transportation
across the various transportation routes, an average value for time to
represent all users was recommended to compute and compare the
economic benefit accruing to users from transportation system alternatives
that affect travel time between two points. The average or median value
selected should be based on the available information and values that best
represent the individual users of the transportation systems under
evaluation.
User Benefits Range. Although the demographic and analytic information
available to both accurately identify and represent the aggregate user value
of the time of the group of users served by the transportation system is
deficient, sufficient information is available to draw broad comparisons
and conclusions. A reasonable value range should represent user benefits
with respect to savings in travel time for system alternatives. The range
should include a comparison presenting user benefits for an average or
median value for time bounded by a higher and lower value to provide a
reasonable range and also to present user benefits without time as a factor.
Regarding the selection of an average time value, ADOTandPF decided
that the U.S. Department ofLabor's annual average hourly wage for all
workers in the nation for 2003 be used as the base economic values for
time evaluation. This data source best represents the mix of users on the
Southeast Alaska transportation system. For 2003, this figure is calculated
at $15.35 per hour. This figure was reduced to represent an average ofall
travelers on the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS), including
children. AMHS traffic data for 2002 provide a breakout of the percentage
of traffic by tariff codes, which indicates the percentage of several age
groups traveling AMHS during 2002.
The travel by age group was determined as follows:
Children under 12 10.6 percent
Seniors 3.2 percent
12 and over 86.2 percent
To represent adults 18 and older, the age 12 and over group was reduced
to 80 percent of total travelers, which reduces the average U.S. average
hourly wage of$15.35 by roughly 20 percent to $12.48 per hour. This
value of time ($12.48 per hour) was employed as the economic hourly
time value to changes in transportation system characteristics for purposes
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255
of computing an average user benefit time differential between
alternatives.
Kake time values
The signifiers and phrases used to talk about time in Kake discourse offer a different
set ofvalues. These segments corne from answers to my interview questions about
community (appendix E).
• ... and I think by community, what you're talking about is the togetherness and the
other things like that, and I guess it really goes first along family lines and then ...
yet at the same time we realize that we're here together and at any time of need it's
like all of the things that were said yesterday were forgotten today because this
other thing carne up that was much more important.
• ... he even carne to me one time ... and ... 'cause I had (several) jobs that were
going on, and it was upsetting to him that I had all this work ...
• ... I know people, and people want to say hi to him all the time and ... you know
sometimes he doesn't say hi. I have to tell him when someone says hi to you, you
know, say hi.
• ... significant number ofvisitors, in those times, is when people also corne to
support the family or do whatever, and you know, and then they see this
incredible closeness and the incredible 'we're all together' type thing.
• And after three or four times ofthat, FAA [mally carne over.
• And sometimes we invite other people like __.
• And we look back in ... our timeline goes way further than that. So the things that
(we know) is only things that we can remember that have been passed on to us
orally.
• And you get to thinking just how many times that has been passed on and who
forgot what.
• There's an expectation that when you take something when you go to the
community hall and you've got to be quiet during certain times.
• But they'd arranged it where they wouldn't have church at the same time. The
Presbyterians would have their time and all the people went. Then when they
were out, Salvation Army had their time and all the people went there too.
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• __ told it in a briefer version, which I would do too because like you say, time
was of the essence (at this particular community event). And you can see how
long it could go.
• Community is created through family bonds, through time and appreciation of
friendship, through going through hard times with each other, and good times.
• From the time I came home that's what I've been doing. Doing something for my
people.
• He wasn't used to the closeness and the environment. It just felt like people
needed to know what we were doing all the time.
• Water coming in on the ferries, on the planes. That's the fIrst time I've ever seen
that. We always see it in the community. Like we talk about. Someone's in need,
someone's hurting, everybody pulls together.
• I built relationships with people because we lived in Sitka for a long time before
we moved here, and a lot of her family and friends that would go in and out of
Sitka, going to college with them, whether they were there for hospital needs, we
left our door open, and they came and stayed at our house a lot, so I developed
friendships before I even moved here.
• I really have thought about this a long time. It's just a real interesting ... I mean, I
think it means that when somebody's in trouble, everybody's there for ya.
• I see people are here a short time and then they leave and come back and leave
and come back, and, you know, it's fInancially restraining (living in Kake).
• I think in Kake it's a lot the way you were raised. You have to spend a lot of time
with your Elders and other community members to learn.
• I was at a basketball game one time where they collected $800 for a kid who was
in the hospita1. And it's kind ofnice, too, because people don't even have to know
who it is, just as long as they feel they're helping somebody.
• It's frustrating at times, and you feel like leaving sometimes. And sometimes I
leave and just get lost in something that's not Kake [laughs]. And really value
what's here when I come back, and look forward to coming back and getting back
into my community.
• Nowadays people worry about how much it will cost or how much (effort it will
take) to do that. And I used to walk ... sometimes I'd be walking by somebody's
house and they'd tap on the window and you go and say, "Do you need
something?"
• Some of my family members put on potlucks 'cause that's ... you can get
everybody together and (have a good time) especially after dinner joking around
and ... for community events.
• That's the only time I've seen them coming together (churches in Kake now). Dh,
and funerals too.
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• Then we're really hurting and see how much we need it to survive. They were
some tough times during that time.
• There's all the bonds. There's a lot of animosity ... just like any town. But I think
when times get really rough, I think all of that is put aside, and people do what
they can for each other.
• Urn, the people or individuals, they are family oriented, but when anybody's in
trouble or even the good times, you know, we come together as a community.
• I see other organizations taking that role. Whether it be the churches or ANS,
ANB, ... sometimes OVK ..
• We'd (when growing up) just spend time with them (the Elders). I mean I don't
know, we just always ... you either were with your grandparents or your parents.
• We're always there for them, and it's always been that from the time I can
remember.
• We were created here. as our history goes. And I don't even like to put a timeline
on it anymore because 10,000 years is such a short time.
• Well, see, that's it. Visitors coming to the community, I mean, that's oftentimes
when we get ... (people supporting one another).
• You know, sometimes it's like any other little town with rumors and gossip and
stuff, but I think when you're in need, it doesn't matter who you are, you're part of
the community; they help you out.
• You know, it's (in their speeches) ... they like how things are together; they like
how everyone comes together. And, you know, (they say) we wish it could be like
that all the time.
• You know at times you might not feel accepted here and stuff, but in time ofneed,
in time of hurt, whatever, the people come out of the woodwork for you.
Comparison and discussion
In the DOT use of time as part of a benefit-cost analysis, time is valued as hourly
wages in the labor market. Because travelers in southeast Alaska represent a diversity of
time values, DOT decided to average out values. Averaged time values were limited to
potential hourly wages that each passenger could earn ifhe or she could shorten traveling
time. Everyone's time value was averaged at $12.48 per travel hour.
In Kake, time is discussed more in terms of social relationships. People take more
time for each other than in most places of my experience. As one man told me, Kake
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people tend to be "day-to-day folks." Kake is about long-term connections with those
who are in the village and those who have had to leave for work. Cell phones keep people
connected on an almost daily basis with family members in Juneau, Sitka and other
towns. People are in and out of each other's lives for the duration, said one Tlingit
woman, who got tears in her eyes thinking about it. Reciprocity and taking care of family
are highly valued. When someone dies in Juneau or Sitka and the body is returned to
Kake, the pilot takes the time to fly over the places on KupreanofIsland that the deceased
frequented, fished, gathered, and loved. When the plane lands the "whole village" goes to
the airstrip to support the family. Government and other offices close so people can pay
their respects and help with funeral and memorial dinner preparations. Sometimes the
funeral and memorial events will last for more than six to ten hours. Most ofKake is
often involved. One Tlingit man, who works for the city, said people from outside of
Kake have a hard time understanding Kake time priorities.
Fieldworker: Do government agencies or corporations understand the
values here and do they change their language to match what goes on
here, what's happening here?
City Representative: No. I don't think they care about it one way or
another. Either you're going to do it [what they want] or don't do it.
But they're going to do what they need you to do, from the
government agencies. And some of them are ... I'd say about half and
half ... because it depends on which, which agency. People that used
to live in rural Alaska know about everything that goes on in rural
areas like Kake there. They're more sensitive to things that happen
like if, urn ... we come and have a funeral. Pretty much in a small
community like ours everybody will be ... included in that funeral
there, whether it's __ or myself, or even if__'s doing his
clinic up there, and they understand that we have to be involved with
some of these ... you know, just anything like that has to do with the
community ... like the funeral, as an example. We closed down city
hall. And most big agencies won't care one way or another; "Why in
the heck are you closed down there?" And the ones that do understand
where we're coming from say, "Okay, we'll call you back at 3
o'clock when everything opens up there" (2004 taped interview).
259
People drop their daily wage jobs on some days when it's time to harvest salmon
and other resources. They may stop work for family and community-wide gatherings and
events. People feel a sense of responsibility to family and community, and at the same
time, some people feel the need to explain and defend such responsibilities to outsiders.
Time in relation to work comes up in local conversations as a topic that causes
some people embarrassment. They explain that several people in Kake are reluctant to
commit themselves to working 40 hours per week, day in and day out. In discussing
Kake's economic situation, people tell how outside companies come in to do construction
jobs, hire local people, and then lose many of their workers as soon as they receive their
fIrst paycheck. I sometimes observed, in conversation, that the 40-hour work week is a
culture-specifIc western invention. Some people responded by remembering that their
parents and themselves worked long and hard hours on fIshing boats and in the canneries.
Because ofANCSA and the 1980s, when people received thousands ofdollars in
corporate dividends, many people in Kake feel that the younger generation missed out on
learning a positive work ethic. In one respect, the reluctance to commit one's self to 40
hours a week for wages might be considered extreme behavior, partially attributable to
ANCSA. In another respect, older Tlingit narratives teach the values of only taking what
is needed rather than what is "greeded", sharing, and preventing waste. In the context of
such values, working as hard as possible 40 hours or more a week to accumulate as much
as possible might be considered an extreme. Parents and grandparents remember
working hard when it was time to do so, but accumulating extra food and other resources
for the purpose of sharing.
One Elder, who regrets that some families depend on "Welfare," agreed with me
that perhaps economic solutions in Kake would be more successful if they accommodated
people's existing values rather than forcing a change in those values. Perhaps jobs could
be created that allowed people to come and go within the hourly-wage work environment.
260
The Elder responded to our conversation by giving me a page from Ted C. Hinckley's
book, "The Americanization ofAlaska: 1867-1895." Hinckley (1972: 127) wrote the
following about the spread of canneries in Alaska and the tendency of canning companies
to hire Chinese laborers.
The passive, extremely diligent Orientals were "very satisfactory
labor ... are ready to work at any and all hours, and apply themselves
strictly to the work for which they are paid" [VanStone 1967:74-77].
Even where the actual salmon fishing was involved, the natives
proved unreliable. Originally, Indians had transported salmon to the
canneries, or at least been critical in their catch. But before long,
small steam barges or tugs went to the villages because the native
proved "improvident, knowing that nature provided for them without
much labor" [Moser 1899:24]. The Indian was not reluctant to boast,
"white men and Chinese must work to get something to eat, while the
waters and the forests furnish the Indians with all they want." The
aboriginals, not yet seduced by modern advertising, were confident
that a "small amount ofmoney will supply them with the few
necessaries which money alone will purchase" [Moser 1899:24]. This
free, season-regulated way oflife had no place in a society
increasingly dominated by assembly line speed-up.
While Native people may not have devoted all oftheir time to wage labor jobs or
selling fish for money, they worked hard. Industriousness and hard work are traditional
Tlingit values. Newton and Moss (1984: 102) wrote, "The traditional Tlingit values of
hard work and economic self sufficiency were highlighted by several of our cultural
specialists.... Social status was accorded to those members of the community who were
industrious and who had high ambitions."
In various conversations, I heard local grandmothers reminisce about working as
teens in assembly line production at the Kake cannery. Kake maintained a fishing fleet
for many years, a fleet that has dwindled to a few boats. The following narrative is a
portion of an informal interview with a man in his 30s, who is an active participant in city
and tribal work and politics.
Speaker. When I started fishing, I think, with my uncle, when I was like eight
years old and then when I became a Junior in High School (in 1986) I went on
my grandfather's seine boat, Do you know ?
Fieldworker: Mhm.
Speaker: Yeah, she's my grandmother and I fished on the family boat with my
grandfather ____ and that was where I gained, my hard work, you know;
I had to finish what I was doing. I had to keep busy all of the time. I couldn't
really sit around and not do anything and I (learned to respect working hard).
Fieldworker: Mhm.
Speaker: And now days that's hard to fmd, you know. Good work, good
workers.
Fieldworker: Yeah.
Speaker: Somebody that's going to stick it out, you know, stufflike that.
Fieldworker: Mhm.
Speaker: Someone that's going to work hard and learn at the same time. Not just
sit around and be all lazy. That's another thing you can see in the generation gap
too. The urge, you know. They [younger people] just didn't quite get.
Fieldworker: Mhm, but it was before.
Speaker: It was before, yeah. And then the older guys who are around Kake,
who are out fishing, they're good, hard workers. And then urn... you've got the
group of younger people that, they just need that ... you've got to push
somebody to show them.
Fieldworker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I went out with __. I don't know if you know __ at the
restaurant, she's a cook. And urn, he bought a seine boat. ... He knew I had
experience the last time I went out with him so he asked me to go out and show
him the (ropes) because he had never (done it all) before.
Fieldworker: Mmmhmm.
Speaker: Yeah and we had his whole crew. You know, his green crew for
fishing for salmon with a seine before. So, I learned after going out with, you
know, teaching him, that he has a couple younger guys that are on the boat too
that are working. I had to keep on... I had to keep them busy. You're out doing
something on the boat and you're aware of what's going on because it's
dangerous. [laughter] Anything could happen. So, I was constantly keeping an
eye on them, and they're picking it up. They go into the cabin and come out or
something and then they'll be jumping around (and saying): 'what do I need to
do', you know.
Fieldworker: Good.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. And there's actually a girl fishing on there too, __s
She's out there fishing too. She's never done anything like that before. She's
done a little work, you know, maybe at the lodge, the restaurant there.
261
262
Fieldworker: Mhm.
Speaker. But her work ethic is starting to come too now. She realizes that this is
hard work. You've got to keep up, you know, and stay on top of it.
Fieldworker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, that's been interesting, you know, to be able to help somebody else
that's younger, the youth, you know, while kind of hoping that their work ethic
will pick up a little bit more. (2004 taped interview)
The year 1 frrst began my fieldwork, 2002, the cold storage plant, owned by Kake
Tribal ANCSA corporation, hired two men from Seattle to run product production. It was
a last-ditch effort to keep the fish processing plant open. The men decided to layoff most
of the local workers and hired workers from Brazil, Columbia, Spain, and especially from
the Czech Republic. One of the new managers talked about his and his partner's decision
to fire most local workers in order to foster a new working attitude, calling it a "tough
love policy, three strikes and you're out."
We're giving them 30 days to be clean [of drugs and alcoho1], and
special contracts for those who said they wouldn't pass a drug test ...
about seven people. They are good workers, good people. So they
signed an agreement to take the test in 30 days. Once people realize
what the management expectations are, they may come back with a
new attitude. Before, the workers thought that since they were
shareholders they could work some and then leave if they wanted to.
When our group took over the management, the stipulation was that
we would be in control. Those running Kake Tribal Corporation
wouldn't be coming in and saying, "I don't want you to do it this
way," after the decisions had already been made [about processing,
hiring, and other management issues]. (2002 taped interview)
The new managers came to Kake after helping to supervise production at a fish
processing company that had gone bankrupt. They blamed top-down management
interference for the demise ofthe company, and wanted full control of Kake Foods to
prevent power conflicts. By the end of2003, the word in Kake and Petersburg
263
conversations was that Kake Foods was unable to pay many of its Czech workers and the
fishermen who brought in the salmon. Lawsuits resulted.
In addition, local people often resented the Czech workers in town for various
reasons, but mostly because they seemed aloof and arrogant. From the Czechs'
perspectives the same was true ofKake people. Theft incidents caused friction in the
cannery and in the larger community. In 2004, after the Cold Storage shut down, an Elder
told me:
We are finding out the truth about ourselves. Some [cannery workers]
were beat up for taking jobs in Kake. We found out that the cold
storage managers told the [new cannery workers] not to mix with
people in town. People in town thought they were just unfriendly
(2004 taped conversation).
The corporation also put the community fish hatchery in jeopardy because it
failed to pay for two years ofhatchery fish it harvested. The hatchery was without funds
to make its own loan payments. In a taped 2004 conversation with another Elder man, I
learned that "everyone is pointing fmgers at each other." The Elder said the new
management had lots of plans, and a lot of money was made but no one knows where all
the money went. He said he had anticipated problems in 2002 and 2003. "I told __ that
there was a heck of a lot of overhead being spent (by the new managers) and that nobody
is keeping on eye on them."
As a fieldworker I only know rumors about the troubles at Kake Tribal
Corporation and Kake Foods, but I include these narratives to illustrate time values. The
time values among Tlingit peoples long correlated with values that limited greed. Older
Tlingit ideologies socialized people to take only what they needed, to insure that Elders,
widows, and others had enough food, to share, to avoid waste, and to respect natural
resources, including other people. People accumulated extra resources to share and as a
means of gaining status through giving gifts. After accomplishing these goals, time was
264
spent in conversation and in such things as art and leisure. In winter months, after
acquiring food from March to November, people spent time repairing tools, visiting, and
participating in ceremonies. This seasonal and more comfortable relationship with time
was part of the social conditions that contributed to social solidarity, and it was part of a
relationship with the non-human environment that contributed to sustainable livelihood.
Because some groups in Kake persist in describing and defming their lives in
local, cultural terms and narratives, their discourse is an example of what Bourdieu
(1991) called radical critique. They question what is rarely questioned in western
political, legal and corporate languages. Kake people often talk about their environment
and its resources in very personal terms (as well as cash-economy terms), but it is the
respectful and "spiritual" relationship with trees, salmon and the environment, and the
belief that you should never take more than you need of forest and fisheries resources that
becomes radical critique. Time is less about getting as much as possible in a short
duration, either through wage labor or resource extraction. These older ways of thinking
brought into the future are radical because such personal value narratives about time,
animals, trees, and fish are rarely discussed in an "official" context between politicians,
lawyers or business professionals. Such personal narratives are rarely included in legal
contracts and agreements.
As a comparison of time values, people who live in Petersburg are more likely to
take legal, regulatory, corporate and legislative discourse for granted. People in
Petersburg are predominantly non-Native, and corporate and legal narratives are more
business as usual. People complain about laws and regulations, but they also readily
participate in the legal system. Several residents are on state and federal fisheries boards,
governor's committees and other legislative and legal bodies. Fishermen in Petersburg
want as much time to fish, as heavily, and as competitively as they can. Wasting time is
especially problematic in this community where an almost obsessive work ethic is highly
valued.
265
State and federal boards, commissions, and agencies manage and regulate
resource allocation for commercial and subsistence use in Alaska. Within agency
methods of decision-making and enforcement, dominant forms of social knowledge and
social systems are coordinated over time. Petersburg fishing culture has helped create and
has been created and re-created partially by the existing time-fixated system ofresource
allocation and authority. The authority vested in resource allocation coordinates the
surveillance of community resource use and the focus on time and money that affects the
lives of all Alaskans.
Anthony Giddens (1984) wrote that political and economic surveillance of
communities is often accomplished through management of production (which is closely
associated with time). People in communities may agree with or tolerate such
surveillance and authority if it coincides with their own versions of economic and time
priorities. In Kake such tolerance is less likely than in Petersburg because the Native
social system remains somewhat situated in older resource distribution practices with
different social relationships. In contrast, people in Petersburg socialize economic
ideologies that emphasize a very different perspective oftime and money. Most
fishermen in Petersburg describe their fishing philosophy historically and today as an
effort to get as much of the resource as possible in the shortest amount of time, without
depleting it. Petersburg fishermen are known throughout Southeast Alaska as being
inordinately competitive and aggressive about resource extraction (2002,2003, and 2004
interviews with people in Petersburg, Kake, and Juneau).
Time, in Kake, is more about duration ofhuman and non-human environmental
relationships and survival in the long run. Time for Petersburg fishermen is about getting
as much as possible as fast as possible in the short run. Time for the new managers of
Kake Foods was about participating in the global market, which motivated them to take
potentially risky chances for the sake of short-term, quick turnover ofproduction and
sales.
266
Within DOT text-artefacts, time is about the dollar value of selling one's self in
the hourly wage labor market. In the SATP, time is stopped, averaged and synchronized
within economic models of analysis. As such, DOT planners are less likely to truly hear
and understand radical critiques about time from people in places like Kake.
Synchronization of time is an act of power (Blommaert 2005:142). In the DOT
case, synchronization involves consolidating various historical and diverse relationships
between humans and time into one moment in time, the moment within which the SATP
was written. It involves "inscribing a number of assumptions and theoretical decisions
onto the data, so that a sense ofuniformity (both in terms of data and in terms of
analytical preferences) can emerge" (Blommaert 2005: 143). Other ways ofunderstanding
historical and cultural time, are neutralized in the synchronization process. The "official"
conversation about road building and transportation becomes framed around the
assumptions that are articulated in the fixed-text SATP document. People in each affected
community must address their various ideologies about time in comparison and in
reference to the DOT synchronized version. Even if people do not literally address
DOT's version of time, their comments will be evaluated "officially" in comparison to
DOT averaging of time values.
The power of text-"artefacts" and state descriptions of Kake
DOT's framing of time is an act of power that is partially situated in the tendency
ofmainstream culture to attribute authority to fixed texts such as the SATP. Blommaert
(2005: 184-202) refers to attribution ofauthority to texts, such as the SATP, as the
"ideology of the fixed-text." The "ideology of fixed-text" is the belief that something in
writing that has been adopted, confirmed, revised, submitted, voted on, etc. (which
becomes a text-artefact) is "truth." A text-artefact is assumed to be transparent in
267
universally-shared and accessible meaning. It is considered stable, clear, precise, and an
anchor for policy-making (Blommaert 2005:185).
When there is debate about a political action, the debate can be countered through
reading and discernment of the text-artifact. "In line with the ideology of fixed-text,
reactions to critique are referred [compared with, evaluated in relation] to the original
text. In it are the only true meanings of the key term concepts" (Blommaert 2005: 189).
Thus, those in authority can usually retreat to the ideology of the fixed text to defend
their actions. Power and aspects of inequality are performed when policy makers decide
who can redefme text and when they assign generalizing labels to other groups who
attempt to intervene. In contemporary society, few people question this textual authority
and the rights ofpolicy makers to insert revisions, which then become part of a type of
dogma. In contemporary society, we learn "ideology oftextualism" when we learn to
read and write in school, where varieties of language are hierarchically ranked
(Blommaert 2005: 186).
The SATP has become the text-artefact which frames future road discussions. In
negotiating road building priorities with communities, discussions about what it means to
be a Native village and the values oftime will occur with decision makers who reference
the SATP, and who, in doing so, "retreat behind" the ideology of the fixed text.
Another fixed text is a description of Kake in the North Panhandle Transportation
Study, which was initiated to begin the socioeconomic and environmental investigation
related to the SATP plan (ADOT and PF 2007). While the contract was cancelled in May
2006 "because the basis of the study and its recommendations were overcome by events,"
the initial study descriptions of various communities remains published on the DOT
website at the writing of this dissertation. (See appendix I and appendix J)
The description leaves out Kake people's social and environmental relationship
values and practices, all ofwhich are important in considering a transportation system
that would support local efforts at sustainable livelihood and environmental integrity. The
268
state study about Kake, or one much like it, is likely to be a text on which legislators and
other decision makers will focus their attention. Values and considerations that are left
out of such texts are less likely to be counted as part ofplanning and problem solving.
The ideology of the fixed text, power, and radical critique
Ideology represented in state-based texts and other discourse is about power. It
represents what Paul Friederich (1989:302) wrote is "a set or amalgamation of ideas,
rationalizations and interpretations that mask or struggle to get or hold onto power, with
the result that actors and ideologues are themselves largely unaware of what is going on."
People fail to recognize the hegemonic nature of their own ideologies because they
believe them to be common sense. As such, they debate, plan, and problem-solve within
the discourses of invisible ideologies. Barthes (1957:226) described the situation when he
wrote that even ifpeople protest, their resistances likely operate within the bounds of
general hegemony and so are not anti-hegemonic because they fail to challenge the
general boundaries of the system.
Several Kake people resisted the very idea of the road to Petersburg, and although
they explained some of their reasons as a refutation of DOT assertions in the SATP plan,
for the most part they resisted because they wanted their community to be theirs. Some of
their resistance was within the bounds of general hegemony, or the boundaries of state-
approved venues for disagreement, such as holding an election and conducting a tribally-
initiated survey. The very act of opposing the road is a radical critique, when so many
other North Americans take roads for granted as necessary. Some local people wondered
if their resistance was costly to Kake. They felt that subsequent DOT proposals, such as
reducing ferry services to Kake, were possible DOT retributions.
269
In a January 2004 meeting with DOT representatives in Kake, Mayor Paul Reese
said:
The vote by City ofKake residents was 2-1 opposed to the Kake-Petersburg road
[160 votes "against," 80 "for"]. We feel the vote has altered our communications
with DOT. We will meet with the govemor in regard to the roads and other
matters, but we need focused time with the City Councilmen and the Tribal IRA
Council, one-to-one, to articulate our needs, and based on that, I feel there is a
need for a joint meeting with the DOT, City Council and IRA Council. They are
still factoring in a road on the SATP 2011-2025 projections.... I feel there is a
need for enhanced communication. The plan is a plan-using various hubs
interfacing air/ferry/roads. How many Kake people go to Petersburg, Juneau,
Sitka? And how often? The current plan doesn't strike me as serving Kake very
well. (Appendix H)
Two non-Native but adopted men said they felt DOT had decided to punish rather
than work with Kake:
Speaker One: Yeah, because originally, they were saying that they were thinking
about making, making a [ferry] hub [in Kake]. But now it looks like we're not
even an afterthought. So, we think that he was ...
Speaker Two: Yeah, we've become basically the only community in the Southeast
that won't get, uh, high speed ferries.
Speaker One: ... I don't know ifit's because we didn't support the roads, [clears
throat] ...You know, because originally, at the meeting with DOT, and uh, [DOT]
they really wanted the road because they wanted us to be the ferry hub because it
worked out better.... They wanted to make us the hub because we're much more
centrally located. And all of a sudden after the vote, and the community chose to
reject the road system, they come back and ...
Speaker One: Pretty overwhelmingly.
Speaker Two: Pretty overwhelmingly. and now they left us with very poor service
and low speed of ferries. So, we won't get serviced by any ofthe high speed
ferries (2003 taped interview).
To resist the hegemonic priorities is often to risk being left out of the problem-
solving conversation. As James Scott outlined in his 1990 work on the arts of resistance,
when people in power are challenged, they have but a few choices. They can listen and
270
work with the challenger, thus giving up some power. If they want to maintain their level
of power, they can ignore the challenge and the challenger, they can discredit the
challenger, or they can punish or remove the challenger.
State-based social engineering that occurs through projects such as cOlmecting
unwilling communities through road building can be resisted on an individual or
community level by making arguments in reference to the data, contexts and discourses
ofthe fixed texts. To frame one's arguments based on fixed texts, such as the SATP and
supporting studies, is to empower those texts, even as they are under critique.
People also can practice orthopraxy as a reaction to homogenizing projects, such
as road building. Orthopraxy is to empower ideologically-laden texts and discourses
outwardly while resisting them inwardly. It means going along with actions and discourse
patterns without subscribing to the ideology that gives them meaning, especially ifthere
are few or no other options. The problem with orthopraxy is that it is similar to Mead's
(1934) observation that when we work to understand and communicate with other people
by practicing to think like them, we change something about ourselves. While the way we
communicate with people can be a choice, orthopraxy is related to lack of choice in a
situation and "may be the beginning stage of every ideological process that uses coercion
as an instrument of hegemonisation: schools, bureaucracy, the law, the labor market, ... "
(Blommaert 2005: 169). Orthopraxy might also be connected with Barrington Moore's
(1978:459) observation that people tend to "grant legitimacy to anything that is or seems
inevitable no matter how painful it may be. Otherwise the pain would be intolerable."
While the results of orthopraxy and granting legitimacy to the inevitable are
powerful mind changers, they are never completely homogenizing. Arun Agrawal
(2005:164), in his article "Environmentality: Community, Intimate Government, and the
Making ofEnvironmental Subjects in Kumaon, India," considers the question ofhow
some people accept the interests/ideologies of dominating classes as their own and others
do not. This question relates to Kake conversations because some people in the village
271
are more likely to see intensified resource extraction, one of the purposes of the SATP, as
the solution to Kake's economic problems. People who subscribe to neoliberal economics
are often connected with Kake Tribal Corporation, whose ANCSA mandate was to bring
Kake into the dominant economic culture. ANCSA was arguably a case of coerced
orthopraxy. Kake Tribal board members chose to join the market economy primarily
through logging. When the trees were all cut, many who lost their logging jobs began to
look for other resources to extract in large quantities as sources of money. Those who
have lost the most and are the poorest in Kake simply want to make a living.
Other people are less inclined to accept the interests of dominating classes as their
own. After watching the forest around their village disappear, some people are reviving
counter resource extraction discourses and have intensified efforts to bring back the older
values about respect for people, place, and the non-human environment. They are
participating in what Agrawal (2005:166) calls "environmentality" which is the process
within which people fashion themselves anew as subjects who are concerned about the
environment. During my fieldwork, the Organized Village ofKake, the IRA tribe, was
more focused on environmentality than were the City of Kake or the Corporation.
The tribal focus on Tlingit values is complex. Environmentality in Kake involves
refashioning selves through learning the older values but within the local context of
conflicting economic needs and priorities. People concerned about the environment and
community must recreate themselves through local language codes and at the same time
communicate in the dominating "prestige" languages of law makers and state regulators,
who enforce laws and manage resources. In a sense, those working at environmentality
must be able to speak in contrasting discourse frames (Tlingit ideological/community,
and state official/legal) imbued with assumptions that are often in conflict. IfKake people
want to participate in land and water management, defend their rights, and empower
themselves, they must speak effectively in the languages ofbiologists, lawyers, DOT
representatives, and other government officials. Those who do not know how to speak in
272
"official" or "formal" discourse frames are often barred, perhaps inadvertently, from
participating in decision-making processes. They must, as Bourdieu (1991: 138) put it,
learn "prestige" speech through schooling or informal education or be condemned to
"either silence or to shocking outspokenness." The same is true for First Nations peoples
in Canada where Nadasdy (2003:6) observed that by participating in state-based
discourse, people agreed to "play by the rules of the game." When that happens, people
have tacitly agreed not only "to engage with government officials in a set of linguistic
fields in which they are at a disadvantage. They are also agreeing to abide by a whole set
of implicit assumptions about the world, some of which are deeply antithetical to their
own" (Nadasdy 2003:6).
The SATP and supporting documents are text-artefacts that largely frame the
rules of the game for Kake and other Southeast Alaska communities. Within DOT plans
and studies are a "set of implicit assumptions about the world." These assumptions defme
"community" within the limited parameters of costs, efficiency, economics, time as
measured in average hourly wages, a preference for connected rather than isolated
communities, access to national highways, and tourist access to Southeastern villages.
Transportation planners wrote:
The SATP recommends construction of a road between Kake and Petersburg
as a regional road. This road is not supported by Kake at this time; however,
because this road and the proposed road connection to Totem Bay present
significant benefits to the regional transportation system, these road links will
continue to be pursued from a regional perspective. The Kake - Petersburg
Road will require a short shuttle ferry crossing of the Wrangell Narrows
between Kupreanof and Petersburg.... These two road links are considered
essential transportation - utility corridors to be preserved to meet future
needs. Either road connection has the potential of making Kake a ferry
terminus for ferries connecting with Sitka and potentially Juneau to serve
through traffic that would make use of the regional road system via Kake
(SATP 2004:50-51).
273
Kake people, especially when they join their efforts with other Native communities,
have a strong influence in state govemmental affairs, especially conceming Native issues.
In the case of the proposed road, their voice was recognized, but their specific concems
were overshadowed by state representatives' criteria for measuring transportation
priorities. It is the specific concems that are largely connected with community making
processes and feeling attachments to place and people.
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276
CHAPTER XI
LAND USE PERCEPTIONS
Speaker: Now we're a cash economy. Before we were subsistence. Largely subsistence.
Visitor: Do you think people are better off?
Speaker: I don't think so myself. We have more materially but our way oflife is gone. I
can remember as a child ... during salmon drying season, or like now, going to fish
camp, that was a yearly occurrence. Putfish up. Troll for fish and sell it. That's gone.
When I came back to Kake it was so totally different. (2002 taped interview with Elder
Tlingit man)
Speaker: I think we've passed two stages here. In my twenty-one years here we've seen
where there was a period oftime, probably ten to fifteen years ago, there was a real lack
ofcaringfor the fish, the clam beaches, the trees, the woods, you know. I mean there was
more ofa use and abuse. And a lot ofkids growing up then. AndI think between the
school district andfamilies kind ofstanding back and seeing what was happening, I think
that's changed. I think a lot offamilies and kids are real sensitive to the environment
now. Whereas ten, fifteen years ago they wouldn't have been.
Fieldworker: And before ten to fifteen years ago?
Speaker: Yeah. I think there was still a lot ofrespectfor the environment before that.
Fieldworker: What happened?
Speaker: Logging. Making money offthe trees. I think that was the majorfactor and then
that disrupted the wildlife around here. ... Things were pretty dead. It hadpassed
through that stage of ... logging coming in and stripping everything and, you know,
things disappearing. (2003 taped interview with Tlingt man in his middle years)
The paradoxes of land use perceptions and decision-making in Kake
This chapter sets up the theoretical framework for the case study described in
three parts in chapters 12-14. The focal point is the Alaska Local Boundary
Commission (LBC) and legislative attempts to force or pressure Kake to form a
borough government with Angoon and/or other communities. The case study is a
means of answering one of the central questions of this dissertation. How do people
in Kake communicate their local narratives about place, community and work to
government and market representatives? How, in tum, do local groups interpret and
react to government regulatory and global market narratives about community,
forests and the marine environment? How do conversations between legal state and
local entities influence the conditions of socialization of moral codes ofbehavior
towards people and place?
Incompatible worldviews?
Meeting rituals
Clan laws and leadership expectations, as well as city, tribal, and corporation
legal processes and leadership methods were and are deeply concerned with physical
property resources and human social resources. Traditional and current legal
processes are, in their own ways, performative rituals of ideological relationships
between people and the rest of the environment.
In general, in any group, ideological messages that are transmitted in
leadership are essentially reaffirmed through decision-making rituals. Variation or
change in leadership rituals contributes to changes in ideological messages
(Rappaport 1992). Whether public performance is part oflegislative committee
meetings or Organized Village ofKake meetings, "to perform a ritual is to show
acceptance of what is encoded in the ritual" (which is not the same as belief).
Leadership and legal rituals are public acts that entail obligation and establish
social/legal conventions. Because a breach of obligation "is everywhere immoral,"
ritual invests morality and embodies social contract (Rappaport 1992).
Moral codes of formal decision-making behavior in Kake include a flexible
consideration of human needs and relationships. For example, the times set for city
277
and tribal meetings are often flexible according to what people are doing. If it is
summer, and people need to go out fishing, then city meetings are sometimes
postponed and rescheduled. Ifsomeone passes away and there is a funeral dinner,
tribal and city meetings are postponed and rescheduled. People in Kake have an
efficient word of mouth system (CBs, cell phones, and the post office bulletin board)
to pass on changes of meeting times and dates. There is no local newspaper or radio
station and very little of Kake news is covered by Petersburg, Juneau, or Sitka news
media. Elected council and board leaders discuss issues with the help oflaughter,
informality, and sociability. In contrast, the council and board meetings an island
away, in Petersburg, are typically conducted with much less laughter and more
formality.
Meeting rituals are influenced by, and influence, social decision-making
codes in a community. Inflexible meeting styles would seem incongruous in Kake,
where people's needs are often prioritized over bureaucratic procedure. I was told
several times that before increased reliance on council and board meetings,
community leaders used to spend a great deal of time conscientiously talking with
people on the street, in small groups in people's homes, and in day-to-day
conversations to get a sense of what families wanted and how they felt. While day-
to-day conversations continue to be sources of input, the formal elections and
meeting processes have changed the ways local people gain input into their legal
system. Patterns of legal decision making were significantly changed when
jurisdiction over lands was handed over to ANCSA corporate decision making
entities, such as Kake Tribal Corporation.
The ways that Kake people conduct their meetings, then, influence
knowledge ofthe local social order. Changing meeting styles modifies the ways that
people value other people and, it can be argued, ultimately the ways people value the
non-human environment. The obligatory rituals from which state-based scripts are
278
279
derived and interpreted in the Alaska Local Boundary Commission (LBC) case study
embody values concerned with legal authority, time, and human relationships.
Because much of what occurs in meeting rituals involves land use and property
ownership, meeting rituals influence beliefs and ideologies about the non-human
environment.
Concepts of property
Throughout United States history, property laws and implementation ofthem
reflect ideological changes from a "common law" worldview before industrialization to a
more competitive individualized worldview, especially as development of resources for
the sake of profit became a cultural, economic, and legal priority. Bradley Bryan (2000)
points out that western political and legal institutions fail to allow divergent concepts of
property and ways of life to cohere. Aboriginal and indigenous ways of life are always
subservient to western legal culture. This relationship further colonizes. Bryan suggests
that western society needs "an ethical shift in the horizon of values of the average citizen:
to understand that difference needs to be simply recognized and respected qua different,
to not attempt appropriation of it into our terms and concepts" (Bryan 2000:30).
Western legal system performers tend to interpret the rule oflaw as applying to all
people in the same way. Legal questions about property lead to certain understandings
about relationships to property. When a question is asked such as, "Who owns the landT'
groups have to answer in ways that imply certain types of ownership. "The consequence
of this forced assertion is that the group then begins to understand its relationship to the
land in terms of the answer to the question imposed from the outside rather than
according to the complex series of relations previously governing it" (Bryan 2000:30).
Bryan wrote that the Tlingit people have long understood themselves to be physically
part of their natural environment, and completely responsible to it. Ownership, as western
280
law understands ownership, is contrary to Tlingit views ofproperty. For Tlingits "people
belonged to the land" rather than the "land belonging to people" (Bryan 2000:30). If
people [such as Tlingit people] have to answer questions that presume that land belongs
to people, then their own understanding of land changes (Weinstein 2000).
One way to consider the differences in legal systems is to compare laws that apply
to inclusive environmental relationships. Allen Abramson's chapter in the book Mythical
Land, Legal Boundaries: Wondering About Landscape and Other Tracts (2002) helps to
summarize differences in concepts ofland and "ownership." Abramson's points outline
some of the basic differences between many aboriginal and indigenous people's
knowledge ofland and present political structures. More holistic values were (are) more
typical ofgroups such as the Tlingits, who view(ed) land/water as relational, ancestral,
and as part of their group's essential identity. Land relation practices and values for
groups such as westernized state legal entities motivate people to behave as though land
is basically material, something to buy and sell. State-based laws are typically much less
concerned about historical or current human connections with land and water as more
than legal ownership.
Abramson defmes mythical land relations as those in which the past is embedded
in the land as "an inviolable substance." Jural property relations, in contrast, are tied with
formal legal jurisdictions, which rest ''upon the legitimacy of contemporary mediations
rather than the authority of the past." According to Abramson, such relations objectify
land. In contrast, mythical/holistic land relations "are brought into being as somatic and
spiritual facets of the persons who associate and belong with them. Embedded links
between land, people and their combined pasts create this association as a distinctive
cultural fact" (Abramson 2000:8).
Tlingit people managed their commons sustainably, and did so through a strong
protective legal and ideological structure. However, many people who live outside of
Kake point to the tribal corporation's over-harvest of its forest resources between 1980
281
and 2003 as proof that the Tlingit are as exploitative of the environment as Euro-
Americans. Many people fail to fully consider how the Tlingit legal and social system
(that non-Native immigrants worked so hard to eradicate) was a primary reason for
Tlingit success at sustainable self-regulation of common property resources for hundreds
of years (Hunn 2002; Langdon 1985). Traditional Tlingit property laws and values were
weakened as non-Native people absconded land, demanded assimilation, and insisted that
Tlingit people speak English. In addition, the values inherent in the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act (ANCSA) were incompatible with traditional relationships with land and
water.
The following statement is an example ofhow some people in Southeast Alaska
interpret the paradox ofhundreds of years of sustainable land use with recent over-
harvest ofresources in Tlingit villages. The man in his middle years making the
following statement is a non-Native Kake area resident, who keeps mostly to himself
People lived here thousands of years without clear cutting their areas,
without killing off all the fishing streams, without over-hunting the
deer, whatever. But you know the other side is that they really didn't
have the technology; they certainly didn't have the technology to
clear-cut, whereas the whites did. The whites actually clear-cut and
started selling off all that wood to the Chinese and that was the (place
to sell it). They'd destroyed theirs. That was the (place they could sell
it). There wasn't anybody else that really wanted it. So people here
never had the ability to really do the clear-cutting. They didn't really
have, you know ... it's really hard to over-fish because ofwhat their
nets were made out of Their nets were made out of either cedar bark
rope, very precious. Took a lot of time to make it. So you go out to
the stream and when you're (not having as much luck) fishing, you're
probably going to pull up and go someplace else. Every time you take
your net out, you're going to be catching twigs and stuff and your
net's going to be tearing a little bit. You've got to take care of it. It's
worth a lot. And so that really prevented them from over-fishing a
stream, I think, because if your net's destroyed, you're dead. And you
knew you were better offrunning somewhere else. Nowadays you've
got nylon nets. You run across the bay, you catch (every) fish there is,
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and if you tear a few nets they can be repaired again, or thrown away
after a few years. It's much easier to really take everything there is.
So I don't think the [old] technology was able to do a whole lot of
environmental damage. I think that would be true of quite a few
Native cultures. Not all. (2004 taped interview).
One fallacy in the speaker's description is the assumption that ifpeople are
capable of overexploiting their resource, they wilL He, like many, but not all, people in
places such as Petersburg, offers little consideration ofhow legal systems and social
ideologies influence human and non-human environmental relationships. In a sense, he is
justifying much of non-Native behavior on the pretext that there are few if any people
who would act differently given the same opportunity. Northwest Coast Native groups
did not always have enough food. Salmon runs failed, for example, and their foods were
not necessarily high in calories, so they supplemented berries and fish with grease
(Langdon 1977, 1979, 1985). People could starve, so they needed to be conservationists
to survive. "In short, on the Northwest Coast, conservation was managed by political
regulation supported by appeal to individual morality," Anderson (1996:68) writes as a
generalization. Specifically, avoiding waste and greed is part of Tlingit morality.
Part of being conservationists included (s) respect for traditional foods. Richard
Newton, a Tlingit man, and Madonna Moss, an anthropologist, conducted oral interviews
with several Tlingit people. Henry Katasse ofPetersburg told them about respect for
food.
A well-bred Tlingit is never heard making remarks about food put before
him. People refrain from making sarcastic remarks in jest about food. For
example, a short story is told about a young princess saying, "1 do not eat this
part ofdried salmon-too bony." News of this got around the village and
people became indifferent to her. Soon a famine set in and she became
hungry along with the others. (Newton and Moss 1984: 1)
While families accumulated large surpluses of food for the winter months, extra food
was distributed at potlatches or to trade with other tribes (Newton and Moss 1984: 2). In
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my own fieldwork experience I often heard the phrase "take only what you need," and I
heard people talk about their grandparents teaching them to share food with those who
were less able to go out and get their own. Sharing was also talked about as a means for
preventing waste.
Ecological anthropologist John Bennett (1995) wrote that levels ofhuman greed are
learned, and that there are two basic discursive arguments about greed. One argument is
that greed is constant, biological, and built into human nature. In this view greed is
inescapable. The second argument is that greed is variable because it is punished or
checked by the social environment. Cultural values create greed, especially when cultural
values emphasize detachment or ignorance ofnature. Bennett wrote that the difference
between these two views of greed is mostly false. In actuality, greed is an innate human
behavior, but human behavior is always modified by culture (Bennett 1995).
Bennett proposed that those groups who permit most of their members to live in
what is believed to be "freedom" from environmental constraints, accentuate greed as
"normal" behavior. "Freedom" from environmental constraints is a promise that western
nations spread with economic development projects throughout the world. Bennett
described how Northern European and Euro-American neocolonial and neoliberal
economic assumptions forced on others through colonialism and neocolonialism,
proliferated the belief that resources are infinite and that they exist to be found and sold
for reasonable prices. He described how people who lived similarly to their ancestors
hundreds of years ago were told that they were poor and backward. Promises of
"freedom" from environmental constraint and "poverty" escalated and continue to
intensify people's demands on the environment. For people in Kake, an acceleration of
promises materialized through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. According to
Thomas Berger, a retired British Columbia Supreme Court Judge, who visited 60 Native
villages in Alaska between 1983 and 1985, ANCSA was the United States "domestic
284
application of economic development theories previously only applied to the Third
World" (Durbin 1999: 144).
As Native ways weakened, environmental resources were negatively impacted.
Native ways have not disappeared; they keep resurfacing and transforming in response to
environmental and social dislocations and as part of revitalizing and restating ideologies.
In the meantime, instead of land management through older ethical systems and Tlingit
principles ofconservation (Dombrowski 2001, 2002; Hunn et al. 2003; Thornton 2008),
ANCSA land was managed as though it was private. This change toward legal corporate
property ownership is an example of social and environmental dislocation. Land was to
be managed through a United States corporate business model.
Lawmakers, lending institutions such as the World Bank, economic development
programs and the corporate western world in general have long worked under the
assumption that property is better protected through private ownership, be it human
individual or corporate individual ownership. For several decades most scientific and
legal experts have assumed that Hardin's "the tragedy of the commons" (1968, 1977) is a
universal phenomenon and inevitable without a strong protective legal structure that
promotes private property ownership; this has become western-initiated ideological
hegemony. Environmental anthropologists especially have tried, and I believe have
succeeded, to show that this assumption is often false (Anderson 1996; Collins and
Wingard 2000; Kuletz 1998; McCay and Acheson 1987; Ostrom 1990; Tsing 2001;
Williams 2002). People tend to regulate their own fishing, grazing, hunting, or other
offtake activities.... (Anderson 2006: 10). Yet in Tlingit life there is evidence that a
"tragedy of the commons," as Hardin describes it, occurred when western concepts of
private property and profit were imposed upon Native groups.
The United States historic legal and economic trend has been toward private
property rights as the principal solution to a "tragedy of the commons," and this trend
was extended through ANCSA and in fisheries management with individual fishing
285
quotas and other management tools. Weinstein (2000) is among those who outlined
another workable solution. He emphasized the possibilities for community-based
management of fisheries by using examples of Northwest Coast Native social systems
and the Japanese solution to inshore fisheries management. The Japanese example
disproves the inevitability of "the tragedy of the commons" in a modernized, capitalistic,
profit-focused economic and legal system. Weinstein suggested that there are alternatives
to incorporating or privatizing property ownership, or to the centralization of fisheries
resource management, resource extraction, and resource laws. The same is possible for
land-based resources.
"Non-tragic" community-based management would require changes in legal,
economic, environmental, and geographic assumptions that were partly formulated and
exacerbated through the seventeeth to eightenth centuries in the United States. With the
creation of industrial textile mills on the east coast, laws began to favor corporation
ideology and transformed from an older understanding of "common law" ideologies to
competitive individualistic and top-down management ideologies. Weinstein used
Northwest Coast and Japanese examples to show that models for community, local
management exist. Successful examples of long-enduring, self-governing common
property have certain features in common, according to Weinstein. These examples deal
effectively with the core problem of self-management of common property, which is
opportunism, or the tendency for people to prioritize personal benefits to the detriment of
other people and the environment.
Becker and Ostrom (1995) proposed, after examining hundreds of case studies,
that groups who successfully self-govern their common property typically have social
systems that include features discussed in the following section. These features are
outlined in Weinstein (2000:381-382).
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Features of successful common property management
1. Clearly defmed boundaries: Access rights to a certain territory are well
understood so that "outsiders" and "free-riders" can be controlled.
2. Long-tenn investment and commitment by community members: Such
investment requires that people believe they are receiving benefits (not
necessarily profits) from their contributions.
3. Clear understanding of who has the right to change the rules: In successful
examples of community-based management, changes to rules were limited to
the members ofthe community, those who would be affected by the changes.
In a top-down management style, there will always be people who feel
justified in breaking the rules.
4. Monitoring ofbiological, physical and other geographic information:
Collecting information useful to the community ofusers.
5. Enforcement of the rules and sanctions when the rules are broken: Violations
will always exist. In successful community-based management systems, the
sanctions are graduated according to the nature of the violation and the
number ofviolations. Eventually violators might lose common property
rights. I2
6. Conflict resolution: In many successful examples, community leaders resolve
conflict.
7. Recognition of the legitimacy of the self-management system by governing
authorities and by other resource users. Community-based management
cannot be successful if it is in conflict with governmental, legal management
or with other resource users.
Pre-contact Tlingit social systems encompassed all seven self-management
features. Weinstein described how the current inshore community-based fisheries
management systems in Japan also contain the above self-management features. 13
12 In traditional Tlingit laws trespassers and violators knew that they might be killed or, at the least,
ridiculed (Oberg 1973).
13 Weinstein (2002) wrote that although the Japanese have a questionable record in many areas of fisheries
management, the inshore community-based record goes back thousands of years and a similar community-
based management strategy appears to be a sustainable livelihood success story. At the end of the
nineteenth century, Japan began to restructure its economic system to model western management methods.
In keeping with the western model, Japan changed its laws so that the national government would own the
fisheries and instead of limiting access in the local inshore fishery to fishing communities, access was
opened to outsiders. The result was economic, environmental, and geographic chaos. At the turn of the
twentieth century, Japan rescinded the new laws and reinstated community-based fisheries. A set of
287
ANCSA is an example of imposing western legal assumptions about property and
environment onto groups ofpeople in ways that are contradictory to local legal strategies
and values that protected sustainable livelihood (Tomsen 2002). Now Native Alaskans
are expected to make a profit from some of the same lands on which they practice
"traditional" subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering. If"profit" as a concept were to
be redefmed as encompassing more than material wealth and real estate, and if the social-
relationship-health of community, and the health of environment, and subsistence were
"counted" more seriously in legal and economic definitions, environmental changes
might be less drastic. Such transformations in legal and economic definitions of
community and environmental health would require modifications in legal decision-
making assumptions and political priorities and in values and ideologies concerning
property (Waring 1990,2003).
One way that United States legal discourses have protected the substance of legal
processes from greater consideration of mythical/holistic land relations is through
dichotomization ofjural and holistic understandings. Richard Ford (2001) explains how
the dichotomy manifests itself as discourse in his article "A History of Jurisdiction."
Ford concluded that legal discourse, to some extent, creates the frame for
dialogically opposed modes ofhuman seltbood. Legal processes make other arguments
standard fishery rules was established to create fishing cooperatives that would coordinate the use of
coastal fishing grounds. These were fishing "guilds" whose membership was limited to residency and a
period of fishery apprenticeship. Cooperatives are presently linked in ways that assist communities in
marketing, banking and fisheries technology. Decisions are not based on maximum sustainable yield, but
on what the fishermen are experiencing on the fishing grounds and on scientific assessments. "Govermnent
scientists make some stock assessments and provide recommendations, but fishers also rely on their own
less quantitative readings of the resource to make decisions. Because the fishery has a local territory
structure, any mistakes are borne by the people who make them. This is obviously the most powerful form
of accountability, and it matches well with Ostrom's design principles" (Weinstein 2002:404).Conflict and
competition between fishermen are dealt with by members of socially linked fishing groups and sometimes
through conflict resolution formalities. Solutions come from consensus rather than from delegated
authority. Food, liquor and socialization after conflicts help alleviate bad feelings. People are connected
and committed to a tightly linked social group. Their commitment is long-term and their need for equitable
benefit is addressed.
288
difficult so people find themselves choosing one side of a dichotomy. Having to choose
sides further dichotomizes perceptions ofland and human relations.
In Kake, people often find themselves on one side or another of an increasingly
polarized view oftheir relationships to land, water, and territorial jurisdiction. Those who
are more closely connected with the ANCSA tribal corporation, and often city
government, are more likely to describe landlwaterlhuman relations in synthetic/jural
language frames. Those who are more closely connected with Elders, traditional ways,
and the IRA tribe describe landlwaterlhuman relations more often in organic/holistic
language fi-ames. People in Kake often must choose between a dichotomy of synthetic
versus organic descriptions ofland/water jurisdictions that evolved within formal state
legal processes. The necessity of choosing among limited legal options, that are derived
from a legal system centered on jural definitions of land and jurisdiction, increases local
polarization. A middle ground that would support creative incorporation of
organic/holistic values is difficult when local governing entities are legally tied to the
mandates of state-based offices and agencies. Entities from outside of Kake continue to
put pressure on local property relations. (See appendix C for an overview of state-based
connections with local government.)
The following narrative through which we can better understand local and state
government influences and land-related paradoxes. When I was in Kake in 2004, I heard
the following conversation between a non-Native husband and a Native wife in their
middle years, which illustrates the confusion that results when common lands suddenly
become private lands, but these private lands are "owned" by a collective ofKake Tlingit
people as shareholders. The conversation is about Kake Tribal Corporation ANCSA land.
Husband: Well that's what I was wondering about. What kind of an economy we
could do using natural agriculture that's present here. But again you're not able to
rollover enough of a volume to sustain an economy that would carry even a
family, I don't think, year around. Because before you can go out into the forest
289
here to do these types of things you have to have the blessing of the government
[the USFS], and to remove plant life out ofthat forest is one oftheir no no's.
Fieldworker: Kake Tribal land?
Husband: Oh no, no, no. That's private land. This fall we were out hunting out
there and driving the road. And I had another shareholder in the truck with me,
and we were hunting moose. And the logging manager (non-Native) for Kake
Tribal stopped us and said, "This land is private and it's closed off to you guys.
You cannot hunt here."[Speaker One answered.] "But I'm a shareholder and I'm
married to a shareholder. Don't tell me I don't have a right to hunt this land and to
support our families." [Speaker One quotes the logging manager.] "I'm sorry.
This land is closed. You're to get out ofhere right now. This is it. No hunting."
This is their land. The Natives.
Wife: Did it belong to Sealaska?
Husband: The corporation's land.
Wife: Does it belong to Sealaska?
Husband: Kake Tribal's real estate. Or Sealaska's alike. It doesn't matter.
Wife: What was their excuse for not letting you on there?
Husband: It's private real estate.
Wife: I know there was an excuse before ... there was dynamite here and there.
Husband: We weren't even close to that. That's all the way on the other side of
the mountain.
Wife: Was that their excuse. Did they give you an excuse?
Husband: No. It's just private land. You cannot hunt here. So we just looked at
each other, just laughed, and just kept right on going. You know ifhe would have
pursued us we would have taken another action. We're not going to allow that to
happen.
Wife: Did he do anything?
Husband: No.
Wife: Well what could he do?
Husband: No. What's he going to do? Two guys with guns. Telling them not to
park on the land? (2004 taped conversation)
Although most people in Kake see Kake Tribal Corporation lands as commonly
shared, laws about property ownership shift management, cultural, and inclusive
environmental priorities. Instead ofTlingit people belonging to the land, the land belongs
to a particular legally-defmed group, whose elected representatives decide, within United
States legal priorities, how property use is defmed and how human behavior in relation to
290
the land is determined. One example of land use assumptions came up in 2004 when
United States Homeland Security representatives mandated that the gates into ANCSA
land be closed because there are places where the corporation stores dynamite. By closing
the gates, the federal government was closing access to subsistence resources. One local
man in particular worked hard to explain the situation to federal representatives in order
to get permission to reopen the gates, especially for Elders to pick berries and gather
other resources. Eventually he was able to get permission to re-open the gates.
State-level beliefs about the purposes of land, water and territorial jurisdictions,
imposed top-down onto the local environment, create conditions wherein local people
must try to explain their relationship to land and water. They must do so within
formalized state procedures. They do so for legal decision-makers, many ofwhom have
rarely, if ever, experienced holistic or organic land/human relations in the ways that many
local people experience them.
Boroughs
Kake people have little choice but to participate in legal processes towards
boroughization. Conversations between local and state "actors" are rituals for
working out the elements ofrupture and crisis caused by state law that mandates all
ofAlaska to form regional governments. Because local villages prefer autonomy and
self-government, boroughization directives threaten to further destabilize local
ideological beliefs and assumptions about people and the rest of the environment.
From the perspective ofLBC commissioners and certain legislators, conversations
between local and state "actors" are more about frameworks of "order and
disjuncture." Order is the "ideal world" (regional government formation and
economic "responsibility") that LBC commissioners imagine could exist if groups
followed the "right" social rules and had the "right" beliefs, that is, ifunorganized
291
borough areas would take "responsibility" and organize. Disjuncture comes from the
gap between ideal worlds and social reality, between intention and outcome (Lewis
and Mosse 2006:2).
How could Kake people respond when legislators draft a bill that, ifpassed,
would have forced Kake to form another level ofgovernment with communities on
other islands? In order to empower themselves at all they had to work to define and
evaluate the situation using their own knowledge and ideologies about their inclusive
environment in relation to circumstances which threatened legal changes. Sources of
change (dislocation), physical and ideological, include legal mandates that redefme
local relationships. How people negotiate such dislocations is prejudiced by levels of
power within decision-making contexts.
The circumstances of boroughization
In 2002, Kake and Petersburg faced the possibility ofbeing forced by the state of
Alaska to form borough governments and claim territories around those governments.
Boroughs are similar to counties in the rest of the United States. More than half ofAlaska
is within what is called the unorganized borough. Communities, including Kake and
Petersburg, rely on municipal and tribal governments in unorganized areas. Several state
legislators in urban areas responded to reductions in state revenues by accusing people in
rural areas of not paying their fair share for education. They claimed that people "get
away" with not paying their fair share of taxes because they have yet to be responsible
and form borough governments. During the 2005 legislative session, two legislators
authored a bill that would have required all residents in the rural unorganized borough,
over 21 years of age, to pay $425 per year for education, whether they were employed or
not. According to the 2000 national census, 82 percent of the population living in remote
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rural areas is Alaska Native. This bill excluded people in the urban organized boroughs
from such a head tax because they were more likely to pay property taxes for education.
As in Kake, many rural residents live below the poverty line, often relying heavily
on subsistence hunting and gathering and federal aid programs. Some people in Kake
question poverty statistics by saying that Kake people were not "poor" until outsiders
came in and labeled them as such. Ifpoverty is measured in taxes, Kake has few
resources. Rural areas are surrounded by property that cannot be taxed because it belongs
to Native corporations or federal or state governments. School districts in these areas and
the Alaska state general fund received federal impact money as compensation for the
nontaxability of federal land. However, for people in urban areas, and for several
legislators who represent them, "if the money doesn't come from local pockets, it doesn't
count" (DeMarban 2005: I). The assumption is that rural people in unorganized borough
areas are getting away with "not paying a nickel." Two-thirds of the Native villages (150
of more than 200) recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are located in the
unorganized areas, according to the Local Boundary Commission. These villages were
negatively affected when the state decided to stop sharing revenues with municipalities
and cut the longevity bonus that went to Elders (De Marban 2005).
According to the chairman of the Local Boundary Commission, the $425 head tax
bill was a means of giving people in rural areas an "incentive" to form boroughs
(Anchorage Daily News, March 2005) and begin raising tax money. In 2004 the same
legislators who sponsored the head tax bill authored a bill that would force four regions
to form boroughs ifthe LBC and the legislature determined that they had the resources to
do so. One of those areas included Kake. The bill to force boroughization passed in the
Senate but failed to move in the House, so State Senator Wilkin helped initiate the head
tax bill. The head tax bill also failed. It was aligned with recommendations in the 2005
Local Boundary Commission report to the legislature spelling out the need to pressure
communities to form boroughs. The report recommended that National Forest Receipts
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Fisheries Fees and Taxes be shared only with communities within boroughs as an
incentive for other communities to organize.
During the time I conducted fieldwork, villages, including Kake, were
overwhelmingly against forming boroughs. They preferred to maintain their tribal and
municipal separateness. Most of the lands around Kake are legally untaxable. The small
portions ofproperty owned by individuals have clan and house group history and
ownership, and the mayor at the time of my fieldwork, who was non-Native, said, "I
could never bring to them a borough that would be involved in the collection of property
tax. And the reason is to me it's a moral imperative that I never seek to tax Native people
on their traditional lands. It would be writing a bad chapter in that history book"
(appendix ).
A borough, by law, generates revenues for its own schools and basic services such
as roads. The generation of revenues in most rural areas would likely come from resource
extraction. The Kake mayor voiced the concerns of many when he said, ''Nobody wants
to see what's in back of Kake happen to the rest of Kupreanof or Kuiu [island]. ... I
would never want to see the borough encourage resource development just to generate
funding" (appendix V).
The school superintendent ofKake wrote the following to the Local Boundary
Commission (LBC): "Autonomy is very important to the people ofKake and the
education of their children. This autonomy helps preserve the culture and identity of the
people. It is often difficult for those who do not have strong traditions and ties to Native
lands to understand its power and value to communities and people who have it. These
factors are critical to the successful representation of the people by a government. Until
these factors are recognized in the formation of boroughs, the likelihood of a successful
borough government that will meet the educational and communal needs of the people
will be remote." The superintendent's letter to the LBC is in appendix S.
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Maintaining autonomy and self-determination in Kake is problematic. ANCSA
policy resulted in a deeper reliance on a cash economy. Now the community is in
economic trouble. It lacks the tax base to fund, in entirety, its own educational services.
The city's choice, in the eyes of the state and many outsiders, is to continue "stealing" tax
money and public services, or it can organize a borough with other communities on other
islands, as the LBC proposes, and politically encourage future mining and logging in the
surrounding federal forest areas. The lands allotted within the borough proposed for Kake
and Angoon offer limited economic and taxable value. The mayor said he had no good
adjectives to describe the boundaries of the proposed borough. "Basically it is a proposal
that lacks the land mass, the population and the tax base that is needed to sustain a
regional government. Our local boundary commission actually proposed a borough that
was destined for failure. And I still am puzzled over why they would knowingly do that,
and what mechanism might be involved which would allow them to do that" (appendix
Y).
During my fieldwork, I found that people were resigned to borough formation
because of state pressures. People saw it as something they needed to prepare for because
other communities were "land grabbing" in an attempt to get what they could before
others claimed it as part of their borough territory. Eventually the legislature passed a bill
that limited the amount of land communities could claim within borough boundaries.
In 2006, the city of Hoonah was preparing to petition the Local Boundary
Commission to form a Glacier Bay-Chatham Borough that would include Hoonah, Kake,
Pelican, Elfm Cove, Gustavus, Tenakee Springs, and Angoon. In June 2006 the Pelican
City Council expressed concerns about the fmancial position of communities included in
the proposed borough because of its negative experiences with Kake Tribal Corporation.
Pelican was also concerned that most of the fmancial benefits might accrue to Hoonah,
where borough offices and managers would likely be located.
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Borough conversations are a good venue through which to examine community
discourse, values, and empowerment as influenced by government and corporation
discourse.
Discourse examples
In order to examine how discourses about boroughization compare with and
influence each other, I collected examples from legislators and agency
representatives who support boroughization and local people who oppose it. I
collected letters from Kake written to the LBC stating the point of view of the city,
the tribe, the school superintendent, and the tribal corporation. These narrative
examples are included in full in appendices M to Z. Below is a list of the examples
that are the basis 0 f discourse interpretation and evaluation throughout this case
study.
A collection of conversations for comparison
1) State Senator Gary Wilkin's speech to the State Affairs Committee, March 2004.
(Appendix M)
2) Alaska LBC Director Darroll Hargraves' speech to the State Affairs Committee,
March 2004. (Appendix N)
3) LBC 2005 report to the state legislature (segments). (Appendix P)
4) City of Kake 2003 letter to LBC. (Appendix Q)
5) Kake Tribal Corporation 2003 letter to LBC. (Appendix R)
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6) Kake School Superintendent 2003 letter to LBC via the City of Kake. (Appendix
S)
7) Organized Village ofKake (IRA tribe) 1998,2003 letters to LBC. (Appendices T-
X)
8) Kake Mayor Paul Reese's speech to the City ofKupreanof Council, 2003
(segments). (Appendix Y)
9) City of Hoonah's 2006 borough proposal draft (segment). (Appendix Z)
To better understand some of the state discourse frames and the "feelings" around
which boroughization is evaluated, I include some conversations transcribed from an
October 2003 State Senate Affairs Committee workshop. Most of the communities
targeted in Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 (SCR12) for mandatory boroughization were
Native villages. Someone asked Senator Wilkin during the workshop how tribal
governments fit into borough decision making. Wilkin brushed aside the question saying
he didn't know much about "that tribal thing" but that tribal questions were already being
worked on. He said,
... if you go out and you look at these four areas [the areas SCR12 has
identified for possible mandatory boroughization], and let's just say
that one of them can't support government. You go down the
checklist and you say, nope, nope, nope they don't fit. What we do is
we fmd the strong and we ask them to incorporate through a plan,
which you'll see a timeline here, and when that's fmished then you
look to see what's left. What areas of the state need the efforts of all
of the state to bring them, so the next generation to corne along,
they're able to incorporate. They have the wealth; they have the
economic value to help themselves through a common voice. So, we
separate, with SCR 12, the strong from the weak. We have to start to
look at the weak. What do we do over the next couple ofgenerations
to get the areas of the state that can't today help themselves? It's a
concentration of efforts. It's a rising tide that lifts all boats. And I
think that's what we're trying to do here. (Transcript of meeting.)
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Senator Wilkin's speeches and answers to committee questions are narratives that
"instruct" his audience. His audience in these examples is ordinarily other members of
the state legislature and representatives from various state agencies. He is telling people
how they should feel about the borough situation, but he has learned how he "ought" to
feel and what he should teach based on his own experiences of emotion/feeling in the
social context of the legislature. He tells a narrative that "fits" the larger system in which
he is participating so that he can maintain his identity in that system. Wilkin's identity
and the larger system are never fixed, and neither are his narratives. In 2005 his narrative
will have changed. Instead of asking the legislature to consider requiring communities to
form boroughs, he proposed that people living in the unorganized areas pay a mandatory
head tax. The head tax or "sledge hammer" as he put it, would encourage responsible
behavior towards taxation and boroughization.
Some of the "feelings" that can be inferred or identified in Wilkin's resolution,
supported by more than 40 percent of state legislators, include:
Taxation for school funding in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and other
organized areas is unfair ifpeople in unorganized areas remain untaxed for their
schools.
People who fail to pay taxes if they have enough to do so are irresponsible.
Only boroughs, first class cities, or home rule cities can tax so everyone needs to
be under the jurisdiction of one of these entities.
People can support boroughs if they utilize their regional governments to promote
economic development.
Strength means good economic development.
Weakness means poor economic development.
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Ifpeople fail to conform to the constitution they should be forced to bring about
fairness and equality.
The feelings of supporters of the resolution were part of their ideology. The fact that
some people live without regional government was considered a disjuncture in that it ran
contrary to what many SCRl2 supporters considered "normal" behavior. A caprice is
linked to a moment of unexpected dislocation at the political level. In this case, Alaska
funding sources were decreasing. People were faced with decisions that caused a rupture
in a "normalized" order of things. One way to "fill" a rupture is to try and uphold the
normal order, in this case to demand that others contribute more to it. Ideologies about
how government, economics, and taxation should work (the ideal world) were challenged
by decreasing resources. But the system could still be seen as "truth" if everyone did their
share to uphold the ideologies (the disjuncture that needed fixing). In order to enforce
compliance, Wilkin identified the groups he and his compatriots decided were outside the
"normal" order. In a sense he was saying that ifpeople in the unorganized borough
participated more fully in government, economics, and taxation, the same way that urban,
organized Alaskans did, then "truth" could be upheld and the rupture fixed. Thus, he
accused unorganized communities of causing unfairness and inequality because of their
lack of compliance with his and his compatriots' ideologies.
Wilkin demonstrated in his speech how signifiers that help defme the "normalized
order" become attached to that which caused disorder and that which will bring back
order in the face of disorder.
Wilkin: Mr. Chairman, the best government is the government closest to the
people. And there are areas of our state that are called out ... that are being
called upon to contribute and help with education. And I think in these
budget times, and I think as a matter of fairness, that as a fiscal issue, and that
is obviously the dollars that would flow to the treasury and enable us to pay
for education. (See appendix M)
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a. Best government is a signifier that ties the past "normalized order" with that which
dislocates it-budget times.
b. That which will fix budget times and repair the "normalized order" is contribution
(through forming borough governments that can raise tax money).
c. Contribution and help (through borough taxation) is aligned as a signifier with fairness.
Fairness and contribution are aligned with good government.
d. Good government is closest to the people (borough governments).
e. Good government acquires a new meaning as aligned with borough government.
Domination, through hegemonic belief systems, factors into how much a group
can influence changes in other people around them to preserve the integrity of their own
ideologies. In this case, two key reference points are the signifiers "fairness" and
"equality." Legislators in favor of SCR 12 attach their own beliefs about fairness and
equality to the two terms as they are used within the state constitution and then to the
current issues of who pays taxes and who does not. They connect older applications of
fairness and equality with words that describe people in unorganized areas strictly
through the issues of taxation and schools. People in unorganized areas are forced to
respond. As a result, their more localized conceptual ideological boundaries are
challenged. They must respond, at least in part, "as if' taxation and boroughization are or
are not fair and equal practices and systems, just as people must respond "as if' land is
property that is legally and synthetically owned.
As in the Department ofTransportation case study in section three, I used Atlas.ti,
a qualitative discourse analysis software program, to assist analysis in this case study. I
examined Wilkin's speech for references to community and environment. In general I
found that communities were referred to primarily within the following categories,
employment statistics, geographic location, capacity for local government, population
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statistics, school districts, and the caring on a local level that comes about through writing
checks to help fund education. The environment was referred to only in terms ofplace
names, and the borough boundaries of regions, and areas. Chapter 12 will provide more
analytic detaiL Here it is important to include information about the Kake economy as a
reference point to Wilkin's claims that Kake and Angoon would appear to have economic
resources to pay for their own schools.
Even before the closure ofKake's fish processing plant and logging enterprises,
the 1999 CCTHITA14 Native Census Count reported that 69.3 percent ofNative
households in Kake lived below the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services
(USHHS) poverty leveL U.S. Census data for Year 2000 showed 248 employed residents.
The unemployment rate at that time was 24.85 percent, although 49.49 percent ofall
adults were not in the work force. The median household income was $39,643, or 69
percent ofthe median Alaskan income. According to U.S. Census for 2000, 14.61 percent
of all residents were living below the poverty leveL That compares with a 1999
CCTHITA report that 29.4 percent ofNative persons were unemployed with an average
Native household income of$23,773. At that time the population was 745 persons. In
2008 the Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs reported Kake's
population to be 536 persons.
In 2006, Kake collected a total of$173,040 primarily in sales taxes (appendix
BB). The city collects no property taxes because most of the land in the area is federally
or state owned, or is part ofthe tribal corporation. The city avoids collecting taxes on the
small amount ofprivately owned property in its jurisdiction partly because several of
those properties belong to multi-generational families and clans. The lands were part of
family groups and clans long before property taxes became a revenue producing strategy
in Alaska.
14 CCTHITA refers to the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
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The reasons that Kake avoids taxing private property are without "official" merit
from a state perspective. In a January 24,2006 Senate Finance Committee meeting,
legislators discussed how education contribution requirements were determined for
boroughs, fIrst class cities, and home rule cities. IS Full Value Determination (FVD) is
used to compare the wealth that different municipalities have available through taxation.
Some boroughs and cities in addition to Kake do not levy property taxes, but the amount
that they could raise from property taxes is still fIgured into the formula. The following
quote comes from a handout that Co-Chair Wilkin gave the committee. His offIce
developed the handout titled "Required Local Contribution for Schools, Residents of Six
First Class Cities, Elected Alternate Method of Payment-Not by Property Tax."
The FVD for each municipality is based 'on the full value of all the taxable
property within their boundaries.' That value is utilized by the Department of
Education and Early Development to calculate the municipality's four-mill l6
equivalency education contribution. (Meeting transcription)
Wilkin's handout depicted the Mandatory Education Contribution (MEC) based
on the FVD of Galena, Kake, Hoonah, St. Mary's, Hydaburg, and Tanana. Wilkin said
the assessed values ofproperty in those cities have remained flat from FY 95 to FY 06,
15 Sec. 29.04.010. Home rule. A home rule municipality is a municipal corporation and political
subdivision. It is a city or a borough that has adopted a home rule charter, or it is a unified municipality. A
home rille municipality has all legislative powers not prohibited by law or charter. (§ 3 ch 74 SLA 1985)
The powers and duties of a city, particularly a home-rule or first class city, are greatly affected by whether
it is inside or outside an organized borough. For example, state law requires each home rule and first class
city outside an organized borough to operate a city school. (AS 29.35.260) In contrast, no city within a
borough may operate a school district. Additionally, each home rule and first class city outside an
organized borough must exercise the powers ofplanning, platting, and land use regulation. In comparison,
cities within boroughs may exercise planning, platting, and land use regulation powers if the borough
delegates those powers to the city. (AS 29.35.250) Beyond the noted requirements for education, planning,
platting, and land use regulation, state law does not require cities to provide any particular service or
facility. (Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs Web site:
http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dcraiLOGON/muni/muni-cityinc.htm)
16 A mill is a per dollar tax rate of assessed value ofproperty. One mill is one-tenth of a cent or $0.001.
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and he recommended that the state assessor visit those areas to better review property
values.
Wilkin's handout demonstrates a particular view ofland as taxable or untaxable
property. His assumptions about land fit into a jural understanding ofland as an owned
object. Property, according to this view, is something that is separate from its owner and
which can be bought and sold. In this worldview, " ... there is nothing intrinsically
personal between a property and its current owner" (Abramson 2000:13, 14). Owners
have land rights because oflaws and laws defme ownership boundaries. Wilkin's
handout gives little or no consideration to the reasons that Kake people do not tax private
property, reasons which are often rooted in what Abramson calls mythical land relations.
"Mythical" does not mean untrue. "Mythical" describes the somatic, personal, and
spiritual links that people have to land that often (but not always) extend back for many
generations through their ancestors. Mythical refers to an "organic intimacy" that people
have with their places (Abramson 2000:9).
It seems that mythical land owns its people rather than vice versa and that
these same people work very hard to ensure that their subsumption to the land
and its ancestors, and their stewardship ofthe connections between them,
holds firm against the official objectifications oflaw and property (Abramson
2000:8-9).
One Kake Tlingit woman talked about subsumption to the land and marine
environment through stewardship and respect.
... to us everything has life. Everything, the air, the forest, and the ocean.
Everything. There's always a ritual that people go through whenever they
take something. And we only take what we use, and we thank where we got
it, the area that we got it from. And it's always been that way from time
immemorial. And that's why we always say we'll never lose anything
because we show our appreciation to that food or item that we've taken. And
that's the way it's always been. (2003 taped interview).
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IfWilkin's handout and LBC descriptions of land specifically acknowledged some of
Kake people's more personal understanding ofland relations, how might boroughization
proposals be reframed?
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CHAPTER XII
SPACE AND PLACE IN BOROUGH DISCOURSES
Now, see, this was my family's tribal house, although this isn't it. This is the site of it. It
was where the family home sat. The killer whale. Then they had the first one was built
right about here someplace. And this was the second killer whale house. It was called the
yellow cedar house. This one is the house that always rumbled. I don't know why. Maybe
there was a lot ofkids in there. ... But they said the lake was right here. This was a high
sand dune. It was right about here. They built a little boardwalk street down here. ...
There was a lake that extended all the way to this side of the community. It stayed that
way to before I began to remember things. I barely remember the remains of that street.
(2003 taped conversation with Elder Tlingit man driving through the older part ofKake)
Andyou know, but that logging was taught to us, I would say. You know it was brought in
before the land claims. And it was already being logged and stripped down. And the
young guys were being trained as loggers, and there was big money in it. And all the
sudden, well we could do it too. And then, given the opportunity by being given the land,
they did it. And they did it blindly. (2003 taped interview with younger Tlingit man)
Power through concepts of space and place
While conflicts over boroughization are historical and political, they are also
about the meanings humans attach to places and spaces. Definitions of "space" and
"place", as aspects ofhuman relationships with the physical world, are varied and
complex. As a way to examine the dissimilarities between how state representatives
discuss the non-human world and how people in Kake describe it, I am partial to the
ways Ingold (2000:192) differentiated space and place. In space, Ingold wrote, meanings
are attached to the world. In place, meanings are drawn from it through experience and
dwelling. Songs, stories, artwork, and social relationships are inter-representations of the
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country and they help instruct learners about what to find in a place (Ingold 2000;
Wollock 2001 :250-251). Lucy Lippard (1997) wrote that place is seen from the inside,
and landscape (or space) is seen from the outside. Place is the resonance of a specific
location that is known and familiar. Resonance is entwined with personal memory,
histories, and marks made on the land that provoke and evoke memory. Place is about
connections that include histories and stories about what happened in a location, and
anticipation about what will happen there. "A lived-in landscape becomes a place, which
implies intimacy" (Lippard 1997:7-8).
The intimacy ofplace is never fixed or separate from space and other places.
Intimacy is relative to the meanings and experiences of life and dwelling. People come to
new places as additions to existing "hybridity", according to Lippard. When new people
and new conversations enter a place, it is changed and its people are changed through
sharing knowledge and identities. Relationships to the non-human aspects ofplace are
also changed in the process (Lippard 1997). Place boundaries are always somewhat fluid
and changing, but in some places the existing human attachments are older than others,
passed on and enduring through many human generations.
Those ofus who are used to living in what Harvey (1990a) called a speed up in
time-space compression forget that places still exist where people remain most or all of
their lives and where time is slower than it is in the city. Harvey wrote about time-space
compression as the tendency for "capitalist modernization to be very much about speed-
up and acceleration in the pace of economic processes and, hence, social life" (Harvey
1990a:230). The purpose of this speed-up is to accelerate "the turnover time of capital"
which is comprised of the "time of production together with the time of circulation of
exchange" (Harvey 1990a:229). In this process, the rapidity of time annihilates the
barriers of space. As Harvey puts it, "innovations dedicated to the removal of spatial
barriers ... have been of immense significance in the history of capitalism, turning that
history into a very geographical affair-the railroad and the telegraph, the automobile,
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radio and telephone, the jet aircraft and television, and the recent telecommunications
revolution are cases in point" (Harvey 1990a:232). Such modernization has served to
make the world a smaller place.
Since the 1970s there has been a speed-up of connections between disparate
markets and the creation of a world market that includes global producers and global
consumers. Time-space compression translates from quick turnover in production and
circulation of services and products into a social emphasis on the virtues of instantaneity
and the dynamics of throwaway society. People often learn impermanence. Ifeverything
is replaceable, then it is okay to throwaway values, lifestyles, stable relationships and
other attachments. Individuals, communities and governments are less likely to engage in
long-term planning when short-term planning is the dominant and more lucrative
strategy.
In Kake, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) fostered a sudden
time-space compression, and the results were socially devastating in a place where family
and cooperation were (and are) still paramount. Within 30 years the "transformative and
speculative logic of capital" (Harvey 1990:343) had reconstructed Kake for the purpose
ofproduction and short-term capital gains, and then deconstructed and abandoned Kake
as global capital moved on to some place where gains could be improved. The one
positive outcome, as Harvey discussed, is that once places such as Kake have gone
through capital-based deconstruction, people have the experience to better weather future
reconstructions and to have historical knowledge to resist future changes that are not in
their best interest. In Kake, enough people have stayed in the village most of their lives to
pass on narratives about what happened when the land became a source for boom and
bust resource extraction.
In many places in the United States and elsewhere in the world, people take
moving for granted. They change their locations as global capital projects "move on."
Memory of deconstruction necessitates common history ofa place that can be compared
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with current events. To resist future deconstruction requires that narratives ofattachment
to place and people are shared with a community of others and that the memory of past
deconstruction is passed on in that place. In Kake, people's shared memories are long.
They have access to knowledge about times before and after deconstruction.
Kake knowledge is replete with regretful reflection about ANCSA business
strategies. Now the stories about what happened during the ANCSA years are being
reproduced and co-narrated in ways that will situate what people learned within local
ideological frames, ideologies that have been changed through the experience itself.
Partly because of their shared memory of the ANCSA years, Kake people have
some interesting advantages for implementation of sustainable economic strategies. They
continue to value place-bound identities. Many families share historical continuity with
each other, with their island village, and with ties to other Southeast Alaska people. They
still have the social capacity to teach newcomers about that continuity, if they so choose.
To have remnants of hundreds of years oflocal knowledge and stories still available to
bring meaning to community connections can be a luxury in this world where people are
increasingly caught up in flexible accumulation and temporariness of relationships and
place. Many people in Kake say they will never leave. They intend to keep their village
home. In that sense they are empowered through their connection to place.
As Harvey said, connection to place is an important component of group
empowerment because, "if no one knows their place in this shifting collage world, then
how can a secure social order be fashioned or sustained?" (Harvey 1990:302). Whether
or not state-based decision makers will foster support for Kake inclusive environmental
connections and historical continuity remains to be seen.
Kake's local knowledge about dealing with the transformative global capital
system is not only shared in duration, but it is the kind ofknowledge that Casey
(1993: 17) wrote is experiential "in the manner of 'lived experience' rather than of already
elapsed experience that is the object of analytical or abstract knowledge." In contrast,
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when people whose identities and experiences are unconnected with a particular place
make abstract and analytic legal decisions about such a place, they are applying meanings
to it as though it were space or landscape. Ifpeople who are intimately connected with a
place respond to those applications, they influence the legal decision-makers through the
information they disclose about their place. The extent ofplace-based influence is
dependent upon the space-based decision-makers' experiences within their own places
and also upon their willingness to hear and listen. As I discussed in chapters 9 and 10, to
build a road connecting Kake to the national highway system is to initiate what most
Kake people say they do not want. To articulate Kake people's desires in Harvey's and
my words, most people in Kake do not want an increased annihilation of space and time
barriers, a guaranteed increase in time-space compression, and further loss ofvalued
autonomy.
In the discourse examples presented in appendices M, N, and P, Alaska Local
Boundary Commission (LBC) state agency actors and legislative sponsors of
boroughization resolution SCR12 used signifiers that described the human and nonhuman
environment in the unorganized borough impersonally, or as being part of a
space/landscape. Equalizing standards and expectations (meanings attached to space
rather than derived from it) were applied to the whole of the unorganized borough in
ways that simplified and objectified the human and non-human environment as legal and
economic space. Instead ofusing signifiers that gave local people and place personhood,
state texts and discourses generally attributed personhood to state decision-making
bodies, agencies, committee members, and text-artifacts such as the LBC 2001 and 2002
reports to the state legislature. In contrast, Kake discourses, appendices Q through Y,
perhaps with the exception of correspondence from Kake Tribal Corporation, attributed
personhood to the local community as well as to a larger local environment or territory.
They described some of the meanings that local people derive from place, including
identities, food, and relationships with the inclusive environment.
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Of course not all local knowledge and meanings come directly from human and
non-human entities located in a particular place. Kake speakers, as do all persons,
attribute individual and collective meanings to the world around them, and many of those
meanings are learned elsewhere and via the media. Still, the meanings and knowledge
that local people derive from places outside of 10cally-based personal experiences are
melded with and have close connections with the information people receive from their
immediate social and physical place in the world. Significantly, state representatives
receive most of their "place" and "space" information from their own immediate
environments rather than from the localities to which they attribute equalizing standards
and expectations, especially meanings in a financial and legal sense.
Time is another factor. Kake people's knowledge is situated in hundreds and
probably thousands of years of place-based southeast Alaska experiences. Many
historical experiences are passed on through narrative. In examining state
representative/agency biographies, Wilkin and Hargraves, for example, lack long-term
human and non-human environmental experience on Kupreanof Island. They lack
experience to understand the significance of their assertions and actions on community
processes that might be conducive to environmental integrity, sustainable livelihood, and
human commitment to people and place in Kake.
The point is not that Wilkin and Hargraves must have personal experience in
Kake. Rather, the point is to question whether anyone attempting large-scale social
engineering is adequately equipped to make wide, sweeping decisions about diverse local
environments and their people. James Scott lays out several elements of statecraft
(1998:1-8) that help situate Wilkin's and Hargraves expectations towards Kake. First,
legislative and state agency leaders tend to make situations and people easier to "read" by
putting them into general categories. As Scott pointed out, in order to make sweeping
decisions and policies, descriptions of the environment have to be simplified so that it is
easier to manage. Description of community must be simplified for the sake of easier
310
management. The complexities of the world have to be summarized in general, simplified
terms for the sake of efficiency and brevity. Simplification and generalization creates the
means for large-scale social engineering and homogenization.
A major question in this study is how large-scale simplifications and
generalizations about community, people, and place, influence the local narratives that
socialize moral codes and attachment to community and environment. In this case study,
Wilkin and Hargraves, for example, expect people to answer questions about
boroughization within the same simplified and generalized categories established in state
documents as measurement criteria. The goal of state actors is economic development,
often in ways that are unsustainable over the long term, such as mineral and oil
extraction.
In seeking answers to climate change and depleting resources, it is important to
ask if state discourses impede environmental problem solving by contributing to what
Ford (2001) called dichotomization of land relations and perceptions. Legal property
jurisdiction is a discourse, a way of speaking and understanding the social world. Legal
property jurisdiction rules allow particular types of arguments. When government actors
want to impose legal and territorial jurisdictions upon people to serve institutional
purposes, U.S. legal discourses lead them to describe their projects in "synthetic" terms
such as "jobs, freedom, market exchange, progress, growth," etc. (Ford 2001: 204-207).
In order to defend against changes to their places and communities, people are compelled
to speak in opposition to the synthetic arguments. They are often influenced, through
legal discourse frames, to speak in "organic" terms, including "authenticity, tradition,
legacy," etc. (Ford 2001 :208-209).
Considering the role ofland use laws, codes and 'official' language in
dichotomization of land use debates that results in dichotomization of land use
perceptions, how do boroughization goals and mandates influence local attachments to
place and people? Allowing for the discursive parameters ofboroughization, how might
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jurisdictional changes enhance or detract from features of a community that are important
for working towards sustainable livelihood? (Ostrom 1990). Part of the answer is linked
with the formal, legal decision-making processes expected in borough government.
Decision-making rules generally reflect land and property ideologies belonging to the
people who design the rules.
Discourses applied to space and derived from place
So far, I have described, identified and illustrated social elements important to a
community's capacity toward successful sustainable livelihood. In chapters 12, 13, and
14, I analyze discourse segments in appendices M through Z for signifiers or references
to many of the previously discussed ideological conditions that are important for
community socialization and implementation of local values, standards, and emotional
commitment toward place and people. Each discourse segment has been evaluated for
signifiers that indicate human personhood, systems personhood, spatial personhood,
references to space, place or environment, references to sources ofdecision making and
references to emotional attachment of people to place and to other people. This chapter
summarizes a comparison of signifiers that refer to space, place and environment.
Remember that in space, meanings are attached to a landscape through looking at it from
the outside. In place, meanings are drawn (derived) from a landscape through experience
and dwelling (Ingold 2000).
The following tables, l2A to 12H, summarize and abbreviate the quantitative and
qualitative search for signifiers and phrases connected with references to the non-human
environment. Each transcript was analyzed sentence by sentence using the qualitative
analytic tool Atlas.ti. Sentences and phrases were compiled and categorized in order to
compare discursive patterns and content. Following are the results of comparing
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discursive references to the non-human environment. When the "landscape" was referred
to unspecifically, in generalized categories, and without personalized understanding of or
connection to land or water or livelihood resources, then I categorized the reference as an
example of attaching meaning to landscape, or space-making. When the landscape was
referred to specifically and as something known, I categorized the reference as an
example of drawing meaning from landscape, or place-making. When local people spoke
or wrote in response to LBC and legislative borough proposals, they generally referenced
state attached meanings, or space making, and then challenged them through describing
local derived meanings, or place making. I categorized these local answers as discourse
that included applied and derived environmental meanings.
In review, Tlingit people saw (see) themselves as part of their inclusive
environment and not the dominant force. Many westerners (and some Kake people)
understand themselves as separate from "nature" and the environment primarily as a
source ofresources to harvest, sell, and buy. (See chapter 6)
Table 12A. Wilkin. Meanings derived/applied to non-human
environment. State Senator Gary Wilkin, 2004 speech to the Senate Affairs
Committee. (See appendix M)
313
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space makin2 meanin2s.
Nearly everything in this Legal, economic, • Unorganized areas of our state ...
example constitutes references to state- • Do they have similar geographies? (towns
meaning attached to the created text-artefacts. that could form a borough)
non-human environment. • Organized Alaska, unorganized Alaska.
• Seven areas have been identified that
would have the capacity to support local
government.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate
with the environment: derived meanings.
Place makin2
Few references. • No examples found.
Table 12B. Hargraves. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment. 2003
to 2007 LBC Chairman Darron Hargraves, 2004 speech to the Senate Affairs Committee.
(See appendix N)
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space makin2 meanin2s.
Nearly everything in this Legal, economic, • The Chatham Region is identified as
example constitutes references to state- meeting the standards for borough
meaning attached to the created text-artefacts. incorporation.
non-human environment • Glacier Bay is identified as meeting the
standards for borough incorporation.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate
with the environment: derived meanings.
Place making
Few references. • No examples found.
Table 12C. LBC report. Meanings derived/applied to non-human
environment. LBC 2005 report segments. (See appendix P)
314
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space makin2 meanin2s.
Nearly everything in this Legal, economic, • A modem system that would serve the
example constitutes references to state- diverse areas of Alaska efficiently and
meaning attached to the created artefacts. effectively.
non-human environment. Boundaries, tax • Alaska is the only state with no local
valuation, and other government for a large geographical part
agency-measuring of the state.
codes.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate
with the environment: derived meanings.
Place makin2
Few references. • No examples found.
Table 12D. Hoonah. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment.
Hoonah's 2006 borough proposal (See appendix Z)
315
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
80ace making meanings.
Proposal writers speak to Benefits of boroughs • Joining several traditional Tlingit areas
the meanings that such as, funding and people together under the umbrella of
legislators and LBC schools, taxing resource one regional government would create a
representatives applied to extraction, access to strong Alaska Native voice in this part of
the non-human federal forest receipt Southeast Alaska.
environment.
-
monies, inevitability of • ... many have not forgiven the state LBC
boroughs, creating a for assigning this piece of their traditional
stronger regional voice territory and island to Juneau for
by sharing government. government purposes.
• ... to ensure that we end up in a borough
with Glacier Bay, the traditional territory
of Tlino-it from our community.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate
with the environment: derived meanings.
Place making
Several references. Historic and cultural • ... continued ability of residents to
connections, customary engage in subsistence harvesting and
and traditional hunting gathering activities.
and gathering, • Angoon residents have very strong
preventing others from historic and cultural ties to this area.
dictating local
• Fish processing: Hoonah, Kake,
relationships with the Gustavus, Pelican ...
non-human
environment,
Table 12E. City of Kake. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment.
City of Kake 2003 letter to LBC. (See appendix Q)
316
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space makin2 meanin2s.
Mayor and council Refers to geographic, • ... boundaries would serve the goals and
speak to state-applied financial, and other intentions of the Commission.
meanings, but they offer LBC goals. • A borough that would serve the geographic,
an alternative proposal financial, and cultural, and social components
and map. of this discussion.
• ... its position that no borough be formed in
and or around the Municipality or the
traditional lands of Kake without the
expressed consent and endorsement of its
peoples.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate
with the derived meanings.
environment: Place
makin2
Substantial references to Long history on • ... and whereas, the community has also been
local relationships to the traditional lands, associated with and intimately connected with
non-human intimate connection, its traditional lands ..
environment. traditional activities,
• .. lands used by its people for those traditionalpeople's livelihoods, activities such as hunting, fishing, and
etc. gathering related to the lively hood of the
people.
317
Table 12F. Kake school. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment. Kake
School Distlict 2003 letter to the city, (See appendix S).
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space makin2 meanin2s.
The school (State) boundary • No borough that fails to consider the
superintendent speaks to options fail to give traditional territory of the Kake Tlingit
state-applied meanings respect, fail to people will be successful in meeting the
by refuting them. consider traditional educational and cultural needs of the people.
territory, ties to Native [Meaning in this sentence is also place
lands unrecognized. making.]
• The LBC has a very difficult task in that it is
impracticable for a small commission with
limited resources to set up and judge proper
boundaries for groups within a state as large
and diverse as Alaska.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate
with the derived meanings.
environment: Place
makin2
A derived meaning Rich history and • None of these options give sufficient respect
thread runs throughout culture, home to to the culture or original lands considered
the letter. Tlingit people, ties to home to the Kake TlingiL people.
lands, etc. • It is often difficult for those who do not have
the strong traditions and ties to Native lands
to understand its power and value to the
communities ... [Meaning in these sentences
also speak to the applied meanings of state
actors.]
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Table 12G. OVK. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment. Organized
Village of Kake (lR-'\. Tribe) 2003 letter to LBC'.
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space makine: meanine:s.
OVK council speaks to Local documentation of • Besides the tribe's history, which we will
state-applied meanings boundaries, State of present in this document, we wish to go
by establishing itself as Alaska documentation, on record that the Organized Village of
having authority through development of boroughs, Kake, under its mandate to serve its
historical claim and governmental citizens, must object to any borough
utilization, Native responsib ilities, etc. boundarY or other action that will
authority, and state legal infringe upon Kake's traditional
documentation. boundaries.
• The above governmental responsibilities
continue in today"s world, the same as
they applied since time immemorial as
the Kake Indians utilized and rightfullY
claimed the lands and waters of our area
as their homeland. [Meanings in these
sentences imply place-making, but they
also speak to or answer state
jurisdictional expectations about borough
territories.]
Meanings derived Types of signifiers Examples.
from a relationship that indicate derived
with the meanings.
environment: Place
makine:
Substantial references. Identity, relationship to • Humans are just one small part of the
land, sea, and it's land and of nature and not the dominant
resources, sustenance, force..
well-being, harvest, • We draw our identity from our
owned in common, living relationship to the land. sea, and its
in harmony, spiritual, resourc~.
sacred trust, etc.
• Tlingit ownership wasa sacred trust.
• On these lands and waters. we, as did our
forefathers, harvest in the measured
9J!i!.ntities, what is needed to sustain
ourselves; being careful not to
unnecessarily disturb or destroy anything
not required for our sustenance and
physical well being.
Table 12H. Kakc mayor. Meanings derived/applied to non-human environment.
Kake mayor's speech to the City of Kupreanof, 2003. (See appendix Y)
319
Meanings applied to Types of signifiers Examples.
the environment: used to apply
Space maldn!! meanin!!s.
The mayor speaks to Forced into boroughs, • The constitution mandates partitioning
state-applied meanings criteria for boroughization, the state into boroughs.
by outlining how cities. diminished support to • . .. there would be a land mass that
organizing together, rural Alaska, proposal to would make a lot of sense ...
might work around state incorporate, annexation, • ... we would forever lay to rest any
priorities. land mass. population, etc. consideration of the annexation by the
City of Petersburg. which is exactly why
I'm here.
Meanings derived Types of signifiers that Examples.
from a relationship indicate derived
with the meanings.
environment: Place
maldn!!
Only a few references, Prevention of exploitative • Are we going to harvest ~sources?
mostly in conversations mining and logging, • Not even people in Kake want to see
about preventing a raising school funds in what's on the back of Kake happen to
borough government ways that are less the rest of Kupreanof.
from over harvesting its dependent upon over • Kake has been very vocally opposed to
natural resources. harvesting of resources, those sales (logging) taking place, as
etc. proposed by the Forest Service.
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To summarize, the non-human environment was "placed" in discourses belonging
to the City of Kake, OVK, the Kake school superintendent, the Hoonah borough
proposaL and, to a smaller degree, in the mayor's KupreanofCity Council presentation.
In contrast, state representatives generally "attached" meanings to the organized and
unorganized boroughs. Attached meanings were derived primarily from mainstream legal
and economic preferences and were affixed as generalities to a large geographic area of
Alaskan "places," making them "spaces." In the discourse samples from Kake, people
referred to state actors' attached meanings in order to explain their inadequacy in the
local context.
Kake's mayor, speaking to the city council ofKupreanofin 2003, outlined how
local people might work around borough legal restraints.
None of us really wants a borough and in Kake we thought it would be to our
advantage to try to, if we have to go there, and we do, to (organize)
something that would serve our communities as effectively as possible, and
plus maintain our way of life. A second class borough would serve that more
effectively than the full blown borough considerations like you see Juneau,
Ketchikan, Sitka, Anchorage and so forth. A second class borough would
maximize the independence of the communities, minimize the involvement
of a regional government, and also, perhaps, what for us is one of the greatest
considerations, is if we were able to achieve a borough, we would forever lay
to rest any consideration of the annexation by the city of Petersburg, which is
exactly why I'm here (2003 taped speech).
The city of Hoonah's borough proposal (appendix Z) expresses similar goals to
minimize borough powers, but maximize Tlingit empowerment and voice. People in
Kake and Hoonah articulated their concerns through place-making references, expressing
the importance of their historical and current relationship with their territories, and their
sacred responsibilities to take care of their places and resources.
The focus of state discourses on space making is also evident in exchanges at a
January 24,2005 Alaska state legislative meeting between the Senate Community and
Regional Affairs Standing Committee and the House Community and Regional Affairs
321
Standing Committee. The meeting purpose was to discuss the 2005 LBC report to the
legislature. The discussion is taken from a transcript of the meeting.
Senator Donny Olson, a reindeer herder and businessman from Nome, spoke to
the state goals that excluded attention to local land and community relationships. He
asked ifthere were any LBC commissioners representing people in the unorganized
borough. Hargraves said that no commission member lived in the unorganized area.
Senator Albert Kookesh, a lodge and store owner in Angoon, said the 2005 report lacked
information to support any rationale about the negative effects of organizing into
boroughs.
Hargraves said, "It's hard to see the reasons for not organizing."
Representative Woody Salmon, a Chalkyitsik chief from Fort Yukon, said he too
saw the need for looking at the whole picture. Kookesh and Salmon, who represent
people in the unorganized borough, are more likely to understand intimate details oflocal
place-making and the rituals of creating local subjects. Even so, in this communication
setting their arguments centered on employment, money, taxable land, land title,
economic factors, and state and federal services, all examples of applying meanings to
environment, or space-making. Commitment to and support of local people was evident
in their feedback, but their arguments were framed within long-established legal and
economic parameters for discussion.
Similarly to Hargraves and Wilkin in their 2004 speeches to the Senate Affairs
Committee, Arliss Sturgulewski, former Alaska state senator, spoke to meanings applied
to environment, or space making jurisdictional purposes ofboroughization at the January
24,2005 meeting. She emphasized that establishing model boroughs is important because
major economic developments are taking place or are proposed. Most economic
development proposals and concerns are in the unorganized borough, she said.
Significantly, Sturgulewski pointed out that the First Alaskan's report concluded that the
state lacked sufficient economic, social, school and other data from unorganized regions
322
to make sound decisions. Her comments lacked attention to the details provided in Kake
letters and narratives about place-making relationships.
The data that Sturgulewski reported as missing are important, but such requests
for data are limited in scope. Few studies pay significant attention to place making, local
understanding of lands and waters, or the deeper issues such as emotional and feeling
commitment ofpeople to place and the significance ofplace-making rituals and practices.
These remain "uncounted" aspects within most state descriptions of community and
environment that reach legislative forums, yet they remain an important part of local
discourse in Kake.
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CHAPTER XIII
PERSONHOOD IN BOROUGH DISCOURSES
Native Elders, with their multi-generational insight and cultural wisdom handed down
from the ancients, will tell you that ifyou watch and listen closely, you will hear the
heartbeat ofMother Earth; that she will share her knowledge, her history and her
bounty. However, she will also share her heartache and her wrath with equal measure.
Survival is a spirit ofmutual good. Disrespect ofany natural resource will afflict all
natural resources. The web of life and ownership ofwhat landprovides are completely
opposite. From the Tlingit culture point ofview, Mother Earth depicts us all as equal in
her garden, which is the foundation by which Natives contemplate brotherhood with
plants, rock and wildlife in common endorsement to live on earth. In complete and
wholesome measure, the Native Americans possess the science ofrespect for and
commitment to live in harmony with Mother Earth and the web oflife and to pass it on to
future generations. Native Americans have enjoyed this relationship for eons and built a
society with successful cohabitation with plant, rock, and wildlife. (Author Tlingit Elder
Charles (Topsy) Johnson. These were the words on a single page he hung on his office
walL He took it off the wall and gave it to me one day. The date of authorship is
unknown.)
Discourse and personhood
We co-narrate with others what our emotions/feelings mean, and our co-
production of narrative is the way we achieve common understanding. The words Topsy
wrote and gave me reflect a lifetime of sharing memories, thoughts, and stories with other
people, especially Elders, about how to think and what to tell about the earth. Wherever
we go, we continually co-create knowledge, explanations, beliefs, and ideologies.
In a decision-making forum, the words we tacitly agree to use to explain or
dissociate from feelings about and perceptions of others are a powerful means of
socialization. Ifwe co-construct and attribute personhood (within legislative, law-
making, and regulatory venues) primarily to state-based systems and decision makers,
324
then our thinking within those contexts is directed away from other kinds of personhood.
When we code-switch, we co-narrate other ways ofthinking about personhood.
Discourse codes that include local knowledge about persons is key to the existence of
what Anderson (1996) called a general ethic ofmutual responsibility within a
community. Yet, local emotions/feelings about and toward inclusive persons are barely
part of the legal conversation, a conversation through which generalized decisions are
made that affect large groups of people.
In chapter 6, I examined some basic conceptions ofpersonhood. For many groups
in the world, persons are those inclusive entities who share resources, places, and
experiences. Through practicing a sense of relatedness with all those entities that share an
environment, humans educate themselves about the existence, meanings and
significances of their relationships. In chapter 6, I also considered the reasons that some
people describe corporations and other organizational systems as having personality,
intention, moral responsibility, and, thus, personhood. One expanding area of study asks
about the tendencies, at least linguistically, to attribute personhood to state and
corporation systems. International relations scholar Alexander Wendt (2004) wrote that
giving state personhood is common among ordinary citizens, the media, policymakers,
lawyers, social scientists, and just about everybody in the United States. "States" are
often discussed as having "rationality, identities, interests, beliefs and so on" (Wendt
2004:289). Most people, if asked, qualify their language portrayals of state personhood
with the notion that states are "as if' persons rather than "real" persons. Talking "as if'
states have motivations and intention, people say, is shorthand, metaphoric, a useful
fiction to enhance communications, according to Wendt.
325
Personhood, emotion/feeling and community
In the state-based discourses I examined, personhood is ascribed to governmental
and corporate systems and their text "artefacts," as described in chapter 6, but rarely if
ever to the non-human environment. In contrast, local responses to the Local Boundary
Commission (LBC) all included descriptions of the importance ofhuman relationships
with the non-human environment except the letter from Kake Tribal Corporation (see
appendix R). Hoonah's borough proposal also articulated the ties that Angoon and
Hoonah people have with their non-human environment.
Kake's historian, Charles (Topsy) Johnson, wrote to the LBC in 2003: "In our
culture it is a well-understood principle of selfpreservation that humans are just one
small part of the land and ofnature and not the dominant force; living in harmony with
the land and with nature is an integral part of our traditional culture and self-identity"
(appendix X). None ofKake's or other community's descriptions of feelings and
relationships with lands and waters were included in the 2005 LBC report, or in
legislative conversations that I heard or read. Examining the LBC's 2005 report
(appendix P), with the help of Atlas.ti, I discovered that the term "tribe" was referred to
only a few times as part of place or group names related to resource extraction, but never
in acknowledgement of tribal concerns or powers. Tribal personhood, municipal
personhood and even human personhood were mostly ignored in LBC descriptions of
model boroughs, while borough, legislative, constitutional, LBC, and organized Alaska
"persons" were a primary part ofstate-based narrative.
In Kake, systems personhood was ascribed frequently to "community." This
occurred in the Kake City letter to the LBC, in the Kake mayor's presentation to the
community ofKupreanof, and the specific communities that were named in letters from
the Organized Village ofKake (OVK). Hoonah's proposal particularly referred to
326
community personhood, and to a lesser extent borough personhood. Following are
examples of attributions of personhood.
1) "Be it resolved: that the Community and Municipality ofKake declare its
resolve and determination to maintain its unique culture, personality and way of
life." City ofKake letter (appendix Q).
2) " ... but a government whose only forward motion could be with a consensus
of all the communities, rather than Kake and Angoon against KupreanofCity so
to speak. Ifwe could factor that into the charter, then all these questions could be
answered suitably." Kupreanofmeeting and presentation (appendix Y).
3) "Keep our communities independent and unique." One of the ideals in the
Hoonah proposal (appendix Z).
Rather than describing Kake with the word community, the Organized Village of
Kake (OVK) emphasized the legal authority of "our" tribal government and the City of
Kake. OVK letters described the systems personhood of clans, tribes, the Tlingit, and the
house groups to whom people belonged. For example:
As a local government, OVK has responsibilities to its Tribal Citizens, which
make up three quarters ofthe local population. These duties include among
others, powers of authority to "protect the general welfare and security of the
Village" and "protect and preserve the timber, fisheries and other property
and natural resources" as mandated by the Organized Village of Kake
Constitution (appendix U).
Each Tribe's territory was further divided into separate holdings of clans,
house groups and from among them by families, as specialized camp sites for
harvesting animals, berries, fish, tidal area foods, trees, etc. (appendix U).
State agencies and entities were attributed personhood in most Kake examples,
but the focus was largely on local systems in order to affirm their legal and historical
legitimacy and their significance to social connections, group identity, and spirituality.
Part of stating those rights is to reaffirm local and tribal liberties and to reiterate local
governmental rights for the public record. People in Kake told me that they frequently
327
restate their legal rights to self-determination to remind state and federal representatives
of community priorities and Tlingit values. One reason for continually reaffrrming legal
tribal, territorial, historical, social, self identity and spiritual legitimacy is for the record.
A Kake Tlingit woman in 2004 explained why:
So somewhere it's on record. I mean it will be important years and
years from now. It's important to make your voice heard even if
nobody is listening. For example ... what is it ... the books on my
bookshelf. What were those hearings that were taking place in the
1940s with Kake, Klawock, Angoon ... You know which ones I'm
talking about? Goldschmidt and Haas, I mean stuff like that. They
probably thought it wasn't that important. I mean it probably didn't
seem important then for them to be saying some ofthe stuff they said.
But for the record, I mean, now we consider that the areas that they
talked about then, I mean we always knew areas that are being used
for this or that ... and having those people in the 40s with Topsy's
dad and his uncle. My dad was an interpreter, I think. That's an
important record, and it's recognized now as an important record. I
mean you don't know when something, say fifty years from now, it
could be important that we said and documented this. It doesn't
matter what kind of language it is, using the agency language or our
traditional language or stories or whatever. And even if they disregard
what you say, it's important to have it as a record. And that's one
thing I have to say about these different agencies, that they ... they're
good at documenting things. So that's another thing about agencies.
Even if they don't listen.... Yeah like the Goldschmidt and Haas one
[see appendices W and X], I think it was for ... the different villages
were trying to get ownership of land. I think, I'm not real sure. Topsy
would know more about that. But anyway that's such an important
hearing that was done back then that it's published and re-published
into print for us now. I know Topsy has a copy and I have a copy and
other tribes use those informal boundaries that were set in writing.
We've used them and we ... even now, like all the environmental
people, we've agreed to go by the Golschmidt and Haas. Even though
we don't have ownership of the land, we use the land, and we need to
take care of it (2004 taped interview).
328
Another reason for restating legal status and rights to people (who may not be
listening) is to re-situate state action or proposals into local priorities. Two non-Native
men, raised outside of Southeast Alaska, who lived in Kake for several years, observed
the following about state and corporate relations with local people.
Speaker One: Assimilation would be, I think it would be when you
come in and you're going to figure out how to help your company
work within this culture, whatever. Now that's an assimilation. But
when you're coming in to .. ,
Speaker Two: To dominate.
Speaker One: And that's really, and, you know, been the history.
Speaker Two: And that's the one thing that has been the biggest thing
about Kake. They've tried to maintain their traditional and cultural
focus. And it's the one thing that they've always voiced that they
wanted. And the reason that they've ... stay isolated, and the reason
that, you know, they haven't gone the way that a lot of the other
Native communities have gone, is because that wasn't what they
wanted. And the reason that they self-proclaimed (as a tribe) and all
that other stuff is because they want to remain a Tlingit village. And,
but they're not viewed that way. They're viewed as every other
average Joe. And you can't do that any more than you could walk into
China and say (you're going to be like us). And their five billion
people say, "I don't think so." That's what gets left out, you know.
And it's also one of the reasons why Kookesh will forever have a job
as a representative, or in politics. It's because he is a member of that
group, and he understands that, and he works to go that direction. You
know Lincoln? Same, same deal. She understands that whole thing.
And she uses it to get what she wants out of the community and
listens to it from the community, and doesn't get impatient with the
whole process. Because she realizes it's a necessary part of the
business. You know, in that whole communication and all the little
nuances. It has to be there for things to happen. And, that's what's
good about them. You know, it's the reason that, that the people here
trust them, very much (2003 taped interview).
The above speakers describe two state representatives who recognize community
priorities and ways of communicating, are trusted because they acknowledge the
329
meanings inherent in local personhood. Before recognizing people's rights (personal,
community, and group), it is necessary to appreciate their full personhood. Simplified and
generalized legal descriptions ofpeople as "areas", populations, or as government types
lack discursive recognition and appreciation of full personhood.
Anna Yeatman (2004) wrote about conceptions of personhood, the state, and
human rights. She pointed out that the state has been developed on a universal scale so
that state systems are now part of every human's life. People's rights, then, are dependent
upon how states are conceived, the ideals within their constitutions, and the definitions by
which states attribute personhood status. A hallmark of the universality of human rights is
that right is conceived within the principle of non-discrimination. All humans are
accorded the status of persons under the principle of non-discrimination, even though
they have ascribed and non-ascribed differences (Yeatman 2004:404).
"There is a dialectical relationship between the adequacy of the state-centered
institutional order for the effective support and facilitation ofpersonhood and our
subjective capacity to be and act as persons" (Yeatman 2004:403). In this world of state
power, the status and rights ofpersons exist through constitutional specification and
institution. Whether or not states and their constitutions are adequate in establishing and
instituting rights and personhood status is another matter. For that reason the idea of the
state and its constitution and formal legal rights must be continually re-made when they
are discovered to lack the capacity to establish and institute personhood status and human
rights (Yeatman 2004:413). Hegel (1991) wrote that the best of worlds are organized to
make personhood possible and "support the freedom of those who act as persons in the
company of other persons (Yeatman 2004:408).... Thus the state is more than the
institutional-legal field of action of the state; the state refers also to the kind of
subjectivity and capability for thought that enables its institutional aspect to come alive in
ways that make it adequate to the demands ofpersonhood, as these are historically
constituted at any particular time" (Yeatman 2004:409).
330
In the context of this study, state representatives' jobs in making personhood
possible include taking the time and effort to avoid over simplification and generalization
about communities ofpeople. Their duties include attributing specific personhood to
local communities and people. State facilitation ofpersonhood includes state-based
efforts to understand and get to know in detail what personhood means for local people. It
means supporting definitions and knowledge of local personhood that are cognizant and
supportive of the local processes of socialization, especially processes that, as Anderson
(1996:151) points out, are conducive to shared values, frequent interaction, and the
practice of working together for a common cause, all of which are "directly relevant to
conservation."
This means that following a state constitution dogmatically as a means of defming
large numbers of people in concrete and culturally specific fashion is to systematize and
objectify what it means to be persons. In dogmatic rule following, persons lose more of
their capacity to think freely about their subjective experiences. They lose the capacity to
take responsibility for their own actions over time. They lose a measure of freedom to be
persons (Erikson, quoted by Levine, 2001:20). Yeatman's description of statecraft, as it
relates to dogmatic rule following, personhood, and human rights, is relevant to my
discussion of boroughization proceedings in Alaska.
First, LBC, SCR12 and head tax bill discourse fails to recognize the full
personhood ofpeople living in the unorganized borough. When decision makers apply
meanings to space rather than researching local meanings ofplace, or avoid specific
names of local places and people, or leave out local feelings, stories, and comments, or
fail to specifically acknowledge city and tribal governments in reports to the legislature
as relevant local government entities, then state-based discourses diminish local
personhood status. The statements and comments of people in unorganized boroughs
were mostly not included in the fmal reports and legislative proposals that I examined,
331
including the bills themselves, the entire LBC 2005 report to the legislature, legislative
committee meetings that I listened to, the LBC 2001 study, etc.
Second, state-based discourse assumed a concrete and culturally specific
definition of full personhood when it established boroughization guidelines during
creation of the state constitution in the late 1950s. The constitution framers, as described
by V. Fischer, visualized a situation wherein unorganized borough residents would form
boroughs when they were able to carry out what are otherwise state functions. " ... when a
certain area reaches a position where it can support certain services and act in its own
behalf, it should take on the burden of its own government" (ACCP 1963: 2673-2674),
(appendix P). One trouble with this assumption is that it is embedded in particular
concepts of economy and government that are assimilative.
The fact that LBC staff and certain legislators worked to encourage resolutions
that would force people into forming boroughs indicates impatience with people who
have yet to become like the rest of the state. This assumes a concrete, homogenizing
rather than abstract, relative idea ofpersonhood. The danger is that such discourses
"label" those who live with other sets ofvalues and who want autonomy and self-
determination at a more local level, as people who have yet to become "full persons."
In this case, people who live outside concrete definitions ofpersonhood seem to
threaten the identities of people who live within such definitions. The discourses allude to
the notion that non-conformers must change to be given the status of full personhood. We
could consider how forming borough governments might, in actuality, diminish
personhood because it would mean that people in the newly-organized borough had lost a
measure of freedom to think subjectively about their own experiences.
Third, in Alaska, state-based discourses about boroughization appear to give
greater rights and personhood status to government systems and text-artefacts than to
people who live in the unorganized borough. The arguments for boroughization fit more
within Scott's (1998) description of statecraft than Hegel's (1991). LBC and most
332
legislative state-based discourses give little to no personhood status or rights to non-
human environmental entities, even though local discourses often do. Ifpersonhood
status is diminished for people who have lived within an environment for millennia, who
know their "place" well, and who mostly want to protect environmental integrity and
create sustainable livelihood strategies, then how will we as a world solve our
environmental crises?
The following graph sets, 3-11, summarize and abbreviate the quantitative and
qualitative search for signifiers and phrases connected with references to personhood,
graphs 3-11. Each transcript (appendices M to Z) was analyzed sentence by sentence
using the qualitative analytic tool Atlas.ti. Sentences and phrases were compiled and
categorized in order to compare discursive patterns and content. Below are the results of
comparing discursive references to personhood. When a speaker or writer linguistically
referred to someone or something as having agency, purpose, capacity to act
autonomously and intentionally, and/or an ability to have emotion, I included the phrase
in lists of personhood attributions. I separated and categorized phrases according to
attributions ofhuman, systems, spatial, and non-human environment personhood.
One purpose of analyzing attributions ofpersonhood in the following narratives is
to assess which entities are given what levels of personhood in this discourse about
boroughization. One reason that attribution levels of personhood matter is the tendency
of people to feel a greater sense ofmoral obligation to entities that they consider whole
persons.
Graph 3A. Senator Wilkin. Attributions ofpersonhood
Attributions of personhood
333
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied spaces
Non-human environment
o 20 40 60 80 100
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
Senator Gary Wilkin's March 2004 speech to the Alaska State Affairs
Committee
334
Graph 3B. Senator Wilkin. Attributions ofpersonhood.
m Percentages
of human
attributions
---~---l
Breakdown of human personhood references
11 8 8 5 3
TIIIllfl
2538
o
8
I
I
, I,----,
J j
I I
r---- ,----1 ---r----
::-'--"-"'~'.my--'-T~~~; _=JI-=;J
You,. 'the corTnli1tee Pea~e-. residents Residents ollhe
",.,.,..,.,... ~borough
Senator Gary Wilkin's March 2004 speech to the Alaska State Affail'S
Committee
Breakdown of systems personhood references
32 24 16 12 8 4 4
III Percentages
ofsysrems
personhood
attributions
8-
15
24
32
40
I
---..-..-1- ..1.-....- ..---- ·-···--··-···1----
I I1-1 1. 1
iBc-+-Charts, Reoolutions i Organized ' LegisI~"'--+ -Model .
taIJIes. texis Alaska wages boraugIJ
Senator Gary Wilkin's March 2004 speech to the Alaska State Affairs
Committee
335
Persons as humans, self and other. Wilkin identifies in his speech: the immediate
speaker I, me and my; the people to whom he is speaking in this context, you, your, Mr.
Chairman, and members ofthe committee; the people the speaker represents as a senator
in his organized borough district, we, we 'fl, them; the people whose governments are not
organized into boroughs, they, people, residents, potential taxpayers; and people in
Alaska in general, our, employers. In this speech people are categorized as we who live in
organized boroughs, pay taxes and contribute to schools and they, people, residents who
live in unorganized boroughs and lack an organized structure through which to collect
taxes and contribute to schools.
Systems as person. Wilkin articulates personhood attributes for: Group A, the chart
(it), LBC, the legislature, model boroughs, organized Alaska, REAAs, report,
resolution, table, and SCR12 (the resolution). These government units and their text
artefacts are discussed as though they have intentions and motivations and act upon
them. Such discursive habits infer (Iyer 2006:393,394) that each state system has a
personality that is evident through its internal decision making structure. When
Wilkin says that "the resolution recognizes this fact and establishes a procedure," he
is speaking "as if' the resolution text within state decision making structure (SDS)
has personhood. Throughout his speech he attributes personhood to the state system
as an entity independent ofpeople who are part ofthe state decision making body.
People may come and go while the structure remains (Iyer 2006:394). Individuals in
state bodies have intentions as persons, but the SDS reflects the intentions of the
state entity. The state constitution and LBC standards for borough incorporation
ascribe levels ofbeliefs, interests, intent, and motivations for system-based action
and guidelines for system responsibility. These are all characteristics ofpersonhood
according to western definitions. In Wilkin's speech he discursively infers that the
SDS gives the state entity its individuality and its personhood. Several of his
legislator listeners seem to take state and textual personhood for granted, as they
speak later in similar discourse frames.
336
Spatial personhood. Wilkin refers, in his 2004 talk (appendix M), to the expectations
and intentions (personhood) of areas, but not just any areas. The spaces that Wilkin refers
to are those within the unorganized borough. Such areas are asked to contribute, have
courage and address whether or not they can fund their own schools, and they are asked
to be responsible. The area becomes, in this discourse, a person with intentions,
motivations and responsibilities. Wilkin articulates little recognition of individual and
group diversity of intent and action within unorganized areas. Through generalizing and
homogenizing, everyone in unorganized areas becomes a copy or fractal ofthe whole,
with qualities such as non-contributor, irresponsible, and lacking in courage. The only
area differences Wilkin refers to are based on comparative yearly wage statistics.
337
Graph 4A. LBC Chairman Hargraves. Attributions ofpersonhood
Attributions of Personhood
Humans, self, others
Systems, texis
Human occupied spaces
Non-human environment
o 20 40 60 80 100
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
Oarroll Hargraves' 2004 speech to the Alaska state Affairs Committee
Graph 4B. LBC Chairman Hargraves. Attributions ofpersonhood
Breakdown of human personhood references
41 35 17 5
338
9
27
36
You. members
Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
Ours
eech to the Senate Affairs Committee
20
3D
40
48
LBC
Breakdown of systems personhood references
32 12 4 4
Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Legislature Resolution
Daroll Har raves' 2004 speech to the Senate Affairs Committee
339
Graph 5A. LBC report. Attributions ofpersonhood
Attributions of Personhood
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied spaces 2
Non-human environment
o 20 40 60 80 100
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
Segments of the Report of the Alaska Boundary Commission to the
First Session of the Twenty-Fourth Alaska State Legislature
340
Graph 5B. LBC report. Attributions ofpersonhood
o
7
14
21
28
31.5
We, trey,
themselYes
22
Breakdown of human personhood references
15 9 7 6 6 3.5
is! Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
LBC 2005 report segments
~ Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Breakdown of systems personhood references
8 6 6 6 4 4 2 2 2 2 1.5 1.5
Ir~~+-I_+ +. :__j +_ __+ __I
29 16 10
o
6
30 _..j._ -,.. .I_., 1-.. ,. 1._, 1. .,..__L .._; .1
18
12
24
Graph 6A. City ofHoonah. Attributions of personhood
Attributions of Personhood
341
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupred spaces/places
Non-human environment 1
o 20 40
46
I
I
60 80 100
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
Hoonah borough proposal segments
Graph 6B. City ofHoonah. Attributions ofpersonhood
342
33
0
7
14
21 -
28-
35
Breakdown of human personhood references
30 18 10 3 3 3
ttl! Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
We. us. as People. ningit Person(al) Individuals
communities
Our community. Residents, OIJr You. entire
region communities region
Hoonah 2006 borough proposal segments
o
16
24
39 27
Boroughs
Breakdown of systems personhood references
9 9 6 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5
Congress
Hoonah 2006 borough proposal segments
~ Percentages
ofsysrems
personhood
attributions
Graph 7A. City ofKake. Attributions ofpersonhood
Attributions of Personhood
343
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied places
Non-human environment
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
o 20 40 60 80 100
City of Kake 2003 letter to LBC
Graph 7B. City ofKake. Attributions ofpersonhood
344
50 , .
10
20
30
40
o
10
20
30
40
50
50
and we
23
Breakdown of human personhood references
37 19
I, Me, mayor your (LBC melmbl~rs)
City of Kake 2003 letter to LBC
Breakdown of systems personhood references
4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5
City of Kake 2003 letter to LBC
Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Graph 8A. OVK. Attributions of personhood
Attributions of Personhood
345
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied spaces/places
Non-human environment
o 20 40
1
60 80 100
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
346
Graph 8B. OVK. Attributions ofpersonhood
Breakdown of human personhood references
42 19 16 9 9 J
Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
Kake IndiansCitizens, tribal, localLEG reps_
9
18
27
45 .. ,..----. --,- --- ---'-- -- T ---- ,- ----.,-. - ..--- -~ -- ..----, - --.-- L._ ..- -,- .... -----" -----,---- --'
Our (citizens, claims,
people, etc_)
36
Organized Village of Kake 2003 letter to LBC
Breakdown of systems personhood references
66 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5
14
28
42--·-·: .-.... ,
56
Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Organized Village of Kake 2003 letter to lBC
Graph 9A. OVK. C. Attributions of personhood
Attributions of Personhood
347
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied spaces/places
Non-human environment
50
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
o 20 40 60 80 100
Attachment C of Organized Village of Kake 2003 letter to LBC
Graph 9B. OVK. C. Attributions ofpersonhood
348
o
5
15
20
22 22
Breakdown of human personhood references
22 6 6 6 6 3 3
- I
Nan-member"
Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
36
Organized Village of Kake, attachment C, 2003 letter to LBC
Breakdown of systems personhood references
28 21 7 7
Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Clan Tribes Tlingit House group U_S. Navy
Organized Village of Kake, attachment C, 2003 letter to LBC
Graph lOA. Kake schools. Attributions ofpersonhood
Attributions of Personhood
349
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied spaces/places
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
Non-human environment 5
o 20 40 60 80 100
Kake School District 2003 letter to LBC via Kake City
Graph lOB. Kake schools. Attributions ofpersonhood
350
32 17
Breakdown of human personhood references
17 9 9 9 6
7
14
21
28
Percentages
of human
personhood
attributions
35 j
Kake Tlingit Educator, I
people
Native people~ Children,
us, we students
LBC staff
Specific
na.mes
groups
Kake school district 2003 letter to LBC (via the city)
Breakdown of systems personhood references
38 23 15 7.5 7.5 7.5
Kake school district 2003 letter to LBC (via the city)
Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Graph 11 A. Kake mayor. Attributions ofpersonhood
Attributions of Personhood
Humans, self, others
Systems, texts
Human occupied spacesfplaces 2
Non-human environment 1
• Percentages
of
personhood
attributions
351
o 20 40 60 80 100
Kake mayor's 2003 speech to the City of Kupmanof
352
Graph 11 B. Kake mayor. Attributions ofpersonhood
Percentages
of systems
personhood
attributions
Breakdown of human pef'Sonhood references
36 29 8 7 4 4 3 3 2 1 1
0
8
16
Percentages
of human
24 personhoodattributions
32
40
We{Kake..
.-.,)
Kake mayor 2003 presentation to Kupreanof
Breakdown of systems personhood references
29 25 15 8 7 3 3 3 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5
0
Alaska
(""'Ie)
Kake mayor 2003 presentation to Kupreanof
6
24
12
18
353
In these examples, context is especially relevant because of different degrees
of access to legislative power. With context in mind, what do these graphs tell us
about levels of personhood attributed to people, systems, human-occupied spaces,
and the non-human environment?
In the context of verbally presenting data and proposals to lawmakers,
personhood was attributed most often to "self," or those presenting the data, and
"you," the committee hearing the presentation (graph sets 3-4). Other people were
referred to very generally. In the written LBC presentation to the legislature graph
set 5) local human persons were referred to as "local residents," "voters," and "they."
Within LBC representative Hargraves' speech and the LBC 2005 report,
approximately 62 % ofpersonhood attributions referred to organizational systems
and texts. No attributions of personhood were referred in LBC narratives to the non-
human environment. Legislators and Local Boundary Commission representatives
tended to avoid, in their speeches and texts, the complexities of local community
relationships and commitment to place and people.
Kake speakers and writers, to a lesser degree than state representatives,
attributed personhood status to legislators, commissioners, state systems and text-
artefacts. Local human personhood was acknowledged with substantially greater
frequency in the samples from Kake. For example, the term "people" in state-based
examples was used in relation to generalized population numbers and wage and tax
numbers. "People" in local examples were "Kake people," "our people," "Tlingit
people," etc. As the Kake letters and speech segments demonstrate, local people
communicate a measure of emotion-feeling about people and place even in official
state correspondence and discussion.
The differences between local and legal decision-making language usages are
significant in this discussion of regional government and regional jurisdiction boundaries.
State-based discourse shows a discursive dissociation from relationship with and
knowledge oflocal personhood. Ifpersons are those who deserve to be treated as though
354
they have moral worth, then the practice ofperceiving and discussing personhood in the
local inclusive environment would seem to be important. Discursive dissociation from
acknowledging local inclusive personhood is likely to be connected with emotion/feeling
dissociation with the same.
Again, we learn based on our emotions and feelings. When we avoid, disregard,
or refuse to allow the expression of certain kinds of feelings and stories within
government discourses, we avoid a type of environmental stimulus that triggers certain
types of emotions. By avoiding, disregarding, or refusing to hear, we put limits on what
we learn through emotion and feeling, and we also stifle the full personhood of ourselves
and other people. We must do so to survive in a social world, but we need to be aware of
how the limits we set for ourselves and others affect our knowledge base for problem
solving (Gilligan 2006:57; See also chapter 5).
In the case ofboroughization, insisting on the necessity ofregional government
and boundaries based on simplified, "objective" economic and political formulas, it
would seem, creates a further dislocation in people's lives from local feeling knowledge
and commitment. It may in fact exemplify uncreative political and economic short-
sightedness about human/environmental conditions and relationships. For example, LBC
representatives wrote that the lack of regional government has hindered social and
economic development in unorganized areas. The lack of organized boroughs has
resulted in a highly fragmented structure for the delivery ofpublic services. These two
points are framed very differently from the perspectives of many people in Kake and
elsewhere who" ... enjoy our way of life, especially in Kake we enjoy our independence;
we enjoy our autonomy; we enjoy our self-determination ... " (appendixY, Kake mayor,
2003).
In reference to proposed economIC solutions through boroughization, a Kake
Tlingit man, who once worked for the USFS, talked about seeing a special on TV. The
special described how white men, killing all of the buffalo in the prairies, had to cool
their guns with water because they were shooting so many.
355
... because when they shot the leader all the other ones would mill around
it, and that's how they just shot shot shot shot ... got rid of it. To us here
it's just chop chop chop chop and sawing down all the timber. To what?
To help us all move to Anchorage, Juneau to be service providers for the
big companies? To us we're hanging out on the fingernail here. Because
the power [electricity] is so much, the cost of living here is so much. But
before it wasn't that; it wasn't about cost ofliving. It was about surviving
as a community. How we helped one another. And we did it, and we still
are doing it today, even though it costs, it's costing us. Now we have to
put a dollar amount to what we eat because in 1987 we [mally had to do
that in order to go back to the court of appeals, the ninth circuit court to
show the judge deer costs. And that almost cost with us, my job here. The
Elders said he [a politician] can't put a cost to our spiritual food or
anything. But we had to. We also had to show how much we ate of salmon
because logging does impact the watershed.
How people in Kake view their relationship with the government ... is
probably dependent upon where you come from, how the expectations of
government [influence] values of community. Because they don't
understand it. They come from a whole different part ... and they're a
whole different animal when they come in. And that's all they know is
taking wood. Creating jobs. Why create jobs when we're all happy just by
living here? Ifwe all wanted to be workers in a mill, we'd all work in
where ... Wrangell, Ketchikan, Sitka. But before those mills were, say, at
Wrangell, Sitka, Ketchikan, those were great places to live anyway. And
the reason why they made those mills there was that people like to stay
there. But the mills polluted them. Now they don't have enough money in
the super fund to clean them up. (2004 taped interview)
Of course most Kake people would like to improve their economy, and many
hope to do so in ways that are sustainable and that promote environmental integrity. Most
people want to create an economy within which they can make decisions based on long-
term and carefully planned activities. They would prefer avoiding circumstances that are
dependent upon unsustainable resource extraction and on making quick decisions in
desperation to raise taxes to fund schools within a regional government. One young
356
Tlingit woman talked about state efforts to regionalize governments and build roads
connecting communities.
The bottom line is all they want is our natural resources, but they don't ever
just come out and say it. You know, they pad it so that it makes it look like
they're helping us grow. But maybe we don't want to grow.... I think if they
started to learn our language. What concerns them is, it would be too
subjective. But their goals, they all must have gone to science school, because
you can tell they don't ever put the environment and spirituality and people
together as one. To them you're going to make money from gold or silver or
timber, and that's their whole goal in life. (2003 taped interview).
The segments of discourse included in this chapter are reflective of many other
conversations and documents I examined. They are not unusual. I analyzed these
narrative segments to identify discourse patterns that connect or disconnect people from
community and place through attributions ofpersonhood.
Social engineering (Scott 1998) is more difficult or complex ifpeople
(individuals, communities, place-environments) are discussed specifically as "full"
persons. Decision-making is decidedly more complex and takes more time when people
are attributed full personhood and when their more personal connections to place are
recognized. Simplifying to save time is taken for granted as necessary in United States
legal and regulatory processes. However, it is the particulars that make commitment to
place and people possible, and it is commitment to place and people that make
sustainable livelihood strategies more possible.
If Anderson and others are correct in pointing out that particular kinds of
communities-groups ofpeople who interact with each other, depend on and feel deeply
involved with an environment and the use of a resource-are the critical variable in
resource and environmental conservation (Anderson 1996:151), then dissociation at a law
making level from local personhood and local knowledge ofpersonhood would seem to
be highly problematic in this world so in need of sustainable livelihood solutions.
357
CHAPTER XIV
POWER IN BOROUGH DISCOURSES
Fieldworker: Are the values that we talked about with community, environment, and
spirituality ... are they influenced and changed by the values that come from government
agencies and corporate economy entities?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah I look back ... and I think that's what causes a lot ofschisms and
the actions ofcertain people. And even when a person who is really strongly rooted in
values from Kake, it's kind of(difficult) when they've got to be part ofthe government
process.
I think it's [local values] kind oflike background noise. I saw that quite afew times in
hearings growing up. I didn't really get what was going on. You hear certain people, and
older people get up, and we valued the public process and their right to get up and speak.
We took pride in that, getting up and doing it. And [it was] better than not being heard,
not being taken into consideration.
You know government agencies come in and do their job because it was required
processing they had to do. It was like step three in a seven-step series that needed to get
done. It didn't matter what they [local people] said. It was one ofthose objectives they
had to do to come here, record, take notes. And no decision was made on what the people
said. I don't know. I don't want to take anything away from the public comment or
anything. I still believe in that way, but it's discouraging whe,,! you have to witness that.
And knowing all the knowledge that was shared by these [local] people and it not being
acknowledged ... You can see that historically in texts everywhere. (2004 taped interview
with young Tlingit woman)
In this chapter I focus on who has the right to change the rules about human
relations with the non-human environment. As with commitment to place and people, the
ability for a community ofpeople to monitor the health of its environment and adjust
behavior accordingly is an important condition for sustainable livelihood social
strategies. People have to be able to work together and make their own critical decisions
358
with the help, protection and advice of the state if sustainable livelihood is to become part
of feeling and attachment to place and people, the strongest motivators for behavior that
protects environmental integrity (Anderson 1996; Milton 2002).
Issues of power and sustainability
In review, I am looking at the borough situation through the lenses of the
following two criteria, which are important for community-based feeling for and
management of a common environment as a source for livelihood (Ostrom 1990;
Weinstein 2000).1
A. Long-term investment and commitment to place and people by community
members.
B. Clear understanding ofwho has the right to change the rules. Ideally those
closest to a place and its people make the critical decisions based on ideals of
sustainable livelihood and environmental integrity.
State pressure to form regional borough governments based on territorial
jurisdiction legally moves decision making away from those closest to a place. The
communities expected to form a borough are on different islands. Easy access to borough
representatives and meeting places would be difficult for island communities situated
distantly from borough offices. Arguably, if Hoonah's proposal is approved, local
decision making would allegedly be protected as a priority. Signifiers and phrases
identified in state-based and local Kake segments about boroughization reveal distinct
contrasts in distribution and attribution ofdecision-making power.
State borough mandates also prioritize jural/synthetic property ideologies over
holistic/mythical/organic relationships with land. The signifiers and phrases identified in
state-based and local Kake segments that refer to the non-human environment in
1 Weinstein's full list of criteria is in chapter XI.
359
transcripts about boroughization show marked differences in land and human relationship
ideologies.
In the LBC 2005 report to the legislature, community is defined in page 7 ofthe
glossary as "a social unit comprised of25 or more permanent residents as determined
under 3 AAC 110.920 (3 AAC 110.990(5))." Permanent resident means "a person who
has maintained a principal domicile in the territory proposed for change under this
chapter for at least 30 days immediately preceding the date ofacceptance of a petition by
the department, and who shows no intent to remove that principal domicile from the
territory at any time during the pendency of a petition before the Commission (3 AAC
110.990(10))" (Alaska LBC 2005).
For social scientists Sara Singleton and Michael Taylor (1993), community means
something deeper. Communities are the key to sustainable livelihood and resource
management. Long-term success, they say, occurs in strong communities and not in
others. Active disagreements within communities can ruin a community-wide
management method so that any common-property management group needs institutions
that create and maintain solidarity and promote responsible action. A management group
needs enforcement and distribution rules, as well. Strong communities have access to
social tools of enforcement. Social pressure, moral suasion, social reinforcement and
gossip/jawboning inspire learning through emotion and feeling, understanding ofhow to
act responsibly toward other humans and the non-human environment.
Communities are more likely to be strong resource managers when people share a
store ofmemories, are concerned for children and grandchildren, are attached to a place
and site, have need for solidarity and have the emotional and cultural resources to meet
this end. The necessity ofstate enforcement is usually a given assumption in resource
management conversations. What is often missing from such conversations is the
necessity for supporting and encouraging solidarity and emotional and cultural capital
and intelligence within groups.
360
No one set of universal guidelines for community solidarity, strength and resource
management exists. To create a list of guidelines and requirements is too simplistic, and
simplistic notions have led to misguided environmental management models that have
resulted in harm (Agrawa12005; Williams 2002). Many decisions need to be made more
slow1y. More factors than economic statistics, taxable income and property, and
population need to be counted and studied before state-based decisions are made.
Questions need to be asked more often about how decisions affect local social institutions
that create solidarity and promote responsible environmental integrity. To define
community, then, as "a social unit comprised of25 or more permanent residents" is a
measuring tool that guides discourses and thinking patterns away from deeper questions
and decision-making inquiry.
Some groups in Kake and elsewhere recognize that the most crucial aspects of
sustainabi1ity are investment in social and cultural identity and the social capital that
fosters a sense of solidarity among Kake people. In her article "Is Sustainability for
Development Anthropologists?" Priscilla Stone (2003) wrote that a fundamental
consideration for all ofus is how to help design sustainable development policies and
programs that will support people's social and cultural capital and identities that are
focused on creating a high quality of life in environmentally friendly ways.
In the discourse examples presented in this chapter, some Kake people expressed
concern that a regional government would further dislocate local people from learning
place-based knowledge in the context of respect for the forest and waters and respect for
customary and traditional foods and other resources. Another level of government would
further dislocate local access to decision making forums. Local social and cultural capital
would also be diluted. In his presentation to the city of Kupreanof, the mayor of Kake
(2003) proposed a borough government whose charter would impinge as little as possible
on local government structures. Hoonah's borough proposal, created with input from all
included communities, seems to be a similar attempt to soften regional government
powers.
361
Attachment to environment and people
Examples in Appendices Q through Z show that accumulatively, Hoonah writers,
Kake City writers, the Kake school superintendent, the Organized Village ofKake and
the mayor ofKake bring up historical and cultural ties to land and water. They discuss
the importance of land and water to local livelihood and traditional and customary
harvests. The writers describe "sacred trust" and an understanding that people are part of
the lands and waters and that the lands and waters, in tum, are part of culture, identity,
and self-preservation. Kake people talk and write about the long duration of time from
which local relationship to land and water has existed, the lack of state recognition of the
importance of such ties and the desire to limit resource extraction and protect
environmental integrity.
Hoonah and Kake people expressed a desire to maintain autonomy, independence,
lifestyle, culture, identity, and to govern in the best interest of their citizens. The
connection between culture, social responsibility, customary and traditional harvest
practices, and other ties to lands and waters continues as a discourse marker.
LBC and many legislative representatives imposed their own stratification of
values by responding primarily to select pieces of local information such as population
and average wage statistics. The difference between local, LBC, and legislative ways of
describing the situation is significant because LBC and the legislature constitute what
Silverstein (1998:40) called centring institutions. Centring institutions are what
Blommaert (2005:75) described as central institutions imposing the "doxa" in a particular
group.
The centring function is attributive: it generates indexicalities to
which others have to orient in order to be 'social,' i.e. to produce
meanings that 'belong' somewhere. These attributions are
emblematic: they centre on the potential to articulate (hierarchically
362
ordered" 'central values' ofa group or system (the 'good' group
member, the 'law,' the 'economy,' the 'good' student, the 'ideal'
intellectual.. .)~ And this centring almost always involves either
perceptions or real processes of homogenisation and uniformisation:
orienting towards such a centre involves the (real or perceived)
reduction of difference and the creation of recognizably 'normative'
meaning (Blommaert 2005:75).
The sample of Kake Tribal Corporation's short letter to LBC, appendix R,
although brief, exemplifies orientation to a corporate business "centre." In contrast to
examples from other local entities, the Kake Tribal Corporation (KTC) writer speaks only
to corporation land ownership and opposition to being linked to certain other
communities within borough boundaries. Those KTC representatives that I interviewed,
who were educated in business and other schools, spoke in language codes similar to that
in the letter. They were less likely to bring up feeling-centered inclusive relationships.
They were clear about their responsibilities under ANCSA, which were focused on
making a profit from Kake Tribal Corporation lands. Under ANCSA, Congress changed
the rules for how local people were expected to understand inclusive environmental
relations. How, then, do we compare ANCSA with state pressures on local communities
to regionalize their governing structures around borough territories that are set up for the
purpose ofraising tax revenue?
What happens when Kake people work toward socializing moral codes of
environmental integrity and social responsibility, but must continually accommodate
changes in politics and administration at the state (Alaska state and federal) level.
Elections change political and administrative property-focused mandates every few years
or decades. If people work together on a system of sustainable livelihood built upon
social relationships and human attachment to community and place, then ever changing
state and federal land use politics and policies becomes problematic. People lose
confidence in their abilities to follow through with long term planning. Who has the right
to change the rules?
363
Sources of decision-making
Tables 14A to 141 show discourse analysis of state-based recognition ofpower
and authority compared with Kake governing goals. State-based discourses focus on
power belonging to the state legislature, the LBC and its studies, senate resolutions, the
constitution, and boroughs. Ideally, boroughs create "maximum local self government
(defined as regionalized boroughs) with a minimum oflocal governmental units," as the
state constitution requires (ALBC 2005: 98; appendix P). Existing local governments in
the unorganized borough are described negatively as inadequate in state-based discourse
examples. Nearly every step ofthe LBC and senate resolution process is supported with
texts that have been adopted, confirmed, revised, submitted and voted on. Power is
articulated through these text-artefacts.
In contrast, Hoonah proposal writers depict boroughs as the means to empower a
cooperative Tlingit voice and to obtain a larger share of federal revenues. Hoonah writers
acknowledge that "no one" wants another level of government, and they emphasize the
need to protect local community power and minimize regional power. One reason for
forming a borough is to prevent the LBC and the legislature from dictating regional
government boundaries and rules. Kake entities discuss power as belonging to Kake
people, historically through self-determination and now through city and tribal
government. LBC proposed boundaries and methods are critiqued, and Kake people
emphasize the need to be proactive and keep as much power in the local sphere as
possible, even if boroughization is forced upon them.
LBC standards and textual authority ofthe state constitution have the power to
dislocate Kake people's identity as a group that desires to live autonomously and with
self-determination. The state constitution is a fixed text-artefact given personhood status
in state-based borough discourses. The power of the constitution as a fixed text
exemplifies what most people in the United States take for granted, or what Collins
364
(1996:204) calls the ideology of "textualism." Textualism is an ideological belief in the
"the fixity of text, the transparency oflanguage, and the universality of shared meaning."
When text-artefacts are adopted, people presume that there is a literal
meaning within the texts, that meanings can be applied to "a variety
of (assumed1y well-defined) social practices, ideological and social
alignment (reflecting the 'consensus' over these matters), and, finally,
also coherence (or, at least, continuity) with previous policy actions
and policy actions in other domains (the policy of this government)
and contrasts with others (the policy of the previous governments, the
opinion of the opposition, and so on)" (Blommaert 2005: 187).
Because of the ideology of fixed text and the assumption that legal policy can be
interpreted literally with meanings that can be stretched only so far, political struggles are
commonly focused on the wording within various texts and metatexts. One role ofpo1icy-
makers is to decide which groups have legitimate reasons for redefming fixed texts.
Text-artefacts encompassed nearly the entire focus of arguments within LBC
recommendations, SCR12 and the head tax bill. Pages 84 to 163 of the 2005 LBC report
to the legislature were authoritative versions or readings of the state constitution by LBC
writers. The section highlighted specific constitutional framers' statements that backed up
LBC interpretations. The report writers cited speakers that backed up LBC deductions.
They concluded that there is a void between what the constitution framers wanted and
what actually occurred in the last 50 years.
In review, the report and the senate resolution assigned labels to groups in the
unorganized borough by describing them as lacking local responsibility for education and
platting services, for living with a highly fragmented structure for delivery ofpublic
services, for participating in an inequitable system, and for lacking a regional
government, hindering social and economic development. The indexica1ities of
"goodness" to which unorganized borough residents are expected to orient are implicit in
the duties of an organized borough government. The central values that policy-makers
identified in the "goodness" ofboroughization included increased economic
365
development, primarily through resource extraction, service delivery efficiency and
consolidation, taxation, promotion ofprivate property ownership, promotion of equity
and fairness, and local financial responsibility and accountability. These are LBC and
SCR12 sponsors' interpretations of what it is to be a "good" group member under state
law.
Autonomy, strong feelings of responsibility toward people and the non-
human environment, traditional and customary gathering and livelihood ties to the
land, socialization of moral expectations to people and place, and other Kake values
are left out of the boroughization conversation at the policy-making level. The fact
that policymakers and constituents alike understand policies as fixed with singular
meanings and applications, and the lack of contextual descriptions and indexical
language forms in fixed-text policies, leads to dogmatized readings of text-artefacts
and "a retreat behind the ideology of fixed text" (Blommaert 2005:189). The
authority to interpret or change legal text is, of course, an instrument of power and,
ironically, a basis of inequality. The ideology of fixed text leads to simplification of
descriptions of lives, people, and the reasons for laws, implementation of which
leads to coerced homogenization. In this case homogenization may be a dislocation
oflocal ideological qualities that are conducive to strong community. LBC
boroughization goals lack recognition of social relationships that are important for
promoting long-term environmental integrity.
Following are patterns of attributions ofpower identified in discourse
examples from appendices M to Z. Again I used the qualitative software program
Atlas. ti to assist me in sorting and categorizing attributions ofpower in each
transcript.
366
Table 14A. Wilkin. Articulation of power. Senator Gary Wilkin's 2004 speech to the
Senate Affairs Committee. (See appendix M)
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
Decision-making powers • SCR12 requests that the LBC consider borough
are discussed almost incorporation for four areas of our state.
exclusively as those • Standards are the source of the sites for that
through the legislature, authorization and authority on behalf of the state.
which instructs the LBC.
• The resolution establishes a procedure to determine if
the residents of the four areas have the ability to
contribute to their local schools.
Local decision-making· Examples of phrases.
powers.
Local empowerment means • The majority ofthese residents do not live in home rule
borough in Wilkin's or first class cities and are not required to financially
discussion. support their schools.
• The best government is the government closest to the
people.
• There are areas in the state that probably don't have the
capacity to supp0l1 local government.
Table 14B. Hargraves. Articulation of power 2003 to 2007 LBC Chairman DarroH
Hargraves' 2004 speech to the Senate Affairs Committee. (See appendix N)
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
SCR12 would lead to an • When the legislature speaks, it will be a directive to the
LBC study, a LBC.
recommendation to the • LBC (would proceed) per specific proposals for the
legislature, and a legislative establishment of organization of organized boroughs
decision about forcing for the four areas listed.
boroughization. • SCR12 constitutes the expression of fundamental
legislative policy regarding borough formation.
Local decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
Public hearings are the only • The study would include public hearings.
reference to local
empowerment in this
example.
Table 14C. LBC report. Articulation of power. LBC Report Segments. (See
appendix P)
367
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The state constitution is the • Some constitutional provisions have remained
ultimate authority. The unexecuted.
legislature's job is to • . .. result of deferring difficult decisions involving
induce boroughization. The controversial matters.
state has been remiss in
• LBC, an independent commission with the duty to
promoting boroughization. address local government boundary problems.
• Alaska Supreme Court observed that Alaska's
Constitution encourages the creation of borough
govemments.
• Legislature shall provide for the performance of
services.
-
• Constitutional challenge to transform anachronistic local
govermnent structure.
Local decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
Local government is • Maximum local self government with a minimum of
described historically as local government units.
rudimentary and flawed. • In the unorganized borough there is currently a
Constitution writers minimum of local self government with a maximum of
envisioned a state divided local government units.
into boroughs. Local
• Constitutional goal of maximum local government can
government means only be approached when a locality or region is
organized regional borough organized.
govemment. City
• Organized boroughs also achieve maximum local self
governments, under the govemment in the sense that they are governed by
borough system, would assemblies comprised of local residents who are elected
experience reduced by local voters.jurisdiction to prevent
• Alaska is the only state with no local government for aduplication of powers. large geographical part of the state.
Table 14D. Hoonah. Articulation of power Hoonah's borough proposal. (See
appendix Z)
368
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The purposes of forming a • We do not want to wait and have the LBC or legislature
borough are described as dictate this to us.
minimizing the power of • Our desire is to prepare a petition to form a borough and
the state, preventing state submit it to the State's LBC.
from insisting on property
• .. it is safe to say that every resident of every community
taxes, and ensuring that the in the region, including Hoonah, is leery about creating
legislature and the LBC do multiple layers of government. How do we create a
not dictate borough borough that has functioning cities within and prevent
boundaries and this?
organization.
• Joining several traditional Tlingit areas and people
together ... would create a strong Alaska Native voice in
this part of Southeast Alaska.
Local decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The focus of this borough • Hoonah assumes the communities do not want property
would be to keep taxes.
communities independent • Co-locating the borough offices with city offices in the
and unique, ensure that communities where they are located.
people could engage in
• Use borough resources to foster and support our
subsistence harvesting, and communities and our regional needs.
join traditional Tlingit
• Use our strong regional voice to advocate for both
areas and people together borough and each community's priority capital needs
for a stronger Native voice. and projects.
• Continued ability of residents to engage in subsistence
harvesting and gathering activities.
Table 14E. City ofKake. Articulation of power City ofKake letter. (See appendix
Q)
369
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The city council • And as the state now has mandated the LBC to address
acknowledges that the state the matter of those communities now existing on
has the power to mandate unincorporated boroughs ...
boroughization, but offers • We look to the LBC to address those unincorporated
alternative maps and regiOns.
boundaries than those
• We look forward to providing input, assistance and
proposed by the LBC. local expertise as we consider this matter.
• .. does now encourage and petition the LBC and all
agencies to whom this matter is relevant to make all
diligence to consider the interests and concerns of our
community.
Local decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The city council emphasizes • Be it resolved that the Community and Municipality of
that Kake people should Kake declare its resolve and determination to maintain
have the right to accept or its unique culture, personality, and way of life.
deny permission for any • The community of Kake already enjoys the opportunity
plan that would lead to to serve effectively within a municipal context.
boroughization on lands that
• Whereas the community of Kake has in earlier times
include the city or any of enjoyed its independence, self determination,
the traditional lands of Kake autonomy and now, as a first class municipality, the
peoples. oversight of the welfare of our people.
Table 14F. Kake school. Articulation of power. Kake School District letter.
(See appendix S)
370
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The school • If a governing body is to be responsive to and
superintendent representative of the people under its authority, it must have
emphasizes the a foundation in the history and culture that brought those
responsibilities of a good peoples together in the first place.
government. He lays out • It is often difficult for those who do not have the strong
how a good government traditions and ties to Native lands to understand its power
would act while and value to the communities and people who have it.
considering borough
• No borough that fails to consider the traditional territory of
boundaries. the Kake Tlingit people will be successful in meeting the
educational and cultural needs of the people.
Local decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The writer describes how • None of these options give sufficient respect to the culture
autonomy is important for or original lands considered home to the Kake Tlingit
Kake people and that a people.
borough government is • Autonomy is very important to the people of Kake and the
likely to negatively education of their children.
influence the sense of
• ... concerned that the rich history and culture of the original
connection people have to Kake people is not being considered.
who they are, where
• Kake City Schools can not support the boundary of the
they've come from, and Chatham Model Borough ...
where they're going.
371
Table 14G. OVK. Articulation of power. Organized Village ofKake (OVK) 2003
letter to LBC.
State decision making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The letter addresses state • We plan to continue working with the municipal
powers only by pointing out government on this common cause, but in the
that the state is proposing to interest of efficiency, we ask that our office be addcd
infringe on Kake Tlingits' to your contact list so we can stay current with
traditional boundaries and information conccrning our community.
diminish local city and tribal • Statc of Alaska, DcpartmCllt of Fish and Game
government. Thc lcttcr writers Subsistence Division Map, based on Goldschmidt,
attached state and federal W.A., and T.H. Haas 11946 Possessory Rights ofthc
documents that illustrate local Natives of Southeast Alaska and Department of
authority and jurisdiction. Interior 1944 Hearings on Claims of the Towns of
Hydaburg, Klawock and Kake, Alaska.
Local decision making Examples of phrases.
powers.
Most of the OVK letter lays • Any action that would diminish our local home rule,
out the jurisdiction, rights, which is well established by our tribal government,
responsibilities, traditional and also by the City of Kake as a first-class city,
boundaries, position, history, could not be justified as being in the best interest of
duties, and powers of local our citizens.
government in Kake. • The Organized Village of Kake, under its mandate to
serve its citizens, must object to any borough
boundary or other action that will infringe on Kake's
traditional boundaries.
• Powers of authority to protect and preserve the
timber, fisheries and other property and natural
resources as mandated by the Organized Village of
Kake Constitution.
Table 14H. OVK C. Articulation of power. Organized Village of Kake 2003 letter
to LBC, attachment C.
372
State decision making Examples of phrases.
powers.
Attachment C is a description of
traditional Kee~' Kwaan • None.
territory and law. Its writer
addresses state powers only in
his insistence of local powers
and in his description of how the
United States Navy bombed
Kake villages in 1869.
Local decision making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The writer describes in detail • They had a well-developed system of exclusive
Tlingit laws concerning land and ownership, of land, rivers, riparian areas and waters.
waters and how people tacitly
• Tlingit ownership of land antedates memory and was
understood them throughout
a sacred trust.Tlingit teITitory, Instead of texts
and written records, people • Each tribe's territory was further divided into separate
knew their histories and values holdings of clans, house groups and from among them
through clan stories, songs, by families, as specialized camp sites for harvesting
dances, and crests. Boundaries animals, berries, fish, tidal area foods, trees, etc.
were well known and respected. • These boundaries were well-known and respected by
all other tribes.
• Tlingit property laws were rigid and inflexible.
Table 141. Kake mayor. Articulation of power. Kake mayor's speech to the
City of Kupreanof, 2003. (See appendix Y)
373
State decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The mayor's speech • ... the state legislature commissioned the Local
addresses state power as Boundary Commission, that actually have their offices
something inevitable. The in Anchorage, to identify those regions which met the
mayor stresses that it is criteria for the formation of boroughs.
important to act early on in • ... and right now pay attention to SR12 and then you'll
order to design a regional see Kake and two other regions involved in the
government that respects and potential of being essentially forced into a borough.
empowers local government.
• None of us wants to have this discussion, but because
of the political climate in the state, not only are we
forced to, but because of other considerations ...
Local decision-making Examples of phrases.
powers.
The mayor proposes • Here's the trick. A government whose council ran by
designing a borough that consensus rather than majority vote would actually be
would have as little power as a kind of a new thing. I'm not sure what state law
possible so that communities would allow us and how much we tailor within the
could maintain a sense of charter to achieve that.
autonomy and self direction. • Like-minded communities banding together under the
threat of these impositions that are being foisted on us.
• Now I'm like you. Our community is like yours. You
know really what we want to do is we want to be left
alone.
374
Clearly state representatives including Wilkin, Hargraves, and other LBC writers
recognize and respect centralized regional and state power over local, small community
power. James Scott (1998:1-8) provides a description of the workings of state
government that helps to theoretically situate the focus and purpose of discourses that
primarily recognize large scale over small scale powers. The LBC boroughization
narratives are examples ofwhat Scott describes as the need and capability of state leaders
and people who work within bureaucratic mechanisms to "read" subjects and their
environments.2 They must do this by simplifying the descriptions and definitions of
peoples and places.
In the case of state-mandated boroughization, those people who are devoted to a
high modernist ideo10gy3 are working to refashion and homogenize human and non-
human relationships. They are doing so through simplified descriptions ofcommunities
and group responsibilities and legal requirements, and through utilizingjairness and
equity as homogenizing value signifiers. For example, in the January 24,2005 legislative
meeting cited previously, Representative Peggy Wilson responded to senators and
representatives who pointed out LBC's lack ofunderstanding about local issues. She said
that "the LBC is doing what they are constitutionally mandated to do and that it is a
fairness issue for legislators. Why should communities continue to pay their fair share
when others are able to pay for schools but don't? The state will end up paying more if
2 Historically, some of the ways to control the social workings within state boundaries included the
following (Scott 1998:53-83): creation of permanent last names, standardization of weights and measures,
surveys and population registers, invention of freehold tenure, standardization oflanguage, standardization
oflegal discourse, design of cities, organization of transportation. In each case, officials took exceptionally
complex, illegible, and local social practices, such as land tenure customs or naming customs, and created a
standard grid so that the grid could be centrally recorded and monitored. The organization of the natural
world was no exception. Agriculture, for example, is a radical reorganization and simplification offlora to
suit human goals. The designs of scientific forestry and agriculture, the layout ofplantations, farms,
villages, etc., all seemed calculated to make the terrain and its products and its workforce more legible.
This makes these entities more manipulatable from above and from center.
3 High modernist ideology. (Scott 1998:4). "It is best conceived as a strong, one might even say muscle-
bound, version of the self-confidence about scientific and technical progress, the expansion ofproduction,
the growing satisfaction of human needs, the mastery ofnature (including human nature), and above all, the
rational design of social order commensurate with the scientific understanding of natural laws."
375
there is no resolution." Hargraves responded by saying that "existing boroughs typically
annex lucrative areas."
The question here is who decides the criteria for what and how people in places
such as Kake pay for their schools? In this case legislators from organized boroughs are
attempting to force a legal decision. Simplifying the standards ofgovernmental
representation and tax collection without looking deeper into human relationships with
other humans and the non-human environment is a form ofhegemonic statecraft. At issue
here are ideologies about sustainable livelihood and environmental integrity. Many of the
social elements that are conducive to human attachment and commitment to community
and environment remain uncounted and unconsidered when the LBC and many
legislators discuss equitability and fairness.
One example of how law makers, enforcers, and regulators attribute equalizing
(homogenizing) standards and expectations onto Kake is the January 2001 LBC report of
"The Need to Reform State Laws Concerning Borough Incorporation and Annexation."
The contents of the report are listed as follows:
Section 1. Discussion of the need for reform
A. Boroughs are Alaska's fundamental political subdivision
for delivery of municipal services, yet the State has never
established a rational basis for the creation of new boroughs
or the expansion ofexisting boroughs 7
B. There is a lack of local responsibility for education and
platting services in most ofthe unorganized borough 11
C. The lack of organized boroughs has resulted in a highly
fragmented structure for the delivery ofpublic services 14
D. The lack of regional government has hindered social
and economic development in unorganized areas 16
E. The current system is inequitable 18
Conclusion 20
376
State discourse and the logics of difference and equivalence
This table of contents illustrates and speaks to the high modernist ideologies and
social engineering tendencies in statecraft that Scott described. Processes of social
engineering include judgments that assume people are living in ways that could be more
productive and progressive. Such judgment involves comparison. In this report, LBe
report writers utilize comparison by setting up what Laclau and Mouffe (2001) called a
logic of equivalency. State-crafters in this situation participate in a logic of equivalence in
their use of signifiers to describe and categorize various groups. The logic of equivalence
is a construction of equivalent identities between people within diverse groups and with
diverse identities, as explained by Aletta Norval (2000:219-231). A logic of equivalence
involves finding a common theme through which dissimilar peoples can form political
and social alliances. In this case, those who pay property taxes in organized boroughs are
allied versus those who do not pay property taxes in the unorganized borough.
In logics of equivalence discourse, people assign less importance to differences
between themselves and those they are organizing with as a group, a group which they
feel has been oppressed by the behavior of others. They emphasize their commonalities,
which include opposing themselves to a series of others, the oppressors. Those people
who are being opposed are categorized as oppressors and in that way are made equivalent
to one another. The oppressors' differences are also deemphasized. In this example,
unorganized borough groups are categorized as oppressors of those who must pay
property taxes because they live in the organized areas. This chain of equivalence
transforms those people in the organized borough as legitimate, and those who are
different as needing to change. As Norval (2000) points out, for the logic of equivalency
to function, an enemy is needed in order to create a collective entity. An important part of
the formation of any identity is that it is opposed to something else, to an "other."
In review, Laclau, Mouffe and others suggest that logic-of-equivalence patterns
are most clearly identifiable in authoritarian, non-liberal venues. There may be a
377
correlation between the presence of authoritarianism and the rhetorical construction of an
"enemy." SCR12 and the head tax bill were designed to force or punish people into
forming boroughs, a type of authoritarianism.
The logic of difference focuses less on constructing an "enemy." Instead, logics of
difference discourses focus on the right to differences and the recognition that adversaries
are part of a democratic way of thinking. People who disagree become "adversaries"
rather than "enemies." They debate about the interpretation and ranking of values, but
they create a sense of solidarity around their common allegiance to the values necessary
for a liberal democratic way ofproblem solving. Pluralism rather than dogmatism is more
possible within a logic ofdifference.
Lac1au, Mouffe and others suggest that a logic of difference is more conducive to
"democracy," but they acknowledge that a complex interaction exists between a logic of
difference and a logic of equivalence. Thus LBC categories and the categories set up in
resolution SCR12 and the head tax bill cannot be defined strictly as fixed examples of a
logic of equivalence, though they lean heavily in that direction.
The value signifiers in the 2001 LBC report, contents, section 1, are indicative of
a logic of equivalence and the creation of opposition groups, that is, those people who
have failed to organize themselves into boroughs are defined as different from those
people who are "equivalent" because they are part of organized boroughs. In addition to
utilizing a logic of equivalence, LBC language forms reveal the use of empty signifiers or
void/lack language to dislocate local ideologies by inferring their inadequacy. "There is a
lack oflocal responsibility for education and platting services in the unorganized
borough. The lack of organized boroughs has resulted in a highly fragmented structure
for the delivery of public services. The lack ofregional government has hindered social
and economic development in unorganized areas. The current system is inequitable." The
words lack ofand inequitable are signifiers for that which is not. They articulate what
"should" be there for a group's ideals to work. Empty signifiers convey a lack that should
be filled, and political forces compete to present their objectives as ways to fill the lack.
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To hegemonize is to carry out this filling function (Norva12000). SCR12 and the head
tax bill that Senator Wilkin, Senator Con Bunde and others proposed are examples of
attempting to fill the lack that the LBC articulated.
How do Kake people respond to the logic ofequivalence inherent in LBC
descriptions of local ways of life? How do they respond to the use of empty signifiers that
convey a lack that is presented as something that needs filling through political activity?
When responding to statecraft challenges, how do Kake people work in relationship with
their former ideological constructions and that which dislocates them? How are Kake
ideologies reconstructed on the basis of such a state-initiated crisis?
As evident in appendices Q through Y, representatives of the tribe, the city and
the school district responded by describing the authority and powers oftheir own local
governmental system. Some people extended their description of governmental
responsibilities to include the welfare ofpeople and the non-human environment. Various
people situated Tlingit and tribal authority in time and territory, and they explained the
emotional, spiritual, and cultural significance of their relationship to the human and non-
human environment. In short, they articulated meanings that were derived largely from
place and community relationships. Of course, people's current place-based meanings are
always partially derivative of past crises caused by dislocations of identity, social
priorities, and inclusive relatedness and the subsequent rearticulation of ideologies during
the crises. To speak about Kake's history and the legal basis oflocal governmental
decision-making authority, while explaining the spiritual and emotional connections to
land and water, is to attempt to speak in terms that the listeners (the state) recognize(s).
At the same time it involves voicing the feeling narratives that are often ignored in state
political discourses.
In day-to-day conversations, Kake people talked much less (than in other
communities ofmy experience) about state politics. I found people more concerned about
family life, friends, food resources, and things that were happening in the immediate
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environment. Some exceptions were people who worked at the city, the schools, the tribe,
or the tribal corporation-the "translators."
When I was in Kake, the borough issue seemed far away and people seemed
resigned to its eventual incorporation, although no one I talked with thought it was a good
idea. Local government leaders had little choice but to address what LBC and some
legislators detennined was lacking in local people's lives. As in all communities, people
who participate in direct conversations with LBC and other government agencies
interpret for legal and regulating agencies the needs and feelings oflocal people. In Kake
such people also help interpret for many local people the laws relevant to Kake and the
rights and benefits that belong to local people.
One Native city government representative responded to LBC accusations this
way:
Speaker: They're saying that we're freeloading for all these years
because everybody else, like Anchorage, Juneau, Sitka, pays, what do
you call it on their houses ... property tax. Yeah. And they think that
all these people that aren't in a borough are just freeloading off of the
state there. And it's high time we help ourselves. But we've been
collecting sales tax from the beginning of time there. And you look at
Anchorage there and they don't charge no sales tax. And if they did
they'd be able to help themselves.
Fieldworker: People here in Kake tell me that the big cities sort of
survive because ofthe resources from the rural areas.
Speaker: Yup. Exactly. Um. Geeze, I wish that I could find my other
letter that shows all the cuts there that the governor is trying to cut on
us. He's trying to cut another $230 million off (for Alaska cities) the
next year, but we just got another letter saying that he's slacking off
on it. He won't take that much of a cut because he hurt us already
(2004 taped interview).
In this example, the speaker participates in the logic ofequivalence set up by LBC
discourse. He does this by defending local sales tax fund-raising as a fonn of local
responsibility for education and he criticizes those people who lack sales tax. He speaks
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to LBC claims of inequitability through his description ofhow Kake is hurting because it
lost revenue-sharing from the state. Through defending his community in the context of
LBC's logic of equivalence, his conception changes, however slightly. He must rethink
city priorities and mandates in relation to LBC claims. His and other people's knowledge
about what it is to be a municipality is influenced through boroughization conversations
with the state. The exchange becomes a co-production of the qualities valued in
municipal government.
Commitment to fund raising through taxes is a major, reinforced value in this
dialectical rethinking of ideological constructions. Sales tax has long been the appropriate
local way to fund education but that assumption is dislocated with LBC and legislator
inferences that paying property taxes, or collecting taxes through increased resource
extraction, is more equitable to the rest of the state. Because the legislature can enforce
boroughization, Kake people must rethink their reasons for avoiding property taxes.
Many people also must rethink their desire to protect their environment from increased
resource extraction. Rethinking means re-examining concepts of identity and beliefs. It
means working to suture dislocated ideologies in the context of discursive frames that
define Kake funding and local governmental units as lacking. Such local rethinking may
result in a stronger conviction that property taxes and increased resource extraction are
wrong in native communities, but re-examining ideologies through state-crafted discourse
frames still influences the emphasis of some values and the de-emphasis of others.
Changes in thinking about priorities means changes in thinking about human/human and
inclusive relationships in place.
A man who grew up non-Native, but who is now a tribal representative, said:
You know the ironic thing is ... currently this is a Republican-driven
regime, and isn't one of the foundations of the Republicans to get rid
ofbig government and put it at the local level? They seem to have
missed the boat when they talk about this forced regionalization. I
really hate to see the way our government is acting. If it's going to be
forced upon us we have no choice but to be proactive and start trying
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to model something that we can live with. It seems to me it's a great
concern of the tribe because to the extent of our tribal boundaries, as
far as customary and traditional gathering, ... that's essentially being
used as a model for a borough, you know, which I guess is
appropriate in that vein. But we really don't like the idea of, yeah,
another government or entity that we might have to deal with when it
comes to protecting our customary and traditional areas. You know, if
we're going to have a borough, I wish that the tribal government
could run the area. Which is no different than what it did not that long
ago [pre-contact]. But that wouldn't fit in the current scheme of
hierarchy, I guess. (2004 taped interview)
This speaker asks questions about the logic of those who have attached meanings
onto unorganized borough territory, and who define it as objectified "space" or
"landscape." He works through his own ideological construction of what local
government should be by questioning the ideologies and behaviors ofthose who want to
regionalize government. He describes the process Kake will have to go through to try and
fit local needs and values within a regional system. This re-situating ofpower is a type of
ideological crisis. In rearticulating Kake priorities within the discursive frame of
regionalization, the speaker thinks first about customary and traditional uses of land and
water as something to protect. Fear of losing access to customary and traditional activities
and livelihood takes his mind to the best solution, a tribal government rather than a state-
constructed borough government.
Because tribal governments are often considered a "threat to statehood," the
speaker and other people in Kake have to rethink and reprioritize customary and
traditional livelihood practices through borough government regionalization discourse
frames. They must speak to priorities such as taxes and development of the cash
economy. Their words and stories about local and cultural priorities must be combined
with words such as regional government, consolidation, and annexation, etc. One of the
feelings that these words trigger is fear. In the last five to seven years, the Local
Boundary Commission imperatives served as an environmental stimulus that triggered
emotions that were connected with fear in many Southeast Alaska communities. People
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feared that boroughs might be forced upon them, and they feared that if they failed to
form their own boroughs quickly, others would claim most of the land and leave them
with little. Communities began to conceptualize borough annexations and proposed
boundaries that included as much territory as they thought they could claim. The race for
territorial jurisdiction caused distress to neighboring communities. Discourses of fear led
to behaviors that created the very conditions that people feared. People acted within the
conditions of state-based applied spatial meanings, changing their relationships to place
as a consequence.
One purpose of this case study that is separated into four parts, chapters 11-14,
was to examine local knowledge of and feeling for place, as well as local performance of
community. The questions asked and the analysis ofdiscourse segments were designed to
look for social elements (Becker and Ostrom 1995; Ostrom 1990; Weinstein 2000) that
are conducive to long-term sustainable livelihood through socialization of common moral
values about people and place. Ifknowledge, feeling, and performance ofrelevant social
elements exist in a community, how are they affected by conversations about land and
water with governing agencies and law-makers? Chapter 11 introduced the case study
and described some Kake community rituals that help people establish, repair, and co-
narrate ties between people and place. Chapter 12 showed that, in the case of
boroughization discourse, local community building elements that COlmect people to each
other and to place through memory, feeling and co-narration were rarely part of decision
making conversations at the state level. Chapter 13 focused on how people understood
moral obligation towards others through their acknowledgement ofpersonhood status.
Personhood of individuals, local groups, and other entities in the environment was
recognized locally in various degrees, while systems personhood and text artefact
personhood were valued at the state level. This chapter (14) examined distribution of
decision-making power. Power was most often attributed to state agencies, legislators,
and laws at the state level, while local representatives worked to describe and defend
local jurisdiction and power.
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By examining some of the "essence" ofcommunity, discursive descriptions of the
non-human environment, personhood attributions, and recognition or attribution of
power, I conclude that Kake narratives demonstrate sustainable livelihood management
potential. However, one principle of community environmental management toward
sustainable livelihood is that local power must be recognized as legitimate by government
authorities and other neighboring resource users (Weinstein 2000:6).
Although there are well-known examples ofde facto community resource
management regimes, these regimes are difficult to sustain over the long term
if they are in serious conflict with government and with other users. They
also generally have a reduced realm of management opportunities. Often,
their efforts are limited to excluding non-members. Without formal
recognition it is difficult to sustain the kinds of cooperative behavior and
commitment required for the full realm of community-based resource
management. Ostrom's and Becker and Ostrom's design principles include an
eighth principle, which they call nested enterprises, for regimes that are parts
of larger systems. Within these enterprises, many of the other seven design
principles are "nested" within similar structures that operate at larger scales,
such as regional, provincial, or national levels (Weinstein 2000:6-7).
Although sustainable livelihood through local empowerment was not a goal for
LBe and legislative representatives who were promoting boroughization, it is important
to recognize how state discourses affect socialization of environmental and community
values in local communities. Local values can be disempowered at the state level when
decision-making power is in the hands ofpeople who fail to recognize those values as a
legitimate part of the legal and regulatory conversation. In the examined state-based
discourse and text artefact segments, local values and power received little stated
recognition.
In the next three chapters I focus on talk about food resources. Because fish have
long been the mainstay ofTlingit survival, and because people in Kake often say that
their customary and traditional resources will keep them alive even if the cash economy
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is in difficulty, a section about fish is essential in any discussion about local narratives.
The following chapters describe local talk about fish as subsistence and commercial
fishing concerns.
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CHAPTER XV
FISH-AS-FOOD
To me seems like ... when I was growing up as a teenager, uh, oh ... purse seining and
trolling were the industries. Now they just seem to be a sideline. The cannery was going
full bore. People were ... always were busy. (2002 taped interview with Elder Tlingit
man)
We had our gardens up in Hamilton Bay there. And we probably put up an average of
one thousand pounds ofpotatoes in our root cellar right out there. And we put an
average ofone thousand dog salmon, dried ... every winter. And it was pretty average
per family here. So the village probably consumed twenty thousand dog salmon every
fall. And they put that away and then coupled that with deer meat. They smoked the deer
meat, they smoked the seal meat, and the preserved the deer meat in the seal oil. They
preserved, in fact, the berries in seal oil too. Before they got jars and cans and everything
else later, you know. But food was not a problem. We put up food, and we lived well.
(2003 taped conversation with Elder Tlingit man)
For Tlingit people, fish have always been more than food or a way to earn money.
One Tlingit man in his late forties said,
Our Elders told us our own intuition is what we should go by, but we have
forgotten this. Circle Peacemaking helps to bring that back. How we talked
with respect to our salmon resources. How when people came back with food
the whole town ate. Everything was already divided into portions and
everybody got some. By sharing the way they did there was healing for the
Elders and amends to people you might have been having problems with, and
because of the sharing ... healing. (2003 written fieldnotes)
Discourse about "respect" for salmon and people changed as village life changed
during the twentieth century, but "respect" for fish, family, and community is still a local
value practiced in varying degrees. Fish continue to be part of what connects people to
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each other and to their island home. This chapter is a thumbnail sketch of how people in
Kake often spoke about salmon and other fish between 2002 and 2004. Its purpose is to
illustrate the everyday narratives about fish as food.
Historical context
Tlingit Elder Charles Johnson (Topsy) was the Organized Village ofKake
historian until his passing in 2006. He wrote the following about food and harvest:
The qualities of an Elder are not gained easily and the status requires
more than the advancement of years. I realize that I am handicapped in
not knowing more about, 'the traditional and cultural harvesting and
preservation of indigenous foods,' which are the reasons our people have
survived. Subsistence is not a word in the Tlingit language. In essence
the reason our people have survived for eons is based on two phrases,
"Haa Kusteeyi" (our life) and "Haa at~aayi" (our food), terms which are
inextricably synonymous. In our culture it is a well-understood principle
ofself-preservation that humans are just one small part of the land and of
nature and not the dominant force. Living in harmony with the land and
with nature is an integral part of our traditional culture and self-identity.
We draw our identity, as a people, from our relationship to the land, sea,
and its resources; it is a spiritual and sacred relationship; based on the
need to co-exist with nature. On these lands and waters we, as did our
forefathers, harvest, in measured quantities, what is needed to sustain
ourselves; being careful not to unnecessarily disturb or destroy anything
not required for our sustenance and physical well being.
We (as were our ancestors) are but a minute segment ofa pilgrimage
from one living generation to the next. The migration ofbirds, animals,
and the spawning of fish predicated our annual calendar; for that reason
there were autumn, winter, spring, as well as summer camps. The
Tlingits had a well-developed system of exclusive ownership, ofland,
rivers, riparian areas and waters; they had well-defined geographic
boundaries in each Kwaan's territory; and (these) were owned in
common by all its members. Those boundaries were well known and
respected by all other Kwaans and it was tacitly understood that there
would be no trespassing by non members without the express permission
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of the traditional owners. Each Kwaan's territory was further divided
into separate holdings of clans, house groups and from among them by
families, as specialized camp sites for harvesting animals, berries, fish,
inter-tidal area foods, trees, etc. (Johnson 2004: 1).
The holdings and territories of the Kake 'tribe,' or KeeK' Kwaan, are historically
on Admiralty, Baranof, Kuiu, and Kupreanof islands (Firman and Bosworth 1990:55).
Kake Tlingits likely held and used the mainland coast from Cape Fanshaw north to
Windham Bay (Goldschmidt and Haas 1946). Within the KeeK' Kwaan region, house
groups and clans returned seasonally to camps where they harvested and processed foods.
Recollections of the places where parents and grandparents set up camps to harvest and
smoke their winters' fish continued to be a part of conversation in Kake when I was
there.
Example 1
Anyway, my grandparents lived around here, see. You can see a lot of
new trees there, and maybe they logged all of this one time, in the '70s
and '60s. My great-grandparents on my mother's father's side, they lived
out here. They claimed that mountain, but they lived at the base of it. But
people moved from Lower Chatham from the mainland, north of
Petersburg there, towards Juneau in Frederick Sound, Stephens Pass.
They moved here and gathered here. (2003 taped interview, Elder Tlingit
man)
Example 2
I remember when they used to bring out 1,500 fish for 15 families here
(culture camp beach) and one big smoke house. (2002 written fieldnotes,
Elder Tlingit woman)
Winter villages and summer salmon fishing camps were the two main focal points
of seasonal location changes for house groups and clans (Thornton 1997:302). In the late
l800s and early 1900s people were increasingly pressured to abandon seasonal camps
and settle permanently in villages such as Kake. With the help ofTlingit Elder Herman
Kitka, Thornton (1997:302-305) described the annual production cycle of a family group
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of Sitka Tlingits. The production year began in late March or early April with the herring
roe harvest and then the gathering of seaweed, gumboots, and cockles, which were
cooked, smoked and stored in containers of seal oil. People fished in the spring for
halibut, which was often dried, and they caught octopus. Seals were hunted for their meat
and oil. House groups spent from June through September at their fishing camps putting
up salmon and picking berries. The salmon were smoked and the berries dried or cooked
and put in containers with seal oil. With the introduction of new technology, some of the
salmon and berries were canned.
Newton and Moss (1984, 2005) gathered local knowledge about food and fish
from people who talked about the importance of the fall fish camps where fish was dried
to sustain people in the winter. Each extended family shared the work to dry the fish in
the vicinity of their own salmon stream and fish camp (Newton and Moss 2005:5).
Newton and Moss (2005:5) cite Lydia George ofAngoon, who said, "Since fish was our
main food, we were very careful; the fish were treated well. Ifa man broke any of our
laws, his fishing equipment was taken from him; sometimes his spear was broken up."
In the fall, according to Emmons (1991), Kitka and Thornton (1997), and Oberg
(1973), people moved to deer hunting and fall salmon fishing sites. By mid fall, house
groups gathered in their winter villages. Some people trapped for furs during the winter
months. In the early part of the twenty-first century, Kake people no longer moved to
seasonal camps in the spring, but the yearly cycles for gathering traditional and
customary foods continued to influence everyday life rhythms of the community. In the
summer people closed their offices on some days to "work on" fish. Others dropped what
they were doing and took boats out to bring in chum, coho, and especially sockeye
salmon.
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act §80l (ANILCA 1980)
ensures rights to harvest foods, albeit within non-Native legal parameters. Following are
excerpts from the act. Within ANILCA, §801, Congress finds and declares that:
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1) the continuation of the opportunity for subsistence uses by rural
residents of Alaska, including both Natives and non-Natives, on the
public lands and by Alaska Natives on Native lands is essential to Native
physical, economic, traditional, and cultural existence and to non-Native
physical, economic, traditional, and social existence;
§804. Except as otherwise provided in this Act and other Federal laws,
the taking on public lands 0 f fish and wildlife for nonwasteful
subsistence uses shall be accorded priority over the taking on such lands
of fish and wildlife for other purposes. Whenever it is necessary to
restrict the taking of populations of fish and wildlife on such lands for
subsistence uses in order to protect the continued viability of such
populations, or to continue such uses, such priority shall be implemented
through appropriate limitations based on the application ofthe following
criteria:
(1) customary and direct dependence upon the populations as the
mainstay of livelihood;
(2) local residency; and
(3) the availability of alternative resources (ANILCA 1980: §804).
Subsistence priorities are maintained and regulated through state and federal
government agencies. Following is a verbatim description of subsistence regulation
jurisdiction as posted on the United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) website.
http://www.subsistmgtinfo.org/about.htm
Federal
Under ANILCA, rural Alaska residents are eligible for the subsistence priority.
Rural residents make up about 20 percent of the state's population. Rural residents
are defined as all Alaskans except those living in and around Anchorage,
Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Adak, Valdez, Wasilla, Palmer, Homer, Kenai and
Soldotna.
State
Under state law, all Alaskans are potentially eligible for the subsistence priority.
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Subsistence Priority
Federal
The federal "subsistence priority" means that subsistence uses by rural residents
are accorded priority over non-subsistence uses (commercial or sport). To
implement this priority, the Federal Subsistence Board can, during times of
resource shortage, close non-subsistence uses on federal land to protect fish and
game resources or to assure subsistence harvests by rural residents. The Board
also reserves the right to restrict non-subsistence uses on federal land. In addition,
the Board retains authority to restrict or eliminate uses off federal lands to provide
the subsistence priority.
(It's important to remember that the subsistence "priority"under federal law
should lead to restrictions only when a fish stock or game population isn't
sufficient to provide for uses other than federal subsistence. When stocks or
populations are sufficient, all state uses generally are accommodated on federal
lands or waters, including state subsistence uses. For example, on federal waters
along the Copper River, Alaskans can subsistence fish under state laws and
regulations at Chitina while qualified rural subsistence fishermen fishing under
federal regulations fish a nearby section of the river.)
State
Like the federal government, the State of Alaska gives top priority in allocation
decisions to subsistence users. Under state management, a subsistence decision
begins with a determination that a portion of a fish stock or game population can
be harvested for subsistence consistent with sustained yield. Following such a
decision, the Board of Fisheries or Board of Game determines what amount of the
harvestable portion of the population is "reasonably necessary for subsistence
uses." Then, regulations are adopted that provide a "reasonable opportunity for
subsistence uses." (2006 UFA)
Just how much subsistence and personal use fishing, processing and sharing goes
on today in Kake is difficult to determine. The Division of Subsistence Alaska
Department ofFish and Game collects and publishes statistics about harvest and
consumption of salmon and other customary and traditional foods. Although ADFG
numbers are an excellent starting point for evaluating the importance of fishing in Kake
and other communities, statistics are understandably incomplete. Local narratives about
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fishing and hunting confirmed other people's direct observations that people often fail to
report their harvests and consumption out of mistrust for governmental motives and
purposes. For example, some Kake people do what is called "survival" fishing and
hunting when they run out of food, and they may do so out of season or without permits.
The headings for statistics charts in the Fishery Management Report No. 05-68, 2005,
show that the agency recognizes this discrepancy. The heading for commercial salmon
harvest (ADFG Dec. 2005:7) reads "Southeast Alaska region commercial salmon harvest,
in numbers, by harvest type and fishery, 2005." The heading for subsistence harvests
(ADFG Dec. 2005:22) reads, "Southeast, Alaska excluding Yakutat, reported subsistence
and personal use salmon harvest, by species and number ofpermits issued, from 1961 to
2005."
Fish as food within a struggling cash economy
Attention to harvesting customary and traditional foods increased after Kake
Tribal Corporation shut down its logging operation and the fish processing plant closed in
2004. Yearly gathering and harvesting cycles have always helped shape community and
family relationships, and harvesting seasons continue to elicit the kinds of memories that
connect people emotionally to their non-human environment. As one woman said with a
happy sigh, "Someone is grinding seaweed today to dry. Soon the whole town will be
smoking fish and canning it for winter."
A Tlingit man in Kake told me about fishing for his mother and other family
members so they could smoke and can fish for the year. He told me he tries to fish in
places where his family has "always" harvested salmon for subsistence, but sometimes
fishery regulations make that difficult. This man's mother told me how some Kake
families bend state and federal rules to find ways to maintain their fish consumption
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levels and fishing areas. In reference to rule manipulation she said that the regulations
and the regulators "made thieves out of us."
This allusion to thievery has various meanings in Kake. For example, thievery is
implied when fishery regulations and economic hardships put some Tlingits in the
position of being poachers. People no longer have the right to go out and get food simply
because they are hungry. They are issued fishing subsistence permits that regulate when,
where, and how much fish they can catch. If they fish beyond the limits of the permits,
they are stealing resources. One story that illustrates issues of food gathering as thievery
was told to me by a Kake Elder. A few years ago a man in the village went fishing in the
winter because his family needed food. He caught a steelhead in a nearby stream.
Unbeknownst to him, a Fish and Game officer had installed cameras on the stream and
was in a truck on the road watching the man catch his fish. He came down the stream
bank, cited the man and took the fish. When the man accepted his citation, for which he
would have to pay more than $100, he asked ifhe could have the fish back to feed his
family. The officer laughed at him. (No Fish and Game officers live in Kake.) To the
Elder telling me this story, the incident was a sad turn of events.
Many people in the winter do what is called "starvation fishing," which is not
sport fishing or commercial fishing. It is for feeding people. Subsistence practices help
keep people fed in difficult economic times, such as the present. As one man said,
"There's food here. We will survive. People share whatever they have." Each year, Kake
Tlingits continue to harvest and eat more than 200 pounds per capita of salmon in
addition to other customary and traditional foods such as deer, moose, halibut and seals.
They hunt and fish on several islands and in several waterways. One Elder told me that
280 pounds ofwild food per capita is a low figure. Even Alaska Department ofFish and
Game and other regulatory agencies assume that people under-report the amount of
salmon they harvest, eat, and share. An Elder told me that people under-report their use
of customary and traditional foods because they fear what the government will do with
the information. Their fear has a valid basis in experience, but ironically for Kake people,
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the state uses the information to set regulatory quotas and limits for subsistence fishing
and hunting.
Thievery has a different meaning for Alaska residents who are critics of the
special rights that Native and other rural Alaskans have to harvest for personal
consumption, although the food taken for subsistence compared to commercial and sport
harvest is a minimal portion of the total harvest. Federal laws, through ANILCA, protect
subsistence interests when Alaska state regulators are reluctant to do so because
subsistence rights are highly contested among Alaskans.
In 2003 I spent about half an hour with two Kake city councilmen drinking coffee
at the long meeting table in the city offices. One man said that the Alaska Department of
Fish and Game is good some years and bad others. "This year they came and fined kids
who were fishing for herring, even though we have been doing that as kids for
generations." The councilmen said the kids were fined more than $100 each. Had they
kept their fish, the kids would have used the herring for bait and food. Kake narratives
describe days when herring runs near Kake were wiped out in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Kake people often blame state lawmakers for allowing trawlers to fish in the area. One
eventual outcome, according to local narrative, was that jigging for herring became
illegal without a permit, which led to fining Kake children for "stealing" herring. The
message to the young fishers was that they were thieves. While the state has good reasons
to protect herring from over-fishing, past regulatory and commercial fishing mistakes
limit the ability of Kake children to do what their parents and grandparents did. Over-
fishing a herring run and the loss of a fishing resource means that the cultural practices
that are associated with that run are also lost.
Permits cost money, and laws, in this case, change jigging for herring from a
practice that distinguishes Kake childhood to one that is categorized as a form of
thievery. Laws also make fishing and hunting out of season illegal, but people who have
run out of resources still take chances and go out to find food.
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According to the 2003 Annual Report of Alaska Subsistence Fisheries, published
September 2005, on average subsistence fishing provides about 230 pounds of food per
person per year in rural Alaska (ADFG 2005:7). The 41 rural communities (having
populations of less than 2,000) that are off of the Alaska road network and not along the
Pacific Coast, harvest between about 627-732 pounds of customary and traditional foods
per capita per year, while the 73 rural communities on the road network and along the
coast harvest between 247-293 pounds per person. This latter statistic includes Kake
(Wolfe 2004:10-11). According to Alaska law, subsistence food harvest is differentiated
from sports food harvest because the typical values that motivate sports fishing are
considered recreational rather than subsistence values (Wolfe 2004:15).
Sharing and cooperation
Cooperation is one subsistence value that ADFG researchers recognize as a
common social aspect of the harvest and uses of customary and traditional foods. Since
the 1980s researchers have been asking rural people how much wild food they harvest
and how much they receive from others or give away. "These studies clearly showed that
Alaskans cooperate extensively in wild food production ... Any system for managing
subsistence hunting and fishing must, to be effective, take into account extensive
cooperation in the production of wild food" (ADFG 1990:1). Cooperation and sharing as
a social aspect of fishing, hunting, and gathering other wild foods is pertinent to Kake
and Tlingit culture in general. These values are in contrast to dominant values in
commercial fishing, which are focused on competition and individualism as differentiated
from collaboration.
Between 2002 and 2004 I collected narratives about fish as food mostly by
listening and observing. The next four narrative segments are representative of topics in
many Kake conversations about fish as food.
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1) Visitors to Circle Peacemaking from Harvard University were told that the salmon
"are jumping now." This statement was an explanation for why there were so few people
attending the potluck and circle representation. "Right now people are very busy.
Summers are a time of gathering, as you can see the salmon are jumping out there" (2003
written fieldnotes).
2) A Kake resident and I carne upon a sailboat docked in the harbor. A husband and wife
from Idaho crewed the boat. They told us that they had been corning to the Kake harbor
every summer for twelve years and how much they enjoyed Kake. As they sat on their
deck they exclaimed that they had never seen the harbor so quiet. The couple said that
they were praying for people in Kake. They noticed that "this year, it is subsistence for
real" (2004 written fieldnotes).
3) An Elder Tlingit man, expressed concerns about the loss ofjobs because Kake
Tribal Corporation shut down.
Fieldworker: So they're out there fishing to eat
Speaker: [mumbles agreement]. But they have to eat. Probably some,
that's all they have. Ifthey caught anything. One thing I know is that there
is more of an effort to gather food, you know, fish, seaweed, and I don't
know about berries, but I know this just from boat traffic and some people
erected their smoke houses. But then there's the seaweed. Some people
discovered they can get quite a cash price for it in Juneau. You know, for
seaweed. Kake has a special variety of seaweed. The people ask where it's
from and they see it's from Kake and they'll grab it. They complain about
the price afterward but they'll, they'll take it. But I know the people they
are gathering more food. They used to do when I first carne here, canning
fish, smoking fish, hunting, a lot of deer hunting activity. And driving
around town I notice there's a lot of wood being burned. The unfortunate
part (is) there are a lot of people threw their stoves away. So now I suspect
they're going to have a cold winter, have a hard time with fuel. Lots.
People have got to have it too ... any society ....(2003 taped
conversation)
4) A non-Native woman, who was fairly new to Kake, observed the following.
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But every time I say something like 'oh let's get a hamburger' (you know
and there's fifty pounds of meat in the freezer). It's just really different.
You don't go to the store hardly. You don't have to. Odd. So really people
around here could technically get by without having to use SOS. (SOS is
the name of the grocery, hardware and dry goods store in Kake. Its owners
live in Petersburg.). (2003 taped interview)
These four narratives are examples of how local people talked about fish as food.
The values connected with the importance of sharing fish/food are clear in several of the
narrative examples that I heard and collected. Comparisons are often made with past
sharing practices. The past represents a time when sharing was more fluid. Reasons given
for a perceived decrease in community sharing over the years include contrasting values
learned in boarding school and public school, a focus on money, a commercial economy
focus, abuse of values by speaking them but not following them, greed, and loss of
Elders.
Despite criticism that sharing has decreased, expectations about sharing are
discussed in several narratives as inferred and understood. People usually refrain from
directly asking others to share. Sharing communications are usually subtle and
"respectful" in order to avoid embarrassing others directly. Subjects are reminded,
through social cues, that they are part of a sharing network and that they may need to
adjust their behavior in some way. In one example, a teenaged girl confronted her uncle
publicly, telling him that he had taken more than his share of a salmon catch and that her
mother, his sister, was angry at him. In this case, the cues about sharing were direct and
public. Local people continue to keep track of sharing through social monitoring. "People
know." People talk about how much fish their male relatives brought them and what they
are doing with it. Sharing with community people in need is a theme that runs throughout
local narratives. Gathering and putting up subsistence foods and not sharing them is often
considered contrary to community-sharing values, although it occurs.
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Some people talked about sharing as a means ofpreventing waste. When there is
too much fish, it is distributed. Not so many years ago, boats would go out and get
enough fish to distribute to the whole town.
Narrators referred directly to Elders and their past and present influence on
sharing. The stories described the food shared with Elders, and the values that the Elder
people represent. They also indicated that while there remains a connection with the older
sharing values, circumstances have changed sharing behaviors. The principles inherent in
a cash economy system are part of an existing change in values. Still, Elders provide a
means for young people to practice sharing. They enjoy receiving gifts of food from their
grandchildren and others. In some conversations people expressed the underlying
messages that young people in Kake can continue learning about local food resources and
older values concerning respect, sharing and avoiding waste. Memories of gathering food
are told in stories. People talk about the kinds of foods grandparents like compared with
what young people like.
Newcomers to town expressed awe about learning local sharing values. Some
narrators told about teaching newcomers local expectations concerning food. Two
women in particular summarized some ofthe lessons they learned about life in Kake,
which included giving first to those who are unable to go out and get their own fish, meat
and firewood. In a few narratives, fish was talked about with signifiers related to money.
Shared food is a kind of "savings" for the future when what has been shared is returned.
While I have synthesized and summarized many of the more general ideological
talk about fish as food, it is important to include specific examples in people's own
voices. Following are four examples.
1) On a bright, sunny afternoon in 2004, another woman, an Elder man, and I sat at a
kitchen and listened to our host, a middle-aged man, who has lived in Kake for more than
twenty years, but is not Tlingit. Our host said that sharing is the norm in Kake. He loves
to catch a lot offish and give it to neighbors. He criticized another man's sharing because
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this man (a Native man) only shared with people he liked, not everyone. (The subject of
conversation was not present.) Our host talked about bringing Josephine, an Elder,
salmon and halibut, and how she would cook it up and have big potluck dinners at her
house to share it. (At the time of this conversation, Josephine had recently passed away.)
The speaker said he would miss her. He talked about her as an Elder who was without
"any animosity" and who knew about sharing. Our host said he could not think of many
Elders left and did not know who will take their places.
The Elder Tlingit man at the table listened carefully to the speaker.
Later, when our host was no longer present, the Elder said that he did not realize how
much the man shared. His generosity-"always sharing every time he hunts or fishes, but
never talking about it-that's true generosity." The Elder remembered working at
, where he and his fellow employees always kept track of who gave what in the
---
community, how much they gave to whom, and who gave back. "That wasn't really true
sharing-making it public and keeping track." (2004 written fieldnotes).
2) During the Dog Salmon festival in 2004, an Elder man said to me and another woman,
"People are sharing what they get now. By fall people will know who gave to whom and
how much. One reason people get irritated with __ and __ is that they put up a lot of
subsistence food, but they don't share it" (2004 written fieldnotes).
The same Elder said, during an interview,
But money's entered into it, you know, commercial. Commercial aspect. And
then there ... we're partly to blame [for some criticisms that come from non-
Native Alaskans] to subsistence determination. We abuse it, some of us. We
take all we can get there. We don't share. We talk about it. But we give lip
service. And right now we know how much people got, some ofus do, in
their talk, within the community here. You know, we talk who got some fish
or uuh hoo. So we know who gave and who shared. Not to spy on people
or (2004 taped interview)
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3) Each year I was in Kake I went to the fish hatchery to get an update on fishery and
hatchery issues and concerns. The last year that I visited the hatchery, I asked my
standard interview questions. In answer to the interview question "What is the
relationship between Kake and its non-human environment?" two hatchery men begin to
talk about "subsistence" or the harvesting of"customary and traditional" foods. Speaker
One is non-Native. Speaker Two is Tlingit.
Speaker One: Especially with long lining for halibut legalized. A lot more
people are doing it [subsistence in general].
Speaker Two: Everybody makes good use ofwhat everybody gets. I mean
if you ... one family and you get too much, well they're gonna end up
giving it to somebody down the line. Somebody else is going to need it.
My mother and father-in-law, people donate them seal, and they cook it up
and they don't eat the whole thing. They'll call up and say whoever wants
it bring me (a pot and I'll fill it). They get rid of it. The Elders in this
community really appreciate it when you give them something. (2004
taped interview)
4) A Tlingit man in his middle years talked about sharing.
Yeah, when we talk community I think we're talking people. Yeah it's a
deep family concept. You know at times you might not feel accepted here
and stuff, but in time of need, in time of hurt, whatever, the people come
out of the woodwork for you. They just really do. You know whether it be
financial, it might be actually physical work. I think my problem with my
heart, the past ... I [explains obligations with his work] and you know
stuff, but we've actually put up more fish with me not going in the boat.
People have dropped fish off, things like that. Crab. One year I was real
busy [with work] a few years back and ... a pounding on the door one
morning before I went to [his job] and somebody comes in and drops an
entire deer off. You know things like that so ... you know and that's, you
know they support you in many ways. Sometimes it's like any other little
town with rumors and gossip and stuff, but I think when you're in need, it
doesn't matter who you are, you're part of the community, they help you
out. (2003 taped interview)
In this chapter, the fish-as-food narrative examples embody a history of discourse
transformations and value adjustments in response to "alternative accounts and
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interpretations of life experiences" that are partially situated in capitalocentric and state-
initiated land-use and fisheries management changes. Even so, a central narrative theme
in nearly all of the local discourse I collected about fish-as-food is that of sharing. I find
this significant in comparison with discourse about fish as a commercial product, which
centers on values of selling, buying, profit, and competitive individualism. A seemingly
conspicuous observation is that non-monetary-based sharing is a subject that is lacking in
most state legislative discourses about sports and commercial fishing, to which people in
Kake are inadvertently expected to conform.
According to Kake Elders, "sharing" is part of customary Tlingit law, supporting
customary Tlingit cosmology, and implicit in Tlingit language forms. As in all languages,
philosophy, values, and cultural action are embodied in the Tlingit language. When
cultural priorities change, language use and meanings change. If selling salmon in an
environment of competitive individualism is prioritized, language that concerns sharing
may make less sense. The language of sharing fades away. Ifpeople persist in getting
their food directly through fishing, hunting, and gathering, "sharing" continues to make
sense, and sharing remains a relevant part of discourse.
Transformations in cultural action change discourse patterns, but the reverse is
also true. When a language is lost, cultural actions "are never simply left to take care of
themselves, or vice versa" (Wo llock 2001 :251). Lost languages are replaced by other
languages that embody other cosmologies and cultural action expectations (Wollock
2001:251). I was told that the Tlingit language embodied Tlingit knowledge in ways that
are unreplicated in English today, but I observed during my fieldwork experience that an
ethos of sharing has evidently passed over from Tlingit into Kake's English language
discourse patterns. This becomes more obvious when compared to the everyday talk in
Petersburg, where the discussion of sharing is less common. Cultural action prioritizes
fish as money there, and when sharing is discussed, it is most often talked about in ways
strikingly different from talk in Kake.
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Sharing is recognized as important in subsistence harvests and practices and is
pmt of the Alaska Department ofFish and Game and the Federal Fish and Wildlife
guidelines for determining subsistence quotas for rural Alaskans. Still, the federal legal
expectation (through ANILCA) that subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering are
prioritized on federal lands is primarily couched in a western language system and
philosophy. At the same time, ANILCA is one reason that sharing discourse can continue
as a part ofKake' s repertoire. Everyday talk in Kake about sharing is primarily linked to
people practicing the harvest of customary and traditional foods in their marine and forest
environment. People also share money in times ofneed and to help with funeral costs, for
example. They share their tools and other resources as well, but mostly they share time
and food.
To what extent is the discourse or concept of sharing discernable in state-wide
conversations, in the language of ANILCA law, or, for example, in the UFA description
of subsistence priority? Without increased attention to "sharing" language in legal arenas
other than subsistence, will lawmakers and regulators create around ANILCA-
implementation a legal and economic climate conducive to supporting and learning from
the sharing philosophy and ethos that is part of "local" cultural action and narrative?
These questions are crucial if we are to consider how moral negotiation at a personal
level is problematic within an industrialized state bureaucratic system. The modem form
ofbureaucratic power is based upon impersonal legal sanctions (Foucault 2002). Power is
routinely practiced as separated from everyday personal negotiation and communications.
Leaders and experts must negotiate some type of moral accountability, but bureaucratic
power itself is strategic, and without regard to such negotiations (Watson 1994:242).
Those everyday negotiations and communications that foster sharing in Kake are largely
unstated in state and federal statutes concerning subsistence rights.
The danger is that in industrialized nation states, inattention to "grassroots"
community negotiation and decision-making processes and purposes partly dismisses
local and practical knowledge. Scientists, planners, engineers and politicians within
402
industrial state government have long "regarded themselves as far smarter and farseeing
than they really were and, at the same time, regarded their subjects as far more stupid and
incompetent than they really were" (Scott 1998:343).
While specialists and "experts" may have general knowledge, the application of
that knowledge requires different experience-based knowledge that changes from place to
place. Local knowledge includes the ability to translate general understanding to local.
application (Scott 1998: 318). The state goal has often resulted in the improvement of the
human condition through scientific knowledge and schemes to reform socia11ife and
production, but has largely lacked respect for local application. Tradition and social
structures ofthe past (such as clan and house group sharing networks) were often
considered inferior (Scott 1998: 93).
Considering economic changes in Kake in the last decade, the importance of
passing on values and knowledge about fish and food seems crucial as people work to
survive without logging and fishing jobs. John Jackson's recollections for Richard
Newton and Madonna Moss (2005:3) come to mind as relevant advice, even in the 21 st
century. He said:
I lived with my uncle for several years, and I recall his advice many, many
times. His were wise words and they were handed down to me. He would say
time and time again, not only when necessary, but to remind me I think, "if
you work only for money you will never keep it, but if you divide your time
equally gathering food, your money will be saved. If you worked on food and
put aside a portion ofwhatever you put up, soon this will add up. The time
will come when you will feel you have enough to take to another town and
exchange it with whatever you feel is a good exchange. This way you will be
surprised at how much you will gain in no time."
Maybe there will be moments when you will be offered fur and you will take
it because this adds up in a hurry. It is surprising what food will bring and
once you realize this, you will continue to work on subsistence living. This is
more important than working for money. Times and methods may have
changed but this applies fundamentally to any young life. (Newton and Moss
2005:3)
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Marvin Kadake, a Kake Elder, gave me a copy of a description he wrote of subsistence in
Kake and elsewhere in Alaska.
He wrote:
For many generations subsistence is a way of life for our people and the non-
Native people who live in Alaska. The land and the sea are our supermarket.
We respond to the call. We are obedient and respect the world ofnature.
Caring and sharing is incumbent on everyone to continue the cycle of
subsistence use. Every month of the year Mother Nature shares its food to us
for harvest. Harvest is very different in many regions of Southeast Alaska
during the seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Beginning in early spring the cycle starts. Herring eggs, herring smelts, trout,
steelhead, grouse, seaweed ribbons, with Hudson Bay Tea are gathered. In
Summer, salmon, halibut, and different bottom fisheries are harvested for
smoking, canning and freezing. Early in the season sockeyes come in and are
followed by chum, pinks, and cohos. We harvest different species at certain
times of the season and king salmon and a variety of wild berries. In Fall we
hunt for seal, deer, moose, (recently elk), and ducks. Clams are dug in the
cooler months, such as Fall and Winter. This is our shellfish season. In
winter, hunting and fishing provide sustenance including shellfish, crab and
gumboots, which are available all year around.
Our food comes from the Land and Sea. To abuse either would diminish its
generosity, all animals, whether from land or sea, depend on clean air, clean
fresh water and clean salt water. Any pollution in each area will decrease
nature's reproductive cycle. Ifdamaged, this cycle may take years to restore
itself. In some cases animal and plant populations may never come back.
Protecting this lifestyle is everyone's responsibility. We must protect the
delicate balance in our food chain
The importance of what Marvin Kadake wrote and of being able to feed one's family
and to take care ofElders through fishing, hunting and gathering is a critical part of
Kake's current survival as a community, as the next two chapters help to illustrate.
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CHAPTER XVI
FISH NARRATIVES
Ruth Demmert, who teaches through narrative, and who is careful and gentle with
her words, helps put political critique into perspective. As one Elder said ofRuth, she
does a great deal for children in this community, but in such a quiet and patient way that
many people are unaware of her work or have simply gotten used to all she does. Ruth
teaches the Tlingit language and much about the Tlingit culture to elementary, junior
high, and high school students. Every wall surface in her classroom is covered with
pictures ofpeople in regalia, people weaving, people carving and people in large groups
who have spent time with each other at gatherings and meetings. There are Tlingit words
and Tlingit language readers and a glass case displaying basketry, weaving, and
beadwork. In Ruth's storeroom are many ofthe materials and tools she uses to teach and
practice Chilkat weaving, cedar basket and hat weaving and other Tlingit arts.
Among all of the bright colors and pictures on Ruth's walls is a list ofTlingit
values, mounted down low where small people can easily read it.4 Above is a large
4 Tlingit values from the Alaska Native Knowledge Network. University of Alaska Fairbanks.
http://www.ankn.ua£edulabout.html
1. Show Respect to Others - Each Person Has a Special Gift
2. Share what you have - Giving Makes You Richer
3. Know Who You Are - You Are a Reflection on Your Family
4. Accept What Life Brings - You Cannot Control Many Things
5. Have Patience - Some Things Cannot Be Rushed
6. Live Carefully - What You Do Will Come Back to You
7. Take Care ofOthers - You Cannot Live without Them
8. Honor Your Elders - They Show You the Way in Life
9. Pray for Guidance - Many Things Are Not Known
10. See Connections - All Things Are Related
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display of the names and emblematic symbols of each clan represented in the village, and
nearby is a Kake Tlingit calendar. I ftrst saw the calendar in the month of July, which in
Tlingit is Xaat Di'si, or the moon cycle of the salmon.
Unlike the Euro-American month of July, the days ofXaat Di'si change each year
according to the lunar cycle. For nearly 20 years in Kake, Xaat Di'si has also been the
moon cycle ofKake Culture Camp. At Culture Camp 2002, I listened as Ruth explained
to young Kake campers and visitors that Tlingit people knew and understood their year
according to what happened in each moon cycle. During the January cycle the geese fly.
In the February cycle baby bear cubs are born. "They [Tlingit families] didn't need the
USFS to tell them the seasons and what to catch," Ruth said in good humor.
Many people in Kake harvest traditional and customary foods (mostly salmon) in
Xaat Di'si. As they talk with each other about getting ftsh and "working on" ftsh, people
occasionally criticize legal restrictions indirectly by comparing them with how their
families used to harvest ftsh. Ruth subtly critiqued the current circumstances, and past
government agency decision-making by comparing, through narrative, the present
regulatory situation with her grandparents' knowledge. Ruth made her point with the kind
of humor that conveys a subtle seriousness.
Other people in Kake occasionally discussed current circumstances similarly, by
comparing them with the way things used to be. Sometimes they framed their critique
with humor and sometimes they were more direct. In a short interview, Ruth talked some
about working on her grandparents' commercial ftshing boat when she was a little girl
and about catching ftsh for their own food. "You know we practiced. We did all our
subsisting, and they often ... my grandmother was the one who often told me how things
were before ftsh and game (ADFG) came to be, where our traditional land was, how we
came to Kake, and .. just the respect we should have for one another."
When people in Kake talk about ftsh-as-food in everyday conversations, they
focus on the catching, distribution and "working" on of salmon, halibut, clams, crabs and
other foods. In everyday talk, ftshery politics seems to come up subtly and indirectly
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when people talk about numbers offish available, who can get fish, and where it comes
from. People often tell what they feel about fishing regulations and changes through
narratives of how their families used to catch and distribute food in sustainable and
responsible ways and how that has changed. I heard few of the off-the-cuffdirect
political debates, accusations or criticisms that are a common part of everyday discourse
in the closest neighboring community, Petersburg. I began to realize that critique often is
expressed carefully, through silence and through humor.
Ruth's and other people's narratives also reveal a great deal about how local
ideologies were and are influenced through negotiating resource use with the state
(federal and Alaska state governments).
Discourse and narrative comparisons through identifying "voids"
Because political critique seems to be more subtle in Kake than in other
communities of my experience, one way to better understand the concerns ofpeople in
Kake through narrative is to look for what people infer is missing in their lives and
experiences. I call these the "void" or "lack" (Laclau and Mouffe, 2001, called them
empty signifiers) messages, those words and stories that articulate, however indirectly, a
void of circumstances that once were filled, or that could be filled if things were
different.
Following is a set of narrative examples about fish as food. The narratives show
how fish is part of local socialization of inclusive environmental values. They show how
production oflocality is about everyday aspects of social life (Appadurai 1997). Such
narratives are part ofwhy local knowledge is often knowledge about how to produce and
reproduce locality under conditions of anxiety and entropy and how locality is a fragile
and relational achievement (Appadurai 1997). Through examining narratives for what
people see as "missing" and in need ofrepairing or "filling," the researcher can better
understand how local knowledge is reproduced in ways meant to suture ideological
dislocations as a relational achievement.
One man talked about how, as a child, he was able to stay in Kake, rather than
going off to boarding school. Because he could stay, he learned Tlingit protocol and
values, but many of his peers had to leave to go to school and missed growing up with
their grandparents, uncles, aunts and others.
To me personally, and I can't speak for all ofKake, other than know what
I know of traditional protocols and stuff, it's ([community] about
relationships. And the relationship, whether it's that one-to-one person-to-
person, or clan-to-clan, or just within the clan, a family and how it all is
represented by Eagle Raven. Or, by today's nucleus where even today we,
like our mother is 90 years old and we all kind of take turns watching her,
cooking for her, people go over there to make [her dinner]. She knows
what we're up to, even though she's at home, she knows where
everybody's at during the day, whether we're traveling or not. Because we
all call in. And she's the matriarch in our family and it does show that
even in contemporary communities it's still important to have those
values, and it's been in us and other people have different views of that,
because they were raised within, say, the school system, boarding school
system, rather than growing up around their great grandparents like I had.
I had the opportunity. There are other people that have been, but they also
had to leave Kake to go to school, which is real sad, but on the other hand
I was fortunate to have the school here and grow up around the
community.
Just like my grandson's having that ability to do now [practice traditional
protocol and participate in family and community relationships]. Because
he ... like he said, his personal feelings, because he loves brunches,
Sunday brunches. He said he wished he could have it every day because to
him it brings the whole family together, the nucleus of the papas, the
grandmas, everybody in ... involved because everybody there that's in
town that's available to make it, makes it. Because that's ... , and I don't
know ifit's just our cooking that he likes, but he likes the grandma and the
cooking, and I help prepare some of it and so does (his mother), so ... his
nucleus family is involved in it and to him he's like the host and has
people, and ifhe's right then and there we have him serve it all out. And
he goes from the oldest to the youngest. He learns about service. He learns
about caring. He learns about who's his family. And sometimes we invite
other people like L. We had to take L's up to him this last weekend. But it
was him taking it in the door and putting it in front ofL. To me that makes
407
408
everything ... It's like him going after his first seal or deer, that's the way
it's going to be. It's just the way that I was brought up. I didn't, or our
family didn't eat any part of it. We gave it all away. That way people will
know it was a special day for him. Whether it's fish, whether it's seal,
deer. Everything that he gets first, clams, like he already went claming
when he was one and a half years old. And we have a picture of him with
three clams in a bucket. That was a load for him, but he gave it to his
grandma. He didn't get to eat any of it. But we prepared it for her and gave
it to her. That was ... to us that's tradition. But, urn, community is about
that. And it's about giving, like we say, whether he gets a seal, he'll give it
to an opposite family that's not within his nucleus family. To show that
we're still continuing those values. And to them, they're a witness to it.
And they'll find out it is his first seal by him giving it to them. And that
we're involved in his upbringing. That's the way it is. It always has been.
(2003 taped interview)
This narrative is an account of the social connections shaped in the process of
learning Tlingit values through sharing fish and other foods. For example, cultural actions
involving fish and other foods are tied with the protocols of service and respect for Elders
and others. In this case, the values and protocols are learned through being connected
with an extended family and practicing those values with the help of family members.
The void that is expressed is a loss of opportunity for many people to learn about respect
values and sharing values. The narrator infers that this void occurred because many of the
older adults, when they were youngsters, went to boarding school or were separated in
other ways from their family members for long periods of time. Had they been at home,
their families would have helped them practice serving others on a daily basis as a
necessary part of catching and processing customary and traditional food resources.
The narrative communicates what needs to be "filled" for the community's ideals
to work. What has been missing is a means for many youth to learn and practice more
intensely the values and protocols regarding family, community, and food resources. One
way that Kake is working to "fill" this void is through hosting Culture Camp (see chapter
IX) every summer. Young people learn how to work cooperatively on fish and other
resources by being with Elders and other volunteers. They spend a night learning how to
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survive in the woods in case they get lost or stranded. Through the final community-wide
dinner on the last day of camp, and through packing up food to give away, the young
people practice giving the food they helped smoke and can to Elders and to the whole
community. Through evening storytelling, they learn about the values of respect
associated with marine and forest resources. Culture Camp is one solution to "filling"
some ofthe loss of intergenerational sharing about Tlingit values and knowledge.
Various points of view about how to fill the lack, or whether to fill it, create a
local political discourse. Others may feel camp is inadequate to the task, or that people
are failing to organize and teach correctly. Some Elders, I was told, feel that Tlingit ways
are lost, and because they cannot be revitalized perfectly, should be left to fade away. A
few people are uncomfortable that some activities at Culture Camp are not purely Tlingit,
such as the sweat lodge (not a Tlingit tradition) that was introduced into camp in the early
part of the 21 st century. While sweat lodges were introduced to Kake youth through
Lakota Sioux influence, sweats are not necessarily new to Tlingit life. According to
Oberg (1973:154), northern Tlingit used sweat baths. Heated stones were put into a
particular excavation in a house. Currently in Kake, sweat lodges and sweat baths have
become important for many young people and a special sweat house for Elders was built
a few years ago.
Elders who disapprove of events or practices are likely to express their irritation
by reluctance or refusal to participate. They often demonstrate disapproval by staying
home. Such was the case when, at the yearly July Dog Salmon Festival, the Kake Tribal
Corporation began an event called the salmon toss. In this event participants competed in
pairs. One team member was provided with a fish tote ofharvested salmon. The other
team member stood yards away near an empty fish tote. The race involved one team
member taking a salmon from the full tote and tossing it to the second team member, who
threw the salmon in the empty tote ifhe or she was able to catch it. The winning team
was the pair who, in a set amount of time, threw and caught the most salmon without
dropping them. In a world where respect for entities in the non-human world was
410
paramount, and where people learned how to take care of their food resources in ways
that showed respect, throwing salmon as a game, so that they landed hard on cement, was
considered by some as a breach of responsibility. One Elder told me that some Elders
watching and hearing the salmon hit the cement during this contest were shocked and
angry. Some ofthem boycotted the Dog Salmon Festival the next year, or at least the
salmon toss event.
In this example, the salmon toss was an event that dislocated Elder Tlingit
ideologies about how to treat the salmon people and/or resources. As an outsider looking
in, I felt as though the salmon toss event was symbolic ofthe changes that ANCSA
initiated when Tlingit land management became corporatized for the purpose of
extracting resources primarily for profit. The same corporate structure in Kake that
created the salmon toss inspired local changes that increasingly defmed the forest more
exclusively as a set of resources to sell as quickly as possible. Trees became their
measurements in board feet, while salmon became defined according to how much could
be sold in cans or as frozen steaks and fillets.
The void that Elders identified through the narratives they told each other after the
event was an apparent loss of respect in the village for how to treat salmon. The various
points ofview about how to fill the lack, or whether to fill it, created a local political
discourse. Filling the void would require education and practice for people to re-realize
the importance of respect, but filling the void was seen by some as in ideological conflict
with large-scale resource extraction projects and economic improvement. Historian
Charles Johnson told me that some Elders felt that the salmon toss was another indication
that the Tlingit culture is gone. Johnson was sometimes frustrated about Elders who
refused to help teach older values and stories because they said the narratives and words
would never again be understood in their "proper" context. He wanted to leave young
people something of their culture and something of Tlingit knowledge and values.
For example, Johnson told me in 2004 that the Tlingit language does not have a
word for "should." "You should do this," or "you should not have done that" are direct
411
statements ofjudgment. "Should" is a common signifier in the English language. It
reflects a worldview that people should be taught directly to conform to particular
expectations. The word "should" is in contrast to the pregnant pauses and indirect
suggestions, often accompanied with laughter, that are common methods of
communication in Kake. Such indirect communication seems to indicate respect for
others' abilities to observe, think, and decide for themselves. Indirectness in Kake also
seems to be a way of avoiding direct conflict, and indirectness gives meanings and
problem-solving time to unfold.
Many people in Kake are likely to talk: about what used to be and how well it
worked compared to current changes. In bringing up the past or in simply describing
problems, people articulate what is missing in a situation. Compared to the commonness
of "should" discourse styles in Petersburg and other non-Native communities of my
experience, people in Kake seem less likely to express directly and competitively, in
everyday conversation, what "should" fill a perceived lack. The following narrative is a
good example of repairing, through discursive indirectness, a tiny personal rupture in
ideology.
An Elder, in 2004, told me the following story. He said that someone had recently
given him herring eggs in a plastic bag. As soon as he got horne, a woman called on the
phone and said, "I heard you got some herring eggs." He answered, "Yes." Then there
was silence and then more silence. After awhile he 'got' the reason for the silence. "Oh,"
he said. "Come on over and get some." He started putting some eggs in a bag and then
remembered that doling it out like that was stingy. Instead, when the person arrived to get
the eggs he offered the original bag and said, "Take what you want." The Elder ended his
story with the word "sharing," which he said in the same way that he often fmished
stories with the word "respect." "Sharing" and "respect" were one-word summations of
the purpose or moral of the story. He went on to tell me that herring eggs are fished
cooperatively. One boat goes over to Sitka and comes back with eggs to pass out. "They
412
used to do that with sockeye. They would count how many families there were and divide
the fish," he said. (2004 written fieldnotes)
The caller simply used a long silence to communicate her request for herring
eggs. The Elder was given a chance to decline sharing without direct embarrassment. The
caller did not say he "should" share, but her long silence indicated that sharing was
expected. While the storyteller describes how he forgot his own responsibility to share
food resources, he continues his narrative with an account ofhow his smaller sharing
experience is part of a larger sharing event. He ends by remembering that larger sharing
events were once a part of salmon harvests, as well as herring roe fisheries. The narrator
identifies a relapse in his own sharing habits, but then identifies a possible reason. Large
sharing events are less common and their lack influences sharing practices and ideologies
in the community as a whole.
What are the sources of ideological rupture in this example? What prevents
people from cooperatively fishing for sockeye, for example? Some of the reasons include
state and federal regulations, subsistence limits, fishing permit limits, competition with
commercial and sports fishermen, and several sockeye salmon runs that failed to
rejuvenate after early twentieth century commercial fisheries decimated the species. How
does the change in fishing accessibility influence local values of cooperation and respect?
Regulations change the way that people are able to practice and perform such values.
People are able to fish for larger catches only when they have the correct permits. Fishing
permits are based primarily on households or individuals, rather than on the sharing needs
of a larger community. Permits have long prioritized the non-Native preference for an
economics that recognizes nuclear economic family units and a competitive
individualistic economic strategy. Permitting processes and expectations have
increasingly limited people's choices and abilities to practice community-wide
cooperative food gathering. On a personal level, "filling" the void, or suturing the
ideological dislocation of sharing values, often requires conscious remembering,
reminding, and thinking about the necessity of sharing.
413
The following narrative explains how sharing practices can become resituated
within new fishing regulations. One of the 2002 Culture Camp leaders, a middle-aged
man, told how it used to be with salmon. There were three runs a year. The Tlingit people
in Kake would take some of the first run, leave the second, and catch some ofthe third.
"Now they [regulatory agencies] tell us how much we can catch where and when. We
always took two thousand salmon (for several families). Now twenty-five or so salmon
per permit. Now you can only carry two permits with you at anyone time." This man
fishes for his extended family and the Elders where he lives in Hoonah. He used to take
as many as six subsistence permits that belonged to Elders out with him at one time.
When he could take six permits, and if he was making a trip in his skiff, say between
Hoonah and Kake, he could fish for several people at once. Now, he can no longer bring
fish to as many Elders because he is limited to carrying two permits. He said it was bad
when some people in Hoonah started charging the Elders for fish. This man is a
successful hunter and fisherman, which he credits to the Elders. He said other people ask
him how he knows so much about where to go. He tells them that he spends a lot of time
with Elders and learned from them the best places to go out and get food. (2002 written
fieldnotes)
What prevents Kake people from fishing and processing salmon for food as
cooperatively as they used to? Factors include state and federal regulations, subsistence
limits, fishing permit limits, and competition with commercial and sports fishermen for a
limited resource. How do permit requirements influence the value of fishing for Elders?
They make it more difficult for people who fish for many Elders at once. Because the
permits are for subsistence foods, selling food for profit is highly restricted. When some
people in Hoonah, for example, began to sell fish to Elders rather than giving it to them,
they were abusing subsistence law and Tlingit values. Abuse of subsistence law was one
reason that permits became more restrictive.
Laws, regulations, and alternative value discourses all influence how people
practice and understand their relationships with each other and the non-human
414
environment. For example, when people lose access to emotion/feeling knowledge about
cooperative fishing because they no longer practice large scale sharing, then their respect
is likely to weaken for their own initial ideologies about sharing. When they lose respect
for older values, the less they practice those values and the more official laws influence
or constrain the possibility of cooperative fishing. This furthers the pattern oflosing
access to knowledge about cooperative fishing and respect for values that make
cooperative fishing (sharing) a social possibility.
The narrator's description is political because it points out lack in legal and social
circumstances. The narrator does not use the word "should," nor does he suggest a
solution. He simply compares the current circumstances with a past when people
cooperated to a greater extent. Like the Elder in the earlier example, Kake people who
care about retaining subsistence fishing and sharing rights must continually remind
themselves, other community members, state decision makers, and other fishers about the
importance of subsistence practices to Tlingit and other Native people.
But the government wants to regulate and restrict the people quite a bit. And
it's not so much the government, it's the democracy of our people in the
world, you know. Sports fishermen are organized worldwide. And even if
they just send a dollar into their organization to fight for something, they can
win, because they have that much money behind them. There are literally
millions ofpeople that want to leave the salmon alone for sport. And there
are just hundreds of thousands ofus [Tlingits], which isn't very much. But
whose livelihood and whose food it was before Columbus landed on our
shores, you know. Now we would constantly have to budget ... the Sealaska
corporation ... a huge amount of our time to continuously show why we need
Native food for our lifestyle.
Just keep proving over and over and over again, you know. We had a
restaurant guy here, that ... he was a good friend of mine, you know ... we
crossed paths pretty badly on steelhead fishing. He didn't want us to take it
all for food. And I told him, you know, my grandparents took a seine out and
they brought one hundred steelhead home. It never diminished the steelhead
run at all, and I said now you come along and you think if I take two fish
home that it's going to kill the run. I told him, "you need to move away from
us." And he did, you know, moved away. I said, "We don't need people like
you." By in large, the people that settled amongst our people in 1910, 1900s,
415
they were a really good people. They saw ... they moved among the people
because they liked the lifestyle, you know, and they were always the kind of
people that stood up for the Indian people. But lately, people have poured in
for jobs, and all of the sudden they discovered the recreation potential of
Alaska, and they like it. (2003 taped conversation)
What are the "lacks" identified in this statement, especially as they are related to
the rest of the narrative? There are several, and this Tlingit narrator, who is highly
experienced in law-making, legislative, and regional, national, and international market-
economy forums, also uses a type of "should" in his storytelling when he says "you need
to move away from us." The narrator compares the present circumstances with the past,
when there was enough food and when non-Native people came to live in places such as
Kake because they liked the lifestyle and stoo.d up for Native people. Through telling
how things were, he shows the existing void caused by government regulations, a
democracy within which power is expressed through numbers and money, and an
increase in the number ofpeople who want more of the Natives' share offish so that they
can make money.
To attempt to fill the ideological dislocation caused when political competition for
limited resources threatens change or crises, this speaker acknowledges that the Tlingit
community must continuously, over and over, show why Native food is important for
their lifestyle. The narrator may disagree with the attitudes he perceives in those to whom
he must explain the imp0l1ance ofNative food. At the same time he must respond, in at
least small part, to their beliefs and expectations in order to communicate with them. As
such, the thinking process he goes through is still a socializing event. He is influenced by
the experience ofrearticu1ating Kake values to people who want to make money by
taking paying customers out to fish. Filling the ideological void caused by crisis is a
discursive exercise in rearticu1ating the ideology within the purview of impending
circumstances.
416
Many people in Kake disagreed with the ADFG definition ofsubsistence.5 They
called their foods "customary and traditional" to better convey the larger meanings,
practices, and purposes ofharvesting wild resources. In order to assert a more "local"
defmition into a conversation with government agency and legal representatives, Kake
people must also anticipate state agency representatives' perception of the concept.
"Thinking is the process of conversation with one's self when the individual takes the
attitude of the other" (Mead 1995:90). IfADFG representatives are to respond to a Kake
person's definition of "customary and traditional" foods, and if ADFG officers are to
consider how "survival fishing" out of season is part of subsistence practices, then they
must anticipate and try to understand the perspective of the "local" definition in order to
reply, even if their reply is to defend the state view.
Both ADFG representatives and Kake conversationalists are socialized to some
degree by working to anticipate the thinking of others and by forming their speech and
narratives in response. The level to which people anticipate the thinking ofothers and
respond accordingly, however, is rarely equal. Power and context always influence the
degree to which people must react in opposition or adjust their narratives, words and
thinking in order to accommodate others (Blommaert 2005). Depending upon the level of
authority with which ADFG representatives enforce the law, and depending on the level
of contact they have with local people, they might avoid much of the thinking work
required to try and understand "survival fishing" from the point ofview ofKake fishing
people. Kake people often tell stories about how ADFG officers come to Kake only long
enough to search out hunting and fishing infractions, give out tickets, and "harass" local
people, including Elders. From the point of view of many local people, ADFG chooses to
regulate in a highly authoritarian manner. For those ADFG actors in positions of
authority and power, whose relationships with Kake people are primarily performed
through searching out law breakers, anticipating and accommodating other, unfamiliar
5 Subsistence is the word that state agencies use to categorize current practices of food gathering. Some
people in Kake told me they prefer to use the words "customary and traditional" harvesting in reference to
getting fish and other resources for food.
417
ways of speaking and thinking on a local level, is less likely. Their contact with Kake as
enforcers ofrules means that they are seen by Kake people as less changed by empathy
towards local concerns, stories, and words.
Some Kake people told me that ADFG representatives are learning to listen, that
there is a recent improvement in communications. Laws that prioritize subsistence
resource use and the legal sovereign rights of tribes compel state actors in positions of
legal authority to spend greater amounts of energy anticipating and accommodating
"local" ways of thinking, speaking, and understanding. Empowerment at local levels, as
well as state and federal levels, makes multi-directional influence and change more
likely.
Changes in narrative content and form, and changes in community culture are
tempered and formed through the social/linguistic habits of those speaking and those
listening. "If institutions are social habits, they represent certain definite attitudes that
people assume under given social conditions" (Mead 1995:88). This is as true for
community groups in villages such as Kake as it is for government agency groups such as
ADFG, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the USFS, and law-making groups
such as the Alaska State Legislature.
418
CHAPTER XVII
FISH TO SELL
In 1892 John J Healy implored the Secretary ofthe Interior to secure legislation
protecting Native rights. Theforty canneries were draining Alaska dry of its resources
without paying taxes for its governance. Healy, who was manager ofthe North American
Transportation and Trading Company in the Yukon in the 1890s, wrote:
Let me call your attention to the fact that the natives ofAlaska never ceded any rights to
the United States, nor to the Russian government, before them, to theirfishing grounds.
They are not receiving any support from the government to preserve the natural food of
these people from destruction, they will surely revolt, or eventually the government will
be called upon to support them. The government is at the present time urged to
appropriate money for the preservation ofthe reindeer to preserve the Eskimo from
starvation, and this same condition will result among the Southeast Alaska natives in a
few years unless some steps are now taken to prevent it. In Tomorrow is Growing Old.
By Arthur O. Roberts. 1978. PP. 9 and 10.
People in Kake observed that Tlingit people have always been fishermen. They
were never loggers until the United States Forest Service began contracting out areas for
cutting on KupreanofIsland and until the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
(ANCSA) was enacted. Before non-Native contact, people monitored resources and
fishing effort within their own legal system. When the Russians and then other non-
Natives came, some salmon species and herring were nearly annihilated through over
fishing. Now Kake people have retained some rights to catch and use fish as food but,
when I was there, the community had lost most of its access to commercial fishing. One
of the more recent events that caused loss of commercial fishing access occurred when
state and federal laws privatized fishing right of entry and several Kake people sold their
entry rights to outsiders. Kake's cold storage plant closed down in 2004, mostly because
of global market changes involving farmed salmon from other countries. In 2007 I
learned that an individual had reopened the fish processing plant in Kake and was trying
to restart the local fishing industry.
419
This chapter is an account of local commercial fishing history and narratives
about current circumstances. I examine local narratives about commercial fishing
(although few) and compare local talk about fish with state-based discourses about
restructuring the fishing industry in Alaska. The global market for wild Alaska salmon
changed as I was beginning my fieldwork in 2002 in favor of farmed salmon.
Restructuring the fishing industry is the state's response to the resultant economic crisis
or dislocation. As farmed salmon prices increase, wild salmon prices also increase, along
with demand for wild salmon (Knapp 2007).
Local commercial fishing
Between 2002, when I began my fieldwork, and 2006, as I was writing this
dissertation, commercial fishing in Kake reached the point that only a few boats
participated. Everyday talk about commercial fishing may have been much different in
the 1990s, but in the early part of the 21 st century, commercial fishing was not a source
for much optimism. Compared to the predominantly non-Native population in Petersburg,
commercial fishing came up much less frequently in Kake as an everyday conversation
topic. In the conversations I observed, fish-as- food was discussed significantly more
often than fish-as-money.
Fish to sell, a short history
This brief history ofKake's fishing situation helps provide context for day-to-day
comments and observations made in informal interviews about commercial fishing in the
past. Kake has long been a mixed subsistence-cash economy, where customary and
traditional wild foods and other resources are supplemented with cash employment. As
420
far back as the late l800s and early 1900s, KeeK' Kwaan (Kake area) families often
integrated seasonal cannery work into their seasonal fishing, hunting and gathering for
food (Firman and Bosworth 1990:32). Early in the 20th century, corporations, that
typically originated out ofplaces like Seattle, built salmon canneries and salteries within
the KeeK' Kwaan region in bays on Kupreanof, Kuiu, Admiralty and Baranof islands.
Pillar Bay, near Kake, was the site of a salmon cannery in 1890. After it burned down, a
salmon saltery and cannery and a herring reduction plant were the main sources of
employment for Kake residents from the early 1900s to the 1940s (Firman and Bosworth
1990:32).
In the past century people in Kake relied in varying degrees on cash to assist them
in harvesting resources, to buy clothes, and for building purposes. Robert E. Price wrote
the following about the early commercial fishing industry and Southeast Alaska Native
employment:
One of the interesting aspects of the early salteries is that the Tlingit
and Haida accommodated themselves to their operations so easily.
The salmon fishery itself was work they had been accustomed to since
birth, and their preservation method of salting was also easily
understood on account of the simplicity of the method. The fishery
itself in no way interfered with the traditional salmon fishery for
subsistence .... The saltery represented an industry that could have
easily fitted into the Tlingit and Haida lifestyle without the major
changes associated with the later canned salmon industry (Price
1990:48).
In addition to the Pillar Bay plant, Kake area Tlingits worked seasonally at
canneries in Saginaw, Pybus and Washington bays and at Tyee, where there was a
whaling station first and then a cannery from 1919 to the early 1950s (Firman and
Bosworth 1990:32). Some people worked in the canneries, some built, operated and
repaired fish traps6 and some fished on cannery-owned boats. Other Kake people sold
6 Salmon fish traps were used in the areas where salmon congregated at the mouth of bays: "It is most
simple in its construction and consists of a long arm of piling and netting reaching out at an angle into the
sea. The fish are trapped by the net, which is fastened to the piles and extends to the very bottom of the
421
fish that were caught on their own boats or worked as crew members on other privately
owned boats. Fish packers from Tyee and Port Alexander would buy fish from Tlingit
trollers at Kake area fish camps. In those early commercial fish processing days, Kake
was home to several Tlingit boat builders, who constructed boats for the cannery fleets.
Then, in 1912 an outside investor, through President Ernest Kirberger of the Kake
Trading company, built a cannery in Kake with the help of Kake residents. Employment
with the Kake cannery and other canneries was mostly seasonal and earnings
supplemented customary and traditional (subsistence) uses of area resources.
For awhile, Native men provided most ofthe fish for the cannery in Kake and
canneries at Pillar Bay and Point Ellis. They used beach seines and sailboats to harvest
fish, and women and sometimes children worked in the canneries (Price 1990:62). Some
Native families moved from stream to stream where the canneries were located to find
employment (Cook and Bretz 1997: 16). Native workers were in high demand and they
were often paid more than Native workers in other parts ofAlaska, where fishing jobs
were often reserved for Caucasian workers (Cook and Bretz 1999: 16).
Before the Kake cannery, the Sanborn Cutting Company, was built, 61 Kake
fishermen were recorded in the 1910 census (Bureau of the Census 1910). Less than two
decades after the cannery was built a significant employment change had developed,
according to OVK records. The 1920 census indicates that of386 Kake villagers, 106
were fishermen and 28 were cannery workers (Bureau of the Census 1920). Women
generally worked in the cannery. They cut and cleaned fish, and filled cans while Kake
men seined, supplementing the harvest from the company's fish traps (Gordon 1993). By
the 1930s, only a few Native fishermen, "perhaps only two to four," and a few women
"except during the peak of the salmon run" were employed in the Kake Cannery. The
cannery's use offish traps rather than fishermen is one reason that Native fishermen were
water. Continuing their way up against the trend of water they pass through a narrow funnel which opens
into the trap proper. The trap is completely covered on the bottom with a great net and the fish, crowding
through the opening, find themselves in a trap from which there is no escape. This immense net is lifted
from the inside of the trap at stated periods and the catch is dumped unceremoniously into waiting scows"
(Kirkwood 1909: 35).
422
unemployed in the 1930s (Cook and Bretz 1997:18-19). In addition, Seattle-based labor
unions increasingly discriminated against local Alaskans, preferring to hire outsiders
(Cook and Bretz 1997:19).
When interviewed in the 1980s by Kake High School students, Albert Davis said
the following about fishing before the cannery established fish traps and before the
company began bringing in more Chinese and Filipino workers.
The only jobs available was to work in the cannery. And Kake
fishermen were well known in a class by themselves, as the cannery
provided many beautiful company boats, seine boats. One of the top
fishermen in those early days was Seth Williams. He had a boat,
'Phoenix III,' and Eddie Williams, one of the newer company boats,
'Peter Pan.' They were highliners7 in those days. We had a huge
fishing fleet, boats provided by the cannery. Women worked in the
old style, slow-moving canning machine. Four-line cannery we had,
and fifteen traps. This cannery was later bought by P.E. Harris (1941).
And then from P.E. Harris in 1950, Kake IRA bought it ... The
cannery was the only means of work, jobs seasonal. But still, in those
days, everything was plentiful (OVK 1989:34).
Harris closed the cannery in 1946. Salmon populations were declining due to over
fishing by fish traps, and production costs were increasing so canneries all over Alaska
began to do poorly in the 1940s. In 1944 Kake Cannery lost money for the first time
(Cook and Betz 1997:24). Kake was a fishing village and Kake people had always been
fishing people, so when the cannery closed the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) tribe, the
Organized Village ofKake (OVK), worked to find money to buy the cannery from
Harris. Through IRA assistance from a revolving loan fund, OVK was able to buy the
cannery for $362,360. The plant was renamed Keku Canning Company (Cook and Betz
1997:24). The tribe worked to keep the cannery going until the late 1970s, when it was
closed after several poor fishing seasons. Other problems included lack of operating
money, and a changing market that preferred frozen fish rather than canned fish (Firman
and Bosworth 1990:34). In 1980, Kake Tribal Corporation (KTC) opened up a cold
7 The term highliners refers to the best fishing boats and crews, the ones who bring in the most fish.
423
storage plant, Kake Foods, and began processing fish. Since then the processing plant has
been open for production some years and closed others.
Statistics show a steady decrease over the years in the numbers ofKake people
fishing commercially. In 1994, 78 permits were issued to Kake fishermen, 32 permits
were fished, and 2,532,399 pounds were landed with gross community earnings of
$842,129, according to Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission statistics (CFEC 2002,
2005). In 2002, 56 salmon permits (trolling, gillnetting, seine etc.) were issued in Kake,
18 permits were fished that year, with 2,620,199 pounds of fish landed and with gross
community-wide earnings of$329,646 (CFEC 2002-2005). The actual number ofpersons
who held permits is hard to determine as one person might own more than one or several
permits. By 2005,46 permits were issued, 16 permits were fished and 716,869 pounds
were landed. Estimated gross earnings for the community were $168,697.
Table 17A. Salmon permit statistics for Kake (CFEC statistics)
1994 2002 2005
Permits issued 78 56 46
Permits fished 32 18 16
Gross weight in pounds landed 2,532,399 2,620,199 716,869
Earnings in dollars 842,129 329,646 168,697
Average dollar amount per fished permit 26,316 18,313 10,543
Kake Foods cold storage plant closed after the 2003 season. In 2007 I heard from
OVK representatives that an individual investor attempted to reopen the plant, but was
doing poorly. Kake salmon permit usage continued to show some activity, but without
Kake Foods, the difficulty for Kake fishermen was in finding buyers who would pay
them for fish. The wild salmon market has changed dramatically due to the influx of
farmed salmon.
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The effects of farmed salmon on wild salmon markets go far beyond those
resulting from an increase in supply. Farmed salmon has profoundly changed
almost every part of the salmon business. Almost every part of the fresh and
frozen salmon industry-including distribution, retail and food-service-has
shifted its orientation from wild salmon to farmed salmon (Knapp et. al
2007:217).
When I was in Kake, Alaska fish processors reduced the amount of salmon they
would buy and the prices they paid for the fish. Kake fishermen were in competition for
buyers with other fishermen in a stressed and changing fishery. Rising costs of boat fuel
and low fish prices made fishing salmon-far-profit a near impossibility by 2003. When
Sealaska and Kake Tribal Corporation shut down their Kake logging enterprises in spring
2004 there was little left of a village cash economy except for school jobs and
government service jobs.
Summing up Kake's fishing and logging history, a middle-aged Native man who
grew up in Kake said the following.
Speaker: You know since the .. settlement act (ANCSA) it changed our
whole dynamics ofKake. Meaning that ... (before) it was games (meat, fish,
customary and traditional foods) economy, then it was the fishing and the
school system. After that it was fishing, logging and the school system and
the government. So it changed a lot. There's more value toward money.
Because a long time ago it wasn't a big need, you know. Everyone that
worked and fished saved for the winter months and basically lived off the
land. And they made one or two trips to town. And that was it. But now it's
changed where it's more .. I guess controlling the town ... the need for
money. Yeah. Cause in my life, like I said, we stock-piled food .. one or two
trips to town for the bare necessities like flour and sugar and .. we had a store
here, but .. that one or two trips to town was to go shopping for school and
school clothing and other stuff and supplies. And other than that .. I mean that
was basically the trip to town. The rest were all living off the land."
Fieldworker: And that was the 1960s and 70s?
Speaker: Yeah. (2004 taped interview)
A non-Native man, middle aged, who lives near Kake, made the following
observation.
I know it was a fishing community before it was a logging community. The
corporation [Kake Tribal Corporation, the ANCSA corporation] came in,
opened up, and decided they wanted to go logging. Turned into a logging
community, and now it's turning back into a fishing community, since there's
no logging. A lot of guys are kicking themselves in the butt for selling their
IFQs [Individual Fishing Quotas] cause the halibut prices are coming back
up. (2004 taped interview)
A Tlingit Elder answered my question, "What's going to happen with Kake?"
Speaker: It's gonna survive. I don't know how. That's just ... [laughs]. But
they've done it before, but I'm sure it's gonna survive. It will always be here.
Because for one thing, I have no reason to leave, no desire to leave. I left
once for economic reasons, but then I came back in 1974 and here I'm at.
Now they're stuck with me. But I'm sure Kake will still be here. It will
probably be like Sitka, that's the unfortunate part.
Fieldworker: You think it will grow like Sitka?
Speaker: The poor people will die off and the speculators will come in ... but
there are no seine permits. Somebody just came out there and found out they
could sell them for $15,000, so they rushed to sell them. Next thing they
knew they were up to $75,000 [elsewhere]. Now they have nothing to
survive. Tough. Should have hung on to it, you know. Some of them
demanded more money [after they found out that people elsewhere were
selling their permits for five times more money]. They come and ask me if
they could (get their permit back or more money). ) [laughs] A sales title is
permanent. Once you (release, sign) it that's done. You can try suing him, I
said. Won't do you any good. It's just too bad. You just threw it away.
Fieldworker: Hard.
Speaker: Then they get mad at me for ... I tell them I'm not a lawyer. I'm not
going to do any good to get mad at. [laughs] (2004 taped interview).
In 2003 a man in his early 50s told me in passing that he was working to load
logs onto log ships in Kake and Hoonah. He estimated then that there would be only
one more year of logging in Hoonah and two in Kake. He still had his halibut and
long-lining permit and he planned to fish, but a lot ofpeople sold theirs, he said, in
order to buy something like a vehicle or a boat. Now they don't have the boat or the
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vehicle and they can't fish. The man said he would often tell people that he was
never gong to sell his permit because a car or a boat lasts only a short time and then
it is all gone. But a permit to fish will allow a way of living for a lifetime.
As with salmon fishing, Kake shows a steady decline in the number of
halibut permits held and fished. In 1990, 61 permits were held by Kake residents, 46
were fished, with a landing of252,418 pounds of halibut and community-wide
earnings of$445,855. Forty permits were issued to Kake residents in 1996, 33
permits were fished, 222,020 pounds landed, and gross community-wide earnings
were $492,601, according to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC
2002, 2005). In 2002, 16 halibut permits were issued to Kake residents, 14 permits
were fished with a landing of 102,237 pounds of halibut and estimated gross
community-wide earnings of$242,200. The Commission reported that in 2005 Kake
residents held 15 commercial halibut permits, 7 permits were fished, and 5,621
pounds of halibut were landed with estimated community earnings of$3,995. As
with salmon permits, one individual may hold more than one permit.
Table 17B. Halibut permit statistics for Kake (CFEC statistics)
1990 1996 2002 2005
Permits held 61 40 16 15
Permits fished 46 33 14 15
Gross weight in pounds caught 252,418 220,000 102,232 5,621
Average weight in pounds fished per permit 5,487 6,728 7,303 803
Average dollar amount per fished permit 9,693 14,927 17,200 571
Commercial crabbing picked up in the late 1980s in Kake with anywhere from
half a dozen to a dozen permits fished in anyone year until 2004, when Kake Foods at
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least temporarily shut down its crab processing. Statistics for 2005 show no landings and
no community-wide earnings for crab.
In addition to permits, landings and earnings data, vessel statistics are clues to
some ofKake's commercial fishing circumstances. In 1990 the Commercial Fisheries
Entry Commission reported 90 vessels in Kake, 88 ofwhich were categorized as
commercial boats and 2 were tenders/packers. Two boats carried fish refrigeration
technology. Most boats (68) were small, 17' to 25' aluminum and fiberglass boats. The
19 larger boats averaged 36' to 38' and were wood boats. In 1990 nearly 61 Kake boats
could utilize gear for longline fishing. Fifty seven boats could be set up for hand trolling,
and boats with purse seine capability numbered 15.
Fifteen years later (2005) the Kake fleet had decreased to 47 commercial vessels
with three tenders/packers. Four boats included refrigeration, 37 boats were aluminum or
fiberglass, averaging 20.8' to 30.2' in length, and seven boats were wood, averaging 45.'
Three boats made ofironlsteellalloy averaged 53' to 58.' In 2005,21 boats could utilize
longlining gear. Twenty five boats could be set up for hand trolling, and boats with purse
seine capability numbered 12.
Lack ofrefrigeration on all but four Kake boats in 2005 is of tremendous
significance. Because Kake Foods was shut down, Kake fishermen had to travel greater
distances to other communities such as Petersburg to sell their fish or find, pay, and trust
someone else to carry their fish. Since 2002 (Knapp et al. 2007), when farmed salmon
began to dominate the world market, processors no longer bought fish from boats without
refrigeration. In order to sell Alaska wild salmon, processors have had to re-focus their
marketing strategy on freshness. Boats find buyers when they are equipped to cool
salmon more quickly or when crews can clean and freeze fish on board. Boats without
refrigeration have few or no buyers. Equipping and maintaining a boat with refrigeration
is quite costly, and most Kake fishermen lack the capital to update their boats.
During my stays in Kake, the harbor was relatively quiet with activity evident on
only a few fishing boats. People's conversations about commercial fishing were minimal.
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We can learn about the effect of state based regulations and discourses on Kake
discourses from local descriptions about recent changes in commercial fishing. One way
to discern how people work to repair ideological dislocations caused through change and
crisis is to identify what people understand is missing (the voids) and what they say
would improve a circumstance or situation. Another way to situate conversations as part
of adapting to economic or other types ofdislocation is to look at how people interpret
their situation through logics of equivalence and difference (see chapter 4). Finally, it is
important to examine what people think they can do about a situation by listening to what
they have to say about power and voice. Following are four segments as illustrations of
local narrative through which to identify how people choose to talk about issues that
influence ideological changes and that need fixing. Each is analyzed in three parts: (a)
identification of voids; (b) logics of equivalence and difference; and (c) inferences of
power and voice.
Example one:
One fisherman, who held onto his boat and permits longer than some others,
was getting ready to go out fishing. We exchanged morning greetings on the road
one 2004 morning, and he told me he was trying to get his boat running. He needed
to get the parts together to fix the engine. He said he planned to go out and catch
coho, even though the price for fish was so low and the gas prices were so high. He
expected to fish at a loss, but he needed to get the fishing effort recorded on his
ticket in case future state/federal programs required fishermen to show fishery
participation to qualify and so he could earn a tax write-off. He said the gas prices
were higher in Kake than anywhere. Prices were $2.80 a gallon in Kake and $1.90 in
Petersburg. "That's price fixing," he said, "and it should be against the law." I later
learned that gasoline stations have to buy gas in minimum quantities, but which are
large quantities from the perspective of a community the size ofKake. The fuel
station bought its gas at one price and had to sell it accordingly until it ran out.
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Petersburg is a larger community and can sell gas more quickly in order to buy more
fuel at a better price.
a) This Kake fisherman expressed how fish prices and gas prices created a
loss in his ability to make a profit from fishing salmon. In a political
context, groups competing for power to fill this loss would either need to
construct ways to make a profit from salmon fishing despite fish and gas
prices, or compete to change fish prices and gas prices. The fisherman
suggests one "filling" solution, which is that "price fixing" gasoline
should be illegal. He is attempting to salvage his fishing losses by using
them as a tax write-off, a kind of "filling" of the profit void, something
made available to him through laws and political decision-making.
b) In an evaluative continuum of logics ofdifference to logics of
equivalence, this narrative does not set up Kake fishermen as different
from other Southeast Alaska fishermen, who are all struggling with fish
prices and gas prices. It is the gas prices and fish prices and the reasons for
them that create commonality (equivalence) between most fishermen, no
matter how diverse. Any logic of equivalence evident in this narrative
would categorize the gas prices and the fish prices and their causes as the
"enemy." The fisherman does name an "enemy" closer to home and that is
Kake's only fuel provider, which the fisherman believes is taking
advantage ofKake residents (who are made equivalent by the situation) by
overcharging them for gas. Other adversaries defined through logic of
difference are less identifiable.
c) Power and voice, or lack of, may be identifiable in the narrator's lack of
blame or suggestion for problems caused by low fish prices and high gas
prices. These are issues that are too big for small community fishermen to
feel they have much power over. They might voice their disappointments
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locally and to their state and federal representatives, but they have little
personal power to influence prices. They can saythat the United States
could at least prevent farmed salmon from entering United States markets,
but fishermen also know that international free trade agreements
prohibited such solutions. In this narrative the fisherman does express a
"should" when it comes to an issue he feels he might be able to influence,
the discrepancy in local gas prices compared to prices elsewhere.
Example two:
A middle-aged man, who fishes primarily for subsistence, pointed out, with
condemnation, the crab boats out in front of Kake that were not from Kake. He said
they were over fishing the local stocks and fishing in places that were illegal. The
Alaska Department ofFish and Game were informed about the situation but, the man
said, ADFG officers told him they lacked the staff to adequately monitor and enforce
regulations in the area around Kake.
This articulation of dismay over non-local boats fishing in Kake' s "front
yard" was mentioned in conversation between other people, as well. People
expressed the sentiments that outside boats were trespassing and stealing from Kake
people when they fished in Kake area waters. There was a subtle sense that these
boats were flaunting their ability to fish when Kake's fleet was disempowered, and
that they were disregarding unwritten "laws" ofpropriety, decency, territorial
jurisdiction, and subsistence food availability for people in Kake.
a) In this example, the narrator identifies a lack ofpropriety, a lack oflegal
behavior, and a lack of restraint on the part of non-Kake boats, mostly
Petersburg boats, fishing close to Kake. In order to "fill" this lack, ADFG
officials would need to act, or Petersburg fishermen would have to
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monitor themselves. In his speech, Gordon Jackson, in his presentation to
the Select Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington D.C., (2002)
suggested that a "filling" of this kind ofvoid could be accomplished
through Native people's more direct involvement in monitoring and
managing fish and wildlife resources. This is an example of groups
competing to fill (or not fill) a lack, making the issue political.
b) In an evaluative continuum of logics ofdifference to logics of
equivalence, this narrative contains some stronger elements oflogics of
equivalence. The oppressors are "others" who include the skippers who
are over fishing resources close to Kake and those who could do
something about it but have not. In a sense, these "others" are an "enemy"
that needs to leave Kake's resources alone. At the same time, the narrator
is attempting to acknowledge democratic legal and political processes as
something Kake people and outside others have in common, but people
administering those processes seem to lack ability or motivation to protect
Kake's waters. The narrator is not asking that the "others" be destroyed (a
factor that would categorize the narrative high on the logics of equivalence
scale), but that they become more cognizant and aware ofKake's needs, or
that Native people be given more power over their own resources.
c) Voice and power: In this example, and in other similar conversations,
people expressed, in words, tone, and in body language, a sense of having
to watch something that affected them negatively, but of having little
power or voice to change the situation. In his speech, Gordon Jackson
asked the United States Congress for a greater voice in resource matters.
Based on my interviews and everyday conversations, I can safely say that
most Native people in Kake doubt that their voices are given much
attention in legislative bodies in Alaska. When their voices are accounted
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for, people feel that it is usually because federal law requires the state to
take notice.
Example three:
This 2003 example comes from a taped dinner conversation between three
people, speaker one, speaker two, and the fieldworker. The speakers were
participating in an informal interview during the meal. They are a non-Native
husband, who has lived in Kake for many years, and his Native wife, who has lived
in Kake most ofher life. The word "they" refers to commercial fishermen and others
who focus on getting as much fish as they can 'now.'
Speaker One: Seems to be the mind set. That they expect these things to be
corning back. They don't give thought to the fact that species have to go out
there on a polluted ocean to get back to this place to complete its life cycle. And
to regenerate. And they don't stop and consider all the things that those creatures
have to endure in order to corne back here. To where they originated from. So
that they can have benefit of that bounty. We found here this summer, and we
went out in the skiff, on the islands out there, part of a huge drag net that they
use for dragging the bottom for scallops and bottom fish.
Speaker Two: Trawl.
Speaker One: Their trawl. I found a bottom of a trawl out there that washed up
on the rocks. I was just amazed.
Speaker Two: They're not allowed there are they?
Speaker One: No! They're doin it!! The thing is out there, still out there.
Speaker Two: It's so huge!!
Speaker One: Smaller boats can trawl. They don't have to be real big. They can
be .. a 100 foot boat can drag a trawl very easily.
Fieldworker: So it can look like they're doing something else?
Speaker One: Certainly.
Speaker Two: Oh.
Speaker One: And they do it under the cover of darkness. You see those lights
out there in the winter months? They're fishin uh king crab and they're fishin
the bottom fish. Cod and that kind of thing.
Speaker Two: Wow.
Speaker One: That their trawl is laying out there on a rock. You can see it in low
water. That's all of it. The whole bottom of their net. This thing they got caught
up on the rocks. They did. You can see it on a minus tide. It's lying out there.
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a) The void or lack expressed in this narrative is knowledge, understanding,
and intelligence on the part of commercial fishermen (they) who take as
much as "they" can wherever "they" can. This lack of consideration or
maybe even caring is evident in the narrator's account of illegal trawl gear
caught on some rocks on an island near Kake. If the implications of this
narrative are that knowledge, understanding, and caring are missing, to fill
such a void would require disrespectful commercial fishermen to obtain
education, thought, and consciousness about the species they are
harvesting. The void in this narrative is linked to the mental capacity of
some fishers to fish illegally and proof of illegal fishing in the discovery
of trawl gear caught on the rocks near Kake. The political aspects of this
narrative, linked to filling a void, are identifiable in the articulation that
certain fishing behavior constitutes a lack, and in the competing opinions
about how to fill it or solve it.
b) In an evaluative continuum of logics of difference to logics of
equivalence, the narration emphasizes a discrepancy between "good" and
"bad" fishermen and fishing behavior. "They" (the unthinking fishermen
who sneak around at night trawling) are the "enemy" to ''us'' who are
affected by "their" lack ofunderstanding or caring and by what "they" do.
"They" (illegal trawlers) become oppressors ofa Kake collective "we,"
whose resources "they" are stealing. In this example, the trawlers are less
tolerated as adversaries in a pluralistic democratic order, but are
considered enemies to stop through authoritative law. From this
perspective, the narrative is closer to expressing a logics of equivalence
than a logics of difference.
c) Voice and power: Because few local people are currently fishing
commercially, most of the fishermen in the "they" category are
"outsiders." Hiding heavy and conspicuous trawl gear in Kake would be
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difficult so the illegal trawl found on the rocks likely belonged to someone
from another community. Kake people's voice and power to influence
outside fishermen's behavior is limited since outside fishermen seldom
even dock in Kake. People depend on the same boards and agencies whose
regulations allow outside boats to fish Kake area waters, but who often
lack the manpower to regularly enforce fishing restrictions.
Example four:
This example comes from part of a 2004 informal interview with a woman in
her 50s who has participated in village and state decision-making forums for many
years.
Speaker: You know the state of Alaska, they've always wanted the communities
to be independent of ... with schools and government. But you know that gets
back to the economy. And the government themselves are the ones that took
away the rights we had, a few years ago, which was related to your first question
about communication. You know the people were not in communication with
the government at the time, where things happened [people in Kake were
unaware that laws were changing], and it affected the community. They [law
makers] took their [Kake people's] rights away like with the ... limited entry
permits and seine permits and [Individual Fishing Quotas IFQs] what have you.
Took [away the foundation of] the fishing community. It was also .. it was ----
(re-discussed after the damage had been done) later, but you know that was sort
ofdepleted, because ofthe decisions ofthe government.
Fieldworker: Because everybody had to have permits to fish? And people can't
all have .. get access to those permits?
Speaker: Mmmhmm. Now we have to buy it, and it costs hundreds and
thousands ofdollars, some ofthe seine permits. And some ofthe smaller
permits, still cost a thousand dollars, but you know, it's to the point where
people can't afford it because how could they get a permit if they don't have ..
they can't fish for it [without a permit they can't fish to make money to buy a
permit]. You know. They maybe could probably get it ifthey got a loan or
something, but .. you'd have to pay that back. You know, and the boat, you'd
have to have a boat with that. In the past where they used to .. people would just
get a license and go fishing, and kind of build themselves up. But now it's not
that way anymore. And other things have played a part in it. The government
made a law about, you know, it became legal to build hatcheries. And hatcheries
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kind ofruined our natural stock. Stufflike that has happened to change .. change
everything, you know. And it was because people were not hearing what the
government was doing. And even if they stood up to it, the government already
made up their mind.
I have not seen any written documents that I know that they were printed ... that
they have laws written about permits but you have to have quotas that went back
to the history of your fishing, in order to get a permit. [Permits were frrst issued
based on an: individual's fishing history, how much a fisherman caught in the
recent past and how often he/she fished.] They [law makers] did not relate it to
the fact that you were from this community and lived here all your life. They
only related it to how many years you went fishing, (it didn't matter) whether
you were from that community or not. And those people that got permits were
people ... were not .. some ofthem were not even from the community. But they
got permits. But it was all related to how long you fished. Not related to how
long you lived in the community or anything. So you know that kind oftook it
out of the environment of the community into the hands ofeven people that
didn't live there. So I think that was excluded, and that should have been
included because it affected the whole economy of that area.
The whole idea at the time, I think, was just that they were looking at the fish
being depleted. They were thinking of limiting the fishermen. But they never
considered the fact that it would affect the community as well. And we've been
a fishing community for ... ever since we've been here. [ironic chuckle] And urn
... you know, then they expect us to be self sustaining on that, you know, with
an economy .... yeah.
Meanings in the above four segments can be partially identified within the following
parameters for comparison.
a) This narrative points out a variety of inter-related voids or lack in "government"
rules and regulations regarding fisheries and the subsequent effects ofregulations
and rules on Kake's fishing economy. Some identified voids included: lack of
governmental foresight; lack ofKake awareness, understanding, and voice;
current lack of available local fishing permits; lack ofgovernmental attention to
fluidity oftime as it pertains to people's fishing lives and life cycles; lack of
governmental attention to community based ideologies versus individualistic
436
based ideologies; and loss oflocal abilities to fulfill governmental expectations of
Kake fmancial independence.
The listed voids or identification of missing pieces that the narrator
attributes to government decision-making becomes highly political when groups
propose ways to fill them or propose not to fill them. The values inherent in such
proposals, and even in the initial permit and IFQ programs, lean heavily toward
competitive individualism and a non-Native notion of short-term, impermanent,
and highly fluid economics. Filling the voids, the narrator suggests, would entail
local knowledge, participation, and a change in state and national cognizance
about the integrity of small communities and people's long-term fishing needs.
b) In an evaluative continuum of frequency of logics ofdifference and logics of
equivalence the narration is closer to a logics ofequivalence but includes aspects
of a logics of difference. A logics of equivalence is apparent in the understanding
that "they" (the government and fishery decision-makers) took rights away from
the ''we'' of Kake and other small, primarily Native communities. "They" expect
us to support "ourselves" but took "our" means of self sustenance. "Their" way of
thinking and problem-solving lacked consideration of "our" fishing and
community life. A logics ofdifference is evident in the narrator's discussion of
Kake people's lack of awareness about government decision-making processes. In
the 1990s many people were not in communication with fisheries decision-
making boards and councils, and were paying little attention to permit and IFQ
proposals. In this narrative the "government" becomes the "other" or the
"oppressor" who is differentiated from the ''us'' who are oppressed by the
circumstances. Kake people and people in other Native coastal communities share
in common being oppressed because of systemic legal changes.
c) The narrator indicates that Kake people are learning to be more cognizant of
politics so that they can try to influence decisions that would hurt them. Yet she
still includes the statement that even had people known what the government was
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doing concerning permits and IFQs, the people in government had already made
up their minds. This belief that one's voice lacks power in legislative and
regulatory forums is common in Kake. In the late 1990s, when people realized
what they were losing, some of them organized with other communities to protest
their situation, calling themselves the Gulf ofAlaska Coastal Communities
Coalition (GOACCC). In that sense they empowered themselves through forming
an "us" that shared in common being oppressed by legal fishing changes.
Kake people say they have lived in their area from time immemorial and see their
access to fishing and resources as permanent, forever, and directly tied with community
obligations and relations. For decision-makers to expect many Kake people to accurately
anticipate and predict the future result ofprivatizing fishing through limited entry permits
and IFQs seems illogical. Privatizing fishing access would seem to conflict with the
economic thinking habits ofKake people, most of whom are only a generation or two
away from a primarily subsistence economy. Kake people still share food and money
with each other more freely and to a greater extent than people in the primarily non-
Native communities of my own experience. Non-Natives have much to learn from Kake
people about sharing as a way to prevent waste, to protect the non-human environment, to
strengthen relationships, and to mend enmity. IfKake fishermen knew they would
probably lose their fishing rights forever if they sold their permits and IFQs, the idea
might have seemed unreal. After all, people had no collective memory oflosing their
rights to fish for hundreds and thousands of years.
In 2004, North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) representative
Phil Smith discussed the political conversation to 'fill' fishing IFQ voids. Smith said that
by the end of 1998, approximately 25 percent of halibut and sablefish quota shares that
were issued to small community residents had been purchased by residents of larger
communities. Poor salmon prices made declining access to IFQ fisheries worse. Small
communities organized into GOACC and testified before the National Research Council
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and the NPFMC. They met with National Marine Fisheries Service representatives and
U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, requesting a quota of the halibut and sablefish fisheries or
access to quota.
Eventually, in 2002, NPFMC representatives amended the IFQ program and
allowed very small communities to "buy in" to the program and use purchased IFQs to
benefit the people in their villages and towns. Jackson (2005: 14) wrote that since the IFQ
program began, the community ofKake sold approximately 200,000 (per year) pounds of
halibut IFQ's. The statistics are similar in most rural communities. The amendment that
Smith describes above allows eligible communities such as Angoon, Kake, Craig, Elfin
Cove, Hoonah, Pelican, Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Tenakee Springs, and many others in
Southeast to establish non-profit Community Quota Entities (CQEs) to hold and lease
halibut and sablefish quota share to local residents. "For instance, if the community of
Kake organized a non-profit and bought 100,000 quota shares, the entity can in fact
contract with local fishermen to catch some portion of their quota share and process the
product in the town cold storage. The program brings local control back into the picture
after a long period of frustration" (Jackson 2005:14).
By 2006, only Craig had come close to purchasing quota shares. Pelican was
attempting to do so. NPFMC revisited the IFQ situation but the damage had already been
done, according to Kake people. Kake was in very difficult economic circumstances
when this dissertation was written and lacked the funds to start a non-profit entity to buy
quota shares. In a study of the effectiveness of the new community quota program, Steve
Langdon and Emilie Springer wrote that by the end of 2006, the bottom line was that "no
halibut or sablefish quota has yet to be fished by any CQE" (Langdon and Springer
2006:7). Although several community groups worked hard to gain CQE status and
purchase quota shares, Langdon and Springer pointed out that no funds were available for
direct purchase of shares, loan terms were prohibitive, the prices of quota shares were too
high, few quota shares were available to purchase, the program was treated as a business
439
rather than community development, and regulatory provisions were too limiting
(Langdon and Springer 2006: 8).
The researchers wrote that villages such as Kake and others had traditional
patterns of "broad participation by many" and that "there are strong small-scale fisheries
capabilities in the villages due to deep subsistence heritage of marine resource
characteristic of most of them" (Landon and Springer 2006:14). In essence, Landon and
Springer's study pointed out that the Community Quota Program was in need of major
modifications.
The program continues to emphasize Euro-American business strategies, and a
synthetic/jural view of lands and resources, while Kake and other villages still value, to
some extent, organic/holistic views ofland and resources and long-term cooperation.
Most non-Native fishing communities have a much shorter history of fishing and
are founded on economies that value competitive individualism. Non-Native assumptions
about common sense in regards to money and permits demonstrate a worldview of
impermanence and an economy based on competition. Such a worldview has a shorter
history in places such as Kake, where sharing rather than individual accumulation was the
rule for hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years. People in Kake seem to want
good jobs, enough to eat, a place to live, electricity, to be able to travel, and automobiles
and boats to fish, but I heard little talk about wanting to "get rich." The lack of talk or
efforts toward getting "rich" puzzled some of the non-Native men that I talked with.
Concepts in Kake Narratives about Fish-as-Commercial/Money
When I was in Kake I made a point of noting people's conversations about fish,
environment, and community in my field notes. My methods ofpreparing my data so that
I could identify common and less common discourse patterns included pinpointing every
reference to commercial fishing, as well as food fishing, that I could find in my field
notes and transcribed interviews. I kept in mind the contexts ofnarratives, as well.
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This method relies on collecting day to day stories and writing them down. It
might be expanded through the experiences of more than one researcher in one place
during one time period. Narratives are included that were part of interviews because, as a
researcher, I rarely brought up fish as a specific interview topic. The analysis below
results from identifying references to commercial fishing and then categorizing them
based on common themes or points. Again, I heard and collected far fewer narratives
about commercial fishing than I did about fish as food.
Examples of positive references to commercial fishing in the past.
• During past fishing seasons Kake had full employment.
• My family always fished.
• We were a fishing community.
• Halibut openings were a community event.
• We did best when we controlled our own fishing and processing.
• People knew how to work hard.
• Kake had boat builders and highliners and cannery work.
• Especially at mortuary dinners, people told funny stories about what happened to
people when they were fishing.
• Elders and others talked about boat and fishing behavior ethics.
• Laws that made it possible for IRA to participate in economic activities. Kake was
a tribe that got involved in the fishing industry.
• People never used to worry about the economy.
Examples of negative references to commercial fishing in the past.
• Small fish runs and poor prices after the 1950s meant the local cannery did
poorly.
• We never knew if the local cannery or cold storage would be open one year to the
next to sell to.
• We were cheated by Canadians in international salmon negotiations.
• The loss of the cannery was a major motivation for the Kake IRA tribe to declare
itself autonomous from the regional Tlingit/Haida Central Council in the 1980s.
Economic problems motivated local tribal members to write their own grants and
find resources for Kake without relying on the Central Council.
• Alaska policies to limit entry into the fishery contributed to cannery/cold storage
failure.
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Examples of positive references to commercial fishing in the present.
• We have survived things like this before.
• Halibut prices are coming up.
• There is a new federal program to make permits available to non-profit entities in
very small communities. The permits could be distributed yearly to local
fishermen in an equitable way, but the non-profit entity would own them.
Examples of negative comments about commercial fishing in the present.
• People are leaving for economic reasons (more than 20 percent of the population
in a few years).
• Speculators will take over Kake after the poor people die.
• Many people sold their salmon and halibut permits and cannot participate in
commercial fishing.
• State programs to limit fishery participation stripped economic benefits from
Native communities.
• The situation in Kake in 2004 is comparable to the Great Depression.
• Farmed salmon meant lost markets and low prices paid to fishermen for their
salmon, even though the quality of farmed salmon is poor.
• Fuel prices in combination with low salmon prices make fishing unprofitable.
• Boats, mostly from Petersburg, are moving into Kake fishing areas, including
commercial fishing boats and sports fishing charter boats.
• The Iraq war is part of the reason for a decline in Kake's fishing economy and
other sources of revenue.
Examples of positive references to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and how it
influenced local economics including commercial fishing.
• Natives had to struggle for land rights and through ANCSA got them (but the act
created many unresolved issues and new problems).
Examples of negative references to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and how it
influenced local economics including commercial fishing. I can safely say that I heard
only a few positive comments about ANCSA when I was in Kake.
• ANCSA changed the economic focus in Kake to money.
• ANCSA and the local and regional tribal corporations changed the economic
focus from fishing to logging.
• Because the tribal corporations managed almost everything economic, people
became dependent on them.
• The generations that grew up in Kake after ANCSA often failed to learn the ethics
of hard work and how to participate in commercial fishing.
• The generations that grew up in Kake after ANCSA often failed to learn how to
go into business on their own.
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Examples of positive references to tribal, corporate, and community empowerment and
commercial fishing.
• Kake built a hatchery which provides a fishing resource for local fishermen.
• Kake Tribal corporation has its own cold storage plant.
• Kake's corporation has put creative fish products and value-added smoked and
dried seafood onto the market.
• Tribes were made stronger through the Indian Self-Detennination and
Educational Assistance Act.
• The Organized Village of Kake (OVK) worked for and received greater tribal
sovereignty so that it could better assist the village in social and health programs
for children, families and the Elderly.
• OVK and the city are working with state and federal agencies to improve Kake's
environment for fishing, hunting, other economic activities and the health ofthe
environment.
• The newly formed Southeast Alaska Inter-tribal Fish and Wildlife Commission
was organized to unite 20 tribal organizations in Southeast Alaska to strengthen
their voice.
Examples of negative references to state government and local leadership concerning
commercial fishing.
• People expressed concern for lack of state agency monitoring and managing
salmon returns in waters that the state controls, waters that are important to Native
fishing.
• Federal programs that changed fishery resources into private 'property' or
ownership, resulted in sharp decreases in Native participation in the fisheries.
• State programs that limit the numbers of fishermen who can participate in
fisheries resulted in 'stripping from our villages the economic benefits of the
salmon and herring fisheries.
• A need exists for greater Native participation in monitoring and managing fish
and wildlife resources.
• One problem is the corporation's inability to keep the cold storage plant open.
• Very few people are fishing commercially.
• Fishing boats are without the needed technology for their owners to be part of
commercial fishing.
• Non-profit entities in Kake are without the funds to purchase and administer
fishing permits through the new federal program.
Kake people talked about commercial fishing with stories and words that expressed
feelings of nostalgia, regret, anxiety, anger, and stress. Very little was said about sharing
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and cooperation in commercial fishing conversations, except a few references to covert
and illegal sharing of commercial catches for food, or to talk about the past. These
patterns of discourse significantly contrast with discourses about fish as food. In talk
about fish as food, cooperation, sharing, and respect are still clearly evident, even though
people often say that the actual practice of such values is in decline.
Concepts of cooperation, sharing, food, and respect in state narratives
As demonstrated in sections four and five of this dissertation, many parts of
people's lives are often evaluated within economic and legal parameters that focus on
capitalocentric ideologies such as the importance of time efficiency, quick turnover of
products and services, increased profitability, resource extraction, taxes, etc. Here I
reverse the view point. The following state-centered narratives will be evaluated through
some of the ideological parameters identifiable in Kake talk.
I have chosen two state-based texts as sources for discourse comparison. One is
the 2005 testimony to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans by David
Bedford, Deputy Commissioner, Alaska Department ofFish and Game (appendix EE).
The second is University ofAlaska Research Summary No.5, 2005, called Changing
Alaska's Salmon Harvesting System: What are the Challenges? The summary is of a
larger technical paper through the Institute of Social and Economic Research and is by
Fran Ulmer and Gunnar Knapp. The summary version is in appendix CC. Ulmar is a
former Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, who helped write the research summary in her
capacity as director ofthe Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the
University of Alaska, Anchorage. Co-author Gunnar Knapp is professor of economics at
the University ofAlaska, Anchorage.
I chose four key concepts that are often expressed as signifiers in Kake discourses
about fish through which to compare state-based narratives. Key concepts included
cooperation, respect, sharing, and fish-as-food. For example, in the testimony ofDave
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Bedford the actual words cooperation, sharing, and respect are used rarely. Cooperation
and respect have no direct usage, food is used once as seafood, and to share is used four
times in reference to share of fees, share of research, share-based fishery, and share of
data. The following excerpts, grouped in categories, show general patterns and are not
meant to be comprehensive.
Example 1:
Testimony ofMr. David Bedford, Deputy Commissioner, Alaska Department ofFish and
Game to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans. July 6,2005. Conceptual or
direct references to cooperation, respect, sharing, and food. Following are a few examples
ofphrases that I identified that infer cooperation, respect, food, and sharing. A longer list
of examples is in appendix FF.
Cooperation:
• Federal waters fisheries are subject to regulation under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act with the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council responsible for developing fishery management plans.
NOAA Fisheries is the principal management agency but the management of
many federal waters fisheries is delegated in substantial measure to the State of
Alaska. This is not surprising since fish move freely between state and federal
waters and the state had a fully developed management program for many ofthe
species of concern to the Council and NOAA when the Magnuson-Stevens Act
(MSA)was adopted. The Council and Alaska Board ofFisheries collaborate in
development of fishery management plans when the stocks and fisheries overlap
their respective jurisdictions.
Management in Alaska is divided between state and federal waters. (Sharing the decision
making processes. Not just one group decides for everyone.)
Food
• Alaska's fishing industry is its largest private sector employer and produces over
half ofthe nation's seafood harvest.
• Alaska's people depend on our fisheries as a source of livelihood, recreation and
nutrition.
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• Subsistence, which accounts for a small percentage of the total harvest, is
accorded a priority under state law.
Respect:
• (Respect for MSA) The success in maintaining abundant resources and viable fisheries
in Alaska leads to the conclusion that the MSA is, in many regards, effective as
written.
• (Respect for time) A streamlined regulatory process helps assure the timely and
responsive fisheries management that the Alaskan fishing industry and dependent
coastal communities require to maximize fisheries value.
• (Respect for sustainability) The exercise ofthis sovereignty [state sovereignty from the
federal government] is responsible for the sustainability and success of our
fisheries.
Sharing:
• After providing for the subsistence opportunities, the Board of Fisheries allocates
the remaining harvestable surplus among the other fisheries. (Indirect reference)
• Alaskan fishery management is grounded on obligations set in the state
constitution requiring management of fish and wildlife to provide for sustained
yield and reserving fish and wildlife for the common use of the people, (Indirect
reference)
Example 2:
Changing Alaska's Salmon Harvesting System: What are the Challenges? by Fran
Ulmer and Gunnar Knapp. Conceptual or direct references to cooperation, respect,
sharing, and food.
In the University of Alaska Research Summary 5, the actual words for the key
concepts cooperation, food, respect, and sharing categories are used rarely. Cooperation
and respect have no direct usage, the word food is used once, and share is used once in
reference to "catch a larger share of the fish." Following are a few examples ofphrases
that I identified that infer cooperation, respect, food, and sharing. A longer list of
examples is in appendix DD.
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Cooperation:
• .. the co-op vividly shows two fundamental obstacles to restructuring. The fIrst is
the tension between social and economic goals. (Cooperation is difficult when people attempt to
combine social and economic goals.)
• No state agency has clear responsibility for economic success of the fIsheries;
authority that is clear enough and broad enough to allow it to make major changes
in the harvesting system; adequate money and personnel to study restructuring
options and put them into effect. (Cooperation between agencies is difficult so there is a need for a central
poweL)
Food:
• Competition from farmed salmon and other factors have battered the fIsheries;
earnings of fIshermen have plummeted, even as harvests reached near-record
highest. (Earnings as food)
• Alaska's wild salmon harvest is the world's largest. They make up about 40
percent of wild salmon harvests worldwide and 15 percent of combined wild and
farmed production.
Respect:
• The clearest is conservation: managing for 'sustained yield.' Alaskans agree
conserving salmon resources is critical. (Respect for the non-human environment is referred to as
'sustained yield.')
Sharing:
• But it's not enough to fish: fIshermen also need to be able to make money. So
another aspect of 'maximum benefIt' is economic: keeping the fIsheries profItable.
But there's a tension between spreading the wealth and keeping the fIsheries
profitable-because the more fIshermen participate in a fIshery, the harder it is for
them all to make a living.
• Not everyone will benefIt; some people could end up worse off. But the costs of
doing nothing are also high. Thousands of Alaskans have already seen severe
losses in fIshing income and in boat and permit values, and many have had to quit
fishing for salmon.
To summarize, the Ulmar and Knapp selection describes a need for Alaskans to
choose between social and economic defInitions and goals in regards to the fIsheries.
Another underlying message in the Ulmar and Knapp examples is the need for a
centralized authority to decide and act on fishery issues more quickly than is possible
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now. In the Bedford example, the author emphasizes a need for streamlined reconciliation
of the acts which outline management priorities. Bedford discusses reconciling the
Magnuson-Stevens Act, the National Environmental Protection Act, and the
Administrative Procedure Act to prevent long delays in permitting and decision-making.
The influence ofall three as separate acts "costs the fishing industry and communities
time and money."
The Ulmar and Knapp example infers that common use and maximum benefit
goals for fisheries, as outlined in the state constitution, need reinterpretation. Revisiting
the goals of (a) common use and (b) spreading the wealth is important, according to state-
based discourse, because with the change in salmon markets, many people are no longer
able to make a living from fishing. If the wealth is spread to fewer people, and time-
saving and cost-saving cooperation between those people is increased, then at least some
people will be able to make a living. Others will need to move on to different types of
work. The problem becomes who benefits from restructuring fishery goals and priorities,
and who loses?
Several questions go unasked in both documents. Some of those questions can be
formulated by examining discourses about fish-as-food in Kake. Such questions involve
re-examining doxa, as defined by Bourdieu. Doxa, again, is knowledge so taken for
granted that it is never or very rarely discussed, in this case presumptions about
economics. United States economic models are the orthodoxy (the positively expressed
aspects of dominant class ideology) that influence the frames within which people
describe possible solutions. As a rule, certain economic questions are rarely raised in
state-based social discourses relevant to power and domination. To raise certain types of
questions about economic doxa is to create a radical critique (Bourdieu 1991:168).
Because political, social, and linguistic capital is typically in the hands ofpolitical
professionals, who control systems of classification and the authority to speak on behalf
of groups, questions leading to radical critique rarely become part ofpolitical discourses
(Bourdieu 1991: 174-184).
448
Discussion
In the state-based examples, political professionals have (conscientiously and
within orthodoxy) determined the scope and categories for discussion about fishery
restructuring, rights, and allocation. One state-based presumption is the discursive
separation of"social" from "economic" priorities as illustrated in this quote about the
fishing co-op started by Chignik fishers (Ulmer and Knapp 2005:1).
There's a long-standing tension between social and economic
goals for the fisheries, and no consensus among Alaskans about
what restructuring should accomplish-or who should benefit.
In neither the Ulmar and Knapp nor the Bedford example is it clear what "social"
goals mean, except that individuals who promote social goals want as many people as
possible in their communities to have fishery related jobs. As demonstrated in section
five ofthis dissertation, social goals encompass far more than jobs and wages. The very
lack ofattention to more holistic definitions of community in both the Bedford and Ulmar
and Knapp examples reveals limitations on the possible range of solutions within fishery
reorganization discourses. The range is limited to the doxa that social equals quantitative
economics and that public participation in resource management meetings and access to
regulators equals adequate community empowerment. Other possibilities are missing in
state-based restructuring discourses can be identified through learning about alternative
economic strategies in places such as Kake.
Kake has a mixed economy. People rarely starve when they lack money because
they are able to gather and share food resources. State-based discourses fail to include
mixed economy possibilities as part of state-wide economic strategy. Mixed economy
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alternatives may be important in solutions that prioritize sustainable livelihood and
environmental integrity.
Most people in Kake lost their access to commercial fishing partly because the
economic doxa in current law and regulation prioritizes competitive individualism,
making money by focusing on one profession, the importance of fishing and making a
profit every year to pay for the rights to fish, and profit as the main measure ofsuccess.
Loss of commercial fishing rights for people whose ancestors fished for a living hundreds
and thousands of years indicates a missing knowledge base and inadequate assumptions
and priorities at the state and federal decision-making level. That Kake is reduced to a
minimal commercial fishing economy is a red flag in terms of sustainable livelihood and
environmental integrity priorities. Commercial fishing can become part of a diversified
livelihood strategy in local economies. Dominant economic priorities fail to consider that
people can create a livelihood by participating in several occupations at the same time.
Within the Ulmar and Knapp and Dave Bedford examples of state-based
discourse, sharing is inferred in three ways. First, the speaker and writers focus on how
state-based (federal and Alaska State) lawmakers and agencies share data, jurisdiction,
and decision-making forums. Second, the segments discuss ways that fishermen can
cooperate to share time and costs in order to increase their profits and the quality of fish.
Third, the UA segment calls for cooperation among Alaska citizens to consider the
importance ofreducing fishing access, to give up, in a sense, the idea that fish are a
common resource.
In contrast, sharing in Kake is talked about as part of everyday life. People have
always shared their costs and time by going out and fishing for each other. They share
with family, Elders, neighbors, and "everyone" in times oftrouble, and at special
occasions. Because they share, they avoid waste, they mend difficult relationships, they
create a sense of solidarity, and through sharing people learn the value oftheir common
resources. Kake sharing values are possible solutions that are rarely discussed within
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state-based economic strategies. Such values are a radical critique simply because they
are not considered seriously at regulatory law-making levels.
Values inherent in Tlingit culture, for example, may point to economic
possibilities that would enhance the state constitutional goal ofmanaging for maximum
benefit and common use. This becomes even more apparent considering that in recent
years thousands ofpounds of salmon were caught in some places only for their eggs. The
eggs were then sold to Japan and other markets, but the carcasses were often wasted. In
Kake they were used to make fertilizer. A mixed economy would more likely have a
place for meat that has little value in the global market economy.
Mixed economy examples, that are part of everyday experiences in places such as
Kake, may offer insights into how to better relieve environmental pressures and create
sustainable livelihood strategies in other communities. Such solutions garnered minimal
to no attention in state-based (Alaska state or federal) narrative examples.
State decision makers discussed how restructuring (to decide who gets a share of
the fishery and who does not) is necessary in order to insure that at least some people can
make a living from fishing in this changing global economy. An alternative might be to
promote solutions that foster a better sense of sustainable livelihood, which includes
direct access to food frrst and a chance to negotiate local community-centered solutions.
Anthropologist John Wingard (2000:5-29) outlined how the neoclassical, cost-
benefit paradigm, identifiable in the Bedford and Ulmar and Knapp examples, promotes
the power of competition and the free market as answers to economic problems. Wingard
proposed a focus on local/community management instead of defining "progress" in
fisheries as net economic benefit. In most fishery management plans, net economic
benefit is defined as the difference between producer surplus and consumer surplus. Kake
people provide an alternative community-centered definition. Economic benefit from
subsistence surplus is defined within ideological narratives of sharing and avoiding
waste.
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In a community-based approach to commercial fisheries management, large
numbers of fishermen could fish on a part time basis, which is more emulative ofTlingit
economic strategies. People participate in a range of economic strategies as part of their
livelihoods. Work diversification is more possible ifpeople share surpluses, barter skills
and time, and practice planning and working cooperatively rather than relying solely on
fishing for their livelihoods. When people rely solely on commercial fishing for a living,
and new fishery laws begin to limit fishery access, displaced fishermen must decide how
to survive. If coastal villages were more empowered to conceptualize and negotiate a
mixed economy, then fishing resource allocation could include more fishing families. If
fewer fishermen were displaced, social hardships and the economic costs associated with
displacement could be reduced (Wingard 2000).
The neoclassical paradigm assumes people will move to where the jobs are, but
this is not necessarily true of displaced fishermen. For example, people in Kake will not
necessarily move to a new place. They generally have strong familial and community ties
and will try to survive locally as long as possible. In all fishing communities, loss of
fishing access results in human relationship costs such as alcoholism, spouse and child
abuse, physical and psychological disorders, etc. (Wingard 2000).
Fishing quotas must be limited to prevent over fishing, but fishing communities
could have more jurisdiction over distributing quotas among local fishing families on a
year by year basis. McCay (2002) gives examples of fishing communities on the Atlantic
coast that maintained family-based, rather than large corporation-based, fishing
industries. They did so through cooperative, community-based allocation solutions.
People took turns fishing if the resources were scarce, fished part time in difficult years,
and diversified their economic strategies to include bartering, subsistence gathering,
gardening and other solutions. Kake is a community ofpeople who are generally
comfortable with diversifying their occupations throughout the year. Sharing,
cooperation, and respect values were (and still are) a safety net.
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With a market approach, such as distributing limited individual fishing quotas as a
form ofproperty that can be bought and sold, access to fish is often withdrawn from the
very areas with the greatest reliance on fishing (Wingard 2000). Local individuals
generally have less capital than corporations. If fishing access is privatized through
individual fishing quotas and corporations buy up quotas, the profits rarely return to the
communities. Profits accrue instead to corporate owners of quotas and their shareholders.
Although Alaska and federal fishery planners have worked to prevent this scenario,
privatization of quota shares has resulted in re-distribution of wealth among fewer and
fewer shareholders. Kake is a good example because many Kake fishermen sold their
halibut quotas and salmon permits to buyers from outside of the community. An example
of a community-based approach is the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council
amendment to halibut and sablefish Individual Fishing Quota program. IfKake could
become a successful Community Quota Entity (CQE), and hold and lease halibut and
sablefish quota share to local residents, local values might be supported.
To nurture local flexibility, fisheries management of commercial harvests could
accommodate and promote sustainable livelihood strategies. This would require an
economic outlook that recognizes the value ofhaving many occupations as compared
with only one. When more people depend more directly on fisheries for at least part of
their livelihood, they care more about environmental integrity. Wingard (2000) observed
that communities lose a vested interest in the marine environment if they lose access to
fisheries because they also lose an incentive to minimize damage to the marine
environment.
Realizing alternatives to the neoliberal economic approach that ends up displacing
fishermen and villages from commercial fishing, begins with examining discourses for
what is missing. To begin, definitions of community and livelihood need expansion in
fishery reorganization narratives. Expansion of definitions might lead to surprising results
if the social elements that nurture human relationships such as sharing surplus and
cooperative local management were more prevalent in political language frames
regarding fisheries.
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454
CHAPTER XVIII
CONCLUSION: WAYS OF THINKING, WAYS OF TALKING
The chapters of this dissertation are like the drupelets on one of the salmonberries
that grow on Kupreanof Island. These chapters represent a tiny medley of life
circumstances in Kake, Alaska. Just as a little salmonberry is one of thousands on a
hillside, this is one account of thousands in a community ofpeople who each have their
own acute awareness and insight. One major lesson from my fieldwork and writing
experiences is that the most meaningful research takes into account the questions that
people in a community ask in order to make problem solving easier. To understand what
people want to know about themselves involves asking them how they can best use a
researcher and then developing research goals collaboratively. I came to Kake with
questions already formulated. I held on to my questions because I believe they are
important to ask in any community, and I hope the answers are helpful to the people of
Kake. In future research projects, my goals include creating questions and purposes in
cooperation with communities ofpeople.
My research began with the premise that human relationships with other humans
and the non-human environment are primarily learned and guided through language.
Carbaugh (1996) described the importance oflanguage to environmental behavior when
he wrote, "Communication occurs in places, cultivates intelligible senses ofthose places,
and thus naturally guides ways of living within them" (1996:38). Throughout my
fieldwork, the following questions remained intact. How do people in Kake talk with
each other about their community and place? In comparison, how do they communicate
with lawmakers and regulators, and does the communication process lead to change in
local narratives about place and people? Are the discourses between local and state
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entities, which are always influenced by power dynamics, conducive to human
engagement that inspires sustainable livelihood in an environment?
Although I had not read Jeffrey Wollock's work until after I finished my
fieldwork, he succinctly summarizes the problems I identified in Kake people's
experiences. These are problems that we need to confront if we are to find solutions to
our environmental crises. Wollock wrote:
The cause ofthe environmental crisis is not industrial and military pollution,
excessive resource extraction and harvesting, or an economic system that
maximizes energy use, distorts local economic priorities, and spurs growth of
huge urban slums. These are only symptoms. The real cause of the
environmental crisis is a particular way of thinking. The state ofthe world's
environment is, as it were, experimental proofthat there is something
fundamentally wrong with this way of thinking, today strongly reflected in
most ofthe world's dominant languages. There is nothing eternally necessary
about this, nor is it necessarily due to anything inherent in the structure of
these languages. English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese,
Russian, and others all possess resources of expression that are now excluded
from serious discourse when it comes to the major decisions that affect the
lives of millions. No, the problem lies in the concrete historical evolution of
rhetoric in these languages and the present expression, in them, of destructive
ways ofthinking (or not thinking) that guide the decisive actions of the day.
(Wollock 2001:248)
Ways of thinking in Kake include shared social memory and knowledge ofplace
that is based in direct experience ofKupreanoflsland and other neighboring islands.
People talk about their loyalty to other Kake people, however irritating they may be at
times, the village itself, and their surrounding traditional territories. Their history includes
missionaries, the United States Navy, educators, government agents, cannery foremen,
loggers, and a long list of outsiders who have been in and out ofKake, many of them
telling local people that they should think differently. Some ofthese newcomers were
changed themselves because of their experiences in Kake. I am one. Even with so many
historical changes, some of the older stories and memories surface when they have the
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power to legitimize the present. Lately, older narratives have become an increasing part
of revitalization at the tribal level for the sake of helping children in trouble and in
conversations about environmental sustainability.
In the meantime, whatever Kake people plan for their own futures, they must
initiate or react to state (Alaska state and federal) legal changes and decision making.
Their customary and traditional foods, their land base, and other resources are generally
owned on paper by federal and state governments, or ANCSA corporations. To represent
themselves, local people must anticipate and respond discursively to current legal ways
of speaking and thinking that are often generated in other places by people with different
environmental experiences and social memories.
Through four case studies I worked to show the conditions ofdiscourse between
Kake interpreters and state legal representatives. In the fIrst case study, chapter 8, I
described how the process of applying for permits, and the power of agencies to deny
applications, forces groups or individuals to think of a project in the ways that agency
representatives require. In this example, people in Kake were focusing on the joy of
revitalizing a salmon stream with the help of school children and the tribe and using a
promising new noninvasive technology. The narratives they shared about the project tied
in older stories, Tlingit values, and a sense of collaboration. When the application was
temporarily denied at a very crucial time in the life of the project, applicants had to re-
describe their project in order to fulfIll government agency expectations. Anxiety, anger,
and disappointment were feelings through which people focused some of their rewriting
energy.
Feelings recalled from past experience with an agency influence each subsequent
encounter with that agency. People are likely to remember past feelings when they decide
how to write a new application or participate in a new interaction. Applicants may want
to prevent or be prepared for the same emotional scenario, and their preparation
influences the way they think about the place and people involved in the project.
457
In the case study, the application process was a discursive communication event,
which influenced how people described and perceived the subject of their discourse, that
is the actors in the situation and the stream that was to be restored. The balance or
imbalance ofpower in this, or any situation, influences which people are under more
pressure to at least act as though their minds are changed. Simply going along with, but
not believing in, a way of acting or talking, called orthopraxy, potentially constitutes a
step toward ideological change, or a change of mind.
The second case study described a state road building proposal to connect Kake
with Petersburg and, ultimately, the national highway system. In this example I examined
definitions. I compared the ways that people in Kake talked about community with the
ways that representatives of the Alaska Department ofTransportation referred to
community in their plan supporting Southeast Alaska road building. I also considered
definitions of time in the transportation plan compared to lived time in Kake. The DOT
public hearings and the transportation plan itself offered little identifiable consideration
of the essence ofa community. Community essence includes how community
relationships are produced and reproduced. Kake people, during informal interviews,
described community. They were keenly aware and, in general, agreed with each other
about what community means in Kake and how it is reproduced.
As Appadurai (1997) pointed out, community is fragile and must be performed
and re-enacted through social practice to anchor human belonging to a place and group.
DOT representatives responded to people's concerns about their lifeways and
environments by outlining the possible savings in cost, efficiency, and time that a road
would bring. They used a market based model as part oftheir discourse. DOT plan
writers showed, through their answers to people's concerns, what kinds of arguments
would have the most credibility with them. Ifpeople wanted to influence road building
circumstances, their chances might improve if they participated in discourses that took
into consideration the market based parameters established by DOT decision makers.
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This case study showed how some methods and purposes for state decision
making are not necessarily "bad," but rather they are incomplete. They lack recognition
oflocal community-building rituals and values, knowledge based in emotion/feeling, and
relationships with place and people that cannot be described in generalized or simplified
parameters. What language does is to "select from the available features of this one world
and give the items in this selection certain unique slants and emotional colorations. As a
speaker of a particular language, one is simply more ready to say certain things in a
certain way and, indeed, to notice certain things. Among these things are the phenomena
of the natural world" (Wollock 2001 :249). In the road-building proposal, the DOT
selected a capitalocentric market based description of the world through which to discuss
Southeast Alaska communities and peoples.
When something as culture changing as a road is built, and the arguments in favor
of building a road are applied similarly to all Southeast Alaska communities, then
discourse frames are homogenized. When the very intricate and personal essence of a
community is given little recognition, then the description, planning, and discursive
processes become simplified for the sake of large scale social engineering. Simplification
and homogenization may not be in the best interest of communities or environments.
Often it is the very particular relationships that humans have with each other and their
places that inspire cooperation for purposes of long-term sustainable livelihood.
To name, acknowledge, and learn about particular peoples and particular
environments demonstrates a closer appreciation ofpersonhood and makes
objectification less possible. Persons are those entities that have moral worth. For
Tlingits, persons ideally were (are) treated with respect, and persons included (include)
human and non-human members of an environment. The third case study identifies the
ways personhood is attributed and assigned in speeches, conversations, and texts about
boroughs.
Clearly in the examples of speeches, text artefacts, and conversations that
included law makers and regulators, personhood was primarily attributed to other law
459
makers and regulators, and to state systems, reports, constitutions, and other text
artefacts. Only a few lawmakers, mostly Native, referenced particular places such as
Kake in the legislative conversations about boroughs that I collected for this study. Other
lawmakers and regulators tended to identify the unorganized borough en masse, and
people as taxpayers or nontaxpayers, for example.
Local Kake people most often identified their community, tribe, clans, and
families as persons, but they also acknowledged the specific personhood of regulators
and lawmakers. In contrast to the legislative and regulatory narratives I examined, Kake
narratives included references to personal human connections with and respect for place
and a larger environment. Kake people's public comments to the state Local Boundary
Commission about boroughs included references to the importance of local human and
non-human personhood. In subsequent speeches and reports, legislators and Local
Boundary Commission writers and speakers generally avoided referencing local humans
and non-humans as particular persons. Kake public comments and discourses traveled
only so far in official narratives about boroughs. There was little trace of local knowledge
and feeling discourse in the later documents and speeches presented by law-makers and
regulators at the legislative level.
If the legislators and regulators whose narratives are examined in this study have
mastery over attributing personhood to local people, places, and non-humans in those
places, they did not demonstrate their ability to access such language forms in formal
discourses about boroughization. The decisions they make about the human and non-
human environment are likely to reflect feelings about places and people that derive from
discourses that generalize and simplify, rather than particularize the complexities of
human environmental relationships.
Many people in Kake select language features, for the purpose ofdescribing their
environment, that demonstrate alternative ways of using English to explain place and
people. For most people in Kake, the inclusive environment is more than its potential as a
profit-generating economy. Kake people have transferred many of their Tlingit language
460
meanings and values as best they can into English signifiers and descriptors. Various
people are also working hard to learn and use the dominant legal language codes in order
to describe Kake in relation to state-based legislative and regulatory forums. Kake
people who use legal language in state forums generally switch language codes in local
contexts. Those who are less likely to select codes that include older linguistic value
descriptions or emotion/feeling language about non-human personhood, often tend to be
associated more closely with the ANCSA corporation or with city government. In my
observations and interviews, I found that Kake people who believed their job purpose
was to help assimilate Kake into the dominant economy often avoided talking about
personal respect for the non-human components of their environment. I interpret their
lack of attention to older and emotion/feeling knowledge forms as partly reflective of the
deficiency of venue and validation in state-based forums and text artefacts for local
values and discourses.
Some Kake people are working hard to re-vitalize local knowledge and values and
re-incorporate them into local discourse. They are also striving to bring local knowledge
of the inclusive environment into state-based conversations, especially conversations that
concern Kake. Many people involved with the IRA tribe or the Organized Village of
Kake (OVK), pay attention to older environmental values in relation to economic and
social changes. Their work is highly influential in the rituals that create community and
that are created by community for the purposes of healing and solidarity. Yet the specific
importance of their work is often absent from definitions of community at the state
(federal and Alaska state) level.
The final case study is about fish, the mainstay of Tlingit survival for thousands
of years. As a fieldworker I listened carefully to how people talked about fish on a daily
basis. Because there is very little commercial fishing in Kake now, I heard very little
about fish from a cash-economy perspective. What I did hear was mostly about the
problems that caused the loss ofKake's fishing fleet.
461
More often, people talked about their recipes for processing salmon, halibut or
crab, how good the fish tasted, who gave it to them, how much they had to process, and
the importance of giving fish to others. Sometimes people told me about the values of
respect toward food resources that their Elders taught them and that at least some of the
younger people are still learning. I categorized some of the more basic values that I
learned in Kake as sharing, cooperation, and respect in regards to fish as food. These
remain integral to community reproduction and performance in Kake. Ifpeople are to
strengthen Kake to be the type of community that can manage its resources for the
purpose of sustainable livelihood, these are the values on which people might build. If
state lawmakers and regulators are to assist and support communities such as Kake in
efforts towards sustainable livelihood, these are some of the values that they need to
recognize as part of their definition of community, specifically applied to Kake.
I also examined narratives from state performers who are instrumental in
influencing the frames of discourse around commercial fishing reorganization. I looked at
a speech by David Bedford, Deputy Commissioner, Alaska Department ofFish and
Game to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans, and I evaluated a research
summary written by Fran Ulmer and Gunnar Knapp. I looked for how these speakers and
writers integrated, or failed to integrate, concepts of livelihood (making a living) with
what it means to be a strong community that can foster long term sustainable livelihood.
In the Ulmer and Knapp example, people in Alaska were called upon to more clearly
differentiate the social from the economic purposes of fish. According to some leaders in
fishery reorganization discourses, this differentiation would ensure that at least some
people could make their entire living from commercial salmon fishing, rather than
spreading fishing access among many people. The writers seem to suggest that if social
purposes are prioritized, then more people will be able to fish, but most will only make a
partial living from commercial fishing.
Ordinarily state-based discourses separate subsistence fishing from commercial
fishing as relying on very different sets of values. Commercial fishing is about
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competitively making a profit; subsistence fishing is about eating and sharing among
family networks. Perhaps the separation of value codes between these two types of
fisheries is less necessary than we suppose. Even though this distinction is encoded in
federal and state laws and regulations, what ifwe applied the values that coexist with
subsistence fishing to commercial fishing purposes and practices? What ifwe looked at
mixed economies, such as those in Kake, as possible models for sustainable livelihood
elsewhere?
In order to better compare discourses, I applied some of the central Tlingit values
about fish to the narrative samples ofBedford's speech and Ulmar and Knapp's research
summary. The purpose oftheir narratives was to define the problems with the Alaska
salmon industry and outline the possible solutions. The definitions ofconcepts such as
sharing, cooperation, and respect were largely at cross purposes in the comparison of
Kake meanings and institutional meanings. However, if feeling discourses about the
values of sharing, cooperation, and respect for humans and non-humans, as talked about
in Kake, were part ofthe state-based discussion, possible solutions might expand to allow
more inclusiveness in fisheries.
Application oflocal Kake values, however convoluted in the present, to state
problem-solving narratives is a reversal ofhistorical patterns of communication.
Historically, capitalocentric state discourses have been applied to places such as Kake as
solutions to economic assimilation. As demonstrated in this dissertation and many other
sources, the particular methods used for economic assimilation have often been disastrous
to people and place in the long term. Now that we understand the enormity of our
environmental crises, we might fmd solutions by trying to better understand what values,
narratives, and rituals have worked for people in the past, people who had a track record
of sustainable livelihood, including Tlingit people. We might also begin to examine the
limitations of our legal, regulatory, and even scientific discourses and the ways they are
used as scripts for management. Many ofus take for granted that objective decisions are
possible only if we manage our feelings. We assume that the systematic processes we
463
participate in will keep feelings abated as we do our work. A radical critique, however,
suggests that emotions, translated into feelings, motivate our interest and behavior, even
when we are following a legal or regulatory script. We need to think about how we may
be discrediting, avoiding, and ignoring the very kinds of feelings, stories and experiences
necessary for us to make the kinds ofdecisions that can help us with long-term solutions
towards sustainable livelihood.
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APPENDIX A
STANDARD FIELDWORK INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What does the word or idea of "community" mean to you? What might it mean to
other groups of people in Kake? .
2. How is community created and sustained in Kake?
3. What does the word or idea of "environment" mean to you? What might it mean to
other groups ofpeople in Kake?
4. What is the community's relationship to its "non-human" environment?
5. What does "spirituality" mean to you? What might it mean to other groups ofpeople
in Kake?
6. How is spirituality related to community and environment in Kake?
7. How are the values of community, environment, and spirituality affected by values
and expectations of government agencies, or of corporations and the market
economy?
8. How do people in Kake communicate their knowledge and feelings about community,
environment and spirituality to government agency representatives or market
economy representatives? What words are used? What kinds of stories? (Examples?)
9. What parts oflocal knowledge and feelings do government agency and market
economy representatives accept, incorporate or use in their decision-making? What
parts do they tend to drop, forget or exclude from their decisions?
10. Have people in Kake learned what parts oftheir knowledge and feelings will be
accepted and which rejected during communications with government agency or
market economy representatives? If so, do people in Kake leave out certain
knowledge and feeling language when talking to government agency and corporate
representatives? (Examples?)
11. Have government agency and market economy representatives learned from people
in Kake the types of knowledge and feelings that will be accepted locally and which
465
will not? Have government agency and market economy representatives learned to
change their ways of thinking and talking when communicating with Kake people?
(Examples?)
APPENDIXB
TLINGIT LEGAL ENTITIES
Tlingit House Groups:·
People in a house group worked as an autonomous unit in endeavors such as fishing,
hunting, trapping, berry picking and other economic activities (Worl1998:49).
Houses were subdivisions of clans into matrilineage-based residential units
(Thornton 2002: 173). Placement: Houses were linked to places of origin, even after
the physical house had been destroyed or the location changed. Houses were also
built places where a house group lived. They were the separated, local units of clans
(Thornton 2002: 171).
Membership: As a place to live and as a sub-unit ofa clan, membership included
several generations of extended families, usually 50 or more people.
Males who were linked matrilineally and were members of the same clan.
Men's wives who belonged to different clans and the opposite moiety.
Sons who belonged to their mother's clan and moved to the house group
when they were 10.
Unmarried daughters.
Tlingit people were always part of their mother's house, even if they lived
elsewhere. (Thornton 2002: 173). A house (hit) is a sub-unit of a clan. House
groups continue through their names and lineage, and house group names are the
property ofhouse members, matrilineal descendants, and the clan (Worl
1998:48).
Purposes: The house group was the center of economic activity and production
(Thornton 1998:173). Members of house groups worked to produce food and
supplies for the group, including surplus for the matrilineage and the clan (Worl
1998:49). Many people still identify themselves as house group members.
Leadership: Each house had a leader Hits'aati (keeper of the house), who might
also be a clan leader. The leader was the trustee over the house, its ceremonial
articles, and at.oow. As trustees, leaders and could not claim individual property
ownership. People lived and worked under the direction of Elders, uncles and other
kin and within social expectations ofgood behavior.
Behavioral taboos include(d) (SE Alaska Tribal College ofElders Council 2001):
Don't be arrogant
Don't brag
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Don't talk too much
Don't speak badly about anything
Don't insult your fellow beings
Don't keep all ofyour first catch or kill
Don't be greedy.
Don't insultfish, birds and wildlife.
Tlingits had expectations of behavior between people of different status and rank,
children and adults, men and women, clan members, moiety representatives, and
people of different house groups and clans.
Members ofhouse groups adhered to the legal requirements of the clan.
Tlingit Clans:
Clans are the basic social unit. " ... all members of a clan view themselves as kin-
related" (WorlI998:41).
Placement: Clans were represented within one or more house groups, all ofwhich
were collective clan owners ofresource areas such as salmon streams, halibut banks,
places to pick berries, beaches, hunting areas, etc. "Segments of a single clan are
typically dispersed in several, often nonadjacent, communities or !fwaans"
(Thornton 2002: 172). Kwaans were the places that people dwelled. They often
included all or most of a region controlled by a clan and within which a winter
village was located. Kwaans were not legal entities. Most of the legal functions
were clan responsibilities (Thornton 2002: 171).
Membership: children are born into their mother's clan and moiety (Wod
1998:41). Their primary identities and legal responsibilities are connected with their
mother's clan, but they are also children of their father's clan, and grandchildren of
other clans (Thornton 2002: 171).
Purpose: Clans were caretakers of and belonged to their physical property and
resource areas. They also took care of symbolic property, at.oow, such as names,
songs, regalia, crests, and clan ancestors. These were the underpinnings ofTlingit
identity (Thornton 2002: 172). The clan unifies the Tlingit into enduring and
cohesive units and connects people with their ancestors, human and animal.
Membership in a clan endures during, after life and at rebirth (Worl 1998:41, 42).
Leadership: The clan was responsible for nearly all legal and political authority.
Leaders usually came from the noble ranks of a Tlingit clan. Leaders were not only
of high status and wealth, but they were also people who demonstrated honorable
character and accomplishments.
467
Leaders were usually the oldest male ofa clan, although a person's social standing,
character, commitment, and ability to lead were of primary importance. Older
women had political influence and sometimes served as clan leaders on behalf of an
oldest son (Wor11998:59, 60). Leaders were trustees of clan property of all types,
meaning that they disposed of clan property only with clan member agreement. " ... a
clan leader governed with the consent ofhis members, and he could not act
independently or assume sole authority ... " (Wor11998:57, 58).
Leaders began their training when they were young, with their maternal uncles as
teachers. They learned the following traits:
good physical condition
good personal attributes
good character
how to be exemplary in all aspects ofTlingit life
how to lead in political, economic, and ceremonial spheres
to demonstrate willingness to be responsible to his clan
to learn his clan history, ceremonial practices and protocols
to learn the general responsibilities of a clan leader
Today clan leader responsibilities typically include:
Organizing clan members to maintain the clan house.
Organizing clan members to participate in ceremonial activities.
Presiding over ceremonial activities.
Serving as trustee for clan property.
Maintaining clan ownership of clan property such as names, songs, stories
and crests.
Meeting the responsibilities and obligations to other clans, assisting in their
ceremonies, contributing funds according to protocol.
Tlingit Moieties:
Tlingits are members of either the Raven moiety (side) or the Eagle/Wolfmoiety or
(side). Each side is a supermatrilineage, and each clan is grouped under one side
(Thornton 2002:171).
Placement: Moieties or opposite sides exist wherever Ravens or Eagles/Wolves
live.
Membership: Children are born into their mother's moiety and clan.
Purpose: Clans from opposing moieties perform services for each other such as
assisting in funeral arrangements, dinners, and helping in the grieving process.
468
Moieties were important in marriage concerns as men and women could only marry
a partner from the 'other side.' Sides are also important for establishing other kinds
of social relationships. Those people who are ofthe same moiety are considered kin.
Worl (1998:34) described the basic Tlingit principle of balance that the moiety
system strengthens. The social themes of "dualism, balance and complementarity
permeate their social, economic, and legal systems from the moment a Tlingit is
born and throughout his or her life until death."
Leadership: Sides do not recognize a single leader. They rarely act as a collective
unit. They may work together to tell jokes about the other side during social
gatherings (Worl2002:36). Clans from opposing sides in villages, kwaans, and
other kinds of communities reciprocate (d) ceremonial responsibilities for funerals,
marriages, and potlatches. The leadership for reciprocation was through the clans.
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APPENDIXC
U.S. STATE AND CORPORATE LEGAL ENTITIES IN KAKE
The city of Kake: is the political entity that provides and maintains the basic
infrastructure, provides police and [lYe protection, and assists the school district
financially. It is categorized as a first class city.
Placement: Cities in Alaska have jurisdiction primarily within their city limits. In
Kake that includes approximately 8.2 square miles ofland and 6.0 square miles of
water.
Membership: All those people within city jurisdiction, in Kake, 598 people (2006).
Purposes: "The legislative body serves at the pleasure of the public and manages
policy and formulates the principles that guide the local government." Policy may
be in the form of ordinances, resolutions, formal manuals, etc. In addition, the
legislative body manages money for the public benefit, manages personnel for the
public benefit, provides services and capital improvements deemed appropriate by
the public, and collects taxes and utility monies from citizens. The governing body
must adopt a budget each year and make sure that there are elections (ADCA
2007: 1-2).
Leadership: In Kake, leadership is in the form of a mayor, a city council, and a
part-time city manager. The mayor and council are chosen in public elections. The
mayor is presiding officer at meetings. The council establishes municipal
departments such as water, [lYe, police, harbor and utility departments. The council
holds regular monthly meetings and special meetings, maintaining public records of
each meeting. It prepares and executes the budget and capital improvements; it
adopts ordinances and decides on penalties for ordinance violations; it prepares for
an annual audit; and it files required reports with the state (ADCA 2007b).
City leadership must comply with Alaska state laws and processes.
The city works with state governing offices such as, but not exclusively:
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
The Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic
Development
470
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game
The Alaska Department of Revenue
The Alaska Department ofNatural Resources
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
The Alaska Department ofLaw
The Alaska Department of Public Safety
The Alaska Department ofHealth and Social Services
The Alaska Local Boundary Commission
Most communication between local and state goveming entities includes: a sorting
out oflegal rules, expectations, and language; the legal application, distribution and
monitoring of funds; and the legal organization and monitoring ofpublic services.
The city also works with federal goveming entities such as the United States Forest
Service with the same type of communication purposes as with state agencies and
departments.
ANCSA Corporation
Sealaska and Kake Tribal corporations: Formed after the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act was passed in 1971. The bill was drawn up in haste and pushed
through Congress after oil was discovered in Alaska. The legislation followed
decades ofNative efforts to re-gain land title and work to pressure the federal
govemment to settle Native land claims.
13 regional Native corporations were formed to oversee lands and money
that were part of the settlement. (Sealaska is the southeast regional
corporation.)
200+ village corporations were formed to oversee local portions of
settlement lands. (Kake Tribal Corporation is Kake's village corporation.)
ANCSA "created two new units of sociopolitical organization: the regional
corporation and a dozen kwaan-level village corporations" in Tlingit Alaska
(Thomton 2002:185)
The statewide lobbying group the Alaska Federation ofNatives (AFN) formed to
work for a fair and just land claims settlement. This sociopolitical organization has
grown as an advocate for local and regional tribal fairness, especially for
subsistence rights (ibid).
Placement: Sealaska's main offices are in Juneau. The regional corporation
oversees 290,000 acres of surface lands and resources and 560,000 acres of
subsurface resources in southeast Alaska. More land was promised and has yet to be
finalized.
Kake Tribal Corporation's offices are in Kake and Juneau. It oversees 23,040 acres
of surface land primarily on KupreanofIsland near Kake.
471
472
Membership: Sealaska Corporation-Nearly 17,300 shareholders make up the
corporation. Approximately 56 percent of these live in Alaska while the rest live
throughout the United States and the world (Sealaska 2007).
Kake Tribal Corporation-Approximately 700 shareholders are members of the
village corporation. Less then half live in Kake.
Purpose: (Sealaska 2007:1) "Our Mission-to maximize return on assets with a
prudent level ofrisk, increase shareholder equity, and maximize dividends and
other shareholder benefits for the purpose of enhancing shareholders' quality of life.
Our Philosophy-to protect and grow our corporate assets to provide economic,
cultural and social benefits to current and future generations of our shareholders."
Kake Tribal Corporation purposes are similar. The corporation has worked to
increase shareholder equity through logging, fisheries, tourism, and special
products. During my fieldwork it shut down operations because of fmancial crisis
and was without the resources to declare bankruptcy.
Leadership: Sealaska Corporation: board of directors, corporate officers, corporate
management, subsidiary management, board committees.
Kake Tribal Corporation: An elected board, a director, chief operations officer, etc.
The Organized Village of Kake, Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) Tribe
Placement: Offices and services are in Kake.
Membership: When Kake's population was more than 700 in 2002, OVK tribal
enrollment was approximately 600 Native members or 75% of the community's
population at the time (Jackson 2003).
Purpose: OVK contracts and implements BIA-related programs and services. "Onsite
programs under the contract included education and employment assistance,
training/counseling, social services, tribal operations, and housing improvement. In
addition to these programs, today's independent Self-Governance Compact with the
federal government also includes an economic development component and a realty and
natural resources program. The natural resources program concentrates on the protection
of local customary and traditional gathering areas since a subsistence lifestyle is both an
economic need due to high unemployment and underemployment as well as holding a
significant cultural importance. The OVK tribal office also monitors and advocates for
the protection of other cultural, archeological and historical sites for the benefit of the
tribe" (Jackson 2003).
Leadership: An elected council, an administrator and assistant administrator, grant
writers, and staff members to oversee programs and services.
The Organized Village of Kake works with government and corporate entities that
include, but are not limited to:
Kake City School District
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (the Indian Health Service)
Kake municipality
Kake Tribal Corporation (local Native ANCSA Corporation)
Sealaska (regional ANCSA Corporation)
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Central Council ofTlingit and Haida Indians (Regional non-profit Native
Consortium)
Alaska Department ofFish and Game
Alaska Department ofNatural Resources
Alaska Department ofFamily and Youth Services
Alaska Division Of Juvenile Justice
The federal Environmental Protection Agency
The federal Department of the Interior, the Forest Service (USDA)
The federal Office of Self-Governance
Other federal and state departments when deemed necessary.
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APPENDIX D
SATP GOALS AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Segments of SATP Goals and Objectives, pages 34-38 ofthe SE Alaska
Transportation Plan, 2004.
Goall: Transportation System Efficiency - Provide regional transportation facilities
and services in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. Performance Measures:
travel time between communities; cost to travel between communities; transportation
costs per person trips and for good movement.
Goal 2: Transportation Mobility and Convenience - Improve the mobility and
convenience of the regional transportation system in Southeast Alaska. Performance
Measures: average time required to travel between communities in Southeast Alaska; the
likelihood that travelers in any community in Southeast Alaska can make the journey to
and between the communities of Ketchikan, Juneau, or Sitka in one day, without having
to spend the night en route; frequency and timing ofregional transportation connections
between communities.
Goal 3: Economic Vitality - Support local economic development and strength through
the provision of adequate and affordable transportation for people, goods, and vehicles.
Performance Measures: reduction in user costs; improvements in level of service;
changes in the amount of travel to and from individual communities following
transportation system improvements; post-construction economic impacts of
transportation investments in local communities.
Goal 4: Transportation Systems Safety - Improve the overall safety and reliability of
the regional transportation system in Southeast Alaska. Performance Measures: accident
rates per 100,000 people by transportation mode; frequency of incidents that interrupt
inter-community travel in Southeast Alaska; frequency of opportunities for isolated
community residents to travel to health care providers.
Goal 5: Long-Term Funding Stability - Secure stable long-term funding to implement
the Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan. (Pursue federal funding to the fullest extent
possible, etc.) Performance Measures: total transportation resources by source available
for Southeast Alaska; stability and predictability of funds over time.
Goal 6: Consultation with Affected Communities, Tribal Entities, Business, and the
Public and Provision ofthe Opportunity for Public Comment-Inform and provide
opportunity for community, tribal, and public input. Performance Measures: number of
meetings and opportunities for local government, community, tribal, business, and public
475
input into the planning and project development process; number of opportunities and
media utilized to inform community, tribal, business, and public interests.
Goal 7: Continuation of the Planning Process - As appropriate, integrate political and
project (environmental and design study) decisions into the SATP amendment.
Performance Measures: up-to-date content of the SATP; timely amendments to
incorporate new information between periodic updates.
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APPENDIXE
ANSWERS TO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1 AND 2
Interviews were all completed in 2003 and 2004.
1) What does the word or idea of "community" mean to you? What might it
mean to other groups ofpeople in Kake?
2) How is community created and sustained in Kake?
What does community mean to you here in Kake?
1) Elder Tlingit fisherman who has lived in Kake most of his life.
Speaker: Oh. I say it's family here. Ifsomething happens there ... [he talks about how
people help each other out]. (People do things together. You know, one big family.)
That's what community is.
It's always been like that. (His grandparents taught him that when something happens
there's a sense of doing something, being there for the family that is affected). Not
[necessarily] to say anything, but to show yourself [Community is about] responsibility,
cousins, family, about being there. (There's a sense of family.) That's what community
IS.
Fieldworker: Kake has been family for a long time? All your life?
Speaker: Yeah. Uh huh. (2003 taped interview)
2) Tlingit man in his middle years who has lived in Kake most ofhis life.
Just to get going on what does the idea of community mean in Kake and community to
me personally, and I can't speak for all of Kake, other than know what I know of
traditional protocols and stuff, it's about relationships. And the relationship, whether it's
that one-to-one person-to-person, or clan-to-clan, or just within the clan, a family and
how it all is represented by Eagle Raven. Or, by today's nucleus where even today we,
like our mother is 90 years old and we all kind of take turns watching her, cooking for
her, people go over there to make [her dinner]. She knows what we're up to, even though
she's at home, she knows where everybody's at during the day, whether we're traveling
or not. Because we all call in. And she's the matriarch in our family and it does show that
477
even in contemporary communities it's still important to have those values, and it's been
in us and other people have different views of that, because they were raised within, say,
the school system, boarding school system, rather than growing up around their great
grandparents like I had. I had the opportunity. There are other people that have been, but
they also had to leave Kake to go to school, which is real sad, but on the other hand I was
fortunate to have the school here and grow up around the community. Just like my
grandson's having that ability to do now. Because he ... like he said, his personal
feelings, because he loves brunches, Sunday brunches. He said he wished he could have
it every day because to him it brings the whole family together, the nucleus of the papas,
the grandmas, everybody in ... involved because everybody there that's in town that's
available to make it makes it. Because that's ... and I don't know if its just our cooking
that he likes but he likes the grandma and the cooking and I help prepare some of it and
so does ( , his mother), so ... his nucleus family is involved in it and to him he's like
the host and has people, and ifhe's right then and there, we have him serve it all out. And
he goes from the oldest to the youngest. He learns about service. He learns about caring.
He learns about who's his family.
And sometimes we invite other people like __. We had to take __'s up to him this
last weekend. But it was him taking it in the door and putting it in front of__. To me
that makes everything ... It's like him going after his first seal or deer, that's the way it's
going to be. It's just the way that I was brought up. I didn't, or our family didn't eat any
part of it. We gave it all away. That way people will know it was a special day for him.
Whether it's fish, whether it's seal, deer. Everything that he gets first, clams, like he
already went claming when he was one and a half years old. And we have a picture of
him with three clams in a bucket. That was a load for him, but he gave it to his grandma.
He didn't get to eat any of it. But we prepared it for her and gave it to her. That was ... to
us that's tradition. But, um, community is about that. And it's about giving, like we say,
whether he gets a seal, he'll give it to an opposite family that's not within his nucleus
family. To show that we're still continuing those values. And to them they're a witness to
it. And they'll find out it is his first seal by him giving it to them. And that we're
involved in his upbringing.
That's the way it is. It always has been. To me that's the idea of community is
relationships, whether it's at a personal level or right on to, like you saw at the memorials
that we've had in the last two weeks, is kind of taxing on the community, but on the other
hand you see what support they have. What families have in this community, Eagles and
Ravens, it comes down to it. To me all we have to do is perfect it and imitate it just like
our Elders have, 'cause there's real strict protocol. When it's the memorial ceremony
comes around, like a year later. And that's what's going to happen next year on
September fourth, I think, is when the Tsaagweidi's gonna have their party here. And I'd
like to be involved to bring some of that back in the open rather than just having it ... to
me it's not ... ifwe're going to have it, we have to have it right. But there are some
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people that have their own traditions and I can't say anything about that. (2003 taped
interview)
3) Non-Native women. Speaker One is in her late middle years and Speaker Two is a
young woman. Both have been in Kake a short time and are friends.
Speaker One: Community was what I saw after all these deaths that we had from
November. It wasn't just that the families ... that the individual families had the services,
but they had these memorial services and people would get up and reminisce about ...
one older man got up and reminisced about when he was with __ and they went
fishing when he was a teenager and the trouble that they got into and that ... you know I
think for these funerals a whole lot ofpeople come out for them and [names some people
who recently passed away] and their funerals were ... the community hall was filled to
the rafters, you know, and ... people pitch in and they help the family emotionally and
they see it as Kake rather than as individual families or the clans or the moieties or
whatever. I think they really see Kake, you know, as a whole.
Speaker Two: The biggest thing about community is sharing. If you have something and
somebody else needs it, you tell them and let them use it. Ifyou have food and you have
a lot of food, if you have a 600-pound halibut, everybody gets some. What's yours is not
only yours. It belongs to the community.
Speaker One: You always make sure the Elders and the widows have dry wood. And you
make sure they have food first. And then your own family. (2003 taped interview)
4) A Tlingit man, Speaker One, and a Native woman, Speaker Two, in their middle years
who are not of the same household but are related through marriage. Speaker One grew
up in Kake. Speaker Two married a Kake man but grew up in one of the lower forty-eight
states.
Speaker Two: Sharing and caring about one another.
Fieldworker: Like you do with the circle ...
Speaker One: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker Two: To me it means that a community is one big family no matter if you don't
like the person or dislike the person we're still there for them, for whoever and however
we could help them, financially, or do whatever we can to help one another.
Fieldworker: Did you all bring that with you, that knowledge with you ...
Speaker Two: I learned it. Where I come from, I'm from a reservation, and in my family
... I lived with my grandma ... I learned a lot about sharing and giving. People gave to us
and you know we didn't have much to give, but we always helped.
Speaker One: I grew up that way here in Kake. Basically with my grandparents, is that
they always told me to help, help everyone, no matter what. It's kind of gotten away but
then it's comin' back. I feel real good about it that it's like the old days, I think; I really
liked it then. It didn't seem like work. It just was fun. And seeing all the Elders, the old
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people going out and helping other people and just havin' fun, they made it fun. It didn't
seem like work. Nowadays people worry about how much it will cost or how much
(effort it will take) to do that. And I used to walk ... sometimes I'd be walking by
somebody's house and they'd tap on the window and you go and say, "Do you need
something?" "Yeah. I need someone to go to the store for me, go to the post office or
something for me." "Okay." It's like (after he did the errand or helped out they would) try
to give me a donation or something. "No, no, no, no," Grandma said, "don't." This is ...
Grandma __ . And they (his grandparents and others in Kake) used to go around and
work and do other things besides errands. But that's just what I saw when I was growing
up. That's kind of why I moved back here too. Because of ... I kind of missed that.
Because in the city, the city of Juneau is a city for me, then it's not there as much. I
missed that. I seen very little of that with the Native people (in Juneau), but the people
(it's just) dog eat dog. [laughs]
Speaker Two: I think it's a ... community means you feel that you belong, and it doesn't
matter what culture you belong to here, like the church culture or the drinking culture ...
or the ... there's different kinds of even Christian cultures. (2003 taped interview)
5) Two non-Native men who work in the village: Speaker Two has been in Kake a long
time and Speaker One was in Kake less than eight years.
Speaker One: Uh, [pause] I really have thought about this a long time ... I mean, I think
it means that when somebody's in trouble everybody's there for ya.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: But when there's ... when that isn't there, it seems like it goes apart just as
fast as it comes together.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: Uh, yeah. Exactly, that's exactly what I would think is, urn, they'd like to,
the community, the inhabitants of the community ...
Speaker Two: ... they like to think that they have a real tight-knit ... when in actuality,
it's actually really loose.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement] .
Speaker One: Urn, you know, it's ... in a lot ofways it (the community) doesn't really
exist. There's a lot ofback-stabbing that goes on, umm, a lot of things left undone, you
know, sort of things. But when ...
Speaker Two: Until there's a dire need or ...
Speaker One: A situation or dire need, and then all of a sudden it's like a light switch
goes on and it's completely the opposite. I mean, it's like completely polar in nature.
Fieldworker: I have mostly seen the part where people are coming together.
Speaker One: Right.
Speaker Two: Well, see, that's it. Visitors coming to the community, I mean, that's often
times when we get ...
Speaker One: Right.
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Speaker Two: ... significant number of visitors, in those times is when people also come
in to support the family or do whatever, and you know, and then they see this incredible
closeness and the incredible "we're all together" type thing.
Speaker One: Yeah.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: And it happens the same during, you know, such occasions ...
Speaker Two: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: The holidays, those sorts of things, where there's also lots ofpeople
coming. Like you were here for Dog Salmon Festival.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: And that ... everybody's there together.
Speaker Two: Yeah. It's all, it looks really tightly woven.
Fieldworker: [chuckles]
Speaker Two: And, but, it's because it's a special occasion, but whether it's just any old
average day ...
Fieldworker: People talk about each other?
Speaker One: Talking negatively, about each other. Urn, a lot of things that are very
destructive to a community.
Speaker Two: Spreading any kind of rumor they can.
Speaker One: Yeah, rumors run rampant and destroys ... actually destroys families.
Fieldworker: Hmm.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: It's really very unfortunate that they can be the way they can be.
Fieldworker: Hmm.
Speaker One: And I mean every chance that ... every opportunity where, you know, our
Elder speakers have a chance to get up, that's the first thing they say.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: You know, it's (in their speeches) ... they like how things are together;
they like how everyone comes together. And, you know, (they say) we wish it could be
like that all the time.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: And, instead of making it reality, they continue to wish for it.
Fieldworker: So, you must have thought about reasons why things are like that.
Speaker One: Thought, yeah [everyone laughs]. But I didn't come up with any ideas.
Speaker Two: Yeah. (2004 taped interview)
6) A Tlingit woman in her middle years who grew up in Kake.
Okay, what does the word or idea of community mean in Kake? Well, in Kake the
community has always meant everybody's together, and you know, all my 58 years that
I've been here, I've seen it work over and over and over. Urn, the people or individuals,
they are family orientated, but when anybody's in trouble or even the good times, you
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know, we come together as a community. And I think the most important part in the
communities is the unity in there, that it means that we stand together. Not one person
goes through their troubles alone. We're always there for them, and it's always been that
from the time I can remember. And that's why I love coming back home, because, you
know, it ... some people think people are nosy, but they're not really, you know. They're
interested in you as a person. And they're interested in your family. You know they, like
my grandparents and my parents always told me, anybody's in trouble you go to them.
You don't have to talk to them. You don't have to do anything. Be there if they need you.
Be there to help. But just be there. Just show your face. So, you know, it's always been
that way. So ... that's what I like about Kake. We're a community, a real community.
And our kids too. Our little ones, they all know who is family. They all know who isn't
family. But still there's a ... they have ownership to them. They have always ... it's real
noticeable in our grandson, you know, he's got family. He calls everybody uncle and
aunty and grandma and papa and ... so you know he's comfortable in doing that because
no one had ever told him that they weren't his papa or his grandma or his aunty or his
uncle. So ... but that's what community means in Kake. (2003 taped interview)
7) Elder Tlingit man who spent most of his growing-up years in Kake and returned to
Kake more than 30 years ago.
It helps community to bring the older ways back. To talk about them. Talk about the
glacier [a narrative about how one group of people came from under a glacier to their
Southeast Alaska home]. Talk about the potlatch and the old traditional village sites-not
Kake itself Charlie Skeet's potlatch, the last one here in 1903. It's good to talk about
Tebankof and the days before it was completely deserted. (2004 taped interview)
8) Two Tlingit men in their middle years who grew up in Kake.
What is community in Kake?
Speaker One: People living together.
Speaker Two: Hopefully in harmony.
Speaker One: Care about each other.
Speaker Two: We're all family.
Speaker One: Where our forefathers lived.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: People looking out for one another.
Speaker Two: Caring.
Speaker One: It's home. Never going to leave. Always home. (2004 taped interview)
9) Non-Native man in his Elder years who has lived in Native Alaskan villages for many
years but is new to Kake.
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Community ... I think that it's unique here because I was talking to somebody over (at a
recent funeral) awhile back and they were talking about how life in the village is different
than city life. Ifyou're mad at somebody (in the city) and something tragic happens you
sit there and say, "Eh, he probably deserved it, or ... you know [laughs]. I feel sorry for
him, you know, but to heck with him." But in the village you can still be mad at him and
if something happens you're over there helping him. It doesn't change the fact that you
might be unhappy with him, but you're there helping. And I think that makes a whole lot
of difference as far as community spirit is. When they have things (community events,
celebrations, etc.)people all get together and have fun together. It's like everybody is
related somewhere along the line, so it helps. (2003 taped interview)
10) Speaker One is a non-Native man in his middle years who married a woman from
Kake. Speaker Two is a Tlingit woman in her early middle years who grew up in Kake.
The speakers are not family relatives.
Speaker Two: It's the sense of people working and living together for the betterment of
all
Speaker One: Community is a group ofpeople, though.
Speaker Two: Helping each other. That's a big one in Kake. Inevitable differences that
arise, but ifthere's a tragedy and some need, then everybody will pull together.
Speaker One: Everybody helps. I know that. (2003 taped interview)
11) Native man in his early middle years who grew up mostly in Juneau, but partly in
Kake.
Community, what I've come to learn it to be, what I realize it to be is family. So it's a
family. Being together. Basically, community ... comparing that like to a regular healthy
family. The whole community is healthy like that when they give to each other and help
out each other. When someone's sick or someone dies they all pull together. Or if
someone's in need people pull together. (2003 taped interview)
12) Tlingit man in his early middle years, raised in Kake and in a nearby village by his
grandparents.
Well the idea of community to me is all of the people, you know, pulling together, and
basically being one. And being there for each other, which you know, when the occasions
arise the community really does pull together. That the 700 people, or however many
people that live here, are one. One people.
What does it mean to other groups ofpeople in Kake? You've got the people who are
(from out of town), people who have lived here, you know, who moved here years ago
and are really involved. A few teachers and other people who have been here for a
number of years and they've (become part of Kake). And there are people (from outside)
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who have been here for awhile and they have their certain friends and stuff like that. And
they kind of stay away from that ... they just try to keep to their own. But then they have
a few of their friends, too, but they're off on the side a little. That's how I feel. (2004
taped interview)
13) Non-Native man in his early middle years who married a Tlingit woman in Kake.
I don't know if I can speak to all groups in Kake. Community means to me ... [long
pause] the relationships between people in a surrounding or environment ... that can be
big or small. Community is the relationship between people. (2003 taped interview)
14) Two men. Speaker One is in his early middle years and is Tlingit. Speaker Two is a
non-Native man in his middle years who married a Tlingit woman in Kake.
Speaker One: So, you know, I see your fIrst question on here was what does the idea of
community mean ... and I believe community means just a ... everybody, you know. It
doesn't matter your race, color of your skin, or anything. If you're going to be a
productive member of the community, then obviously you're part of it.
Speaker Two: Right.
Speaker One: You're living here ... you're dealing with the same problems everybody
else is.
Speaker Two: Even more so, if you are not included. [Speaker Two feels strongly
excluded because he is non-Native.]
Speaker One: Well, yeah. Even more if you are alienated- then that's even worse, you
know. That was actually a form ... of alienation, alienation was a form of, uh ... what
would you call it, um ... like instead ofbeing jailed in the old days, you know or
something.
Speaker Two: You're castigated.
Speaker One: Yeah. Yeah, you're ... alienated out of the group. That was even worse yet.
Speaker Two: Right, exactly; that was the main ... punishment.
Speaker One: Punishment, right.
Speaker Two: For the misdeed or whatever.
[All parties laugh]
Speaker One: Oddly enough, yeah... uh, OVK (Organized Village ofKake) came to me
years ago ... and, and asked me if I could help them to get their building grants ... in
place. I said sure. So (__ helped OVK) go through town and look at projects that
qualify for grant money, and gave them good hard numbers ... and so that they could go
out and get that money ... based on those costs for those projects and ... yeah we had a
real good relationship for about three years and something changed. They decided that,
"We don't need you anymore because you're not native" ... ]laughs] ... I thought, "Oh
that's nice. I have a native family."
Speaker One: Yeah
Speaker Two: And I am a part of this community, why do you want to exclude me ...
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from the economy? ..
Speaker One: Yeah. So they got into the racial basis there for some reason. I don't know
who is behind it or why or what their thinking is ... but ... clearly it's wrong.
Speaker Two: Yeah, yeah that's ... any kind of thinking in that nature is wrong.
Speaker One: No matter who you are.
Speaker Two: So, I know the beliefs of certain people that are involved there ... the
president and his, his thoughts ... and, uh ... he even came to me one time ... and ...
'cause I had (several) jobs that were going on, and it was upsetting to him that I had all
this work ... and he approached me and said, "We need to get together and, umm, ... and
join forces" ... I said, "Well, okay, whatever, you know, however, you want to do it" ...
and now I take that to mean that he wanted to, uh ... gamer all the work and exclude me
... and that's kinda the way it turned out. [Long pause] They didn't, they didn't need my
talent anymore. They wanted to benefit their own family.
Speaker One: Right ... so that happens a lot around this ... I mean the native people.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: I mean, the native people ... are ...
Speaker Two: They are very guarded.
Speaker One: Yeah, they're guarded ... they have strong family ties, so it's naturally the
direction that it usually goes. If you have a big family ... the stronger you are.
Speaker Two: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker One: Ifyou have a small family, then that's, then ... you are outta luck! ... it will
be a tough go over, you know. (2004 taped interview)
15) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised primarily in Kake.
I think it means this place that we're living in and the people that live in it. And the
environment. I think that's what community means. Living ... (2004 taped interview)
16) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised in Kake.
Community means family. The family setting where people live and call their home
town. That's what I would consider community to mean. And for other people it may
mean a place to come back to, and always remember that's where they were born or they
grew up. (2004 taped interview)
18) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised in Kake:
The first word that came up is family. Uh ... everybody knows each other so we try and
work ... all work together. (2003 taped interview)
17) Elder Tlingit man who was raised in Kake.
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In 1966 I came home from Korea. I came out of the service and the very first week there
were some people (lost) and so I got on the band wagon and put a search team together
and we searched for those people. Anyway, from that day on I got stuck with search and
rescue [laughs]. To this day. Yeah. So, if something is happening, or overdue, or so ...
plane, coast guard, FAA, whatever. So, at home I've got a whole bunch of scanners.
Radios. And my wife can pick up what's an emergency, and she calls right now, there's a
plane going down. And, uh, so (I) called FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), and
they don't know nothing about it, and I called the Coast Guard, they don't know nothing
about it. One or two hours later and, sure enough, they see a plane down, you know. And
after three or four times ofthat, FAA finally came over. They say , how are you
intercepting (information)? My wife has a bunch of scanners. They had a helicopter
overdue in Petersburg, and I told them I needed some numbers. And I bought a scanner,
and I punched in all their numbers, and they gave me all the information of all the
airlines. So I punched it in. And, anyways, I could hear Alaska airlines turnover (as) they
land in Anchorage or Fairbanks, and then I heard some people from South America. And
when the temperature was changing in Alaska to a heat wave type thing, I first heard
from South America on the scanner that the water's three degrees different and moving
this direction. So, I mean, I'm interested in that because if the water's three degrees
different, I'm the president of our hatchery. So, I'm the boss of the hatchery, so I notified
the hatchery if it would have any effect on the fish. And sure enough it did. So that's how
I'm involved in everything [laughs]. But anyway, that's what community means to me.
The reason why I did that is because when I was in Korea (the Korean war) and it was
just a miserable thirty or forty degrees below zero. And that was in a fox hole, just
shivering like crazy. And I saw the Big Dipper and, anyway, I just thought of my mom
and dad and my brother and I told them ... I was thinking to myself ... my mom and dad
(that they also could see the Big Dipper), and then I was thinking to myselfifI ever get
out ofthis place alive, I'm going to do something for my people. You know. I made a
commitment then. I would do something for my people. From the time I came home
that's what I've been doing. Doing something for my people. So, I try every way I could.
I was on the city council for forty years and I (chair the board for the hatchery) kind of a
(participant) in a lot of organizations, you know. Do a lot of traveling (to get things done)
But that's my theory. The public dock and the school and water and sewer and all that
I've been involved with. And the hatchery too. So I've (helped get funding) for a lot of
things.
Fieldworker: So you've kept your promise.
Speaker: Yeah, I kept my promise. So that's what community means to me. (2003 taped
interview)
18) Tlingit man in his middle years who was raised in another community.
I guess to me it means the togetherness of the people. Not so much as just the physical
town but ... I think all the people.
j
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Been here 21 years, but I was born and raised in so it's just a hop, skip and a jump
from here so ... and, uh, ... yeah, when we talk community I think we're talking people.
Yeah, it's a deep family concept. You know, at times you might not feel accepted here
and stuffbut in time of need, in time of hurt, whatever, the people come out ofthe
woodwork for you. They just really do. You know, whether it be financial, it might be
actually physical work. I think my problem with my heart, the past ... I (lacks time to
hunt or fish because of his job) and, you know, but we've actually put up more fish with
me not going in the boat. People have dropped fish off, things like that. Crab. One year I
was real busy (working his job) a few years back and ... a pounding on the door one
morning before I went to school and somebody comes in and drops an entire deer off.
You know things like that so ... you know, and that's, that's, you know they support you
in many ways. You know sometimes it's like any other little town with rumors and gossip
and stuff, but I think when you're in need, it doesn't matter who you are, you're part of
the community; they help you out. (2003 taped interview)
19) Young Tlingit woman raised in Kake.
[Long pause] There's all the bonds. There's a lot of animosity ... just like any town. But I
think when times get really rough, I think all ofthat is put aside, and people do what they
can for each other. You know ... the last couple of months. That was really hard.... But I
think when ... I don't really know any ways to define it ... until we're at something and
then you can feel it. You just look at somebody and you know; there's a lot of smiling, a
lot ofjoking around. And that's what community is to me. That's what I don't get when
I'm not here.
It's frustrating at times, and you just feel like leaving sometimes. And sometimes I leave
and just get lost in something that's not Kake [laughs]. And really value what's here
when I come back, and look forward to coming back and getting back into my
community. Go places like where we have (can get a new perspective). I think it's a thing
with a lot ofpeople that are here that it's really tough to leave. I think. I see people are
here a short time and then they leave and come back and leave and come back, and, you
know, it's fmancially restraining (living in Kake). They still find a way to come back. But
it's hard, like in a recession right now. It's really depressed. So it's really going to be
something to see how this year is gonna tum out. The next five years.
And for other groups ofpeople in Kake, what community means? Well, it depends on
who you ask. I think that ... I know that people who have married into the community ...
uh ... it's hard to say. People with the same background as me feel that way (the way she
described) about Kake. I don't know about the loggers who come into the community
(for work). I'm not sure what their perspectives about Kake are.
I know, like my son's father, it was really unsettling for him to be here. He felt my family
is too intrusive. He wasn't used to the closeness and the environment. It just felt like
people needed to know what we were doing all the time. He goes, "None ofthem need to
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know what we're doing all the time." It was something I kept forgetting and I didn't
realize it was ... I didn't know it was that intrusive to anybody else. I never thought that
way.
Fieldworker: And he was raised in ?
Yeah. The families are kind of dispersed through the community. They come ... they ...
you know, I kept up on some of the family style kind of things. I know they're a little
different in what they value, what they do over there. But it's not like here. And there's a
lot oflittle ... people know what people are doing pretty much here. In __ you can
kind of be anonymous to a certain point. But you don't get that here. People even start
things (about what you did but didn't know you did) without you even knowing it. (2004
taped interview)
20) Tlingit man in his early middle years who was raised in Kake most of his life and is
active in local government.
Community means, like, the people and ... I guess, you know, to the outside person that
comes in and says they want to talk to the city ofKake, or ... the community, and by
community, I ask them, you want to talk to everybody in town then? And that's the
difference between the city and me, so. That's it. (2003 taped interview)
21) Tlingit man in early middle years who was raised in Kake.
The people in this village make the village work. And there are people who don't do
anything, who really aren't part of it, outside of it. Yeah, they're here. They're members
ofthe community ofKake, but they're not members ofTHE community ... as the people
ofKake. The people who make the village work, or try to make it work.
And it's the town that never sleeps. There's always somebody awake [laughs]. And it's
most likely the hatchery workers [laughs]. (2004 taped interview)
22) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised in Kake:
Because when I was young there was not a whole lot. And, you know, we survived on
what there was. You lived offthe land, and everybody helped one another. And it was
fine. I mean, we didn't have a whole lot of money, and we just, it's almost like we ... you
know, it was nice to have it but we were fme without it too. We all got along. We
managed. And I can see, you know, my grandparents, you know they had even less than
we had. So it's just, it's amazing how that all ... you know. They had enough to buy fuel
for the boat. It's just amazing, you know. I think back ... about that past and how good it
was. You know, and how simple. It was just so simple. The lights were shut off all over
town at eleven o'clock at night and we sat around with a lamp and listened to the radio,
stories on the radio, or we played games and ... There was no TV, and there was ... you
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know, you didn't need it. It was simple. And now you think, "Oh my God, live without a
cell phone? Oh my God, live without a TV?" You know. (2003 taped interview)
Question: How is community created and sustained in Kake?
1) Tlingit man in his middle years who has lived in Kake most ofhis life.
Community. We've always been here. We were created here, as our history goes. And I
don't even like to put a timeline on it anymore because 10,000 years is such a short time.
And we look back in ... our timeline goes way further than that. So the things that (we
know) is only things that we can remember that have been passed on to us orally. And
you get to thinking just how many times that has been passed on and who forgot what. So
today when we get together and when we tell stories like you heard, one that __ told,
I've heard that too, and I've heard it slightly different from the same man. But that's the
way I remember it. _0__ told it in a briefer version, which I would do too because, like
you say, time was ofthe essence [at this particular community event]. And you can see
how long it could go. And our great-grandfather that told us was a great orator. He could
... he made sure he touched all bases. And as he told, like said, I heard this from
my great-grandparents, and my grandparents, and then I heard it from my father. But he
'" his father was one of the fathers that (told and taught the clan story that was shared at
the recent community event). But that's the way that I would have to say it too, because I
heard it from my father. Real personal. And because I was listening to my great-
grandfather and my grandfather and my father tell it, and it changed [between family
groups], and we'd have these kind of discussions to talk about those differences. And
what they'd end up telling me is that since he [someone in another family group] told me,
I really can't add anything other than what you told me; from the way I've heard it from
you retelling me again, it sounds about right. And they say 'about right' because there's
no one way of saying it. Because they've heard it so much from their other side that it
does tend to have its own way of saying it, and through us the truths of our history. And
to us, we don't create a story, we tell our history. And whether people interpret it as
stories, it's up to them, but to us it's a big difference ofwhere we come from, who we
are. It's not a fairy tale. It doesn't end with 'so they lived happily ever after.' None of our
stories end that way. Ifwe tell a story it's about, like __, about that abalone being put
on a notch up ... what to remember and why it went up. About how ... about how it
saved his life by showing it, and what those people saw at the Chilkat, remembered who
wore it last. And why would he have it? But he came back from their territory. He left it
with them and that is their connection. But there's other stories that would ... and that the
analogies would come out even more sharper. And I enjoy those because our father
would leave it up to us to tell it back and not so much tell it back verbatim what he said,
but come up with why it was ... why we can't insult salmon, or why we can't just go
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about, cut down any tree, and leave it. And why is it that we can't profit from it. It wasn't
about that. The wealth was in giving it away. So we had nothing, but the people that
received it (the given wealth) put you up further along the line because your sacrifice for
them to give it away to everybody. Just like I said in the narrative, it's not about what we
got from the people, it's how we could add to it to make it more valuable. Which is just
the opposite of corporation. It's what they can take, what they can own, and what they
can profit from. (2003 taped interview)
2) Non-Native women. Speaker One is in her late middle years and Speaker Two is a
young woman. Both have been in Kake a short time and are friends.
Speaker Two: I don't know. At least from what I've seen, it's (community) already here.
A lot of it has to do with family bonds. The other thing here is that almost everybody here
is related to somebody else. I mean, they could be the fifth cousin or ... you know? But
everybody has a ... everybody needs to help other people, and then they have the two
(moieties), the Raven and the Eagle. And so ... they still do that ... when one person dies,
then the other family (moiety) will come and provide a lot of the things. It's surprising
they still do that. But yeah, sustaining. Well, like the healing circle that's a more modem
thing ... that's a way to keep community from fracturing. Sustaining it.
One thing is that kids are ... you know, they're supposed to respect everybody who's an
aunty or an uncle in some way. They don't grow up thinking I'm just going to obey my
mom and dad. They grow up obeying everybody that's an adult and that ...
Speaker One: I just read in the Juneau, not the Empire-whatever the shopping thing is-
that Kake, that OVK [Organized Village ofKake] got an award for the circle.
Fieldworker: Was that the one from Harvard?
Speakers One and Two: Yeah
Speaker Two: People's response ... the whole point of it (the circle) is making people
responsible back to the community, not to some law officer in Juneau or the court up
there. It makes ... like, you know, like once somebody broke a window. Well they [the
offenders] had to hear from both people how they felt when they came and found their
window broken. Then they (the offenders) had to go and actually help those people repair
it. And they had to be part of the solution. It gives them back responsibility for their
actions. (2003 taped interview)
3) A Tlingit man, Speaker Two, and a Native woman, Speaker One, in their middle years
who are not of the same household but are related through marriage. Speaker Two grew
up in Kake. Speaker One married a Kake man but grew up in one of the lower forty-eight
states.
Speaker One: Depends on what you belong to. There's a sense of community ... each of
those groups ... We used to party here, you know. We had a sense ofbelonging because
we had a lot of friends that partied, and our house would always be full ... and, you
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know, partying, but that was the wrong, the wrong method. Then when we quit there was
a little recovery group. We had our own culture. We're still together to this day. But I
don't belong to any ofthe church culture 'cause none ofthem really suits me.
Presbyterian is pretty cool, but I just mostly stick to my own (a Christian church that is
represented minimally in Kake). So there's a lot of different ... well I learned that
different groups could be like a culture too. Yeah. There's a lot of them here. It's just like
in a big family; everyone's different; they bicker with each other, brothers and sisters.
Some don't like each other, some love each other. That's how it is here. Just in a bigger
range. Interesting. This is a really, you know, interesting community.
Speaker Two: It's changed from when I was growing up. The only two churches that
were here then were Salvation Army, not where it is now. But they'd arranged it where
they wouldn't have church at the same time. The Presbyterian would have their time and
all the people went. Then when they were out, Salvation Army had their time and all the
people went there too. And it was like that when I was growing up. I thought, how come
we (don't go to one church). And they taught different but there was ... no saying mine's
better or this is the right way. It's changed now though. I've been to both since I've come
back. I don't know where it came from.
Fieldworker: The competition?
Speaker Two: Yeah. My church is better and all these other churches are here, like T
was saying .. I think it mixes people up the way I see it from when I was growing up
here. Because long ago, when churches still ... churches got together, they did things
together as a unit. Now it's just one over here, one over here ...
Speaker One: They don't help each other though.
Speaker Two: No.
Speaker One: Except like different __ [Fieldworker is unable to hear and transcribe
this word]
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: That's the only time I've seen them coming together. Oh, and funerals too.
Speaker Two: But before ... and they did projects for the community and got together and
helping out. The churches did. Now I don't see that.
Speaker One: When did the Assembly of God came to Kake?
Speaker Two: I don't know when it happened. I was gone.
Speaker One: And then the church over here, some of the people they don't want to
associate with any other people because they think they're ungodly. So that's kind of like
prejudice amongst ...
Fieldworker: Christians?
Speaker One: Yeah.
Speaker Two: Because they weren't here when I left. Then Assembly was here when I got
back. And I noticed the difference. What happened? You see people that weren't talking
or mingling with each other anymore, like (they used to mingle) before.
Speaker One: [Here T says something about native culture which the fieldworker is
unable to hear on the tape.]
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Speaker Two: Yeah. They were all against the native culture, which kept the natives alive
for many years, but now they're throwing it away. (They) were throwing it away. It's
coming back. (2003 taped interview)
6) Two non-Native men who work in the village: Speaker One has been in Kake a long
time and Speaker Two was in Kake less than eight years.
Speaker One: Yes. But, you know, I think it's an interesting question there when you say
'created' because it's really ... and I think by community, what you're talking about is
the togetherness and the other things like that, and I guess it really goes first along family
lines and then ... yet at the same time we realize that we're here together and at any time
ofneed-it's like all of the things that were said yesterday were forgotten today, because
this other thing came up that was much more important.
Speaker Two: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One:. So '" I guess to me, it's going to be interesting to see how it's sustained
because there's, with the economics and with a lot of the things that are being talked
about and the further intrusion of the state, and the risk of forced boroughization and the
forced school consolidation and ...
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: And all those other things are really even going to threaten, you know '"
[family and community relationships discussed before] and the economics of, hey, we
just can't, we just can't stay here any longer, you know, with no jobs, no nothing. And
the fight, I think, between remaining in this isolated little fishing and logging village
with, you know, high, high electricity rates and all those other things ... what are we
going to do to open it up, the doors to (outsiders economic solutions), because it's
different.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: And, you know, that's been great. We've (the two non-Native men talking)
been welcomed and in a lot of ways, it, uh, it's required, because when I go to, like, First
Alaskans and they talk about the Native Education Summit and they talk about how we
need more Native teachers and things like that. You know, it comes to respected and
disrespected teachers around here (who have) the toughest job that I see in our own
(village) is Native kids growing up and trying to teach. You know ... [Native kids who
grew up, went to school, and came back to teach].
Fieldworker: Because of the family ties?
Speaker Two: Our three Native teachers are probably the most scrutinized ... undermined
the most, and then even in their own family, they don't receive the support you'd think
that they might.
Fie1dworker: [mumbles agreement] Because parents feel more strongly about what's
done in the classroom because it's somebody they know and have different relationships
with?
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Speaker One: Or maybe it's just because, you know, and I mean and who knows? I know,
I can think of in one case it might ... 'we knew that guy as a kid' ...
[Everyone chuckles}
Speaker One: You know, 'we knew what he was like as a kid' and other things, so ... It's
... I don't know. I don't know.
(The speakers discuss the issues with families connected with competing political entities
in Kake.)
Speaker One: So that's, you know, part ofthe (relationship difficulties) and how to get by
that is really, you know, how it will be someday. We really, as a community, we really
are at a point where we're having some defming moments as a school, but we're heading
into a real defining moment as a community in terms of ... what's going to happen.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: You know, in the sustenance of this community. and ofthe culture and of
the way oflife that I'd say we have, how are we going to meld sustainability into what
we have?
Fieldworker: Any ideas? [chuckles]
[pause]
Speaker One: Well, I ... you know, I think they [Kake people] have to open the doors to
the economic development and to the, for a lack of a better word, intrusion, if you want to
call it an intrusion, into the culture, and with the realization that they [people in Kake] do,
I mean, as a school and a community, we do have pieces in place where we can really
preserve those things, too. And actually enhance the intrusions ...
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: ... with what is here and even enhance the culture with a ... I don't know. I
think, it's a side-goal and is ... even other organizations ... we're really starting to see we
can do some new things in the Kake way.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker One: You know.
Fieldworker: Yeah. Like, yeah ... Can you give me an example?
Speaker One: Oh, maybe thinking of ... we haven't been as organized as we want, but I
think as a standard restoration project-where the school's working now-other things
like that moist-egg incubation thing, so it actually creates wild stock as opposed to
hatchery stock. And then bringing back some of the, uh, the rivers, some of the streams
and creeks and places where, you know, where these fish used to be. You know, which
will help with the subsistence, but it will also help with commercial fishing and, you
know, the economics that are just all in involved with, one, having a project like that.
And then, too, you're creating a renewable resource offish and things like that. So ...
Well, you know, I think that would be one (example). (2004 taped interview)
7) A Tlingit woman in her middle years who grew up in Kake.
By the unity in it. (2003 taped interview)
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8) Elder Tlingit man who spent most of his growing-up years in Kake and returned to
Kake more than thirty years ago.
How is community created and sustained in Kake? Well, one thing. it's in our history.
Created. Kake was always kind ofa mutual ground ... a gathering place for special
events. In 1944 an anthropologist said that Kake was kind ofa (meeting place) for special
events. Then in 1869, after they [the U.S. Navy] destroyed three of our villages-
according to our eyewitness, our old people, they actually shelled four, four villages.
And, but it isn't like what you read in the military accounts. But, anyway, to build a tribal
house right there [in the places where the villages were before the bombings], an Eagle
would have to hire people like __ and __. They're all Ravens. So they have to
share the wealth through the ... blankets, canoes, tunics and dancing gear, probably,
food. After they [the U.S. Navy[ destroyed all the villages, all the houses, canoes, and
tools, people wandered around, and they were scared so they never rebuilt again.
Because, you know, we didn't have canoes. Our canoes were destroyed. We're a people
who are on the ocean. What do you do without a canoe? No tools. Crests, those were all
destroyed. Probably taken for souvenirs. So, anyway, if you've had a bad experience
somewhere, you don't want to live there no more, too. They started building houses here.
Kake became ... I don't call it created ... but it became. It's a community anyway. As far
as community, you saw that in the death there [funeral service and dinner]. Like any
society, here we have differences with each other, we have problems, but when one gets
hurt or in illness or in death or some kind of tragedy, the people come. They tum out.
They forget their differences. I think this is what makes a real, real part of our
community. We rise up ... It isn't a money thing. That's how it's sustained. (2004 taped
interview)
9) Two Tlingit men in their middle years who grew up in Kake:
Speaker One: The old people (teach about community responsibilities)
Fieldworker: There seems to be a lot of community gatherings compared with some
places I've been.
Speaker Two: Yeah. Oh, man, you're not family, too. Here you're either related or inter-
related, whereas when you come from down south, you've got people come from Sweden
and Denmark, all over. Kake, you only got very few (outsiders). Maybe the preachers.
And if they (women) get married to a white man.
Fieldworker: There seems a lot of effort to revive older culture.
Speaker Two: Oh, yeah. Because there has to be, because the kids need the culture to get
on the right track. (2004 taped interview)
10) Non-Native man in his Elder years who has lived in Native Alaskan villages for
many years but is new to Kake.
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I think our relationships are that way. We are potentially all family here. We work
together. If you get in a bind, and other people jump in to help you. Nobody is looking to
be top dog [at OVK]. (Everyone) works together and does their part and maybe a little bit
extra. I think it works out through the whole community. You see somebody in need, you
stop and help. No questions asked. You just do it. And I think that's what makes a
community, where you're working together and with a desire to be part of everybody's
life. (2003 taped interview)
11) Speaker One is a non-Native man in his middle years who married a woman from
Kake. Speaker Two is a Tlingit woman in her early middle years who grew up in Kake.
They are not related.
Speaker One: Helping each other. That's a big one in Kake.
One thing that's always struck me, and I think it's in each little town, but I really notice it
in Kake, you know the inevitable differences that may arise, but ifthere's a tragedy and
some need, then everybody will pull together, everybody pulls together.
Speaker Two: Everybody helps, I know that [laughs]. I think in Kake it's a lot the way
you were raised. You have to spend a lot of time with your Elders and other community
members to learn. And always respect used to be a big issue. It used to be. I say it used to
be because I'm not sure [laughs] anymore as far as spending time with Elders and ...
Speaker One: Oh, I think it's still ... I think it's still, yeah, I think more so than lower
forty-eight ...
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Speaker One: Or, you know, urban
Speaker Two: It's different. I know you don't see the kids around the Elders as much
anymore, but that has a lot to do with electronics ...
Speaker One: Right.
Speaker Two: Yeah. We'd [when Speaker Two was growing up] just spend time with
them [the Elders]. I mean, I don't know, we just always ... You either were with your
grandparents or your parents.
Speaker One: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker Two: I was going to say, it didn't matter if we were related or not, I know.
Everyone watched over you [laughs].
Speaker One: Well, yeah, certainly the modem day electronics, TV and now computer.
Internet takes away from the old ... but hopefully the old will sustain itself Well, that's
when parenting comes in.
Speaker Two: Uh huh. That's my (emphasis) right there. I take the kids to grandparents
when I can [laughs]. Go move in with grandma and grandpa for a while. And so I think
that's still here. I see it here. And I don't know if you have it so much in the bigger cities
495
Speaker One: Yeah, it's hard for me to imagine not having the family here because I've
never really been without it.
Speaker Two: I know.
Speaker One: I can't imagine growing up in a setting where that wasn't the norm. (2003
taped interview)
12) A Native man in his early middle years who grew up mostly in Juneau, but partly in
Kake.
It's a blessing to be in Kake, to be part of Kake and then to be a part of the we1lness
movement that's going on. You mentioned something about the kids. That's a lot of
healing ... that's ... a lot ofhealing is coming from the kids. We started with the kids. A
whole generation ofkids ... whole group ofkids that are coming up now that we've been
working with and been involved with for the last five years. The whole attitude in the
high school is changing. They're coming up and bringing these positive constructive
attitudes and not being so rebellious. Because I think those ... even though there's
teachers ... and there's people, supervisors in the school ... authority figures ... that it's
still ... that's a little community in itself ... in a school. I was thinking about that last
night, where, how do you change things in a school. I was actually watching some tapes
that I got like those ... they're life skills tape. They're more recent. Those [other] ones
are kind ofdone in the early 70s. But they're still good. Kids like 'em. I got a new set ...
looking at ... and remembering back when I was in school and it was actually a little
community, totally different from home and being outside. That's a little community in
itself. Has it's own way of running things. And people talk different and treat people
different in there. I see ... before we really started doing that ... kids were kind of going
unstructured. And so there was that rebellious attitude. Not with all of them, but ... or
just 'not care' attitude. You have your teachers and stuffthere, teaching the basics to the
kids, but as far as teaching respect and discipline and honor, integrity and all that other
stuff, you had no kind of structure like that ...
But, I don't know. Community ... it's all about family and compassion. When I
think about community, I just think about a healthy family, where they communicate with
each other. The parents, for one thing, communicate with each other and treat each other
with respect as equals. I'd never seen that in my life ... and they're (the parents) treating
the kids with respect, and as valued individuals, nurturing them, and I've seen a few
families like that. And you see the benefits ofthem. They grow up and they're successful
and they have good hearts, and that's basically what I see as community ...
I've just come to realize that (it's a gift to know that), and accept that. We grew
up one way and you know that's all we know, and there is something that we take for
granted that other people never even ... I mean, they think would be a blessing. They
cherish certain things. It's like when our community ... our dam broke. We ran out of
water. No one ever thinks about losing water. It's always there. You use it for everything.
When it was gone, we were hurting. I'm glad that happened. We were hurting and it
496
really showed us, well, me, how we can take things for granted until it's gone. Simple
things like our water. It's a real necessity. We don't even think about it. We take it for
granted until it's gone. Then we're really hurting and see how much we need it to
survive. They were some tough times during that time. I'm glad that happened. It was
only like maybe four days, five days, and we were able to actually get drinking water
again. We had water to wash clothes and wash dishes and stuff with, but not drinking
water. And yet all these communities from around the outlying area that were just
shipping thousands and thousands of gallons ofwater to us. Water coming in on the
ferries, on the planes. That's the first time I've ever seen that. We always see it in the
community. Like we talk about. Someone's inneed, someone's hurting-everybody pulls
together. Now the community was hurting. You see the whole ... a lot of other
communities pull together. Petersburg and Kake, there's always been, not really a rivalry,
but just bad blood. But as soon as something happens, they were ... that wasn't even an
Issue ...
I see that it's very possible to bring people together, to drop the differences, to
treat each other as equals, you know. It always takes something kind of drastic to happen
to realize that. But if it wasn't possible, then that wouldn't be happening. Petersburg
wouldn't be helping us or we wouldn't be helping each other in the community. I went
back to the reservation. You don't even see that there. Maybe between some people, but
it's all about themselves there too. In North Dakota. I've been to a few reservations but
I've never seen poverty like I've seen there. Down south. And racism. Yeah. I've never
seen that or experienced it. You don't get it here, you know. I'd say it's here to a certain
degree, but not like what you see down there. Yeah. That was terrible. And they could
change. They could change. As far as community, I guess that's enough for community.
(2003 taped interview)
13) Non-Native man in his early middle years who married a Tlingit woman in Kake and
has lived in the village since 1990.
Community is created through family bonds, through time and appreciation of friendship,
through going through hard times with each other, and good times. Community is
sustained because of the knowledge that we'll be able to be there for other people. How
well we know them doesn't really matter, I believe. For the most part, in a village like
this, I know everybody pretty well. Up here I do, and I feel the community knows me ...
or the village knows me enough to share community with me. So, sustainability and
community comes with just continuing those bonds of friendship. I built relationships
with people because we (he and his wife) lived at Sitka for a long time before we moved
here, and a lot of her family and friends that would go in and out of Sitka, going to
college with them, whether they were there for hospital needs, we left our door open, and
they came and stayed at our house a lot, so I developed friendships before I even moved
here. (2004 taped interview)
497
14) Tlingit man in his early middle years who was raised some years in Kake and some
years elsewhere:
Speaker: Well ... community created and sustained ... well, this community right now
does, well, we do have a lot of rough edges ... and I haven't really looked into that kind
of an idea ... just ... There's three ... you see there is the City, there's ... and OVK, and
there's Kake Tribal Corporation. Those are the three entities right now that basically have
governed and run this community ... and now I am introducing the chamber of commerce
visitors bureau, which is the business people in the community and you don't have to
be a business person to be a member, obviously, but ... umm we'd like you tobe in
order to strike the economy up, which, which is what we need. But I guess it's created
through those types of programs, I would think you know ... the strengths ... and, and
the misgivings and everything that comes with it it's basically ... through programs
now ... You know like Kake Tribal ... they're, they were a for-profit organization. OVK
is a government organization, and, umm ... chamber of commerce ... visitors bureau ...
we're, we're gonna to be a mixture of both.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement]
Speaker: You know we're gonna look both human interests ... as well as, you know,
economy ... so give everybody a fair shake and everybody has the opportunity ... t 0
voice their opinions ... legislate and regulate and everything else.
Fieldworker: Are people interested so far?
Speaker: Well, there's an interest but there is also not enough information, I believe, and
since this is so new to me, you know, it is hard to relay all that information and have
them believe me because I've been, you know, a logger ... and a construction worker ...
and coming from my mouth I don't know if this is believable to a lot of people locally or
not.
Fieldworker: Huh, because they think that ...
Speaker: Through my ... well, I'm not educated.
Fieldworker: Oh?
Speaker: I've haven't gone to college for anything.
Fieldworker: Oh ... but a lot ofpeople haven't.
Speaker: A lot ofpeople don't (take me seriously). OVK is taking me serious, and the
City is taking me serious now I've had several meetings with the mayor ... and the
executive director at OVK.
Fieldworker: Yeah.
Speaker: And with OVK, I have just sat and talked with them, and now that they have
grasped the concept of what I am trying to do and understand it ... they're taking me
serious. Now I have to go into a membership drive and get more members ... people in
place for more members and committees and that sort ofthing.
Fieldworker: [mumbles agreement] ... and then the average person on the street, are they
into it?
Speaker: Umm ... the average person believes that we need a direction, and I think-we
498
haven't really done any surveys yet-but a lot ofpeople I've talk to ... it is pretty agreed
upon that they know that there really isn't any other option other than tourism ... for the
short-term ... and so ... it's kinda agreed that tourism is the direction.
Fieldworker: And then they want to be able to manage that somehow?
Speaker: Well, I don't know if the average person on the street ... wants to get that
involved. They just want to have opportunity ... you know that's what we're going to try
and provide with the chamber ... is opportunities ... for people that are serious ...
because people kinda want to do, you know, they want to be independent ... They kinda
felt independence, you know, with working for themselves, but like I said, when Kake
Tribal fell, fell into financial woes, it collapsed a good portion ofthe community.
Fieldworker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, through the chamber our hopes is to diversify the economy and ... so
something like this doesn't happen (again) in the future, so I guess that would be
sustained ... a community created and sustained, I suppose 'Cause we don't want this
sorta thing to happen again, so ... we devise a plan ... and strategic plan... and
hopefully it will ... sustain us through the long run.
Fieldworker: Yeah. (2004 taped interview)
15) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised primarily in Kake.
And how is it created? I think it's created by us interacting and caring for each other and
caring for the place. Taking care of each other and our environment. (2004 taped
interview)
16) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised in Kake.
It's created by people. You know people are the ones that cause the community to grow
or to set the pace ofwhere the community will be heading to. You know. The vision they
have for that place. And for sustained ... I'm not sure what you mean by sustained. I
think it's sustained by people having the same interests. You know, they have the same
interests, the same commonality. But I would think that's how it would be sustained.
(2004 taped interview)
17) Tlingit woman in her middle years who was raised in Kake.
One big [event that creates community] is the culture camp, teaching the children how to
prepare foods. Another thing is the boys and girls club, the churches, and ANB and ANS.
And one of the things that our school does ... that it used to do ... was to bring the Elders
in the school and talk to the kids. It's something you know, with budget cuts. The teacher
that was doing it, it was __ and you know, they stopped doing that. But you know I'm
sure it's something that will come back. Like, the school is changing the curriculum ...
Yeah, the school district is changing the curriculum to where ... oh I can't even think
499
what it is now, but it's all going back to life skills, and I'm sure that we'll bring that
[Elders ' participation] back. So, our teachers and staff are going next week up to
Anchorage for a week and they'll be doing the workshops, you know, Monday through
Friday. And I think it's good. Like a child goes in the third grade and your reading level's
second grade. And they work 'up,' you know, same way with math and other courses.
And then your life skills. Being a good citizen. Respect and everybody else brings up
respect and points the finger this way (how when you point fingers at someone else
several fingers point back to you), and be teaching your kids what you are, you know.
You're the model. One of the things I (wanted to know about the new curriculum) was
what does it say about the values. Is ... it's so easy to criticize ... and then you get in that
mode of being so negative. So you change that and try to be positive and look at the good
and what could I do to improve it. So much more happens when you're positive. So.
(2003 taped interview)
18) Tlingit man in his middle years who was raised in another community.
Fieldworker: That's pretty much what other people have said, in a time ofneed people
come together. But otherwise there's some, like you say, in any small town, there's some
difficulties.
Speaker: Yeah. And you know the actual running of the city and, I don't know, the
organization and stuff! don't think is real well ... but I think when it comes down to the
whole sum of the community itself, without the governmental ... You take away the
native organizations, you take away the city and stuff, you have a good group of people
... that, uh, love the area with the setting here and all that's available here. And kind of
the ... it's not isolation but it's peace and quiet.
Fieldworker: Basketball is big.
Speaker: Yes. It's very big. And, uh ... I don't know ... various things the school might
be [as a community center or community builder] but I ... I don't see it as much. I see
other organizations taking that role. Whether it be the churches or ANS, AJ~B, uh ...
sometimes OVK ... Uh, yeah.
Fieldworker: A lot of family stuff?
Speaker: Yeah. Big family things. There's a few really large-sized families in town and
uh ... __, yeah that's one bunch, and you do have the __, and you have __,
__, you have different groups and __. __ have lived here (a long time). That,
you know, they've all come (over time to Kake) ... intermarriages, and mixed, you know,
if you really start looking, you'll see it really connected quite well, but ... Yeah. They do
a lot together still in groups like that. Yeah. Very strong. You see a very strong __
clan. You see a REAL strong, positive, supportive, I think, __ clan throughout the
town. And __ is a very strong family too. Yeah. (2003 taped interview)
500
19) Young Tlingit woman raised in Kake.
Speaker: It's (community is) just something acquired.
Fieldworker: People learn ... what the expectations are ... ?
Speaker: Um, I don't know. For me, probably it was my parents. Because they (showed
through example), having to rely on their ... my parents relied on their brothers and
sisters for babysitting me. So ... and I found myself doing that, too ,with my cousin ...
the one that was here ... and my cousins that aren't here right now, but when they do
come here they always would take ~~. It's just something that ... you ... just do. Just
part of interaction. I think that's ... as much as it can be a headache to get stuffprepared
for a potluck, I think that the rewards of it far outweigh the headache. Some of my family
members put on potlucks cause that's ... you can get everybody together and (have a
good time) especially after dinner, joking around and ... for community events. There's
an expectation that when you take something when you go to the community hall, and
you've got to be quiet during certain times. I let~_ go, and whatever, but he has to be
quiet ... he knows when he goes to a potluck ... to be there.
It's (community is) just doing some things over and over. He's getting to know people at
his own speed. I notice that. I mean, I think, you know, I know people and people want to
say hi to him all the time and ... you know, sometimes he doesn't say hi. I have to tell
him when someone says hi to you, you know, say hi. Say hi back. [laughs] They get
really mad. And he's getting his own (bonds?). There's not many cousins ... there's not
as many cousins like when I was growing up.
Fieldworker: Because they are in other places?
Speaker: Few and far between (people are not having as many kids) and later in life. So I
mean its like extended family, cousins, everybody. Yeah. It's just kind of like that
constant interaction. I think families are still doing that. The family getting together and
sharing.
Fieldworker: At the potlucks I notice that all the food that's left over gets distributed
afterwards.
Speaker: I know. Things don't go to waste. It's a really good idea.
It's almost a compliment to go home with an empty dish. Is the way I see it. I mean the
more food I have to take home, it's like, well they didn't really like it. Yeah. (2004 taped
interview)
20) Two men in their middle years. Speaker One is a T1ingit man raised in Kake. Speaker
Two is a non-Native man who works with Speaker One.
Speaker One: Helping one another. A lot of (support). Say one of my kids breaks a leg
and I haven't got money to go to the hospital, there will be somebody going around town
knocking from door to door. All you got to do is explain it and everybody in town gives
money, donates. Five years ago my mom passed away. They went door to door and
collected over $300 just within an hour. And it really helped.
Speaker Two: I was at a basketball game one time where they collected $800 for a kid
who was in the hospital. And it's kind of nice too because people don't even have to
know who it is, just as long as they feel they're helping somebody. (2004 taped
interview)
501
502
APPENDIXF
GOVERNOR'S SATP SUPPORT LETTER
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pa(.mtl"l", <:ur....mtly lay fuUow. limited .;>t J"w.l p;~.llyby the l..."k of ..IT",.dabl..
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and Public P'...dlitie~ ho" dr.-'eloped " ]nrlKninge pin" t:h;;:r loye, out h.-.w to
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pI';:'j'; wJI1 implcl"'.lC',H tlL;ol go.aL My gi:>.."<.l j" to:.> j)NJ"iLlc ':l6utl'.l.::a",t .llJ""li<k;;" -Viti;
dfident••olil'lble, and co'",t-cffccdvc transportation. This can onl)' happen by
'the rlew40pmenr of f1 "y"'tem of ronds thAt Are. linked b;r ",hort ferrycroB'sinp,'1
""here applicahlc,
T wIsh to L1u'tuk thos(; wlw jJHr'ticIpt'ltoli III dU\leloping 11111'1 ....xdtltll; piau.
~i'ld A.sk (--A.ch. of yt)'ll tu JI:)11'l i1liC' in :aY:J.plCI"L\(-.filifl,l!. ULi~ (~Xr.:·itil"i~ V[l!Sluli t6 fH'(riJitl(:
fo, our futu,e lJY budding a better. more rehable transportatlon 'Svstern today.
/
.,/
APPENDIXG
ADOT E-MAIL CORRESPONDENCE
YAgOOlMAI~
ClilSlJU:
Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 14:46:39 -0800
From: "Andy Hughes" <andy_hughes@dot.state.ak.us>
Subject:Kake Meetings
To: "Katy Fulton" <kdiscourse@yahoo.com>
CC: "John MacKinnon" <john_mackinnon@dot.state.ak.us>
Katy,
In response to your request for a tape recording a 2003 hearing on
roads, I believe you are referring to a town meeting arranged by the
mayors of Kake and Petersburg conducted in Kake, attended by the City
Councils and mayors of both communities with representatives from our
department and the US Forest Service present. I estimate attendance at
50-60 people. This was a community organized meeting and the community
may have recorded the meeting. We did not. We have no record ofthis
town meeting.
The Department has since conducted meetings on January 27,2004 and on
January 25, 2005 in support ofthe Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan
update and the Northern Panhandle Transportation Study-ongoing,
respectively. While not taped they are recorded by note takers, I can
either mail or FAX you copies ofthese meeting summaries.
Information regarding the Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan and
Northern Panhandle Transportation Study can be access at the following
web site: http://dot.alaska.gov/satp/
This web site provides links to the Northern Panhandle Transportation
Study.
Please advise, if you are interested in our meeting summaries.
Andy Hughes
503
504
APPENDIXH
ADOT NOTES AND RECORDS OF KAKE PUBLIC HEARING
Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan
Draft Update
Kake, Alaska
January 27, 2004
Open House: 5:00-6:00
Public Meeting: 6:00-8:00
Kake Municipal Building
Meeting Staff
Verne Skagerberg, Southeast Regional Planning, ADOTandPF
Randy Wanamaker, Gateway Technologies, Consulting Team
Public Meeting Comments
John Ashenfelter: Would it be faster to pave a road to Totem Bay? This could be
determined based on a study, and the type of environmental impacts that are developed
through the Sitka Access Study.
Bob Mills: Why not put a ferry terminal at Point McCartney? Is it feasible to run the fast
vehicle ferries north to Southeast? How many vehicles can the FVF hold? You should see
it when we have to share our Costco runs with Petersburg.
Roy Aceveda: Or when we are heading to Gold Medal!
Stu Ashton: You should see when the ferry leaves on Friday and returns on Saturday.
Delbert Kadake: Ifdone they'll pre-plan on use ofTaku four times a year. We're not in
the Fast Vehicle Ferry plan, and during the meetings held here in Kake (with Petersburg
councilmen), that Kake could be a potential hub site if the road were to go through
(between Kake and Petersburg). Are we being left out now that we don't want the Kake-
Petersburg connection?
Stu Ashton: Frustrating thing is that most communities have at least two or three
scheduled ferry runs a week, and Kake as a step-child has one ferry once a week and no
equal billing.
John Ashenfelter: Our transportation costs are higher, ticket prices are higher than other
villages and we have the longest run to Juneau. Is this because it takes us longer to get to
our destination?
505
Eric Gebhart: You say Rodman Bay is preferred, why? It's longer and we still have to
take the ferry. Wouldn't it be easier to duck in and out of Kake and Angoon through
Chatham route? This should be pushed up in the plan.
Gary Williams: Why not make them all faster ferries ifthey are less expensive? If
Federal Government is paying, why not get fast ferry service for Kake - Petersburg-
Ketchikan?
Bob Mills: That would work well, except for shipping out our fish. The freight kills us,
we can't fly because it's too expensive, can't ferry, because we don't have the ferry
serVIce.
Paul Reese: The vote by City ofKake residents was 2-1 opposed to the Kake-Petersburg
road (160 votes "against," 80 "for"). We feel the vote has altered our communications
with DOT. We will meet with the governor in regard to the roads and other matters, but
we need focused time with the City Councilmen and the Tribal IRA Council, one-to-one,
to articulate our needs and, based on that, I feel there is a need for a joint meeting with
the DOT, City Council and IRA Council. They are still factoring in a road on the SATP
2011-2025 projections.
I feel there is a need for enhanced communication. The plan is a plan-using various
hubs interfacing air/ferry/roads. How many Kake people go to Petersburg, Juneau, Sitka?
And how often? The current plan doesn't strike me as serving Kake very well.
Stu Mach: Earlier discussion referenced page 13, mentioned that Kake has increased use,
despite the failing services or decrease in population. Historically we've been told this
data drives the ferry system scheduling. I think we can use ferry more, maybe it's worth
the extra hours it would take to come in and out ofKake.
Bob Mills: December had a turnaround-left Friday and returned Sunday; this was
perfect, there were no extra costs for us in this trip.
Ann Jackson: [Related her family's travel experiences last December to and from
Juneau.] Northbound on the Taku it was very nice. Southbound on the LeConte was a
nightmare. Passengers from other communities can be very rude and pushy, so Kake
people end up with nowhere to sit or sleep. I was seventh in line, and ended up twenty-
ninth because ofrude and pushy people. We would have better service if the Taku came
in to Kake two times in December, and if the Taku stopped in on its way to the All Native
tournament that takes place in Prince Rupert. Taku needs to come in on its way to Gold
Medal tournament and Celebration 2004 this June. It is an embarrassment to have the
ferry terminal shelter the way it is. Could we have our own ferry without Angoon or
Hoonah at the same time?
Stu Ashton: The tribe (Organized Village of Kake) collected 52 surveys, which were
forwarded for SATP consideration. We need public comments ifwe're going to be united
and get something done.
506
APPENDIX I
NORTHERN PANHANDLE STUDY ENDED
Northern Panhandle Transportation Study
North Panhandle Transportation Study contract was cancelled in May 2006 because the
basis of the study and its recommendations were overcome by events.
• The Plan was over a year behind schedule.
• A draft plan was under review in May when a Coast Guard order was issued
regarding the LeConte exceeding crew rest rules.
• At the time, a draft recommendation was under consideration to replace the
LeConte service with a new, slightly smaller, more efficient and automated
LeConte II, operating on a modified 24/7 route and schedule.
• The USCG order invalidated the assumptions upon which the proposed action
was based. We were faced with the need to redo the entire analysis. We allowed
the present contract to expire, because it could not accommodate the work
required.
• AMHS, confronted with a short time period to address the USCG order,
reconfigured LeConte service to a day boat hub and spoke service out of Juneau
to serve Angoon, Hoonah, Tenakee Springs, Pelican and Haines. Mainline stops
were increased to Kake and Hoonah. Contracts with commercial operators also
supplemented service provided by AMHS.
• We intend to monitor the new AMHS service now in place and evaluate the
response AMHS receives to a request for commercial service proposals.
• A future study, if needed, will be based on the current AMHS service experience.
507
APPENDIXJ
NORTHERN PANHANDLE STUDY PARTIAL DESCRIPTION OF KAKE
Excerpts of Northern Panhandle Transportation Study
7.0KAKE
Kake is located on the northwest coast ofKupreanofIsland along Keku Strait, 38
air miles northwest of Petersburg, and 95 air miles southwest of Juneau. The city
boundary encompasses 8.2 sq. miles ofland and 6.0 sq. miles of water.
TABLE 7-1
Kake Overview Current Population: 663 (2004 State Demographer estimate)
http://www.labor.state.ak.us/research/pop/estimates/04t4-3.xIs
Incorporation Type: 1st Class City
Borough Located In: Unorganized
School District: Kake City Schools
7.1 Community Profile
7.1.1 Historical and current data on population
Kake is an Alaskan Native community located on the northwest coast of
KupreanofIsland. Based on data compiled by the Alaska Department ofLabor
and Workforce Development (DOLandWD), the population of Kake was 663 in
2004; this compares to 710 people in 2000 and 700 in 1990.
7.1.2 Per capita income data
The per capita income for Kake in 2000 was $14,767, or 65 percent of the state
average. The median household in the community had an income of$31,653.
Population 663 710 700 Per Capita Income N/A $14,767 $13,193 65% 75%
Median Household Income N/A $31,563 $35,87561 % 87%
Sources: DOLandWD, 2004
(http://www.labor.state.ak.us/research/pop/estimates/04t4-3.xIs) accessed March
15,2005
DOLandWD, 2000 (http://www.labor.state.ak.us/research/cgin/cenmaps/profiles)
accessed October 8,2004
DOLandWD, 1999 (http://www.labor.state.ak.us/research/cgin/cenmaps/profiles)
accessed October 8, 2004.
7.1.3 Sources of employment in the community
Traditionally, fishing and seafood processing and timber have made up a major
part of the Kake economy. In 2003,56 Kake residents held commercial fishing
permits, though only 24 fished that year. Another 62 residents held commercial
508
crew licenses (Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, 2003a). The
closure of the town's sole fish processing facility, Kake Foods, in the sununer of
2004 will have a significant impact on these numbers. According to 2003
DOLandWD data, Kake Foods, Kake Tribal Corporation and Kake Tribal
Logging were the community's largest employers that year. There were a total of
309 jobs in the community on average. Kake Food employed 92 people at the
season peak, though employment numbers may include some residents of Pelican.
Other leading employers included the Kake City School District, and the Village
ofKake. Southeast Stevedoring employed another 52 residents ofKake, which is
not reflected in DOLandWD data.
7.1.4 Economic conditions of the community. Kake is currently undergoing
economic upheaval due to the financial peril of its largest employer, the Kake
Tribal Corporation. Kake Tribal faces possible bankruptcy, and operations at
Kake Foods were suspended in 2004. As much as 20 percent of the community's
population has left in the last year, according to Kake's mayor. 1
7.1.5 Community support industry profiles
There are two grocery and goods stores in Kake, as well as a fuel supply business.
The community also has a health clinic that provides primary care in the
community.
7.1.6 Community minority and low income profile
Native Alaskans make up 75 percent of the population of Kake according to the
U.S. Census Bureau's 2000 Census. An additional 3 percent of the population is
Asian, while blacks and African Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific
Islanders, and other minority races make up less than 1 percent each of the total
population.
Also reported in the 2000 Census, fifteen percent of Kake residents live in
poverty, as do 13 percent of families.
7.1.7 Federally Recognized Native Entities and ANSCA Corporations
TABLE 7-3
Tribe/s Organized Village of Kake*
Village Corporation Kake Tribal Corporation
Regional Native Corporation Sealaska Corporation
* Native Tribal Entity, federally recognized and eligible to receive and provide
services from and on behalf of the United States Government in Alaska
7.1.8 Community subsistence areas
Kake residents continue to utilize natural resources as part of a subsistence
lifestyle. Residents harvest a broad range of resources over a large geographic
area.
Deer:
Kupreanof Island.
Kuiu Island
Conclusion Island
509
Chichagof Island
BaranofIsland
Yank Island
Port Houghton
Salmon:
Baranof Island
Kuiu Island
KupreanofIsland
Admiralty Island
Marine invertebrates (including shellfish):
Admiralty Island
Kupreanof Island
Kuiu Island
BaranofIsland
Keku Islands
Seals:
Keku Strait
Kuiu Island
Admiralty Island
Waterfowl:
Kupreanof Island
Kuiu
Admiralty Island.
7.1.9 Population and commercial/industrial forecasts and supporting
transportation infrastructure needs
The future of the economy of Kake is closely linked to the economic health of
Kake Tribal Corporation, although the community has identified and presented a
number of small development projects to state and regional entities for future
consideration, including:
• Construction of an electrical intertie to Petersburg
• Relocation of the existing harbor breakwater and expansion of the harbor for an
additional 90 permanent and 27 transient mooring spaces.
An electrical intertie would likely help lower the costs of living and doing
business in Kake. The expansion of the boat harbor would provide improved
access to the community. However, neither of these projects has the potential to
significantly mitigate the effects ofpossible continued poor health of Kake Tribal.
As a result, the Kake population is projected to slowly decline for the next five
years.
7.1.10 Traffic forecasts based on developed population forecasts
Demand for transportation services would be expected to roughly mirror changes
in local population. Improvements to transportation infrastructure could increase
510
visitor traffic to the community, resulting in overall increases in demand for
travel.
7.2 Existing Transportation Services
(The writers go on to describe the transportation resources currently available and
those desired in Kake.)
(The NPT study description of Kake ends with a discussion of transportation
purposes and needs.)
Kake has identified Juneau as its most important and most frequent travel destination
followed by Sitka and then Petersburg. The nature of the travel by Kake residents to each
of the hub communities varies. The purpose in travel to Juneau is split between shopping,
medical care and work. Travel to Sitka is primarily for medical care. Travel to nearby
Petersburg yields the advantage of connection to mainline ferry service both North and
Southbound and connection to jet service via Alaska Airlines at the Petersburg airport,·
but the demand is relatively low. Travel to the small communities in the study area is
infrequent and primarily to visit friends and relatives. Kake residents also desire to travel
to special events such as the Gold Medal basketball tournament, Celebration, school
sports and other cultural and social events.
The December 2004, McDowell Group survey of Northern Panhandle households asked
Kake residents the following questions: "How frequent would ferry service to
Juneau/Sitka need to be to meet your needs?" The response for Juneau averaged 1.5 trips
per week and the response for Sitka averaged 1.2 trips per week. The written comments
and public meeting comments received regarding this study indicate a slightly higher
desired frequency of service.
Separate from the discussion of frequency, Kake residents desire ferry service with the
following characteristics:
• A direct connection to Juneau and Sitka
• Less travel time on ships without staterooms
• Improved hotel accommodations for longer ferry trips, particularly for Elders
• The ability to transport vehicles
• The ability to transport freight
• Lower cost
• Round trip turnaround sequencing that matches their trip purpose duration
Additionally Kake residents would like:
• Port calls by mainline ferries that are otherwise waiting for tidal windows at
Sergins Narrows and Wrangell Narrows. This would require modifications to the
exiting mooring facilities to accommodate larger vessels.
511
• A cost effective means of shipping fresh fish to market, most likely through an
Alaska Airlines air freight connection in Juneau. A road to Petersburg would also
facilitate movement of fresh fish to market via Alaska Airlines and movement of
fish products through Petersburg marine hubs. The Kake economy would benefit
from improved access to the required transportation system via Juneau, Sitka, and
Petersburg.
• Continued adequate funding for the maintenance and operation of the state owned
airport.
APPENDIXK
DAY-TO-DAY KAKE TALK ABOUT THE ROAD
512
Following are some of the comments I heard in 2003 and 2004 day-to-day
conversations and through interviews about DOT plans for a road between Kake
and Petersburg.
1) Non-Native man in his mid years.
I think one thing is, like you've heard the Petersburg ... or, the road between
Petersburg and Kake is an issue. And the state department did come in and have
a meeting. And I didn't make it. I was opening my Classroom up and had kids
there and, uh ... But I guess it got pretty hot. But at the same time at least they
did come. And they did search for views. '" I know that the road issue got out a
lot of people. More than usual. More than usual. (2003 taped interview)
2) Tlingit woman in her mid years.
Just like a drive from here to Petersburg. Even if it was paved. It would be 60-
some miles because it would be, you know, winding. So, you know that it would
take at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Doesn't make sense. I don't know what they're
thinking of It's kind oflike north of Kupreanof City ... the town across ...
across from Petersburg? Yeah. And it goes through those mountains that are on
the northern end, and I can't even imagine the upkeep on those roads. Snow,
mud slides. It's terrible. (2004 taped interview)
3) Two men in younger mid years. Speaker One is a Tlingit man, and Speaker
Two is non-Native.
Speaker One: We don't have much ofa market economy here. [chuckles]
Speaker Two: No. But people here tend to not like outside. Look at the road to
Petersburg. Nobody wants that.
Speaker One: Yeah.
Speaker Two: Nobody wants the fast ferry to another island. Nobody wants
anything to do with government. I mean people are really anti government.
Fieldworker: How do people communicate to government representatives?
Speaker Two: Oh, they get mad.
Fieldworker: Do they?
Speaker Two: Yeah, you go to these meetings that ... they have these meetings
where they proposed, like, logging the watershed (Sealaska) and then... I don't
know, any meeting like that, boy, they get hot under the collar. Everybody
rushes down there and most people want to rush in and just say no, no.
Speaker One: I guess I can't really answer because I haven't been to meetings or
like the one about the road.
Speaker Two: I think everybody gets a little worried that those kinds of things
will affect the community and threaten it and, you know, break up the
cohesiveness of the community.
Speaker One: IfKake people have to drive to Petersburg to get on the ferry or
vice versa, Petersburg people have to corne here just to pick up the ferry, that
would be some real inconvenience.
Speaker Two: Well, and it's just, I don't know. These communities seem to like,
what do you call it, [being] autonomous. Each has its own little thing, keeps it
separate from everybody else, and you can do what you want within your own
small community. 'Cause when you hear ... what is it, Prince ofWhales, that
has Craig and Klawock and ... and then they have, what, three or four different
communities on the same island, you don't usually say those communities
individually. You just say POW [Prince ofWhales]. You refer to them as the
island rather than the individual towns. And up here you have to refer to
individual towns, and people like that.
Fieldworker: Do government agency representatives listen?
Speaker Two: That's an easy one, I would say. I mean, I hate to be point blank,
but ifit's going to benefit the economy for them [government agencies] than
they'll accept it, why not? But ifit's not going to help them, then they don't
really care about it. I think that's true of any government, you know. Mostly
they're dealing with money and fiscal dollar type things. (2004 taped interview)
4) City employee who is a Tlingit man in his middle years.
Speaker: Just like I said there ... a couple of months ago we had a community
meeting there, we wanted to hear from everybody, and ... everybody carne
down here with an idea, whether it was pro or con, for that road to Petersburg
there ... and after that town meeting there, we had ... we listened to what
everybody had to say there and then voted in October there .. and the whole
town. So ... by having the community being together on a ... a subject like that
there that would affect everybody.
Fieldworker: They are going to build the road there?
Speaker: Yeah. I haven't heard that part there, but the ferry part they are going
to do that. So, that just falls into place of what their overall plan is for ... [He
starts looking for papers to show the SATP maps.]
Fieldworker: So, they're going to reduce the service of the ferries?
513
Speaker: is writing a letter on behalf of the city right now 'cause I told
him (what's going on down there). I talked to him a little bit about it in Seattle
when I was down there, but he's going to go ahead and respond to them and let
them know that we need more ferry service here and how those fast ferries are
going to be pretty much just taking care of three communities up in Juneau,
Haines, and Skagway. And Sitka.
Fieldworker: So they want people to drive more?
Speaker: That's why they're opening up ANWR. That's what I saw .They're
even talking about going all the way from Pelican to, uh, by Sitka. I think that's
what they said, _ said. That's a lot of money for a few handfuls ofpeople in
Pelican.
Fieldworker: What's the motivation?
Speaker: Said it cost them 80 million a year to run the ferry system. And they
only make 40 million, and they're losing out on that 40 million, and times that
by 10 years-that's the money that's going to be saved by building the road. So,
they can cut out most of those ferries. So, it's going to be cheaper to build all
those road connections than it would be to run all those ferries.
Fieldworker: 400 million would build all those roads?
Speaker: No, they need more than that there, but that's what they were saying
there.
Fieldworker: Doesn't someone have to maintain the roads?
Speaker: [mumbles agreement] That part too. They were asking about that too,
the road to Petersburg, who's going to maintain it?
Fieldworker: The borough?
Speaker: Yeah, the borough. I see Petersburg getting anxious there too. You
know we did call Petersburg to ask them for an invitation to come over and talk
to them about the borough again, and they never sent an invitation to us yet. And
we left a message for those guys too.
Speaker: Petersburg never wanted Kupreanof or anything to do with Kupreanof
until that mining came up.
Fieldworker: When did that mining come up?
Speaker: Oh, it's been less than ten years since that mining claim started sticking
up there. We called BLM there and checked with them there to tell how many
actual claims out there. They said we'll let you know. I think the last time I
heard there was like 15 hundred, 5 hundred, 10 hundred. The only ones that
were out ofKake were the former mayor and his son. [laughs] That's why
everybody's pretty upset about it, because nobody even knew about it here
because the mayor didn't tell anybody about it here. I was getting my teeth
worked on by the guy that's the spearhead of the operation there. He asked me if
I wanted to get in on a good deal. And I told him, "Well, explain to me what the
good deal is." He told me that I have a chance to jump in on some claims before
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everybody knows about it. And $100 bucks a claim there every year whether or
not you do anything on it until people start drilling. And I just told him, "Well,
just tell me all about it there now." And I was just sitting there listening and they
said, "Yeah, __ knows about it, and __ was a mayor at the time, and he
didn't tell anybody here. And, uh ... so I came back and I was at OVK at the
time, and I asked them if they knew about it, and I came and asked __ [the
mayor] ifhe knew about it and he said, "No." This happened to be at a city
council meeting and I brought it up. Asked __ [the mayor] ifhe knew
anything about it. First he denied it and said that he didn't know anything about
it. Then he came out and told us that he did. So it was a big ... kind of like a big
sledge hammer got knocked on our heads or something. Because we were
wondering why all the helicopters were flying over, everybody flying in on
Temsco.
Fieldworker: What if they start mining the island?
Speaker: That's what's going to be probably coming up there.... white rock
there, I don't know if you know where that is, out the road. That's on the road to
Petersburg. That's the one that's actually going to connect up with Petersburg. If
they do it, it's only like a mile and a half apart now. Anyway that's where it's
located. (2004 taped interview)
5) Elder Tlingit man.
Fieldworker: So the road between the two communities has been decided?
Speaker: They said there is going to be ... ifyou go out this way, there's only
three-quarters ofa mile where the road (would be linked to other logging roads)
to be specific. I went to the forest service there one time and they were talking
about the logged areas and stuff (How if they log this area it would help our
economy). And ... join the road over here. They want to join the road here so
they can take sports fishermen to Portage Bay. After he (Forest Service
representative) got through talking there, I said, well ... I disagreed with him.
And ... he said, "Ahh you (Kake people), clams is all you're won-ied about."
Fieldworker: Clams?
Speaker: Yeah. But I said there's places out there that the previous speaker
talked about, gave reference to. You say you're going to help the economy, but
when I've flown over that thing, there's no trees there. You know ... (and the
road he wants there) where he wants to go, he wants to go to Portage Bay for
sports fishing. And I told him (there are people) who are out there for trophy
hunting, you know. And I said 'subsistence.' And one of the Forest Service
people said, "Do you have that subsistence there?" And I said, 'Yeah.' When it's
cold, and the wind was blowing, north wind, we go trolling out there for fish.
We don't call it subsistence to make ourselves feel good there. But they're
(government representatives) more definitive than that. It's a matter of survival
(for us) because there's no money. There's no prices for the fish this summer,
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last summer. They (fishers) were on limit, to, like, 2,000 fish a day or
something. And there's no 'you can make money on 5 cents a pound.'
Fieldworker: So, they're out there fishing to eat. (2004 taped interview)
6) Elder Tlingit man.
Fieldworker: They really are going to build the road then?
Speaker: That's the impression the people have, you know. And the people, I
think a majority of the people here voted against it. They had an advisory vote in
the last election. The greater part voted against it. The thing (I found out there)
just verbally on the street there, they didn't have no hearing. They (DOT) were
probably remiss in calling a meeting, informational thing, on their own (about
how the road would be maintained, what about emergencies), you know. And
just the maintenance factor, we can't even take care of our own roads ifthere's
snow. We (wanted to know) ifwe'd get money from the state for that. But then
... and then the safety, public safety, of course. Alcohol, And if they do get (into
trouble on the way to Petersburg), whoever is going to come out. They won't
ever come out ofPetersburg, I'm sure.... But some of the people that came out
here said, "Well we need the road for hydro power [to bring electricity to Kake].
But not from one of the studies I've seen. They don't have roads for hydro for
Petersburg and Wrangell, to Juneau for power. So why are they building roads
here? (2003 taped interview)
7) Tlingit woman in her mid years.
I think we were aware of all of that (the mining claims). At least I was aware of
it, and I'm sure a lot of people were aware of all about the mines and the claims
and stuff, but it's just a matter ofputting a value on it. And I don't think the
people in Kake put in value into it. But when it comes to losing the land... I
think it was a little more important. And maybe this is in poor taste, but ...
Petersburg is really looking at the mines and this stuff and looking at the
economic value and that stuff, whereas I think people here are trying to ...
Kupreanof is traditionally their (Kake's) island for hunting and fishing and that,
I think, historically, Petersburg could care less about us or Kupreanof. And even
... that's why there are people living on Kupreanof, that were formerly in
Petersburg, is to get away from Petersburg, you know. It was for the true value
of the land and nature. And not so much for an economic type thing. Whereas ...
I think you're looking a lot at those people that live there that do fish. You
know, I mean, they're not ... I guess I feel if that road went through and all the
Petersburg people and different things ... I think they're just looking at ... I
don't want to go say raping ... but raping the land, raping whatever they can get
their hands on. It's too money oriented. It's not ... you know, the care for the
environment, the people ofthemselves. The people that have always lived here.
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I don't think that's how that happens. Like [for people who migrated to the area
from the lower forty-eight states, etc.] ifit's a good fishing season, they'll go
where the fish is. If it's a good mining time they're going to go where the
mining is. You know, whereas, Kake and actually a lot ofthe people that live on
Kupreanof side would live here even ifthere wasn't any mines or (fishing
economy) or anything. You know they would be here. (2003 taped interview)
8) Young Tlingit woman.
I think ifthey [government agency representatives] started to learn our language,
what concerns them is~it would be too objective [their language]. You know
what I mean. We're coming off strong on one side and they have a belief the
other way and so you're ... I don't know ifthere's a happy medium. You know,
when Knowles was the governor, I really believed there was some potential to
start merging and working, but right now ... but like I said, now, you know, and
I'm not knocking anyone by party affiliation, because they're there to do their
thing, or whatever, and they believe in their goals, but their goals, they all must
have went to science school, because you can tell they don't ever put the
environment and spirituality and people together as one. To them everything is a
single ... you're going to make money from gold or silver or timber, you know,
and that's their whole goal in life is to ... You know, they opened up ANWAR. I
don't want to even get into that. That's just an example of what our leaders in
this wonderful United States of freedom are choosing to do in this point in time,
despite whether it's feasible or not. I mean, I've read reports on the gas line that
that's not a feasible project, but we're going to do it. The roads ... no one's real
happy with all ofthese roads and the transportation plan, but it's going to
happen because oflegislation and the administration feels it's the thing to do to
connect us. And the bottom line is, all they want is our natural resources, but
they don't ever just come out and say it. You know, they pad it so that it makes
it look like they're doing (it all for our benefit and for us to grow). But maybe
we don't want to grow. Maybe we don't want to be connected now. (2003 taped
interview)
9) Two non-Native men, one in his mid years and one a younger man.
Speaker One: Yeah, we've become basically the only community in the
Southeast that won't get high speed ferries.
Fieldworker~ Because of the vote on the road?
Speaker One: Don't know. I don't know if it's because we didn't support the
roads ... You know, because originally, at the meeting with DOT, and, uh ...
they really wanted the road because they wanted us to be the ferry hub because
it worked out better.
Fieldworker: Than?
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Speaker One: [mumbles agreement]. They wanted to make us the hub because
we're much more centrally located. And all of a sudden after the vote, and the
community chose to reject the road system, they come back and ...
Speaker Two: Pretty overwhelmingly (the vote against the road).
Speaker One: Pretty overwhelmingly and now we, they left us with very poor
service and low speed of (ferry service). So, we won't get serviced by any of the
high speed ferries.
Speaker Two: Which, yeah, I mean, in those maps over there, they don't even
have the ~ .. you know, they were talking about that the fIrst segment of the road
was going to start fairly soon. And in those maps in the year, what, 2025, they
still don't have the roads from Kake to Petersburg in there, so ... you know, but
I'm not sure where that's coming from, 'cause that's brand new. But, uh ... it's
almost like they'll leave us out here and see what happens to us. But, we'll see.
Speaker One: But as much as they come in, you know, from the outside on that,
whether that's (leaving Kake out of fast ferry services) the case or not, a lot of it
has to do with here, too. A lot ofpeople don't want to play (the game). And I
actually can't really say that it's a lot ofpeople because it really isn't probably a
lot ofpeople ...
Speaker Two: A lot of the people here in town that have something to lose. And
they just happen to be the economical, or economic and political powers that be
here.
Speaker One~ And they're the vocal ones.
Speaker Two: Yeah.
Fieldworker: So, would people that are involved with Kake Tribal Corporation,
would they vote for the road or ... ?
Speaker One: I would think they would ...
Speaker Two: It would be benefIcial. There would be a good chunk of them that
would, but not necessarily everyone. But there's a good chunk of them.... It
would be to the Kake Tribal council's benefIt for those things to happen. It
would be a benefIt to the community economically for those things to happen.
Culturally it's really a split in the road. They could either choose to use it as a
boost to traditional ways and cultural preservation. But if they just took a non-
issue stance on it, it would most defInitely help us.
Speaker One: We would become probably a resort.
Fieldworker: Tourist area.
Speaker One: Well, anyways, it wouldn't be bad for us to be a tourist area. At
all. With some, with some protective measures in place. You know, to check
that kind of growth. Because they're worried about people coming into town and
buying up all the land and, you know, outsiders, and having it tum into a-well,
refer to Yakutat as a prime example, of the majority of the town is owned by
fIsherman from Seattle.
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Speaker Two: They have nothing to do with the culture of the people there. You
know, and it's a teeny little town. Three months of the year it's primarily white
faces, and the other nine months it's, uh, Native. And, they don't like that. But
the same time, they looked past the measures that (they could have) put in place
to check that. (2004 taped interview)
11) One day a woman in her late middle years, who owns a Kake business, asked about
my study. Although I never mentioned the road issue, her response to my study was that
she did not want the road to be extended to Petersburg. She likes the isolation of the
community. The road to Petersburg would mean that Kake people would travel to the
Petersburg bars. People would get into more automobile accidents. There would be more
drug trade. She wishes the government would assign a group to go from area to area in
Southeast and do away with the drug people. She said that she knows there are drug
people in Kake, but there are more in Petersburg.
12) A non-Native man, Speaker One, and a non-Native woman, Speaker Two, who have
lived in Native villages much of their lives. Paraphrasing/Speaker One: The DOT road
effort has a lot to do with Petersburg doing underhanded politics for their own interest.
For example, mining claims out ofPetersburg are all over Kupreanof Petersburg wants
to annex most of the island as part of its borough, then it would have jurisdiction over
most of the island. Hunters like the idea of the road, but Speaker One says the island is
game poor and outfitters and guides would make it difficult for Kake people. All of
DOT's arguments in favor of building the road will have little positive outcome for Kake,
said Speaker One. The reasons given in support of the plan will actually make it more
difficult for Kake economically. One DOT justification for the road is to do away with a
ferry stop in Kake. Kake people would access the ferry in Petersburg. Speaker One and
Speaker Two say they don't see the advantage of having to drive forty miles on logging
roads to Petersburg to get on a ferry. In Kake, everyone drives a quarter mile to get on the
ferry. They don't like the idea of having to leave their cars unsupervised on MitkofIsland
for as long as they are gone. DOT claims that the road would be used to connect Kake to
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the electrical intertie. Speaker One says that there is an alternate route for the intertie that
would reduce the electrical lines by ten miles without connecting the road to Petersburg.
The former mayor was the one pushing for a road, according to Speakers One and Two,
because of family mining claims. The speakers also talk about the history ofPetersburg's
prejudice toward Kake people. Speaker Two doesn't think it would be of any help to
Kake people to be connected, based on Petersburg's history. She recounts how Tlingit
people were once treated 'like dogs' and not allowed to go into restaurants, and how the
merchants took the good stuff off of the shelves when Kake people came on the ferry to
shop in Petersburg.
13) Paraphrasing a man in his late middle years. This speaker went to Washington D.C.
and Juneau to ask policy makers about the purpose of the road to Petersburg. He said he
never got an answer about why they want the road so much. "It's about power," he said
in reference to the borough and the road. He told policy makers not to lie. He repeated
several times that policy makers never told him why they wanted the road, just that they
would send out a newsletter or information sheet to everyone in Kake. They never did
send anything, he said.
APPENDIXL
TEXT OF SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 12
Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 12
SCR12 Bill Text (2004)
00 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 12
01 Requesting the Local Boundary Commission to consider borough incorporation for
02 certain unorganized areas.
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
04 WHEREAS Article I, sec. 1, Constitution of the State of Alaska, provides that all
05 persons are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and protection under the law, and
06 that all persons have corresponding obligations to the people and to the state; and
07 WHEREAS the State of Alaska requires organized boroughs, home rule cities in the
08 unorganized borough, and first class cities in the unorganized borough to operate a system of
09 municipal public schools as provided in AS 29.35.160 and 29.35.260(b); and
10 WHEREAS the State of Alaska significantly reduces public school funding to
11 organized boroughs, home rule cities in the unorganized borough, and first class cities in the
12 unorganized borough by an amount equal to the "local contribution" required of those
13 municipalities under AS 14.170410, while no corresponding public school funding reductions
14 are imposed on the remainder of Alaska for operation ofregional educational attendance
15 areas; and
16 WHEREAS the State of Alaska imposes significant obligations to provide other
01 fundamental public services, such as land use regulation, upon organized boroughs, home rule
02 cities in the unorganized borough, and first class cities in the unorganized borough, while no
03 corresponding obligations are imposed on the remainder of Alaska; and
04 WHEREAS no reasonable basis, such as fiscal or administrative capacity, exists to
05 distinguish those Alaskans who do not have obligations to provide a system ofpublic schools
06 and other fundamental public services from those Alaskans within organized boroughs, home
07 rule cities in the unorganized borough, and first class cities in the unorganized borough upon
08 whom the State of Alaska has imposed significant financial and other obligations to provide a
09 system of public schools and other fundamental public services; and
10 WHEREAS borough incorporation of unorganized areas with relatively significant
11 populations residing outside home rule and first class cities, and with the fiscal and
12 administrative capacity to operate boroughs, would establish a reasonable basis to distinguish
13 Alaskans that have significant obligations to provide a system of public schools and other
14 fundamental public services from those with no such obligations; and
15 WHEREAS the Local Boundary Commission determined in its February 2003 report
16 entitled: "Unorganized Areas of Alaska that Meet Borough Incorporation Standards," that
17 seven unorganized areas of Alaska meet standards for borough incorporation, including fiscal
18 and administrative capacity to operate boroughs; and
19 WHEREAS four of the seven unorganized areas identified in the Local Boundary
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20 Commission's February 2003 report have relatively significant populations residing outside
21 home rule and first class cities; those areas are the Upper Tanana Basin Model Borough, the
22 Copper River Basin Model Borough, the Glacier Bay Model Borough, and the Chatham
23 Region Model Borough, as those unorganized areas are defined by 3 AAC 110.990(9); and
24 WHEREAS the purpose of the local government article of the Constitution of the
25 State of Alaska is to provide for maximum local self-government with a minimum of local
26 government units, and to prevent duplication of tax-levying jurisdictions; and
27 WHEREAS Article X, sec. 1, Constitution of the State of Alaska, encourages
28 organization of boroughs to achieve the purpose of the local government article; and
29 WHEREAS the local option method ofborough incorporation, first enacted in 1961
30 and currently codified in AS 29.05.060 - 29.05.150, has been generally ineffective in
31 promoting the fundamental constitutional objective of borough organization; and
01 WHEREAS the Local Boundary Commission has authority under art. X, sec. 12,
02 Constitution of the State ofAlaska, to present borough incorporation proposals to the
03 legislature; and
04 WHEREAS the provisions of AS 44.33.812 require the Local Boundary Commission
05 to adopt regulations providing procedures for borough incorporation; and
06 WHEREAS the Local Boundary Commission has adopted procedures for
07 incorporation of boroughs under 3 AAC 110.400 - 3 AAC 110.660, including procedures in 3
08 AAC 110.610 for legislative review under art. X, sec. 12, Constitution of the State of Alaska;
09 and
10 WHEREAS the provisions of AS 44.33.812 require the Local Boundary Commission
11 to consider borough incorporation for areas requested of it by the legislature;
12 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests the Local Boundary
13 Commission to consider borough incorporation for the Upper Tanana Basin Model Borough,
14 the Copper River Basin Model Borough, the Glacier Bay Model Borough, and the Chatham
15 Region Model Borough; and be it
16 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests the Local
17 Boundary Commission to present a recommendation for borough incorporation under the
18 legislative review method in art. X, sec. 12, Constitution of the State of Alaska, for each
19 model borough listed in this resolution that is determined by the Local Boundary
20 Commission, with any appropriate amendments or conditions, to meet applicable borough
21 incorporation standards under the Constitution of the State of Alaska, Local Boundary
22 Commission regulations, AS 29.05.031 and 29.05.100; and be it
23 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests the Local
24 Boundary Commission to include in each legislative review recommendation for borough
25 incorporation submitted under this resolution, details concerning the class, name, boundaries,
26 assembly composition and apportionment, proposed operating budget, taxes, and other
27 areawide and nonareawide powers to be exercised, measures to ensure a smooth transition to
28 organized borough status, and other elements essential to the establishment of each particular
29 recommended borough.
30 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Frank Murkowski, Governor
31 of Alaska; the Honorable Darroll Hargraves, Chair, Local Boundary Commission; and to the
01 Honorable Edgar Blatchford, Commissioner, Department of Community and Economic
02 Development.
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APPENDIXM
SENATOR WILKIN'S 2004 SPEECH
Gary Wilkin, sponsor of bill SCR 12 in a speech to the State Affairs Committee
March 2004. (Transcript of taped session)
Thank you Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Gary Wilkin, representing district
E in the state senate, and if you'll just give me a moment, let me get sort of organized.
(Shuffling of papers) Okay. For the record Mr. Chairman I'd like to read into the record
my sponsor statement and then a couple of brief comments before we uh go to your
committee. Thank you for hearing the bill, members of the committee. Senate concurrent
resolution twelve requests the local boundary commission, known as the LBC, consider
borough incorporation for four areas of our state: the upper Tanana Basin Model
Borough, the Copper River Basin Model Borough, the Glacier Bay Model Borough and
the Chatham Region Model Borough. These four areas of the state were recently
identified in a February 2003 report by LBC entitled "Unorganized Areas of Alaska that
Meet the Borough and Incorporation Standards." And they were identified as meeting
the existing standards for borough incorporation. Mr. Chairman, although the
aforementioned model boroughs are named in the recent local boundary commission
report as having the fiscal and administrative capacity to operate borough governments,
the majority of the residents do not live in a home rule or a first class city. As residents of
the unorganized borough, these Alaskans are not required to fmancially support their
local school system. This resolution recognizes this fact and establishes a procedure to
determine if the residents of the four areas have the ability to contribute to their local
schools. SCR12 requests the local boundary commission to review these areas in depth
and make a recommendation for borough incorporation for each of the model boroughs
that is determined to have met the applicable borough incorporation standards. The exact
details regarding the establishment of each particular recommended borough would be
included in each legislative review as submitted to the legislature by the local boundary
commission. Each proposed borough incorporation would be adopted unless the
legislature disapproved of the recommendation within 45 legislative days. That concludes
my sponsor statement. If! could make a few comments. This .. a year ago uh the
legislature asked the local boundary commission to go out and produce a report. And
many of you have seen this and read it. This is the report, and it's in three sections and
the results of this report are that they recommend .. a .. seven areas, or at least identify
seven areas that would have the capacity to support local government. Urn all seven of
these are within the unorganized borough. Urn SCRl2 identifies four of those seven, the
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common thread being the support oflocal schools. Urn the three that aren't addressed are
frrst class or home-rule cities that currently support their local schools and are not a
subject ofSC12. Urn this is in three sections. There's lots of information in here. And is
the basis on which SCRl2 is founded. Urn and I believe Mr. Hargraves is on line and he
may discuss that. In your packets, urn I just want to review for you a profile of the
unorganized borough, and it's on a sheet like .. it just says profile of the organized
borough. I won't read all of those, but I will read four of them. The unorganized borough
was created when our constitution was put together in the late 50s and when the
mandatory boroughs were put in place in the early 60s it was created as an
instrumentality of government in the state ofAlaska. It encompasses 11 census areas
across our state. It encompasses 13 percent ofAlaska's population, or about 82,000
people, and it includes 37 of Alaska's 53 school districts. Approximately 70 percent.
People often confuse the local boundary commission's effort as somewhat futitive and
somewhat arbitrary. And I just want to remind the committee today that this is a table, I
believe it's in your packet, this table identifies the eleven different standards for borough
incorporation, and you can see this the source of those of the or the sites for that
authorization and authority on behalf of the state. And you can just look down the side
there, it asks the boroughs whether they have adequate facilities. Is it in the best interest
ofthe state to have an organized area? Do they have common large and stable
populations? Do they have similar geographies? Those types of things. So you have to
ask each of those eleven questions. You have to answer them by the laws set forth you'll
see on the right columns before one is considered to be capable of supporting local
government.
The issue regarding the schools is shown in this chart here. It's one year behind but it's
certainly gives the, it gives the message. You can see here that urn, that this is money that
organized Alaska, the people that I represent, uh in Fairbanks, contribute to mandatory,
by mandatory contribution in order for them to receive their first dollar ofuh, ofuh local
aid. Uh organized Alaska this year contributed $254 million dollars before they get their
frrst nickel of state aid. Uh out of that $254 million, we'll tum around, and we will
distribute $125 and a half million to local REAA's that don't contribute anything for their
local schools. They don't contribute to operation or capital. It's a gratis program on
behalf of the state. This may have been .. this may have been appropriate in the late 50s
or early 60s. I would suggest that today there are areas ofthe state that have reached the
capacity to have wealth in their areas of the state that they can at least be asked or at least
have the courage to look to see if they could indeed support some level oflocal
government and support their local schools. A common refrain is, well, we can't afford it
out here. Uh there's lots ofdata that show that perhaps one might. But I just refer you to
one that I think is very telling. If you look at this chart here that shows 2002 wages
earned in an unorganized area of our state, I don't identify them, that's not necessary
today, but I think that the important part, and if you look under average monthly
employment, and these are ESD reported wages. This is a federal uh quarterly ESD
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reports that every employer would report, and is held accountable under federal law that
they be accurate, you'll see there in the column second from the right, 16,541 people in
two thousand and two go over to total wages paid and type, 16,541 people made 428.9
million dollars in 2002. And you can look down there and see where the higher wages
are, but you can see group A there has an average wage of $44,000. Uh right on down,
the average is about $25,900 in the unorganized Alaska. And what you'll see there for
sure too is there are areas in the state that probably don't have the capacity for
government and that's recognized by many, including myself. The local boundary
commission has come before the legislature on a regular basis, and this is an example of
January 2001 of the report, of the need to reform and to seek areas of the state that
perhaps could support government and provide some relief to those taxpayers that are
already paying taxes. But every year they give a report to the government, uh, to the
legislature. Each of those reports for the seven years I've been here, they've all asked for
relief to eliminate some of the disincentives that we have put in place for unorganized
areas to become responsible for their own actions. With that Mr. Chairman I'll conclude
my testimony.
Mr. Chairman, the best government is the government closest to the people. And there
are areas of our state that are called out .. that are being called upon to contribute and help
with education. And I think in these budget times, and I think as a matter of fairness, that
as a fiscal issue, and that is obviously the dollars that would flow to the treasury and
enable us to pay for education. But there's an almost, a like aspect of this, I think is very
important that sort of swirls below the surface. That is those areas of the state that are
able to support their schools to the level that the state mandates, the four mil limit, when
people sit down to write a check every month or every year, for their schools, they start to
care a little more about what happens in the little red school house. And I think that that's
almost as important an issue, maybe even more so then the money issue itself. And I'll
leave you with that thought, and be glad to answer any questions that you may have in
regard to SCR12. Thank you.
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APPENDIXN
ALBC CHAIRMAN HARGRAVE'S 2004 SPEECH
Testimony of Darroll Hargraves to the Senate State Affairs Committee
March 2004. (Transcript of taped session)
Mr. Chairman I'll make a very brief statement and be available for your questions, if
that's .... Chairman and members of the committee I'm Darryl Hargraves, chairman of
the Local Boundary Commission. Last year the legislature enacted a law, chapter 53 SLA
2002 (designating) the local boundary commission to determine which areas of
unorganized borough (were qualified) for borough incorporation, and also directed the
local boundary commission to file a report of its findings with the legislature by February
of this year. This report was filed on Feb. 19, last month. (The papers) before you provide
a summary of the report. That report should be a matter of your records. As noted in my
summary, the commission recognizes that the legislature has a duty - per our constitution
- to determine fundamental state policy on the matter of which boroughs will be
organized. If adopted this Senate Concurrent Resolution number twelve (SCRI2)
constitutes the expression of fundamental legislative policy regarding borough formation.
The resolution asks the local boundary commission to consider borough cooperation in
these four specific areas, the upper Tanana Basin, the Copper River Basin, Glacier Bay,
and the Chatham Region. These four areas were identified in the commission's uh Feb.
19 report meeting the standards for borough incorporation. Adoption ofthe resolution
would initiate formal proceedings of the local boundary commission per specific
proposals for the establishment of organization of organized boroughs for the four areas
listed in the resolution. The commission would consider each proposal separately. If after
further study and public hearings the commission (confrrms) the determination expressed,
in the Feb. 19th report, the four areas - or part of those four - meet the standards of
incorporation, resolution asks the commission to take recommendations to the legislature
under article ten section twelve ofthe constitution for an incorporation ofthese areas as
boroughs, any such recommendations from the commission is subject to review by the
legislature. The legislature can reject the commission's recommendations by adopting a
concurrent resolution. Any recommendation not rejected would result in the formation of
a borough outlined in that recommendation.
I spoke to you last month. I completed my (presentation) by stating that the local
boundary commission ---- any future directives ofthe legislature a matter ofboroughs in
accordance with the law. The local boundary commission does in fact require Alaska
Statute 44.33. and 812 to consider any incorporation proposal (entrusted) of it by the
527
legislature. This is saying, Mr. Chairman, that when the legislature speaks, it will be a
directive to the local boundary commission. If the legislature adopts senate concurrent
resolution number twelve, the commission will conscientiously carry out its duty and
determine which boroughs it believes meets the standards, and which boroughs we
recommend for boroughization. Mr. Chairman that concludes my prepared remarks. I can
respond to any questions that you have.
528
APPENDIX 0
ANGOON TESTIMONY IN RESPONSE TO SCR 12
A segment of public comments from Angoon to the State Senate Affairs Committee
March 2004. (Transcript of taped session)
Peter: Yeah this is Peter. First I'd like to say I appreciate the opportunity to testify. And
I'd like to make a brief statement regarding the formation of a borough. Several years ago
the community of Angoon considered the possibility of forming a borough but at that
time it was determined that we had little benefit to be gained by being a borough, and
then the unemployment rate is high in this area, very high, and what little income that
comes into the community is seasonal. Most ofthe fishermen, the way fishing is going,
the fishin for salmon is really a depressed area for this community. I don't see any
benefits of forming a borough.
Chairman: Is that the end of your testimony?
Peter - And I'd just like to say that, I'd like to finish up by saying that the first time I
heard about this was just today about one hour before I came up to the office here. And I
think it's, and this was the first time I called em. Well I think it is, yes, and then what I'm
saying is I don't think Angoon will benefit by being a borough.
Chair - Uh. Senator Stevens?
S - Thank you Mr. Jack. I appreciate your comments, but how do you suggest we pay for
education in your community?
Jack - I think that's a good question. I think if we could think ofa way to do it, we'd be
doing it ourselves.
(chuckles)
Chair - uh okay. Thank you Peter.
You have a question senator Taylor?
Taylor - Yeah. In fact some years ago Angoon seriously looked at becoming a borough
and that was because, I believe, the community was looking at taxing the Greens Creek
mine. I think that that's the motivation that had the Green's Creek mine immediately run
to Juneau to have Juneau tax them. Because I think they believed, or hoped at least, that
they would end up with a lower taxation level than what they were gonna get from
Angoon. And that's why I brought up the point earlier as to who should be taxing that
facility out there. I can remember that, somewhat of a controversy going on about that at
the time, and I believe the statement I just made is correct. I believe that at the time
Angoon was looking at becoming a borough, uh Green's Creek was not in a taxing
district at that time.
529
Chair - okay. You had one other person there at Angoon to testify?
Floyd - Yes my name is Floyd Jim.
Floyd - When you're talking about (LBC) to look at this community. We're still on an
island (with) a national monument. But yet the federal government overlooked this
community. It's the only community that is living on a national monument. (Need to) tell
them to recognize us as one, to take care ofus. Two (the rule that you can't claim or
annex) over bodies of water could generally give our community the right borough to
claim Green's Creek and the whole island. And to top it, off according to your, according
to the way you guys are talking, a community has to have at least 1,000 or more to
become borough. You guys are throwing all these communities together to form a
borough. And then what it is going to amount to is all the communities that are put into
one borough are going to be fighting over this money, that money. That's ridiculous. A
borough it should be a community by itself, that is, like you say has to have a 1,000
people to become a borough. That's what you guys are overlooking. And without
resolving other issues that are on the table instead of wasting money trying to figure out
how to (pick out) boroughs for the state of Alaska. (Many) issues like for subsistence
hasn't been resolved.... and to me I oppose this borough issue until (rules are settled)
like this on annexation ofanybody's you know claim. (Idea that) you can't claim across a
body of water. (pause)
Chair - Go ahead Jim. Are you done?
Floyd - Yes I'm done. I'mjust letting you know I oppose it .... You can't claim across
bodies ofwater. Generally being a borough we would claim the whole island. But being
on a national monument, the state don't even look at it as being a what .. overlooked by
the federal government, being a national monument, the only village out here. Why aren't
they upgraded or anything?
Chair - Oh okay Jim. I think there's a question here. Senator Lincoln.
Lincoln - Well Mr. Chairman. I don't .. I appreciate you allowing me to ask a question
but I just want Angoon and the others to know that you know not all ofus feel that you
all in the rural communities are not paying your way. I really do believe as one of the, as
a village member, that we do pay our way, and I believe that in Angoon especially, you
know you do have the raw fish tax that, it might not go directly back to education, but at
any point that you can get employment out in our villages we end up by paying
something for it. And certainly the village corporations and the regional corporations
have assisted through the shareholders to help to pay the way for the state. So I don't
want Angoon or others to feel that all of us here on the committee or in the legislature,
that we're feeling that you're not paying your way. Because I'm one of those that believe
that we are paying every bit that we can.
530
APPENDIXP
SELECTION FROM LBC 2005 REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE
Selections from the Report of the Alaska Local Boundary Commission to the
First Session ofthe Twenty-Fourth Alaska State Legislature, January 2005
Segment 1
CHAPTER 3 - POLICY ISSUES AND CONCERNS
Introduction (pgs. 83-85)
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the convening of Alaska's Constitutional
Convention. From November 8,1955, to February 5, 1956, fifty five elected delegates
gathered at the University of Alaska campus near Fairbanks to create the framework for
Alaska's future state government.. Five decades later, the efforts of those delegates
continue to be generally regarded as a great success. One of the biggest challenges facing
the framers of Alaska's Constitution was to transform Alaska's anachronistic local
government structure into a modem system that would serve the diverse areas ofAlaska
efficiently and effectively. At the time, local government in the Territory of Alaska was
both rudimentary and flawed, as described below. Under territorial status, local
institutions had undergone only limited development; there was little self-determination
at the territorial and even less at the local level. Federal law prescribed the powers of the
territorial legislature, severely limiting the scope and types of local government and
restricting the powers that could be exercised by cities. For example, counties could not
be established, bonding criteria were strictly delimited, and home rule could not be
extended to cities. Victor Fischer, Alaska's Constitutional Convention, 1975, p. 116.0ver
the course of more than 44 meetings, the Committee on Local Government crafted the
Local Government Article ofAlaska's Constitution. When completed, the framework for
local government comprised a mere 833 words. The delegates drafted a strikingly simple,
yet effective, framework to provide local services to Alaskans. A copy of the Local
Government Article is included with this report as Appendix A. Regrettably, certain key
provisions of the Local Government Article of Alaska's Constitution were poorly
implemented. Some say this was because decisions over complex issues were rushed. Of
even greater concern is the fact that some constitutional provisions remain unexecuted,
even after 46 years of Statehood. This may have been the result of deferring difficult
decisions involving controversial matters. Jay Hammond's candid account of the
enactment of initial borough legislation, which is discussed in Section I of this Chapter,
does nothing to dispel such conjectures. The LBC outlines its concerns in this Chapter
531
regarding these matters in the context of its ongoing duty to study local government
boundary problems (see AS 44.33.812(a)(1)).40 Before discussing those concerns, the
Commission acknowledges the contributions made by Victor Fischer, former
Constitutional Convention Delegate. The only amendment to Article X occurred in 1972.
It eliminated provisions regarding city council members serving on borough assemblies.
As amended, the Local Government Article now consists of784 words. The views
expressed here are strictly those of the LBC, an independent commission with the duty to
address "local government boundary problems." Victor Fischer Local Boundary
Commission Report to the First Session of the Twenty-Fourth Alaska State Legislature
January 2005 Page 85 and State Senator, and Arliss Sturgulewski, former State Senator.
These esteemed statesmen and experts in Alaska local government conferred with the
Commission in the development of this report. The Commission and its individual
members appreciate their critique of the concerns set out in the report and their
endorsement of the importance ofresolving the issues raised therein. Section 1. Lack of
Adequate Inducements for Incorporation of Organized Boroughs and Annexation to
Existing Boroughs Subsection A. Statement of the Issue: Those who wrote the Local
Government Article of Alaska's Constitution clearly anticipated that the Alaska
Legislature would provide sufficient inducements to prompt voluntary borough
incorporation. Regrettably, that vision of the framers ofAlaska's Constitution-
undoubtedly one of the most critical aspects of implementing the Local Government
Article of Alaska's Constitution - still awaits fulfillment.
The report goes on to quote the narratives of 1956 convention delegates and 1960,
1961 legislators to show the intent of convention decisions concerning borough
formation. (Alaska LBC 2005:85-90) The report goes on to outline University of
Alaska studies and statements by the Alaska's First State Attorney General, John L.
Rader that concluded the 1961 Borough Act was ineffectual in accomplishing the
state's goals for boroughization. Rader thought that mandatory formation would have
to be enacted in order to do away with independent school districts and public utility
districts that were unrecognized under the constitution. (Alaska LBC 2005:90-92) A
1971 study concluded that the state should encourage changes in local government
before more local service areas are created and their boundaries hardened. In 1981
another study was published that pointed out ... "Alaska has not evolved as
envisioned initially. Only eleven boroughs have formed since 1959; the rest of the
state (nearly 75 percent) remains in the unorganized borough and depends primarily
on the State and federal support for services. John 1. Kirlin, a professor of Public
Administration at the University of Southem Califomia helped with the study. He
wrote: "This complex, jury-rigged non-system provides disincentives and barriers to
change" (Alaska LBC 2005:95). In 1991 a task force was developed to discuss
boroughs and the state constitution. "The tension between the constitutional intent
that the state become completely organized into boroughs and the strongly held
notion that citizens should only have as much local govemment as they desire was a
dominant theme in Task Force deliberations" (Alaska LBC 2005:96). The task force
concluded that there were large portions of the unorganized borough that lacked a
regional resource base to support a borough govemment system. In addition, those
areas that might support a borough govemment lacked incentives because of state
and federal laws and programs. (Alaska LBC 2005 :96)
Regional Educational Attendance Areas had been established to allow local
control of schools. This was said to have reduced incentives to form regional
govemments.
The state's sharing ofNational Forest receipts and Fisheries Business Tax
receipts with communities in the unorganized borough also contributed to
lack of incentives to organize regional govemments.
In 2001, the Local Boundary Commission published a policy paper titled The Need
to Reform State Laws Concerning Borough Incorporation and Annexation, and that
asked the state to change laws that deterred local incentive to form boroughs. The
report was cited in the 2005 report to the legislature...."the lack ofa strong State
policy promoting the extension of borough govemment [is] the most pressing 'local
govemment boundary problem' facing Alaska" (Alaska LBC 2005:97).
Segment 2. (Alaska LBC 2005:98-100)
532
533
Promotion of Borough Formation Is Sound Public Policy.
(a) Boroughs Promote Maximum Local Self-Government With a Minimum ofLocal
Government Units. Article X, section 1 of Alaska's Constitution sets out the purpose and
construction of the Local Government Article. The purpose of this article is to provide for
maximum local self-government with a minimum of local government units, and to
prevent duplication of tax-levying jurisdictions. A liberal const r u c t ion shall be given
to the powers oflocal gover n m en t units.
Referring specifically to section 1 of the Local Government Article, the Alaska Supreme
Court observed that Alaska's Constitution encourages the creation of borough
governments. See, Mobil Oil Corporation v. Local Boundary Commission, 518 P.2d 92,
101 (Alaska 1974). Eben Hopson, Native leader, member of the Territorial Legislature,
and State Senator, offered the following insights concerning maximum local self-
government: In 1958, when the people of the North Slope area voted overwhelmingly for
Alaskan statehood, they did so for the same reason as nearly all Alaskans voted for
statehood. They wanted the right to determine for themselves what they would do and
when they would do it. ... We wanted to change this system and we voted for statehood,
almost every man and woman.... Throughout the eight years work of c rea tin g the
North Slope Borough, we had the same thing in mind. T h r 0 ugh the "maximum of
local government," guaranteed us by the Constitution of this State of Alaska, we wanted
the maximum of self determination. Eben Hopson, North Slope Borough Mayor, Official
Position Paper: North Slope Borough Re: Proposed Ad Valorem Tax on Oil Properties
(Fall 1973). "Through the "maximum of local government," guaranteed us by the
Constitution of this State of Alaska, we wanted the maximum ofself determination."
Eben Hopson
Dr. Victor Jones, a professor at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of
California, concluded as follows in the previously cited 1981 study on the unorganized
borough: "The constitutional goal of 'maximum local government' can only be
approached when a locality or region is organized." Problems and Possibilities for
Service Delivery and Government in the Alaska Unorganized Borough, p. 115. By their
general-purpose nature, boroughs serve as a mechanism to achieve "maximum local self-
government." They are political subdivisions of the State and have the power to levy
taxes, issue debt, enact laws, and otherwise exercise broad responsibilities ofgeneral
local governments. In contrast, delivery of fundamental services in the unorganized
borough is often carried out by single-purpose entities. For example, REAAs and federal
transfer regional educational attendance areas (FTREAAs) provide educational services
for 100 ofevery 155 residents of the unorganized borough (64.6 percent).
Organized boroughs also achieve "maximum local self-government" in the sense that
they are governed by assemblies comprised of local residents who are elected by local
voters. In contrast, the State Legislature wields the power of the assembly for the
unorganized borough, with the vast majority of its members elected by voters who do not
live in the unorganized borough.44 Having officials elected largely by one group (i.e.,
534
legislators elected by residents oforganized boroughs) govern the local Article X, section
6 of the Alaska Constitution provides that: The legislature shall provide for the
performance of services it deems necessary or advisable in unorganized boroughs,
allowing for maximum local participation and responsibility. It may exercise any power
or function in an unorganized borough which the assembly may exercise in an organized
borough affairs of another group (i.e., residents of the unorganized borough) runs counter
to basic democratic principles. In this case, approximately 87 percent (52 of its 60
members) of the assembly of the unorganized borough is elected by voters living within
organized boroughs. That circumstance is hardly conducive to maximum local self-
government. Organized boroughs promote the constitutional principle of a "minimum of
local govemment units" because of their regional nature and broad powers. Boroughs
provide many fundamental powers (e.g., education) to all residents. Moreover,
approximately 100 of every 121 residents of the organized boroughs (82.9 percent) rely
exclusively on borough govemments for all municipal services. The remaining
17.1 percent of the residents of organized boroughs receive municipal services from both
a borough and a city government. In contrast, the unorganized borough fosters
fragmented service delivery. The Alaska Municipal League characterizes the matter as
follows: Article X of the Constitution also states, "The purpose of this article is to
provide for maximum local self govemment with a minimum of local gover n men t
units." In the Unorganized Borough the opposite is true. There is currently a minimum of
local self-govemment with a maximum oflocal government units. • Alaska is the only
state with no local govemment for a large geographical part of the state. • In the absence
of boroughs, local services are provided by "over 400 govemmental and quasi-
govemmental institutions. These include 150 municipal govemments, 35 state sponsored
quasi-municipal institutions (REAA's, CRSA's, and ARDOR's), hundreds of tribal
institutions, and scores of local and regional non-profit institutions (DCRA, 1996). The
unorganized borough provides for "a minimum oflocal self-govemment with a
maximum oflocal government units."
Segment 3.
The headings of in the report under the section titled Promotion of Borough
Formation is Sound Government Policy. (Alaska LBC 2005: 98-114)
a. A good portion of the report outlines the reasons borough formation is imperative.
b. Boroughs provide a legal structure for service delivery
c. Boroughs offer stable and capable administrative capacity to provide services
d. Boroughs foster local responsibility
e. Boroughs promote accountability
f Boroughs exercise planning and platting responsibilities
g. Boroughs provide a means to promote private ownership of land
h. Boroughs have capacity to provide greater financial aid for schools
i. Boroughs consolidate school districts
j. Boroughs have capacity for regional control of alcohol and other substances
k. Boroughs promote economic development
1. Boroughs provide a proper role for state government
m. Boroughs promote equity and fairness
535
536
APPENDIXQ
CITY OF KAKE 2003 LETTER TO LBC
Letter to the Local Boundary Commission from the City of Kake February, 2003.
DearLBC:
Though the Community ofKake already enjoys the opportunity to serve effectively
within a municipal context, and as we look to the LBC to address those unincorporated
regions, we look forward to providing input, assistance and local expertise as we consider
this matter. Please accept this map representing an altemative drawing of boundaries for
the suggested Chatham District. These boundaries and landmarks encompassing the
Islands of Admiralty, Kupreanof, and Kuiu would serve the goals and intentions ofthe
Commission identifying a borough that would serve the geographic, financial, and
cultural, and social components of this discussion. Thank you for your consideration and
please let me know if! can assist you in any matter I might clarify. Sincerely, Paul Reese,
Mayor City ofKake.
Whereas, the community ofKake has existed from ancient times, enjoying culture,
community, and its unique way oflife.
Whereas the community ofKake has in earlier times enjoyed its independence, self
determination, autonomy and now, as a first class municipality, the oversight of the
welfare of our people.
Whereas the community ofKake is now composed of a dynamic and vital culture, and
unique personality as has evolved from its rich history.
And whereas, the community has also been associated with and intimately connected
with its traditional land, those lands used by its people for those traditional activities such
as hunting, fishing, and gathering related to the lively hood ofthe people.
And as: the state now has mandated the Local Boundary Commission to address the
matter of those communities now existing on unincorporated boroughs.
Be it resolved: that the Community and Municipality of Kake declare its resolve and
determination to maintain its unique culture, personality and way oflife.
Be it further resolved: that the community and municipality of Kake does now encourage
and petition the Local Boundary Commission and all agencies to whom this matter is
relevant to make all diligence to consider the interests and concems of our community, in
any mechanism that would result in the formation of a borough that would either include
537
or encompass the City of Kake or any of the traditional lands associated with the peoples
ofKake.
Also, it is resolved: that the community of Kake does now express its position that no
Borough be formed in or around the Municipality or the traditional lands of Kake without
the expressed consent and endorsement of its peoples as provided by that mechanism
made available by the ordinances ofthe City ofKake. Adopted, this 29th day of January
2003 by a vote of 6 yea's 0 nays and 0 abstentions. Signed Paul Reese Mayor.
538
APPENDIXR
KAKE TRIBAL CORPORATION 2003 LETTER TO LBC
Letter to the Local Boundary Commission from Kake Tribal Corporation, January
31,2003
To the Local Boundary Commission State of Alaska
Dear Sirs:
Kake Tribal Corporation is opposed to any borough that includes Petersburg or Wrangell.
It also opposes any borough proposal that includes the current Glacier Bay borough. The
proposed Chatham Borough may work but must incorporate a method or direction on
opportunities as well as potential detrimental effects on our existing government
structure.
Kake Tribal Corporation is the largest single landowner in the community of Kake and
vicinity and would like to participate in any discussion pertaining to this matter. Please
consider the ramifications carefully and without prejudice to villages in Southeast Alaska.
If you require further information or discussion please call me at the above number.
Sincerely, Sam Jackson President CEO.
539
APPENDIX S
KAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT 2003 LETTER TO LBC VIA KAKE CITY
Appendix 21
Letter to the City of Kake from Kake City School District. January 30, 2003,
and forwarded to the Local Boundary Commission.
Dear Mayor Reese,
I am encouraged to hear that you have the opportunity to meet with staff members ofthe
Local Boundary Commission in Anchorage next week. I feel it is very important to be
proactive in the issue of borough formation. The LBC has a very difficult task in that it is
impracticable for a small commission with limited resources to set up and judge proper
boundaries for people groups within a state as large and diverse as Alaska. If a governing
body is to be responsive to and representative of the people under its authority, it must
have a foundation in the history and culture that brought those peoples together in the
fIrst place. I am very concerned that the rich history and culture of the original Kake
people is not being considered in the establishment of borough boundaries currently
under consideration by the LBC. As a school district, Kake City Schools can not support
the boundary ofthe Chatham Model Borough, the combination of the Chatham and
Glacier Bay Boroughs or the inclusion ofKake in the Wrangell-Petersburg Borough.
None of these options give sufficient respect to the culture or original lands considered
home to the Kake Tlingit people.
In a newsletter article put out by First Alaskans Institute in the fall of2002, President and
CEO Byron Mallott says, "For Native people, education is about reconnecting us to a
strong sense of who we are, where we've come from and where we're going. So long as
the educational system of this state does not recognize that, the system will fail us. And if
it fails us, it will have failed all Alaskans."
As an educator, I do not see any of the proposed borough boundaries as benefIcial to the
processes that Mr. Mallott speaks to. No borough that fails to consider the traditional
territory ofthe Kake Tlingit people will be successful in meeting the educational and
cultural needs ofthe people. The establishment of any ofthe LBC proposed borough
boundaries would only exacerbate the educational disconnect of students in Kake and
other Native communities.
Autonomy is very important to the people ofKake and the education of their children.
This autonomy helps to preserve the culture and identity ofthe people. It is often diffIcult
for those who do not have the strong traditions and ties to Native lands to understand its
540
power and value to the communities and people who have it. These factors are critical to
the successful representation of the people by a government. Until these factors are
recognized in the formation of boroughs, the likelihood of a successful borough
government that will meet the educational and communal needs of the people will be
remote. Sincerely, Eric Gebhart Superintendent.
541
APPENDIXT
OVK 1998 LETTER TO LBC
Resolution in opposition to forming a borough with Petersburg.
Organized Village of Kake September, 1998
Resolution No. 98-22 Proposed Petersburg Borough Boundary
Whereas, the Organized Village of Kake (hereinafter OVK) is a duly constituted Indian
Tribe organized pursuant to the authority of the Federal Indian Reorganization Acts
(hereinafter IRA) of 1934 and 1936 with the IRA Council as the duly elected governing
body formed under its Constitution and By-Laws, and,
Whereas, the IRA Council has responsibilities to its Tribal Citizens (population of 615+
residing in the Kake area) that include, among others, powers of authority to "protect the
general welfare and security of the village" and "protect and preserve the timber, fisheries
and other property and natural resources: as put forth within the OVK Constitution and
By-Laws; and,
Whereas, the lands and waters of Southeast Alaska in and around the current site of
Kake, Alaska have been the traditional territory of the Kake Indians since time
immemorial and includes, but is not necessarily limited to, a range that includes
Kupreanof, Kuiu, Baranof and Admiralty Islands and adjacent mainland areas; and,
Whereas, the Kake Indians functioned as a sovereign over this territory through a
traditional form of tribal government since time immemorial; and,
Whereas, the Kake Indians, now functioning under a contemporary tribal government
structure as referenced above under the governing powers of the Organized Village of
Kake, continues to be recognized by the United States of America as a sovereign
government; and,
Whereas, the governing body of OVK, and earlier forms oflocal tribal government, have
never made agreements or treaties with other governments or entities (including Russia,
United States and the State of Alaska) to relinquish any of the traditional lands, rights or
precepts associated with Indian Country; and,
Whereas, information has been published which reports that the Petersburg City Council
is proposing a Petersburg Borough, whose westerly boundary runs generally south from
Big Creek to Big John Bay on KupreanofIsland which takes an inordinate share of the
island with virtually no regard to Kake's interests.
Therefore Be It Resolved, that the OVK, IRA Council strongly objects to Petersburg's
proposed boundary that takes an unfair share of Kupreanof Island and leaves Kake, which
is located on KupreanofIsland, a ridiculously small portion - whether viewed from a
542
perspective of what simply looks and seems fair or from a historical use perspective
established from time immemorial; and,
Be It Additionally Resolved, that in respect to the proposed Petersburg Borough
boundary, OVK proposes that all of KupreanofIs1and be retained under the use area of
Kake and included with other Kake use areas for any future borough consideration, which
is based on historical use and also contingent upon interest from the City ofKupreanofto
join with any efforts from OVK to organize a borough; and,
Be It Finally Resolved, that the OVK IRA Council formally requests all governments and
entities to maintain direct contact with OVK on the above Petersburg Borough Proposal,
or any matters that may affect the People ofKake and or the traditiona11ands and waters
that have been the territory of the Kake Indians since time immemorial.
Certification
This resolution was duly adopted at an IRA Council meeting held this 22nd day of
September, 1998 by a quorum of7 (includes president as non-voting chairperson except
in case of tie vote) with 6 yes votes, 0 no votes, and 0 abstaining. Samuel Jackson
President. Attested by Edna Jackson.
543
APPENDIXU
OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC
Organized Village of Kake letter to the Alaska Local Boundary Commission.
January 29, 2003
Re: OVK Position and Written Testimony to Local Boundary Commission
Dear Mr. Bockhorst:
The Organized Village of Kake (OVK) is pleased to join with the City of Kake on this
important undertaking for our community. It serves as an excellent opportunity for the
tribal government and municipal government to work together on a common issue, which
is in keeping with the philosophy being forged in the Intergovernmental Memorandum of
Agreement between our two local governments.
With the above in mind, OVK wishes to submit its position in regard to the development
of boroughs, associated boundaries and or other factors that could affect our tribal
citizenship and the overall community. As a local government, OVK has responsibilities
to its Tribal Citizens, which make up three quarters of the local population. These duties
include among others, powers of authority to "protect the general welfare and security of
the Village" and "protect and preserve the timber, fisheries and other property and natural
resources" as mandated by the Organized Village ofKake Constitution.
The above governmental responsibilities continue in today' s world, the same as they
applied since time immemorial as the Kake Indians utilized and rightfully claimed the
lands and waters of our area as their homeland. The territory ofKake was long
established before outside contact came to our shores and that area continues in use today
and into perpetuity, as it is utilized for customary and traditional gathering (i.e.
subsistence) in additional to other uses for the benefit of our people - whether for
personal, spiritual, economic, and or other socio-economic activities.
Besides the tribe's history, which we will present in this document, we wish to go on
record that the Organized Village ofKake, under its mandate to serve its citizens, must
object to any borough boundary or other action that will infringe upon Kake's traditional
boundaries. Further, any action that would diminish our local home rule, which is well
established by our tribal government and also by the City of Kake as a [lIst-class city,
could not be justified as being in the best interest of our citizens - i.e. Kake being
absorbed by another community and or another borough would be unacceptable.
In addition to local documentation, the boundaries of the Kake areas are corroborated by
the Traditional Territory of the Kake Tlingit as published by the State of Alaska and
544
based on the Goldeschmidt and Haas map 1946, Possessory Rights of the Natives of
Southeast Alaska and Department ofthe Interior 1944, Hearings on Claims of the Towns
ofHydaburg, Klawock, and Kake, Alaska. A copy ofthe Goldschmidt Haas map is
attached to this submittal by our tribal government and is offered as documentation of our
claim to our homelands.
In addition to the Goldschmidt Haas map, our other support documentation includes two
attachments that go into more detail that the reader may review at his her convenience
and thereby not detract from the body of this comment letter.
Thank you for your time as we present our tribal government position and if any further
information or materials are needed, please contact myself or our executive directory
Gary E. Williams, at our office. We plan to continue working with the municipal
government on this common cause, but in the interest of efficiency, we ask that our office
be added to your contact list so we can stay current with information concerning our
community.
Sincerely, Casimero A Acevda Jr.
IRA Council President.
545
APPENDIX V
ATTACHMENT A OF OVK2003 LETTER TO LBC
Attachment A of OVK's 2003 letter to the Alaska Local Boundary Commission.
From State of Alaska, Department ofFish and Game Subsistence Division Map, based on
Goldschmidt, W.A., and T.H. Haas 11946 Possessory Rights of the Natives of Southeast
Alaska and Department ofInterior 1944 Hearings on Claims ofthe Towns ofHydaburg,
Klawock and Kake, Alaska.
KEEX' KWAAN BOUNDARIES OF LAND AND CLAN OWNERSHIP
A. Port Camden, that belongs to [Suliteeneidi]. I want to point out the place where
they belong by looking at the chart, but if I am sitting down I cannot remember
well.
Q. Now, what English names do the members of your family have now?
A. They never changed them.
Q. Show me where it is.
A. This is the bay I am referring to (indicating on chart).
Q. Port Camden?
A. Yes. And right across to Hamilton Bay and Rocky Pass (sic), right here
(indicating). They call them Wuzinady (sic) [Was'eeneidi] that owns this piece
ofproperty.
Q. Now, Mr. Johnson that will be roughly Upper Rocky Pass?
A. Well, that would be to Summit Island. And then from there on to Point Monte
Carl08, Kunnedy (sic) [Tanyeidi] and then from there on to Point Barrie, and to
Three Mile Arm, it belongs to that second name I gave you.
Q. From there to Point Barrie and Three-Mile Arm, that belongs to the second one
you named?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. That would be Wuzinady (sic) [Was'eeneidi]?
A. And from Portage Bay, and across, back to there---
Q. (interrupting) From Portage Bay across to [the mainland?]
A. Yes.
8 Arthur Johnson when interviewed by Viola Garfield mentioned Red Bay and the importance of sockeye
salmon and that the Tanyeidi traveled to Red Bay for them.
----------------------
Q. Including Farragut Bay to---
A. (interrupting) Fanshaw Point (sic).
Q. And back to Cape Bendel?
A. And back to Cape Bendel belonged to the Shuncocady (sic) [Shangukeidi].
And from here (indicating) to this place (indicating) is Naysuddy (sic)
[Naas.ddi].
Q. That is from Fanshaw to Windham?
A. Yes that belongs to Naysceddy (sic) [Naas.ddi]. And then from there to this
part---
Q. (interrupting) That is from Windham to Cape Point?
A. Yes, that belonged to Zeedquady (sic) [S'eetJiweidi].
Q. Then start at Cape Point again.
A. That line goes back to this here part (indicting).
Q. Does that belong to the same family?
A. No. That is a different one again.
Q. That is from where?
A. To Point Hugh---
Q. (interrupting) [sic] From Cape Point to Point Hugh, and on Seymour Canal as
far as Gambier Island.
A. That belongs to Gleanady (sic) [L 'eeneidl]'
Q. Who did Gambier Bay belong to?
A. That is a different one. That is a different party.
Q. Well, from where?
A. That is from Gambier Point, this whole bay (indicating) that belonged to another
party.
Q. Gambier Bay belonged to whom?
A. That belonged to Gahnukuddy (sic) [Gaana:s..adi].
Q. I didn't get this clear, Charlie. What about Seymour Canal? Did you cover
that?
A. Yes. That was before Gambier Bay. And from there to Deep Water Point, that
belonged to Quachuddy (sic) [Kaach.ddi].
Q. That is from below Gambier Bay to Deep Water Point?
A. Yes sir.
Q. From Point Tybus (sic) [Pybus} to Deep Water Point?
A. Yes. And then this here---the same party owns this point---the whole shore of
this Cape Bendel, from Cape (sic) [Point} McCartney, the same one just
previous to this that I have mentioned owns this place.
Now, we have to go down to this shore. That is the shore used by the
Ulthchunady (sic) [X'al chooneidi] from Hogaat (sic) [Hoggatt} Bay to [Cape}
Ommaney.
Q. Go on.
546
A. And Port Malmesbury and part of Tebenkof Bay belonged to Nossdady
[Naasteidij, and the whole of Tebenkof Bay to Point Ellis belongs to
Gautahnady (sic) [K'waat'aa.neidij, and from the south arm9 of Pillar Bay all
the way across to the Portage belongs to Sukteenady (sic) [Su!iteeneidij. And
the next one is the north arm lO (sic) to Washington Bay.
Q. The north arm!! ofPillar Bay to Washington Bay?
A. Yes, and that belonged to the Shungocady (sic) [Shangukeidij. And then from
Washington Bay to Meade Point belonged to Kanage (sic) [Tanyeidij, and from
Saginaw Bay and part of Kuiu Island back to the place I started from belonged
to the Tsaquady (sic) [Tsaagweidij.
Q. What about Semour (sic) [Seymour] Canal? Will you come up here to the chart
and tell us about that? Now, which one does Seymour Canal go in with?
A. It goes in with this whole bay and through the portage.
Q. And what is the family name?
A. Gleanady (sic) [L ~eneidij.
Q. Now, Mr. Johnson, you didn't say anything about Red Bay on Prince of Wales
Island?
A. Yes.
Q. Did that belong to anybody?
A. You didn't ask me for that part. I could mark it out and tell you who it belonged
to.
Q. You mark it out, then.
(Marks on map)
A. That belongs to Kunnady (sic) [Tanyeidi]], that this belongs to (indicating).
Q. It belongs to the people that own the lower end of Rocky Pass?
A. Yes.
Q. And their name is Kunnady (sic) [Tanyeidi]
A. Yes, sir.
Q. I thought that that belonged to Bill Paul.
A. He tried to adopt it, probably.
Q. Well, was he a member of that family that owns it?
A. I don't know what he is a member of, but we know it from this place---they
belong here---those Kunnady (sic) [Tanyeidij,.
Q. Well, is William Paul a member of that family?
A. No. We remember that William Paul is entitled to Salmon Bay.
Q. What was his family name?
A. Who, William Paul?
Q. Yes.
9 In the early days Bay of Pillars was known as "South Arm." [See Rowan Bay below.]
10 Rowan Bay was earlier known as "North Arm."
11 Rowan Bay in earlier times used to be referred to as "North Arm."
547
A. Tihitams (sic) [Teey Hit Taanj.
Q. Now, don't the Thitams (sic) [Teey Hit Taan] claim Red Bay?
A. No. Tunnady (sic) [Tanyeidi] sounds almost alike.
Q. But is makes a lot of difference to Bill Paul?
A. It makes a lot of difference with us, all right.
Q. Did you know a man in your lifetime called Gambier Bay Jim?
A. Yes, sir; I do.
Q. What family did he belong to?
A. He belonged to Gahnukuddy (sic) [Gaanlq,..ddi].
Q. Now, this house or this family of Gambier Bay Jim, is that a Kake house?
A. What is that?
Q. Is that one of the Kakes? Gambier Bay Jim's family, were they Kake people?
A. Yes. He is one of them. He is here---the one that is after him is here. He has
got a house here in Kake now Charlie Mason, his name is.
Q. But in olden times, were they from Kake or from Angoon, or from Killisnoo?
A. I don't know where they used to be.
Q. They were not here at Kake in the earliest days that you can remember?
A. I cannot say offhand.
Q. Did Gambier Bay Jim claim that bay?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. For himself?
A. His clan claims it anyhow (sic).
Q. And didn't he make the rest of the Kake Natives stay out of there, or prevent
them from fishing there?
A. I was not fishing in those bays. I don't know just how he used to do things.
548
549
APPENDIXW
ATTACHMENT B OF OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC
Attachment B of OVK's 2003 letter to the Alaska Local Boundary Commission.
Pp 91-95, Haa Aani,' Our Land: Tlingit and Haida land rights and use by Walter R.
Goldschmidt and Theodore H Haas; Edited by Thomas F. Thornton.
KEEX' KWAAN TERRITORY OWNERSHIP BY TRIBES
Excerpted from, "HEARINGS UPON CLAIMS OF NATIVES OF
ALASKA PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 201.21b
OF THE REGULATIONS FOR PROTECTION OF THE
COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA," SEPTEMBER 1944
[See hearings transcript ofCharles S. Johnson's testimony September 22, 1944}
SUKTEENEIDI owns Port Camden.
WAS'EENEIDI Hamilton Bay and Rocky Pass to Summit Island, from there to Pt.
Monte Carlo, Kennedy, then to Pt. Barrie and (sic) 3 mile arm; also from Portage Bay
across to mainland, Cape Fanshaw.
SHUNGUKEIDI Farragut Bay to [Cape] Fanshaw Pt. (sic) and back to Cape Bendel
NAAs.A.nI owned from [Cape] Fanshaw to Windham [Bay] to Cape Point.
The Naas.adi is an extinct tribe. "Charles Newton, when asked by Viola Garfield, "Who
would care for areas ofextinct tribe?' Responded, 'Children of the last man would claim
an area when the tribe becomes extinct.' [In this instance the S'EETKWEIDI.]
S'EETKWEIDI from Windham [Bay] to Cape Point and into the interior on the
mainland.
L'EENEIDI owns from Cape Point to Pt. Hugh and on Seymour Canal as far as Gambier
Island and whole of Seymour Canal area.
GAANAX.A.DI owned Gambier Bay from Gambier Pt.
KAACH.A.DI owned from Seymour Canal to Deep Water Pt. that is from Pt. Pybus to
Deep Water Pt. Also whole shore from Cape Bendel and the creek [Pt. White creek] this
side of Cape [Point.] McCartney.
X'ALCHOONEIDI owns shore from Hoggatt Bay N. to [Cape] Omaney.
SUKTEENEID! owns from South Arm ofPillar Bay across to the Portage.
NASSTEIDi owns Port Malmsbury (sic) [Malmesbury] and part ofTebenkofBay,
southern shores.
K'WAAT'AA.NEIDi owns whole ofTebenkof Bay to Pt. Ellis.
SHANGUKEIDi owns North Arm ofPillar Bay to Washington Bay.
TANYEIDi owns from Washington Bay to Meade Pt.
TSAAGWEIDi owns from Saginaw Bay and part ofKuiu Island back to the place I
started from. "Viola Gaifield Papers, " University of Washington Archives. [Box 10
Accession Number 2027-72-25 location number T0908d, KAKE
550
551
APPENDIX X
ATTACHMENT C OF OVK 2003 LETTER TO LBC
Attachment C of OVK's 2003 letter to the Alaska Local Boundary Commission.
Excerpts from Organized Village ofKake Tribal Archives: "Keex' Kwaan Territory
Ownerships by Tribes"; "Keex' Kwaan Boundaries of Land and Clan Ownership::
"Traditional Kake (Keex' Kwaan) Territory"; compiled by Tribal Historian, Charles
Johnson Jr.
In our culture it is a will-understood principle of self-preservation that humans are
just one small part of the land and of nature and not the dominant force; living in
harmony with the land and with nature is an integral part of our traditional culture and
self-identity.
We draw our identity, as a people, from our relationship to the land, sea, and its
resources; it is a spiritual and sacred relationship; based on the need to co-exist with
nature.
On these lands, and waters, our ancestors lived and died; here we too make our
homes. From these lands and waters we, as did our forefathers harvest in the measured
quantities, what is needed to sustain ourselves; being careful not to unnecessarily disturb
or destroy anything not required for our sustenance and physical well being.
The migration ofbirds, animals and the spawning of fish predicated our annual calendar;
for that reason there were autumn, winter, spring, as well as summer camps.
We, as were our ancestors, are but a minute segment of a pilgrimage from one living
generation to the next. Tlingit ownership ofland antedates memory and was a sacred
trust. They had a well-developed system of exclusive ownership, of land, rivers, riparian
areas and waters; they had well-defined geographic boundaries in each Tribe's territory;
and were owned in common by all its members. Those boundaries were well known and
respected by all other Tribes and it was tacitly understood that there would be no
trespassing, by non-members without the express permission of the traditional owners.
Each Tribe's territory was further divided into separate holdings of clans, house groups
and from among them by families, as specialized camp sites for harvesting animals,
berries, fish, tidal area foods, trees, etc. They recorded title to their land with posted crest
designs owned by various clans. Clan stories and songs recorded the history ofhow clans
came into possession of their territories, which include, marine areas and transportation
corridors. They even claimed mountaintops and glaciers.
Each clan traveled to their traditional historical areas; where they conducted their
hunting, trapping, fishing and food gathering as well as harvesting other materials they
552
needed. Each location is pre-empted by particular families, and considered hereditary
property, which is handed down from generation to generation. Those areas are still
utilized, though not as camps, for harvesting traditional and cultural foods; fast boats are
now used to get to and from those harvest areas, therefore camps at the sites are no longer
necessary. Tlingit property laws were rigid and inflexible.
The original Tlingit name ofthe present Kake village site was "Ta' Aan," which
literally interpreted, means sleeping village. It was sort of the 'Capital' of the Keex'
Kwaan and came alive when it was used for special gatherings of the Keex' Kwaan. The
people started building frame houses at the present site, after the U.S. Navy in 1869,
wantonly destroyed not only all the houses, canoes in three Keex' Kwaan villages, but
their winter food supplies that were cached at special garden site and campsites. The
following winter was an especially harsh one and many children and adults perished for
lack of food, proper clothing and housing.
553
APPENDIXY
KAKE MAYOR'S 2003 SPEECH TO KUPREANOF
Mayor of Kake, talking to the Kupreanof City Council and other people in
attendance.
KupreanofCity Meeting, Nov. 9,2003. (Transcript of taped meeting).
Segment 1
Mayor: Let me give you the whole story, and with any story it gets bad before it gets
good. So bear with me through the bad part. The Alaska state constitution mandates
partitioning the state into boroughs. And I don't know why they use that word. The word
county makes more sense to me, but I'm not sure what the difference is between borough
and county. But it is factored in the state law, and that's probably something that gives a
lot ofmomentum to this discussion, and necessitates small communities like yours and
ours into having this kind ofdialog. I'm not sure how long (it's been that) the state
legislature commissioned the local boundary commission, that actually have their offices
in Anchorage, to identify those regions which met the criteria for the formation of
boroughs. And among those regions was a region called the Chatham District Model
Borough. And that's a region of land including a part of (Admiralty Island, the
community ofTenekee, Angoon, and half of Kupreanof and the city ofKake, and
specifically the western half, the half that we're on. And this last February the local
boundary commission presented that report to the legislature. Now before they presented
that report, myself and (others) and two representatives from our tribal government were
in Anchorage to meet with the local boundary commission. The borough that they had
proposed, while I have no good adjectives to say how I feel about it, basically is an
absurd proposal in that it is a proposal that lacked the land mass the population (etc.) that
is needed to sustain a regional government. Our local boundary commission actually
proposed a borough that was destined for failure. And I still am puzzled over why they
would knowingly do that and what mechanism might be involved which would allow
them to do that.
But we, in tum, countered that with our own proposal. And our proposal was a borough
that would incorporate all of Admiralty Island, excepting the very northern part ofthe
Greens Creek mines already (demolished) by the city borough of Juneau, all ofKuiu
Island and almost all of Kupreanof Island. And just for the heck of it, I gave it the name
the Tri-Islands Borough. Well at that time, we did have a discussion about Kupreanof
554
City. And it seemed expedient in the context of that discussion, and because we're
(hadn't talked with Kupreanof) to actually draw a line, so to speak, around Kupreanof
City, accepting that from our borough considerations at that time. We felt that was
important because, like I've mentioned, we hadn't sought your discretion in the matter,
and also to be candid, we were somewhat intimidated by the response we would get from
the city of Petersburg. The proposal that we brought to the local boundary commission
did make sense. Admiralty is a federal monument and so what happened was I talked
with Dr. Sprague and I talked with the mayor ofAngoon seeking an opportunity simply
to become involved in the discussion and consider the possibility of inviting your
community, Kupreanof, to join us in this consideration. The option that we brought to the
local boundary commission does make sense. It does have enough people, there is the
(four communities for a) regional government, there would be a land base that would
make a lot of sense.
It's important that we pursue this discussion. We all enjoy our way oflife, especially in
Kake we enjoy our independence; we enjoy our autonomy. We enjoy our self-
determination, likewise in Angoon. None ofus wants to have this discussion, but because
of the political climate in the state, not only are we forced to, but because of other
considerations, it's now the advantageous time to be discussing this matter. Specifically
there's a (can't hear the exact words here, but Paul says that Petersburg was called at the
time they put together their proposal and Petersburg said it wasn't interested in forming a
borough.) And because of that, that gives us an opportunity to begin to pursue options
that would more adequately represent our communities' interests. So I took this
information to our local city council and they (decided to look into what could be done)
beginning to seek a petition for a second class borough that would include the three
islands and now we are actually considering KupreanofCity within the context of that
borough. Now the borough that we are considering is a borough that would have very
limited powers on a regional basis. None ofus really wants a borough and in Kake we
thought it would be to our advantage to try to, ifwe have to go there, and we do, to
(organize) something that would serve our communities as effectively as possible, and
plus maintain our way of life. A second class borough would serve that more effectively
than the full blown borough considerations like you see Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka,
Anchorage and so forth. A second class borough would maximize the independence of
the communities, minimize the involvement of a regional government, and also, perhaps,
what for us is one of the greatest considerations, is if we were able to achieve a borough,
we would forever lay to rest any consideration of the annexation by the city of
Petersburg, which is exactly why I'm here. We will all live long enough to see this region
formed into boroughs. And the communities ofKake and Petersburg are, in some ways,
very diverse and different. And you know it's my job and my duty to look to the interests
of our community and if the Chatham District Model Borough as has been proposed goes
through, we'll see the borough go belly up very quickly and it would actually create a --
well an opportunity to - you know - an annexation of a much larger borough context,
555
which we were thinking perhaps would end up like something like a Wrangell Petersburg
borough. When we discussed Kupreanof City probably the one ...we were asking a
number ofquestions like ... it was assumed that Kupreanof City would be ultimately
aImexed and absorbed into the city ofPetersburg. And that was more like a given, and we
challenged that on two points. And of course this is only the context of an informal
discussion. And let me also remind you that in none ofthese discussions did we imply
that we were representing your community in any way. We were just, we were looking at
it in our perspective. But I was under the impression, and I believe that I am correct that
you do enjoy your lifestyle and your way oflife and don't particularly want to become a
suburb ofPetersburg. Likewise we were asked about schools and services to the
community and our response was really simple. Children go across county lines to school
all the time, and it's easy ... funding formulas are really easy to come up with to answer
those questions. Now just lately in this last election in Kake, I don't know if you've heard
about it, we've had a, on our ballot we had an advisory vote for a road to Petersburg. Did
you hear about that?
KupreanoJrepresentative: Yeah we heard about that.
Mayor: And two to one the people ofKake declined an opportunity to connect both
communities. And we also, before that, about a week before that, we had a town meeting
and the mayor ofPetersburg and a couple ofPetersburg councilmen came out and joined
us, as well as representatives from the Department of Transportation, the ferries, the state
planners and so forth to present their options, what they would do for us. It's interesting
to note it was an advisory vote. We were real clear on that because we understand that
Kake is also part of a regional community and interests of the state can overshadow the
interests of a single community. And so these are some of the cards that we're playing
with at this time.
What I can't underscore (enough) at this point that it is to the advantage ofsmall
communities like ours to have these discussions. The senator who is the prime mover of
this, I believe he is republican, Senator Gary Wilkin. And he's the .. he's kind of the ...
he's the one who's putting a lot of the energy into this. And of course the state's goal is to
you know encourage municipalities to be more responsible in terms of schools and other
funding issues, and that's what boroughs are all about. The second class borough that
we're now discussing, like I mentioned, would have a very limited regional government.
It would only speak to those interests that are relative to the region. And I'm just kind of,
this is all kind of actually forming in my own mind even as we do this, because we have
the opportunity at this time, if we do form a borough that would unite our three
communities, Angoon, Kake, and Kupreanof City, we have the opportunity to form a
borough that would have a charter that could serve all the communities effectively. For
example in Kake, I could never bring to them as a mayor, a responsible mayor, I could
never bring to them a borough that would be involved in the collection of property tax.
556
And the reason is, is to me it's a moral imperative that I never seek to tax Native people
on their traditiona11ands. It would be writing a bad chapter in that history book.
So such a borough could never have a property tax.
(Someone chuckles)
Likewise, probably the biggest responsibility of a borough like I've mentioned would
simply be to fund the schools, and we, Kake and Angoon, would share a common school
system, and of course I would think it would be expedient to have a provision for those
who enjoy alternative schools, home schooling and so forth. So I think that's about it. It's
a discussion that is very much fluid at this time and I think I should also be candid. I
realize, to be honest, when it comesto the discussions that the community ofKake is,
well we're outgunned, we're outgunned. Other communities like Petersburg have a great
deal more money, they have lobbyists, they have a lot more political pull than a
community like ours has. The cards that we have up our sleeve that we could play
effectively would be the fact that ifwe're successful in this borough endeavor the very
fact that we would be the next region who would meet a criteria for boroughization
would be somewhat a trophy for the legislature, and that might overshadow their listening
to other interest groups that would not necessarily be of the thinking ofour concerns and
so forth.
Segment 2
Mayor: A second class borough is essentially, it's a borough with very very limited
powers relative to the other boroughs.
Someone in the audience: Mmmmhmmm
Mayor: And it's a borough that much more is involved in maintaining the autonomy of
the communities involved.
Segment 3
Mayor: And so the challenge is, if we go there, how can we do this and genuinely serve
all three of these communities, not to mention those people who live on the periphery of
this borough.
Kupreanojrepresentative: Is the object of this borough to pay the total cost of all the
schools, the superintendent, the health nurse, the building, the janitor, or just to defray the
cost of the schools and return that money for the schools to the state, whatever you can
raise in proportion to your population and how much money they've got, whatever your
tax? And then I have a follow up question too.
Mayor: The only way ultimately that we can serve your community, serve the community
ofKake, serve the community of Angoon and achieve our goal of maintaining our way of
life, enjoying our sense ofself determination, preserving our autonomy would be a
borough with very limited regional powers.
Kupreanojrepresentative: You're preaching to the choir. I understand that. I just want to
know literally what you're talking about.
557
Mayor: Here's the trick. A government that ... whose council ran by consensus rather
than majority vote would actually be a kind of a new thing, and I'm still exploring this,
but a government whose only forward motion could be with a consensus ofall the
communities, rather than Kake and Angoon against Kupreanof City so to speak. Ifwe
could factor that into the charter, then all these questions could be answered suitably.
Now I'm not aware yet as to how, for example, forming fonnulas for the schools would
work. A borough does take a much greater responsibility in funding of schools rather
than those schools like Kake in unincorporated boroughs and money filters from the state
in different ways. When the smoke clears I don't yet know how that will change. I do
know that the borough would have its own school system and all schools and all the
educational opportunities would come under ...
Kupreanojrepresentative: And the borough's responsible for all the burden of all that
economic ... all the salaries and all the teachers' salaries and retirement and medical
insurance and all of that, the borough is responsible for all that, and it no longer comes
from the state? If that's the case, I don't see it possibly happening. And then if the, the
tricks of that is, are we going to harvest resources. Are you gonna utilize resource
harvest?
Mayor: Well, you know I, if you look at the background ofKake, nobody wants to see
what's in back ofKake happen to the rest ofKupreanofIsland, or Kuiu for that matter,
not even Kake does.
Kupreanojrepresentative: The Port Camden Peninsula or North Kuiu or East Kuiu or
even some of the new sales proposed, Kake has been very vocally opposed to those sales
taking place, as proposed by the forest service, you know, more roads, more clearcuts,
just moving across the land. So I don't see that flying as a total fix either for funding this
borough. And I don't know, there's some holes there that we're going to have to find pant
legs for, or we're not gonna have much to wear on this thing. (laughter)
Mayor: Yeah.. right, I understand what ... and I have to emphasize here that, you know,
this whole thing, you know, is in a very formative state. You know I don't have the
answers. I'mjust starting at it myself I do know though, that the reason I'm here is .. is
it's a place we've got to go. And at this time, like I've mentioned, we are all in a unique
position to speak to this issue in a way that would serve our communities other then
having it superimposed on us 15 years down the road.
Kupreanojrepresentative two: Uh, just to maybe catch you up ... You might check your
records cause the City of Kupreanofhas had meetings with Kake representatives, Mike
Jackson, Lonny Anderson and among others on the council were talking about the same
thing about five years ago .. so we've already a paper trail established. Like minded
communities banding together under the threat of these impositions that are being foisted
on us.
Kupreanoj representative: Let me get back to my question again. I mean I don't envision,
and I don't think anyone in state government envisions dropping the load ofthe schools,
rural schools onto rural areas. It ain't gonna happen. There isn't an economic base there
to support a school. The state, they're gonna be pumpin money in, you know. But what I
558
was trying to get to was a literal vision for, you know, the benefits that are gonna come to
us by being together are not tangible things. We aren't gonna get services here. We aren't
gonna have money here. We're not ... what we're avoiding is the worst train wreck down
the road if we get, ifwe're annexed by next door, or Ketchikan or somebody else. That's
what the benefits are to us is avoiding, you know, taking some kind of a smaller hit
organizing together to avoid the train wreck that's gonna happen. What I want to know is
literally, for example, I mean is it your vision that there might be simply three
representatives, one from each community in the borough government and that we would
rotate the borough seat, you know, year to year. And then on our turn, you know, perhaps
the mayor ofKupreanof, Dick Sprague would be the borough ..
(lots of laughter)
KupreanojRepresentative: The county seat, or the borough seat would be right here. And
people and the representatives from Angoon and Kake could come over and we would
meet and discuss whatever needed to be discussed to basically make ourselves official.
And those positions might be even voluntary positions, or maybe obligatory that goes
along with mayor, or something like that. See, I mean, is that a vision that is possible? I
mean what do we have to do to comp'ly to a second class borough status?
Mayor: Here's my vision. And I have to (adjust) my vision to what state bar allows it.
But here's what I want. I want a borough with four representatives, Angoon, Kake,
KupreanofCity and the at large representative for those who live (outside the cities). I
would hope that either the mayor or the vice-mayor or a representative could be it.. I
would hope that there would be no borough election. I would hope that there would be no
borough mayor, and one ofthe four would be designated as the spokesperson, the
chairperson. I would hope it would be a government that would function by consensus,
like I mentioned.
Kupreanojrepresentative: The county seat, rotating it, that could be somewhat
cumbersome because of records and that sort ofthing
Mayor: Yeah. And I think probably the most significant service that that borough would
provide would be the monitoring ofschools and perhaps because oflogistics, Angoon
would be the best place for the schools, you know the superintendent of schools. That's
just, you know, my perception. Where the actual government meets? I think it should be
rotated community by community and perhaps on a year or every other year basis. But
there again I'm not sure what state law would allow us and how much we tailor within
that charter to achieve that. You know, I'm really apprehensive, partly because Kake is
the larger community, Kake could become the dominant community in the borough. But
if Kake were, let's say for example we factored Hoonah into this discussion. Hoonah is
not factored in this discussion but if Hoonah were factored in, now they would become
the dominant community. And so I want to be real careful as we pursue this discussion,
we pursue a charter that we design in such a way where we're not going to exclude small
communities because ofthe population base. And so basically we'd have to have a
charter that funding formulas relative to, you know, the basic services that we provide on
a regional basis. There would be schools. I think there would be certain other funding
559
elements that would be involved in municipal governments. As you know Alaska
support, the state's support to rural Alaska is really diminished. In the last few months in
Kake we've been incredibly fiscally challenged. In one day we lost the (program) for
revenue sharing has gone. Other, a lot of our roads, you know we have enough paved
roads that also we're going to become really fiscally challenged in how we're going to
keep up our roads with no money, and so it's ...
Kupreanojrepresentative: With Hydaberg it's ..they're really, you know. It's affecting
everyone ...
Mayor: Hydaberg, yeah, just a point of interest when I was frrst elected two years ago in
October, five months after I was elected I laid off every single city employee in Kake.
Kupreanojrepresentative: Really
Mayor: Yeah. The next March we hit bottom. We'd been going there a long time and
when I was elected. At the point I was elected we had over a $2 million debt, and we
were running at a $90,000 a month deficit.
Kupreanojrepresentative: Whew
Mayor: And we just crashed hard. And it was a real interesting experience for me. I
discovered that a frrst class city can't declare bankruptcy. There's not a provision in law
for bankruptcy.
Mayor: So we had to kind of do it yourself. And within a year's time we were able to get
financial equilibrium. Still, I had a lot of fun doing that. I went to court, the whole thing.
The people took me to court .. all kinds ofthings ..
Kupreanojrepresentative: The employees?
Mayor: No, not our people. You know basically people who we owed money to
legitimately, and had every right. But so, but we did it, and with the support of the
council and with some conservative fiscal strategies we managed to have balance. And
now that we're there, all the sudden the state just goes off the deep end and now we're
challenged again. Those are some of the logistics of what I see. Now I don't know if state
law allows me to dream that way, but, you know, that's what I hope for. Now I'm like
you. Our community's like yours. You know really what we want to do is we want to be
left alone.
Kupreanojrepresentative: Mmhm
Mayor: But it's not a luxury anymore. And we've heard lots of talks about boroughs, but
what forces us into an immediate consideration has been this issue with the local
boundary commission. The senate, the senator that I mentioned, and the fact that right
now you want to pay attention to senate resolution number twelve and then you'll see
Kake and two other regions involved in the potential of being essentially forced into a
borough. Now the current, if the current legislation goes through, Kake will become a
borough with Angoon and of course your community and the eastern half of Kupreanof
Island will be exempted from that. But it's gonna set a heck of a precedent. You know
and I'm, I still am mystified how a borough like that could work.
Kupreanojrepresentative: I've got two questions Paul. On the ruling by consensus for the
borough? I was wondering if there are any boroughs in the state that are doing that
560
presently that you know of? And is this one of the areas that you said you're not sure if
it's legal or not? Can we do this? Can we rule by consensus?
Mayor: I don't know. And I hope so. And if we can't, I'm sure we could stretch the limit
in terms of developing a charter that could certainly maximize the autonomy of the
communities. There, you know, we do get to write the charter. Let me ... I know you
have a lot more questions ... but let me tell you what I would like. You know this is
politics and here's what I'm hoping down the road to get from the City of Kupreanof.
And I would, to be candid, I would like a resolution from your community seeking to be
a part ofa borough with Kake and Angoon.
Kupreanojrepresentative: I think you already have it.
It's done.
Mayor: Is it?
561
APPENDIXZ
HOONAH'S 2006 BOROUGH PROPOSAL
Segments from Glacier Bay - Chatham Borough Initial Feasibility Study. June 2006.
Prepared by City of Hoonah.
The proposed borough would include: Hoonah, Angoon, Kake, Gustavus, Pelican,
Tenakee Springs, and Elfin Cove with a total population of2,714 and an estimated
2,302,760 Tongass acres.
Segment 1 (pg. 3)
Introduction and Background
Hoonah has been considering the feasibility and implications of borough formation in our
region for several years. Our desire is to prepare a petition to form a borough and submit
it to the State's Local Boundary Commission later in 2006. Some of the primary reasons
we are pursuing this now include:
To ensure that we end up in a borough with Glacier Bay, the traditional territory of Tlingit
from our community.
• Because it seems inevitable that borough formation is corning sooner or later, and we
want the borough to be the one that is most advantageous for our region - both in
terms of its boundaries and for how education and taxation are handled. We do not
want to wait and have the Local Boundary Commission or Legislature dictate this to
us.
• Because we want a borough that does not include property tax;
• Having a regional/borough voice will give us more clout with the legislature,
Congress, funders and regional organizations; and
• Ketchikan, Wrangell-Meyers Chuck-Union Bay, and soon Petersburg-Kupreanof
have petitions for borough formation or expansion before the Local Boundary
Commission. As other areas in Southeast Alaska form or enlarge boroughs, this
reduces our region's share of Tongass Timber Receipts (which helps pay for local
education and roads), unless we too form a borough.
Organizing Principles for Our Borough (pg. 4)
The eight principles below are important to people in the Glacier Bay-Chatham region.
Our borough will be formed around and promote these ideals.
1. High quality education
562
2. Keep our communities independent and unique;
3. Use our strong regional voice to advocate for both borough and each community's
priority capital needs and projects;
4. Use borough resources to foster and support our communities and our regional needs;
5. Continued ability of residents to engage in subsistence harvesting and gathering
activities;
6. Regional emphasis on reducing electrical rates, high quality docks and harbors, and a
strong, sustainable marine highway ferry system.
7. Install and maintain high speed video-conferencing capability in all communities to
support and enhance Assembly, School Board and citizen communication; and
8. No borough property tax.
Finally it is safe to say that every resident of every community in the region, including
Hoonah, is leery about creating multiple layers of govemment. How do we create a
borough that has functioning cities within it and prevent this? Here are some ideas.
Make sure from day one, that duties and responsibilities between the borough and the
cities do not overlap.
Learn from other Alaskan boroughs that are doing this.
We should consider co-locating the main borough offices with city offices in the
communities where they are located. We should be able to share rent and some
administrative and overhead expenses between cities and the borough, and hopefully
between schools and the borough school district.
Segment 2
Why a Glacier Bay - Chatham Borough?
This borough would combine two of the state's model boroughs plus some additional
territory. We think: this makes more sense for three main reasons:
• More people and territory gives depth and strength to support borough govemment.
This borough option results in significantly more state and federal revenue for our
region and a larger borough land entitlement. Since there will be local taxation to
support education (and other borough responsibilities) this option allows distributing
this burden/responsibility out over more people and territory and thereby reducing it
for anyone individual or business.
563
• Joining several traditional Tlingit areas and people together under the umbrella of one
regional government would create a strong Alaska Native voice in this part of
Southeast Alaska.
• Some communities in this region have more economic activity going on than others,
however, major activities and opportunities are similar throughout:
../ Subsistence Harvest and Gathering: Hoonah, Kake, Angoon, Gustavus,
Pelican, Tenakee Springs, Elfin Cove.
../ Sport Fishing: The same communities.
../ Commercial Fishing: The same communities.
../ Fish processing: Hoonah, Kake, Gustavus, Pelican
../ Large cruise ship tourism: Hoonah, Glacier Bay
../ Independent tourism: All seven communities.
../ Industrial Support (timber, mining): Hoonah
../ Significant Government Sector Employment (school, local, tribal, state,
federal): Hoonah, Kake, Angoon, Pelican
Finally, you may notice a dashed line around the Greens Creek mine area on Admiralty
Island (Figure 2). This small part of Admiralty Island is already in the City and Borough
of Juneau. Angoon residents have very strong historic and cultural ties to this area; many
have not forgiven the state Local Boundary Commission for assigning this piece of their
traditional territory and island to Juneau for government purposes. Our borough
formation petition could include asking that this area be detached from Juneau and
become part ofour borough. However, this would likely generate strong objection from
Juneau, and there are ties now between mine operation and Juneau. Our proposal does not
include this option, but we are interested in the region's views on this matter.
The borough population would be 2,714 people.
The annual budget for schools, personnel, travel, utilities, and community support would
be $2-2.5 million.
Funds would likely be raised through a 1-2 percent sales tax and 1-2 percent fish or
excise tax on resources extracted from the borough, perhaps just fish. Hoonah assumes
the communities would not want a property tax. If the borough is formed, state and
federal revenue to the region will increase from $1.4 million to $1.8 million. This would
be due to higher National Forest Receipts because of the Tongass National forest acres
that will be within the borough. Receipt payments are based on the amount of national
forest acreage within the borough boundaries in proportion to the entire acreage of the
national forest. Payments to cities and schools are made on the basis of school
enrollments and according to state and locally maintained miles ofroads. However,
September of2006 is the last year that funding will be available, unless Congress
reauthorizes it. Even if it is reauthorized, it is expected that Congress will ratchet down
the amount of funding over the next six years.
564
APPENDIXAA
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF LEGISLATORS
Green
Senator Lyda Green. Born: October 16, 1938 Livingston, Texas
Residency in Alaska: Anchorage: 1962 - 1966, 1968 - 1984 Wasilla: 1984 - present
Occupation: Former Business Owner and Educator
Education: Brazosport High School; Freeport, Texas: 1952 - 1956
Sam Houston State University; Huntsville, Texas: 1956 - 1959
University of Alaska Anchorage: 1986 - 1988
Hargraves
Chairman ofLBC, Darroll Hargraves Appointed March 2003. Retired June 2007.
Commissioner Hargraves holds a Masters degree and an Education Specialist degree
from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Additionally, Oakland City University awarded
him the Doctor of Humane Letters. Commissioner Hargraves has been school
superintendent in Nome, Ketchikan, and Tok. He was the Executive Director of the
Alaska Council of School Administrators from 1998 to 2002. Commissioner Hargraves
previously served as Chair of the LBC from 1992-1997 under Governors Hickel and
Knowles. His current term on the LBC ends January 31,2008. (ADCA:
http://www.dced.state.ak.us/dca/lbc/lbcmemberbios.htm)
Kookesh
Representative Albert Kookesh. Born: 11/24/48; Juneau, AK
Residency: Angoon; 1948-present
Occupation. Lawyer, Lodge Owner, Store Owner, Private Businessman
Education: High School- Mt. Edgecumbe High School, 1964-67, diploma
College/University - Alaska Methodist University, 1970-72, B.A.
Post Graduate - University of Washington, 1973-76, Law Degree
Lincoln
Senator Georgianna Lincoln. Born: 2/22/43; Fairbanks, AK
Residency in Alaska: Rampart, 1943-51, 1988-present; Fairbanks, 1951-88
Occupation: Commercial Fisherperson, Legislator
Education: High School- Lathrop High School, Fairbanks, 1960, diploma
College - University of Alaska Fairbanks and distance delivery
565
Olson
Senator Donny Olson. Born: June 18, 1953; Nome, Alaska
Residency: Lifelong Alaskan - Golovin, Alaska
Occupation: Doctor, Pilot, Reindeer Herder, Businessman
Education: Various flight schools. Seattle Pacific College; University of Minnesota,
Duluth, B.A. Chemistry; University ofAlaska, Fairbanks;
Oral Roberts School ofMedicine, M.D.;
University of Colorado School of Law;
Cambridge University, Cambridge England
Salmon
Representative Woody Salmon. Born: August 13, 1952; Fort Yukon, Alaska
Residency: Lifelong Alaskan
Occupation: Chief, Chalkyitsik. Professional pilot and air service operator for 20 years,
Oil business (worked in oil fields, pipeline construction, operations and maintenance).
Education: Lathrop High School, Diploma
University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2 years study in Electronics.
Stedman
Senator Bert Stedman. Born: 1956 Anchorage, Alaska
Residency in Alaska: Petersburg: 1958 - 1969 Sitka: 1969 - present.
Occupation: Self-employed: Financial Services. Former Commercial Fisherman. Former
Heavy Construction Trade in Sitka.
Education: Sitka High School: 1974. University of Oregon: 1985. B.S. College of
Business Administration. Concentration in Finance.
Wilson
Representative Peggy Wilson. Born September 8, 1945, Anamosa, Iowa
Residency in Alaska: 1993 - present. Wrangell: 1997 - present. Tok: 1993 - 1997
Education: High School: Manchester, Iowa: 1960 - 1964
Kirkwood Community College: 1969 - 1973 Associate Degree in Science. Associate
Degree in Registered Nursing. University of Alaska: EMT Training, Continuing
Education. University of Chapel Hill: Nationally Certified School Nurse
Wilkin
Senator Gary Wilkin. Born: January 24, 1946, Tacoma, Washington
Length of Residency in Alaska: 42 years Fairbanks: 1951 - 70, 1975 - present.
Occupation: Small Business Owner.
Education: Diploma, 1964: Lathrop High School, Fairbanks; B.S. 1968, Oregon State
University; M.B.A.1970; Oregon State University.
566
APPENDIXBB
KAKE TAX AJ\TD INCOME DATA
Alaska Division of Community Advocacy, 2006, information about Kake, Alaska.
Since 2004, a third of Kake's population has moved due to lack of economic
opportunities.
(Alaska Division of Community Advocacy 2006)
2006 Per Capita Tax Revenues:
Property Tax 0
Sales Tax $167,354
Other Taxes $5,686
Total Taxes $173,040
Population 598
Per Capita Revenue $289
Southeast Conference and Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes ofAlaska
2001 Southeast Comprehensive Development Strategy (CEDS). Prepared for
the United States Department of Commerce Economic Development
Administration.
http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/oedioedp/pubs/SEConCCEDS.pdf
Before Kake Tribal Corporation closed its fish processing plant and logging enterprises in
2004, the 1999 the CCTHITA12 Native Census Count reported (CEDS 2001: 14-19):
69.3 percent ofNative households in Kake lived below the USHHS poverty level.
73.4 percent of the 745 person population was Native.
29.4 percent of Native persons were unemployed.
Average Native household income was $23,773.
12 CCTIDTA refers to the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
NOTE TO USERS
Copyrighted materials in this document have not
been filmed at the request of the author.
Appendix CC
567-570
This reproduction is the best copy available.
lJMI®
567
APPENDIX CC
ULMAR AND KNAPP RESEARCH SUMMARY
Changing Alaska's Salmon Harvesting
System: vVhal Are The Challenges?
September ZOOS By Fran Ulmer and Gunnar Knapp
VA Research Summary No.5
Institute of Sodal and Ewnomlc Research· University of Alaska Anchorage
The Chignik fishing co-op is a ",mion:Hy t.11e aboUl why
restmcmnng in Alaska. 531mon fisheries is 50 bard and 50 contro-
versial---31Kl why its unlikely to happen unul.-'a"skms clarify their
gCllls for the frsheries ,md est.1bhsh ways to achieve th("E~ 8mls.
"ReSlntetuling' me.tn'; changing the rules aboUl who can fish,
when and where Lbey can fish, and how lUllch the.)' can caKh. Such
ch~r'ges c,m help fishermen compele, by reducing Q'5ts.or improving
the quality and value of the ClKh. Competition Trom fanned salmon
and iJtheI faclOr~ have bauer,'fl the fi~heries; earnhlg5 ,)f lisbenlJcn
have plummeted. even ,IS barvests Ifached near-record high•.
In 2002. S{>mc Chignik permit holdeL's decided to fOtm ., co-op
to cur cosls---"iT the Alaska Boam of Fisherie.s would ,rgree to <:hAnge
rhe.,u1es and allt-,ealC l-....ut of Lhe ll.llvest spedficath,' to the co-op.
Afrer much debate, the board agreed. More thon 75 of rhe 100
Chignik pemrit holders joined, and fot [he past four years tbey've
caught ,heir annu.,1 allocation wilh aboUl 20 bcuts. Independent
perorit boldersalEo bave all allo.... tion and fish in sepamte openings.
This CO-Op is rhe only recent example of resLmcturing in Lbe
..'mon llsherie.s. But biLter controversy over its e<juit)' and "'-'Cia!
and economic elTect.' has dh·ided C.hignik. and legal uncerhlimy
hang> overil. The Alaska Supreme Court nrled in Mardr2005thaL
tbe co-0l' regulatIOns 'iolated sUte law. But after the B".rd of
Fisheries modified th("e. regulation'r-and after sub..<equem legal chal-
tenge5--{he wun agreed to.Jet the co-op operate during the 2005
seas<'". But Ille wun ",'uld still find the co-op illegal, and co-op
opp:rnenLs.h.we uow taken tbeir fight to the federal CNUlS as well.
WlmtevfJ happens next. the co-op vividly shows two fLmdAlllent,,1
obstades to restructuring. The fiISt is the tension between9Xial ""d
emnomk ,g"lls. SpreAding benefits broadly \Illlong A1aska.ns has
'been nn impo-nant maBagement .goal S.l11CC ,st.qtehood. Bm 35 the
value of &11mon c,l(ches sllrinks. so do ,he bene[its--And it gets
b'lJder 10 'PH",,1 tlJem brcndl), The c,,-op is one· w,rr Df making the
!lsh.,y more profilJblc. bill it A),;.:> teduces the number of people
hshing and spte.1ds the benefits in a differelll Wlly. R"stl1lQuring
.reqnireE difficult ch"'ice5 abaut wha.t kinds of be.nefits Alaskans
"'am hum the s.,lmonfisheti~.s----and who should.geL tllose benefits.
1he second fundalllent"l ob..<lad~ is ti,at no or!0uizat.ioll.in state
government lod3)' has de-ar responsibility for the oconomlc success
of tbe flSh~ries, Dr de.1J md brmd authority to make significant
cha.nges in the mles [Dr salmon haJVestin.~. As the·comt fight over
the eo-op shows, its uneert.r in just how tbe lJoard of Fisheties cm
ch.mge the harvesting rules. <Or for \rna.t reasons. 'Only the Alaska
tegiSlauue can clarify th,t auth"'iL}'
Besides thc<.~ ObGl.3des. other f""tors 01,0 make Iesuueturing
complicated.Rnd rontrov.,~i,tl. The fish'ries Rre dive"'e;.in <very one
there are. dilIere.nt cballenges and opponunJtie5.1kstruClUlinghas far"
reaching and sometimes unl"l~J1ain c([eelS. Not everyone "'ill belldiL;
some people conld end up worse 0([.
And finaU)'. some Altskms argue that reSttllctming isn'tnece-s-
sMy at all. eitber becanse changes already wrderway will brenongh
Lo put lhe ;ndusuy back on its rce.~ or because the problem "'ill Lake
('.lIe of it",\[. wheu tbO-'" who c,m't make money qUitTi5hing.
W, disagree. Beller mlirketing .and neW products nrc belping.
Salmou prices in some fisherics·have gone up in the past th, ee years.
Bm the underl)1ng challengt'S of growing oomperilion and changing
global ~afood markets 'emain. For Alaska;; salmon fisheries to
become and remain pwfitRble. we \\On have to find ';'lYS ,)f catching
S1lmon.aL lower {(Gt and mising rhe qUality and ,,,Iue of rhe hmye.sts.
-.,,'"1900
.JJ
Figur" 1. Alaska Salmon Harvests and Fishermen's Earnings
200 ,·-----.U5.~· --. _.-._~-- [In Hi/lions '" Rshandlnflation-AdjustedlJollars) .--------~---._-------,
",'
IW
"~'e 1~:r It---------- f"j....llm.,"...rn"r ....---..---------~--Jij::
.s .i;'J
15 &)
~ ~jJ
Unltt'{Sw.lldulg AlllSk.l (UA) is a spe.-ehtl serk.s of ISER r'i?5e-.u-ch sw,lifs amllining AL.1s'ka economic devetcpment issues" The studies are paid
for br the lImversity of AL,skl1 Foundmk1-u. UA JepJrts ;\re ay~ibble from ISER:S offk:es ;I:nd ilt: ,\.."Vlw~·ah\stcancconom}'.mM;ala:s.k.l.edu
568
--------------,
Figure Z, Alaska Salmon Management System
FlIAlIEWOJIlI fOR
r--- MIilIAGHIENTi
(onstltutlon iU1d laws Regulallons
Alaska (onstiulitln Number ~l --
fish_e~.es permits. in eath -
_ pro\!SlCns - fishery -
limled Entry Act Bo~andgear
Other faWl alectrq resttidlot1S
- management Openings
Other regulations
atIeC\lng fishing
ORGAllrzAUOftS
MWlIG D£CISIONS
Alaska
LegislaMe
Board of RSh€l1es
Depanmentof
RshandGame
Conllnerqal -
Fisheries Entry
Colllll'ission
dthers afle<ting
mal1<lgement
have aL'\O contributed. Since hitting lows in 2002, total eamings are
IIp-bnt not in all fisheries,
\VHY RJ:s-rm)Cn;RE~
RcstTuctming can have many goals-bm keep in mind that it. is
not an ntlempt to improve (OIlSClvatiotl: Alaska~ -',limon nrns arc
heuhhy The basic gmls of resmtcturing arc to lo-i'er the emts of
halVcsting .salmon or incrC'J5e the quality and valne of samlOtI harvests
--{1 r both-by addressing pro1Jlems that occur, to var>lng cxlents,
in mUIlY of Alaslms snlmon fISheries. TIrese include:
• More boats fish than m:e needed, adding to msts.
• Fishctmcn cOIllpete to atteh flsh as fru;t as pOS6ible, making it
difficult to handle ftsh carefully.
• Fishermen build faster and more ex~nsive bonts. trying to catch a
larger share or ule flSh-;aislng total costs for thc SlntC o\:eraU catch,
• Fish harvests nre concentrated in shorr opcningsruthcT than spwrd
out ewer the season Qtlalily suffers when prOce.5S01S mn't handle
large mlnmes from shan Qpcnings_
Some people argue that we don't need restructuring to deal
with thesc problems--that they'll u'solve themsclyes when fisher-
men who am\ make money drop out. But under this "marke_t
folC'CS' approach, fishenncn who drop om may get nothing from
their in'lesuucnts in boats and gear-ffi1d many arc likely to start
fishing again if market conditions improve, By contrast, buyonts
or other reslIucmring optiol15 wmpensate 115heul1cn for lea\~ng
the fishcties pcrmanCJluy,
Figure 3, Individuals Fishing Salmon Permi1s
Residents i'IDn-Rffiidents
1988 _""'WiM 140% _ 2;377 121%
2002,!Z!J ... .1,733'"
OVERVIEW 01' ALASKA'S SALMON INDtJSTRY ------
Alaskas wild salmon haIveats are the worlds IargesL TIley make
up about 40% of wild SIlmon harvests worldwide and 15% of com-
bined wild 'l11d famred production. The s"lmon fJsheJies are part
'Jf a bmader Alaska seafood industty that also includes groundfish,
shellfish, haJihut, and hening, But 1U1mY fishermen, processors, and
communities rely manuy on salmon.
The stl1te governmel1t malrages Alaska~ 26 commercial salmon
fisheries, under a system thm includes several organizations that
can make decisions affet:ting fisheries; constimtional plOvisions
and laws thilI provide rhe fromewOlk [or managemem; and a com-
plex set of regulations implementing the laws (Fj~;ure 2). The state
legislature has the ultimate management resp'Jnsiblllty,
The divetsity of the salmon fisheJies makes any discussion of
salmon l5:3l1CS C011lplex, The state has five salmon spedes---pink,
chulU, mho. sockeye, and king-und differcl1t stocRs of the mli-
ous spe£lCs return aunually to huncheds Qf streams, Many types of
boats and gCBr-'leiucrs. trollers, and gill, drift. and sct nets--
harvest salmon in both cmsw.1 and river fisheries. In evcry fi.shery
there are different issues. chllllrnges, and oppoltnnitics.
TIle state controls the number of boats under a limited entry
permit system and rcgulates (Llrvest:; through resmctiollS on ooat
size, gem type, lind timing of opening;. Alaska's biological salmon
management has been very successful; the Marine Stewardship
<..cunei! (all intemational non-profit group promoting well-man-
aged fisheries) has Ieoogn:izcd Alnska~ management as ·susll\inable."
The salmon industIy issti11 one of Alaskus top employers, ~~th
thou.«1nds or jobs in fishing and pmcessing and many more in
othcr businesses that depend indirectly on salmon []shing.
VVHAT'$ THE PROBLEM?
The prices ftshermcn are f>lid for their Clltches have plummeted,
From the pCllk in Ule 1980sro the bottom in 2002, total annunl eoru-
ings in the sulmon fisheries plummeted by two thirds. And AS
salmon prices and fishennens earnings fell, so did the value of Iim-
it!>.1 entry permits, Ovellll! permit ''''lues declined about t\Yo thirds.
with ICGSe5 va1)~ng among fisheries. And if we adjusl d1O.5C figmcs
for inflation-to show the change in purchasing power over time-
the fan in both earnings ilud permil \1ilues is eYcn steeper, ncar 75%,
Unable to cover their costs, thousands of salmon permit holders
-both residents and non-residen\5----<;juit fishing. But Al~skan5
have been hardest hit. The number of resident pelmit holdeIS
actively IIshing dropped 40% octween 19M and 2002, wmpared
with 21% among non-residents. The de~tine among A1~skAns was
bigger becnuse the small-scale operators who are most affected by
lower pliccS~Hrettcrs and hand trol1er.?r-tlre
predominantly Alasl<.ans.
The causes of the dedine are complex and mry by
fishery. The big..~e$t has been competition from
fanned .salmon, but sn1311er sockeye harvests, ,~hanges
in the food industry, Hnd an ecouomic slowdown in
Japall (historkuUj' Alaskat most imp0l1,mt market)
2" -",--,-,-",---,-,---------",,--,,-,-- - ----------- - --, ,- -,,-----,---,-------,---
OPTIONS fOR RESTlWCfURlNG-------
Table 2 list> a few examples of Ihe many po~sib[c Iestructming
options. We want to em(}hasize thaI we're nor advocating any spe-
cific change. and what makes .sense will vary from fishuy to fishery.
Most of the options would reduce the number of fishing boats
-for instance. by establishing hru'l'~"ter co-ops (like the Chignik
co-op1; by allowing sever-al pennit llOldl~rs to stack their gelr 011 a
single bOltI; or by buying some permit holders out of the flshery.
Some optlons me similar 00 whal the federal gpvemment has
done in the offshore fisheries it manages-making allocations to
individuals, communities, or other gwups. Those options are
intended to end rhe "mee for fish" and give fishermen the chance
to implove the way they h,mdle their catch.
All the options mise qnestions: Who would pa~' for buybacks?
How much gem could be all a single boat? Would allocations b;~
based on past catches, and if so, dming whal years? TIley alSQ I\U&
concerns aoout equity, job losses, ndministrative difficulties, dfeets
on gear llnd boat value, and effects on processors.
Some would represcrtt much bigger changes than others, and
all would face legal, constitutional. unci institulionlll d1\l1leugcs.
CiiALLENGES 01' Ib,STIWCTlJlUNG---------
If restructuring could help AllISkllS salmon industry l'Ompete,
why has the harvesting system stayed e=nrilllly the same, after
more than a decade of eCQnomic crisis? For seveml reasons:
• The salmon fisheries arc diverse, \\'ith each facing its own issues.
• ReslructUling is wmplex. There are many possible changes,
each «lII)'ing its own potential benefits, design considerations,
and concems--t\i; well as llncerWinties. Rural communities,
especiully those that depend heavily on salmon, have specific
concerns aoollt effects of res.trnctllring.
• Theres a long-slandlng tension between social and economic
goals for the [!sheries, and no consensus amongA.laskans aoout
what restructuring should aocompllsh---{\I' who should benefit.
569
• No otg<lnlzation in stale govemment Ims clearly defined respon-
sibility for the economic S\ICCl'SS of the fishelies; dear and broad
authority to make major changes In the hmYcsting system; and
n~50urcC5 to stlldy and take action on restructuring proposals.
Its those last two obst<ldes-conflicting goals and lack of clear
responsibility and auIhority-that pose the most fundamental cll<ll-
lenges to restmctming, as we discuss bdo¥l
CONfUC1'lNG FISHERIES COAlS
TIle multiple and sometimes conflicting goals of salmon man-
llgemenr have their mots in tenitOlial days. Under fedeml n1>1nagc-
me nt, salmon runs plummeted (Figure 1), and PIOCCSSOlS based in
Seanle controlled the fisheries, using salmon traps to take much of
the harvest. Alaskans re.se.nted both the Outside control und the
traps. They were also afl<lid oveiIishing would destroy the fishelies.
\\fJth s~1tehood in 1959, AtaskallS won control of the salmon
fisheries. 111e Slate mnslitution includes seveml principles f~)r fish-
eries mansgemc11t, reflecting Alaskans' territOlial experiences.
Fisheries are to be m,magcd foc "ousl>ljned }ield" and for the "max-
imum benefit" of Alaskans; they are ceserved foc "common use" with
no "exclusive lighl or special pri~'ilegc' to be created.
Those general principles are the basis for manngemen t-but
they don't dearly defme managcJuenl glX!lS, or say how to rank the
Vluiotls goals. The clearest is collSCrvalion: maIlllging for "sllStaincd
}ield: Alaskans agree con&lving SHImon rerotllccs is Clitiaal. The
legislature has delegated ronsen11tion audlOrity to dIe Alaslrn
Board of fisheril'S and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game
and provided money to )All' for research and regulation.
Bulthere is no such clarity or consemus about how to mmage
for "maximum benefit." For milch of the time since slmehood,
aehiC\o:ing maximulil beneflt has ml':11n1 spreading the fisheries
wealth broadly among Alasknn& And the 'no e~dn.sivc light or spe-
dm privilege" provisiDJI was specifically intended to insure that fish-
eries benefits would be v.1dt'Sprc.1d~not concelllrated among a Ic\\\
as they had been Imder fedeml management.
I
r~~~"i:!~~~!!~!!~
'I Ililide permit horders Into groups I Reduces *>talllJaumdluel casts Yiltat l; \he basls i:>r cr~l!l1'!J permlt !Flsltllg oppornmilies may dIrer bI'l:"Een groop5 I
t!lat fEll at diffetEfHmes I hol:lers into groups? I i
I I· , ,
I·-AlliiN-permit ho1Jerst;,-OOiiibine--lRediia5tJiiilhl<!iandfoolW,t,i- ·jjCtNmuiligearifiiooinlInedO~,i:---rl'oi8'tiiiiHorjY.liiqiaikf,bYjiBrmil5tiiatwoUlfliiWi;!. operillklns an:!f"n roore gear from i fullS get to U'.ie? i golll urtlslTed---{h1l5 n::reasilg total gear use i
I one ooat(pEfmhtad~IlJ) ; i ,
I· Permit blij'bildiS . ·---------f-l19tfuresooatandTueT«.sts-·--·-1 VlhJen perliiis~ OLA~.CllSt d EiI)'badii. --i
i i ~1Iat p(,cc? i Inrre<lS~ 1l1>\15tment i'tt. remaIJingb:)1(5
i ! YIlw pay; br b~adrs? ! !lecrrn 0 local o'Nnership Ii permits !
i-fi:ml%lef m:opathc~;k;ii;' ···-+-Enif.;-"racriljrri.iii"aookiruiii5--YhKi9et5iie-aThlc.i1Offir··--·-----t(,jilS~l6ji\\ijj-ootiilutkiMl"ooixCliS!le~jii'-1
I Community alk'>callons i €fort on (wu6ng cast> Jnd 1rn~'I'(N) Are albcallons transferable? i pw.o!si:lns I
i ImM.ml aJbcatkffi i il'J qual.\y f Man~ets' ~bil.\y 10 athe.e an:! ffibrce albtaOOffi i
11~i5nooat feStrlifuii$- .\ ~eouasWi.1siliiilffibanc0:5quaj,\Y-·S!ioolireStiktlJrtS-005liiill<li )]djfter:f~~;:~~;o~~\lifOOat5or~'-" ---II(Ilart;jes hgear: €It IlslTer1£s? !Ner .,.i<Jl perkd are IAJ:cess to turning lor new ooars orgear I
L __ .____ I cha~ ~~~_~7 . L-----_ .
------- .....------...--.-------.--.. - .. -..----.--.--.-...-.-.--------. ----3
The harvesting s}'stem ill lThID}' wa}'s evolved to allow as man}'
Alaskans fl5 pQ"Sible to wmk In thefishencs, But it's not enough to
fL<d1: fishermen als[\ need ttl be able to make money. 50 another
aspect of JIiaxImulll benefit" is economic: keeping'the fisheries
plOfitable Bm there!; a tension between spreading the, wealth and
keeping the fisheries profit:lble---because the more lishemlen par~
l.idpate in a fisher}" dIe hmder it is for them all to make a liVing.
A big reason why die state h:L<;n:t taken an}' broad actioll
[«ward restruetmmg so far is thar Alaskans haven't rtsolwd dmt
hmdamental temiem. RestructUling generally tries to make the
fisheries morc efIident, but that efficiency often comes at the
eAvense c,f fishing jobs. One of the arguments raised against the
Chignik co-op is that it h,lS eliminated jobs.
A1aslwlS h,lVen) rc;lChed any consmsus on what restmcttuing
should accomplish-nor on who shonld bCllefit. For example, to what
extent do Alaskans wallt to uy ((j preserve jobs, especially for ll1ml
Alaskans with few other options? W1mt is the states ohligation to cur-
rent permit holdels~ Should perlllit 1J,)lders who haven't fished recent-
ly IJc conshhed Oil the same footmg wilh thQ~ ·.vho have fished? IT
We alkx:ate salnwn. what should be Ibe basis for the clJlOGllioIlS?
!\UTHORlll FOR RrSTR1'CTtlRJ,'ll; ------,---
The ~econd fundamenlili obstacle to restmctnring-i15 the
dli&'llik CO;)P makes plain'-is Ihe lack of dearallthmity. No state
agency has (I) clear responsibility for the eCU1l0Ulic success of the
Hsheries; (2) iluthOlit}' (hit is dear enough and br(.\ld enough to
allow it to make 111010r changes in the 1J.11>'e5ting system; and (3)
ndequclte money and personnel to study restnKtluing options and
put them into effect Unlike for wllservation, the legislature hasn't
delegatedde.ar I~sponsibilit)' or broad lIuthotity to the Board of
Fishenes or the Department of Fish and Game to chc1llge .sahUOll
harvesting mles to achieve economic gruls.
LESSONS FROM LIMITE!} [Nlfty----------
Despite these considerable challenges, the Slate did make a fun-
dmnental change in the hMI'c,sting syslem in the rarly 1970s, when
shrinking s,qlmon mns collided with growing nnmbers of fisher-
men. At that time,there were no restr.ictions on the number afD.,us
fishing for salmon. But wilh a major rcsmm::c inmlslry at risk-hom
bothconservalion md economic standpoints-the gCI\'ernor llIld
the legis1ature took action, The}' asked votels to approve a conSli-
1'1";,.- ~....:..;.~ '~. ..,~j
_ UnderThlIKllng Alaska
In.tilule 01500.1 .nd ECOIIomi< Research
lJni.<ersityol AklSka An""',;},.
F,anUlm.',Di'.ctD'
3lli PICfIic!en(e Dr;...
And1<>rag., Alaska Cf.fS08
9a].]86·7710
570
tuuoml amendment (allowing llIl exception to the 'no exclusive
light" provision). The legislature passed the limiled Entry Act,
based parlly OIl re.commendatiolls of a special limited CJltry study
glOtlp.A new agenc]' was e.slablished to a,iminister the progmm and
issue .alimitednumber of}l<'rnlits for ('aeh f)$ber}~
The chaUenges facing today's salmon l11dustry are different.
But the hIstory of ltimiled entry shows th:.~ the state GIn make dil-
fIclllt t'lnd conU'ol'ersial ch.mges in 3llmon management-when
Ihe governor and the legisbtnre become actiwly involved.
CONCLlISIONS------------------
It won't be easy to make dlllJl,~S in Alaska's salmon harv~sting
system. Not everyone. Ivill benefit; some people wuld end up
worse off. But the costs of doing nothing arc also high, Thousands
ofAlaskans h,we alre'ld}' SWI severe losses in fishing income and
in boat and penlllt values. and rmny haw had 10 quit fIShing for
salmon. The fundamental challen,ges i tl chmlging the harvesting
system "'ill be:
- Deciding /r01\ \I C11'11111 to Imlallcc economic all<lsodnl gOIll.s for
0111'Jisllflics
-Establishing dear 1'CS1'0luiMily for rcsll'lIctnring ami bnm,l
IIUlliorily 10 make· dl<lllgcs-all,l supplying the lIecessary
TfSOIllTl'S 10 s!lld}' opliollslllItl Pllt dUllIgcs illto rjJrd
ASaJrnoll Industry Restructllling Pand, esl~lblisbed by tbe B'Jard
ofFishelies, is studying restnrctunng issues.alld will make recommen-
dations to the legislatnre in 2006, No major reSlnlcturing "'ill happen
until the legishllure itself aets, or giveS some state agellcy dear author-
ity to act. Salmon is no longerAlaska's dominant Te-<ource indtlsuy, Blll
it remains a Iminsla}' of many communities, and ulhe industry is II)
become and remain p10fitable, we need tc> face-alld find ways of
addressing-the complex, dimcult issue of restnlctluing.
franlJlni¢i.IsER$dmqor.vl!SOIl ilieNarthP:icjfieAnadrom~us Fish'
.C<JllUllfs~onJ{)fIO ~J,IS, '!1ldas Ah!slms lieutenantgOVilmorshr pmk-
ipnelbll~altn\ID incWsuyfomms. chm1l'd rlie.llering~ l:1s1(Fo,ro::£,~
sp~ki;on}JaS1ias fishing'fConomYl~ JIllI!on"l and internariOnlll grouP': •
• ··.G1J'lWrKnal']l,aprof£S50r ot.c(lllonucsatISER;.baaf6~(h.~t
IS yms s'\'diedand wrlilenab;>ut Ah~kas'almon ':l"'r~elsand ihe
elf6:ts.Qf~t cliang~s OJ) tIt.S\1InOO indusny.. . ... ... .. .•.......
. ". .,A . k~Fpaperbydi~.$ul}e authQrs, dlll/lmg(slJl ~i5tm'lU1[ng
AIaM5Sa!mQn FWi.ries, is .vair.Me from ISER (9Q1-1B&.(110) for
.. $5 i1r~!'v.ri.al~e~'?n~m}luii.J1~a,edu
N,,,,Pro'o<t
O'9a"'Lltiln
U.s. Postage
~1O
Perm~ 1010. W]
Andtorage, Alaska
571
APPENDIX DD
ULMAR AND KNAPP COOPERATION, RESPECT, SHARING ANALYSIS
Excerpts from Changing Alaska's Salmon Harvesting System: What are the
Challenges?
Conceptual or direct references from the document to cooperation, respect, sharing,
and food. The following examples are not meant to be comprehensive, but show
patterns of discourse.
Cooperation:
• ..the co-op vividly shows two fundamental obstacles to restructuring. The fIrst is
the tension between social and economic goals. (Cooperation is difficult when people attempt to
combine social and economic goals.)
No state agency has clear responsibility for economic success ofthe fIsheries;
authority that is clear enough and broad enough to allow it to make major changes
in the harvesting system; adequate money and personnel to study restructuring
options and put them into effect. (Cooperation between agencies is difficult so there is aneed for acentral
poweLl
Alaskans resented both the Outside control and the traps. They were also afraid
over fIshing would destroy the fIsheries. (The federal government as acentral power failed to foster
cooperation before statehood.)
Allow permit holders to combine operations and fIsh more gear from one boat
(permit stacking). Reduces total boat and fuel costs. How much gear do combined
operations get to use? Potential for participation by permits that would have gone
unfIshed-thus increasing total gear USe.(Allowing cooperation between fishermen.)
Divide permit holders into groups that fIsh at different times. Reduces boat and
fuel costs. (Regulated cooperation between fishermen to take turns fishing.)
Fish harvests are concentrated in short openings rather than spread out over the
season. Quality suffers ... (Regulating turn taking would enforce cooperative fishing behavioL)
Chignik permit holders decided to form a co-op to cut costs - if the ABF would
agree to change the rules and allocate part of the harvest specifIcally to the co-op.
(Cooperation between fishermen and between fishermen and the state.)
• More than 75 of the 100 Chignik permit holders joined, and for the past four years
they've caught their annual allocation with about 20 boats.
•572
The legislature has delegated conservation authority to the Alaska Board of
Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and provided money to
pay for research and regulation. (Cooperation between arms of the government.)
Food:
• Competition from farmed salmon and other factors have battered the fisheries;
earnings of fishermen have plummeted, even as harvests reached near-record
highest. (Earnings as food)
• Alaska's wild salmon harvest is the world's largest. They make up about 40
percent of wild salmon harvests worldwide and 15 percent of combined wild and
farmed production.
• But many fishermen, processors, and communities rely mainly on salmon.
• Earnings in the salmon fisheries plummeted by two thirds ... so did the value of
limited entry permits. .
• The salmon industry is still one of Alaska's top employers, with thousands ofjobs
in fishing and processing and many more in other businesses that depend
indirectly on salmon fishing.
• The state has five salmon species-pink, chum, coho, sockeye, and king-and
different stocks of the various species return annually to hundreds of streams.
Respect:
• The clearest is conservation: managing for 'sustained yield.' Alaskans agree
conserving salmon resources is critical. (Respect for the non-human environment is referred to as
'sustained yield. ')
Sharing:
• 'Restructuring' means changing the rules about who can fish, when and where
they can fish, and how much they can catch.
• But it's not enough to fish: fishermen also need to be able to make money. So
another aspect of 'maximum benefit' is economic: keeping the fisheries profitable.
But there's a tension between spreading the wealth and keeping the fisheries
profitable-because the more fishermen participate in a fishery, the harder it is for
them all to make a living.
• By contrast, buyouts or other restructuring options compensate fishermen for
leaving the fisheries permanently
• Some people argue that we don't need restructuring to deal with these problems -
that they'll resolve themselves when fishermen who can't make money drop out.
But under this 'market forces' approach, fishermen who drop out may get nothing
from their investments in boats and gear
573
• The basic goals ofrestructuring are to lower the costs of harvesting salmon or
increase the quality and value of salmon harvests - or both - by addressing
problems ..
• Not everyone will benefit; some people could end up worse off But the costs of
doing nothing are also high. Thousands ofAlaskans have already seen severe
losses in fishing income and in boat and permit values, and many have had to quit
fishing for salmon.
• Restructuring generally tries to make the fisheries more efficient, but that
efficiency often comes at the expense of fishing jobs. One ofthe arguments raised
against the Chignik co-op is that it has eliminated jobs.
• The harvesting system in many ways evolved to allow as many Alaskans as
possible to work in the fisheries.
• What is the state's obligation to current permit holders? Should permit holders
who haven't fished recently be considered on the same footing with those who
have fished? Ifwe allocate salmon, what should be the basis for the allocations?
574
APPENDIXEE
BEDFORD 2005 TESTIMONY TO HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES
Mr. David Bedford, Deputy Commissioner, Alaska Department of Fish and
Game to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans.
July 6,2005
Introduction
Good morning Mr. Chairman. For the record, my name is David Bedford. I serve as
Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game focusing on
fishery issues. I also serve as the Commissioner for the State of Alaska on
the Pacific Salmon Commission, the body responsible for developing conservation
and harvest sharing agreements for Pacific Salmon under a treaty between the
United States and Canada. I am appearing on behalf of Governor Murkowski. He
appreciates your invitation but was called away on other pressing business and
asked that I appear on his behalf. I want to welcome you and the members of the
Committee to Alaska and thank you for the opportunity to offer comments to the
Committee on Alaska's stewardship of its bountiful fishery resources. Alaska's
people depend on our fisheries as a source of livelihood, recreation and nutrition.
Alaskans take advantage ofour fishery resources in subsistence, commercial, sport
and personal use fisheries. Over half of the total harvest offish in the United States
is taken from the waters off Alaska. Our fisheries support half ofthe jobs in Alaska
fully or in part. I intend to address the questions raised by the committee in its letter
inviting Governor Murkowski to testify. Management in Alaska is divided between
state and federal waters. It is my understanding that the Committee has invited
other witnesses who will speak directly to federal management under Magnuson
Stevens so I will focus my comments on management under the state system.
1. Fishery Management in Alaska. Fishery management in Alaska is divided
between federal waters fisheries and state waters fisheries with different bodies of
law, management agencies, and regulatory authorities engaged in each. Alaskan
fishery management is grounded on obligations set in the state constitution
requiring management of fish and wildlife to provide for sustained yield and
reserving fish and wildlife for the common use of the people. Thus, the constitution
sets the standard for conservation of the resource with the objective of allowing for
human use of that resource in perpetuity. To meet these basic obligations Alaska's
founders divided management responsibility between the Department ofFish and
575
Game and a seven member Board of Fisheries. In broad-brush strokes, the Board is
charged with developing management plans that provide for resource conservation
and allocate harvestable surplus among users. The department is charged with
conducting research, monitoring resource status to generate the information
necessary to support development of management plans and with managing harvest
consistent with those management plans. The state's management program
embraces an array ofhuman uses including sport, personal use, commercial and
customary and traditional subsistence fisheries.
Subsistence, which accounts for a small percentage of the total harvest, is accorded
a priority under state law. After providing for the subsistence opportmlities, the
Board of Fisheries allocates the remaining harvestable surplus among the other
fisheries. The state manages a wide variety of fisheries with management plans in
each region of the state that address specific fisheries for identified species. For
example, the Alaska Administrative Code has nine management plans for the
harvest of finfish in subsistence fisheries with the first applying to Kotzebue in
Western Alaska and proceeding across the state to Southeast Alaska where we
currently sit. Elsewhere, the code contains twelve management plans for the
commercial harvest of salmon in the Bristol Bay region. Each area has a set of
plans that fit its unique set of fisheries and may cover salmon, herring, crab, black
cod, rockfish, ling cod and a variety of other species. Federal waters fisheries are
subject to regulation under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council responsible
for developing fishery management plans. NOAA Fisheries is the principle
management agency but the management of many federal waters fisheries is
delegated in substantial measure to the State of Alaska. This is not surprising since
fish move freely between state and federal waters and the state had a fully
developed management program for many of the species of concern to the Council
and NOAA when the Magnuson-Stevens Act was adopted. The Council and Alaska
Board of Fisheries collaborate in development of fishery management plans when
the stocks and fisheries overlap their respective jurisdictions.
II. Major turning points in the development of fisheries management in
Alaska
The major turning points in the development ofAlaska's fishery management were
marked by events that increased local controL Prior to Statehood, in 1959, salmon
fisheries were managed by federal agencies in Washington D.C. With statehood,
Alaska gained local control of fishery management, replacing federal management
with the state agency and Board of Fisheries. In 1976, with the passage of the
Magnuson Act, the United States began to take control of fisheries in federal waters
from 3 to 200 miles off shore and vested regulatory authority in the North Pacific
Fishery Management Council, a body with a majority from Alaska. Federal
576
management of salmon in Alaska was an unqualified failure. Under federal
management, fishery seasons were set prior to the beginning of the fishery with
little resource monitoring or in-season control of the fisheries.
In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower declared a disaster in Alaska because
salmon runs had declined precipitously and at statehood in 1959 the total harvest
had fallen to 25 million fish, the lowest catch since 1900. The crisis in the salmon
fishery was one of the principle driving forces behind Alaska's efforts to secure
statehood. Bill Egan, President of the Alaska Constitutional Convention put it
succinctly in a message to the Delegates of the Convention, February 5, 1956:
It is my very firm conviction that, in the immediate years following the advent of
statehood to Alaska, our fisheries conservation problem will be solved. With local
control of our fisheries, the annual pack of salmon taken from territorial waters
will quickly take an upturn because conservation policies would then be laid
down by Alaskans intimately familiar with the problem. ... the solving of the
problem ofperpetuation of our great fisheries resource can only be accomplished
with the right to fully govern ourselves.
With statehood, Alaska replaced distant, disengaged federal management with
direct, local, hands-on control. Area management biologists were empowered to
open and close fisheries based on the data collected during the fishery. Instead of
establishing fishing periods at the beginning of the year, openings were modified
weekly or even daily. While this approach introduced day-to-day uncertainty for
fishermen and fish processors, it gave substantial assurance that conservation goals
would be met thereby improving prospects for harvests in future years. With local
control, sustained yield came first. As one management biologist put it, "Ifyou put
too many salmon in the river and short changed the fishermen's harvest you could
expect some pointed criticism. But if you put too many fish in the fishermen's nets
and shortchanged the escapement you could expect to lose your job." By the early
1980's, the salmon runs were restored and the 1990's saw a series ofrecord
harvests. The other significant turning point came with the implementation of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA)in 1976. The
MSA was intended to extend the United States' control over submerged lands and
marine resources out to 200 miles off shore. MSA Americanized the offshore
fisheries, which at the time, were controlled by foreign fishing fleets. It also
established the fishery management councils, which created a substantial level of
local control over the developing federal waters fisheries.
Prior to the MSA, the foreign fleets had every reason to maximize harvest and no
reason to support long-term conservation since harvests were not limited and any
fish forgone by one vessel would likely be hauled in by someone else.
577
As Ted Stevens observed:
As a young Senator, I once went to Kodiak... and flew up to the Pribilofs. As we
flew up there we counted 90 factory trawlers that were fishing out there during the
winter. This was right about the time of the Russian Christmas. We were appalled.
I sent them back to make some photographs of the decks of those trawlers. There
was everything on the decks from ocean mammals to all types and species of fish.
Many of the trawlers had a hole in the center of the deck. They just shoved
everything in -- there was a big grinder inside and everything that went down the
ho Ie was ground up into meal. Being appalled about that I went back and talked to
my friend, Warren Magnuson, and that was the beginning of the 200-mile limit
legislation. (Testimony of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, U.S. Commission on Ocean
Policy, Alaska Regional Meeting, Anchorage, Alaska, August 21,2002.)
With the creation of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the
consequent local control under MSA, the council instituted a management program
similar in many ways to that employed by the State of Alaska with conservation
. and long-term sustainability at the heart of its management program.
III. Strengths of Alaskan fisheries management
Alaskan fishery management is successful because it is based on a long-term
perspective, seeking to conserve fishery resources for use both today and by
succeeding generations. Alaska relies on a number of strategies in its management
to achieve these ends:
• The resource comes first. To assure long-term use and sustained yield,
management must begin by setting conservation objectives and control harvest to
ensure that these objectives are met.
• Management is based on science. Fishery resources are studied to determine life
history, long-term conservation requirements and harvests are set based on the
resource that is surplus.
• Where possible, management is adaptive and uses current information. Alaskan
managers monitor the fishery harvests and respond with fishery openings and
closures or other modifications as new information becomes available. If there is no
source of current information the harvest is set at conservative levels.
• Harvest allocation and resource management are
distinct. The managers responsible for monitoring the fishery resource and making
decisions on when and where the public can harvest must make objective decisions
based on science and dictated by the status of the resource. Decisions on allocating
the available harvest users should be and is decided by another body, the Board of
Fisheries.
• The public has a meaningful role in allocation and
management decisions. The resource allocation process conducted by the Alaska
Board ofFisheries is open to the public with the issues debated and decisions made
578
in public session. In addition, the Department ofFish and Game has established a
number of advisory groups to help develop strategies to implement fishery
management plans. Meaningful public involvement in resource management
engenders support for resource conservation and helps in the development of
harvest plans that increase efficient use. The management of federal waters
fisheries is parallel in many regards. Harvests are established based on the best
available science with caution increasing as the certainty of the data decreases.
Furthermore, the activities of the council are kept distinct from that of scientific
advisors with the council limiting harvests to levels below the maximum
determined acceptable by the Scientific and Statistical Committee. As with state
fisheries, management of the federal waters fisheries relies on in season catch
monitoring with the fisheries closed as harvest levels are reached. A single
important distinction between management under MSA and the state management
program is the effect of litigation on fishery management. While the state has
comprehensive statutes governing the regulatory process relatively few decisions of
the Board ofFisheries are overturned in state court and it is rare that
implementation of a management plan is delayed by litigation. In contrast the
Council's regulatory process is often interrupted by litigation, generally a claim
asserting a procedural violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
This is unfortunate since the public process that the Council follows and the
rigorous science that grounds Council actions satisfies the policies that underlie
NEPA and covers most of the substance of the Act.
IV. Progress toward ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management;
The state management program takes ecosystem considerations into account both
in the science underlying management and in the regulatory process. For example,
the department generally manages salmon stocks for a biological escapement goal,
that is, the number of salmon returning to a river that is necessary to provide for
maximum sustained yield. Biological escapement goals, when calculated, take a
holistic view toward identifying the escapement level, on average, that will, in
perpetuity, provide these yields, given all other mortality to the stock, the
ecological role of the stock and its function within the various ecosystems in which
it is involved.
While ecosystem management is a new and developing approach to fishery
management, quite frankly the ecosystem factors of greatest impact in Alaska are
large-scale environmental changes over which we have little influence and to which
we can only react. For example, the cyclical changes in weather and water
temperatures of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have very substantial effects on the
abundance and distribution ofmarine populations with consequent impacts on
opportunities for human use. At the federal level, the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council currently includes many ecosystem considerations in the
development of fishery management plans. I understand that the Council has
579
constituted a committee that is assessing how ecosystem management might be
better incorporated into existing management process and is looking at developing
a Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the Aleutians Islands.
V. Lessons from the North Pacific for the reauthorization of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act;
The success in maintaining abundant resources and viable fisheries in Alaska leads
to the conclusion that Magnuson- Stevens is, in many regards, effective as written.
Some provisions ofMSA are particularly important if we expect to continue this
record of success:
• The Council structure should be kept as is, with the governors making
recommendations for council appointments and the seats designated by statute left
unchanged. Local knowledge and local control of the fisheries is one of the keys to
the success of management at both the federal and state levels.
• Scienceis the firmament on which management stands. Therefore, the Act should
maintain the use of credible science with a clear separation between resource
assessment and allocation by utilizing an independent Scientific and Statistical
Committee.
• The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has proved to be an effective
steward of the marine resources. Consequently, the Act when reauthorized, should
continue to support the council process by:
1. Maintaining current authority of the Council to address cold water
corals/fisheries interaction issues through fishery management plans and Essential
Fish Habitat (EFH) provisions.
2. Maintaining current authority of the Council to regulate Marine Protected Areas
(MPAs) through Fishery management plans.
3. Maintain "rollovers" of Fisheries Management
Plans if they are not approved by NOAA Fisheries in a timely manner once
approved by the Regional Fishery Management Councils. While the Act, as
written, has in general permitted effective management of fisheries in the North
Pacific, there are some amendments to the Act which would improve management:
• Reconcile MSA, NEPA, APA, etc. in the interest of a more
efficient process. The Magnuson-Stevens Act, NEPA, and the Administrative
Procedure Act (APA) all influence fishery management planning and program
development, sometimes creating long delays in permitting and decision-making.
These delays are unnecessary and cost the government, the fishing industry, and
coastal communities time and money. The MSA could include the best parts of
NEPA and the APA - such as ensuring public participation and thorough
environmental and economic analyses - while removing many of the cumbersome
requirements.
What it means to Alaska: Alaska's fishing industry is its largest private sector
employer and produces over half of the nation's seafood harvests. The economy of
580
many Alaska coastal communities is dependent upon fisheries. A streamlined
regulatory process helps assure the timely and responsive fisheries management
that the Alaskan fishing industry and dependent coastal communities require to
maximize fisheries value. Amendment: Insert language into MSA deeming Fishery
Management Plans (FMP) to be the functional equivalent of a NEPA document.
To achieve this functional equivalency, Congress may choose to require an
FMP include:
a. a description and assessment of alternatives;
b. an evaluation of the relationship between local
short-term uses of the fishery resources and the
maintenance and enhancement of long-term
productivity;
c. an assessment of significant impacts on nontargeted
speCIes;
d. an assessment of significant adverse effects to the
marine ecosystem which cannot be avoided should the
proposal be implemented;
e. an assessment of significant social and economic
effects, including those to coastal communities;
and
f. a public participation requirement that is
fulfilled through oral and written public testimony
to the Regional Fishery Management Councils
(RFMCs).
• Assure an appropriate definition for an ecosystem-based
approach to fisheries management.
Ecosystem approaches to management are the new trend in marine management. If
ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management is added to the MSA, it must
be appropriate to implement, scientifically defensible, and recognize human uses as
essential. Therefore, socioeconomic data must be an integral component of an
ecosystem-based approach to management. Ecosystem variables must be explicitly
defined, new funding made available so that base programs are not sacrificed, and
research priorities made clear. What it means to Alaska: The State of Alaska and
the North Pacific FMC already manage resources with the ecosystem in mind, as
Alaska's sustainable fisheries demonstrate. Proposed changes to law such as,
compelling RFMCs to consider matters that aren't scientifically defensible or
fiscally feasible, or that fail to account for human uses, threaten Alaska's current
sustainable fisheries management regimes.
Amendment: Provide a definition of an ecosystem-based approach to fishery
management that recognizes human uses as a vital ecosystem component, evolves
with new science, and expands to sufficiently support the approach. Since the
581
number of factors that might be involved in ecosystem approaches to management
would be numerous, MSA should specify the factors that RFMCs must consider or
establish a process in which the RFMCs make that determination. Ifthe RFMC
identified the factors, the Science and Statistical Committee should be identified as
the source of expert advice in statute.
• Authorize Dedicated Access Privileges (DAPs) for use by RFMCs.
The NPFMC has implemented several successful fishery management programs
that allow fishermen to fish with DAPs - including Individual Fishing Quotas
(IFQs), cooperatives, and community development quotas (CDQs). Every RFMC
should have the opportunity to develop and utilize DAP programs in the future, if
they feel it appropriate for their fisheries. Ifuse fees are implemented as part of
DAPs management, a share of such fees should be allocated to states to assist with
their share of research, data, management, and enforcement costs. What it means to
Alaska: The race for fish has intensified in Alaskan fisheries; as a result fishermen
are more efficient and fleets are overcapitalized. Fast-paced, compressed fisheries
encourage productivity over safety for fisheries participants, restrain bycatch
reduction, reduce attention to habitat concerns, and hinder use of quality handling
practices that provide for product and market diversity and increased value.
Alaska's experience with IFQs and cooperative management demonstrates that
share-based fishery management effectively addresses these problems. DAPs are a
tool that must remain in the RFMC management toolbox. Amendment: DAPs
should be authorized for use by RFMCs and replace "IFQ" throughout MSA.
• Change the definition of "overfishing" to acknowledge
natural impacts.
Shifts in water temperature, degradation in habitat, pollution, or disease can cause
fish populations to drop below harvestable levels. Currently, there is no codified
term for natural population declines, so the terms "overfished" and "overfishing"
are used. Using these terms unfairly places the blame on fishermen, when fishing is
not the cause of a population decline.
What it means to Alaska: In Alaska, while there is little habitat degradation or
pollution, there is widespread evidence of climatic changes that have affected the
distribution and abundance of marine resources. In order to avoid unnecessary and
undesirable economic and regulatory consequences, it is important that when stocks
of groundfish and shellfish are at lower levels of abundance, as a result of changes
in the natural environment, they are not mislabeled as "overfished". Amendment:
The terms "overfishing" and "overfished" should refer only to the effects of fishing
harvests and pressure, not to the effects of habitat degradation, pollution, or natural
environmental of climatic changes.
• Support federal funding of VMS deployment requirements,
as necessary.
Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) can monitor, among other things, vessel
location, when a boat is fishing, and surface water temperature. Tracking vessels by
582
satellite can facilitate search, rescue and enforcement efforts. However, VMS
should not be required, but used as necessary, practicable, and feasible. When VMS
is used, state and federal agencies should jointly determine the appropriateness of
its use and share VMS data, something not currently occurring. VMS data is not
protected from the Freedom ofInformation Act and therefore, confidentiality is of
concern. When VMS is required, capital costs should be borne by the federal
government. What it means to Alaska: Alaska's fisheries are prosecuted by a very
diverse fleet, ranging in size from under 30' to the largest factory trawler. A one-
size fits all approach to VMS requirements is inappropriate given this diversity.
Amendment: Congress should require a costlbenefit analysis to determine the
feasibility ofVMS use for its potential conservation, enforcement, and safety
benefits, as well as a cumulative impacts examination as to existing, overlapping,
and redundant requirements for commercial fishing vessels. Data-sharing
agreements between state and federal agencies should be developed, while
considering individual confidentiality.
• Prevent Data Quality Act infringement on RFMC use of
science for management.
The Data Quality Act has recently come to our attention. While we have not yet
had the opportunity to fully explore this Act, we do believe that, that as written, it
has the potential to have significant ramifications on the RFMC process and could
result in major delays in management actions, as well as a defacto deregionalization
result.
Amendment: Given the uncertainty that this Act interjects into the R}'MC process,
we recommend that inclusion of language in MSA which stipulates that a properly
constituted Scientific and Statistical Committee could serve as the peer review
panel for influential and highly influential data and analyses related to management
of the fisheries in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
VII. Sources and levels of funding for fisheries management and scientific
activities;
Alaska manages fisheries in both state and federal waters and is subject to
commitments entered into by the United States under international fishery treaties.
Furthermore,
the state receives grants under entitlement programs available to all the states for
the development and management of sport fisheries. Consequently, Alaska's
fishery management program is supported by both state and federal funds. Overall,
the state will provide approximately $36 million for fishery management in fiscal
year 2005. The federal contribution to management of commercial fisheries will be
approximately $14 million. Additional federal resources are available for fisheries
research through the A1aska- Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative and
the North Pacific Research Board.
583
VIII. What new challenges do you foresee.
In general, Alaska's fisheries face the same challenges as any other fishery ranging
from changes in weather to changes in water temperatures. As I mentioned
previously, these factors have the potential to affect marine populations, and as a
consequence, are likely to impact human use opportunities. But perhaps the greatest
challenge that the State of Alaska will face, is preserving the active role that our
state plays in fisheries management. As Congress considers MSA reauthorization,
the establishment of a national oceans policy, and other relevant fisheries-related
legislation, the State of Alaska's greatest challenge and highest priority will be to
ensure that Congress (1) acknowledges our state's jurisdiction, (2) considers our
state's unique characteristics, (3) recognizes our management successes; (4)
incorporates local knowledge in the management process; and (5) fosters strong
federal-state partnerships.
The driving force behind Alaska's statehood was the opportunity to gain
sovereignty over the management of our fisheries resources. The exercise of this
sovereignty is responsible for the sustainability and success ofour fisheries. As we
discuss fisheries policy at a national level, it is this sovereignty and local control of
the fisheries and fishery resources that the state will seek to maintain. We also face
the challenges created by ever-increasing globalization of the economy. In the past,
markets were regional. Now, they are global. Improvements in technology,
communication, and transportation have changed the socio-economic landscape of
our world. While these changes present new opportunities, they also present new
challenges. Take, for example, the proliferation of finfish farming around the
world. Today, farmed salmon raised in Chile compete directly in market places
around the world with wild Alaska salmon. Farmed salmon has provided a cheaper
alternative to wild Alaska salmon, and as a result, has depressed salmon prices
around the globe. In recent years, Alaskan fishermen and the State of Alaska have
been working diligently to promote the benefits of eating wild Alaskan salmon.
And, our promotion efforts are yielding impressive results. Still, the realities ofthis
global marketplace are presenting some unprecedented challenges. Finally, we face
the difficult challenge of balancing economic and social interests associated with
fisheries. One need only look to the debate over crab fishery rationalization in the
Bering Sea or groundfish fishery rationalization in the Gulf of Alaska to understand
how difficult slowing "the race for fish" can be. In many of these cases, fisheries
that used to last for weeks are now executed in days thanks to better technology and
gear. But these improvements, and the speed of the fisheries, have impacts on the
health of our fishery resources. As the State of Alaska attempts to slow "the race
for fish," public debates over rationalization and cooperative structures are ensuing.
As responsible managers of our state's fishery resources, we face the difficult tasks
of finding a way to sustain our fisheries, increasing the value of our catch, and
providing economic benefits to the state, our local communities, and individual
fishermen. Balancing these interests will not be easy and will take time, but I'm
confident that Alaskans are up to the challenge.
584
585
APPENDIXFF
BEDFORD COOPERATION, RESPECT, AND SHARING ANALYSIS
Segments from Testimony of Mr. David Bedford, Deputy Commissioner, Alaska
Department of Fish and Game to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and
Oceans.
Conceptual or direct references from the document to cooperation, respect, sharing, and
food. The following examples are not meant to be comprehensive, but show patterns of
discourse.
Cooperation:
• Federal waters fisheries are subject to regulation under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act with the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council responsible for developing fishery management plans.
NOAA Fisheries is the principle management agency but the management of
many federal waters fisheries is delegated in substantial measure to the State of
Alaska. This is not surprising since fish move freely between state and federal
waters and the state had a fully developed management program for many of the
species of concern to the Council and NOAA when the Magnuson-Stevens Act
was adopted. The Council and Alaska Board ofFisheries collaborate in
development of fishery management plans when the stocks and fisheries overlap
their respective jurisdictions.
• Finally, we face the difficult challenge ofbalancing economic and social interests
associated with fisheries.
• Fishery management in Alaska is divided between federal waters fisheries and
state waters fisheries with different bodies of law, management agencies, and
regulatory authorities engaged in each.
• Management in Alaska is divided between state and federal waters. (Sharing the decision
making processes. Not just one group decides for everyone.)
• MSA .. it also established the fishery management councils, which created a
substantial level of local control over the developing federal waters fisheries.
• To meet these basic obligations Alaska's founders divided management
responsibility between the Department ofFish and Game and a seven member
Board ofFisheries.
586
Food
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The economy ofmany Alaska coastal communities is dependent upon fisheries.
(Indirect reference)
Our fisheries support half of the jobs in Alaska fully or in part. (Indirect reference)
Alaska's fishing industry is its largest private sector employer and produces over
half of the nation's seafood harvest.
Alaska's people depend on our fisheries as a source oflivelihood, recreation and
nutrition.
Alaskans take advantage of our fishery resources in subsistence, commercial,
sport and personal use fisheries.
In recent years, Alaskan fishermen and the State of Alaska have been working
diligently to promote the benefits of eating wild Alaskan salmon.
Amendment: Provide a definition of an ecosystem-based approach to fishery
management that recognizes human uses as a vital ecosystem component, evolves
with new science, and expands to sufficiently support the approach. (Indirect reference)
Over half of the total harvest offish in the United States is taken from the waters
off Alaska.
Subsistence, which accounts for a small percentage ofthe total harvest, is
accorded a priority under state law.
Respect:
• (for MSA) The success in maintaining abundant resources and viable fisheries in
Alaska leads to the conclusion that the MSA is, in many regards, effective as
written.
• (for time) A streamlined regulatory process helps assure the timely and responsive
fisheries management that the Alaskan fishing industry and dependent coastal
communities require to maximize fisheries value.
• (for sustainability) The exercise of this sovereignty is responsible for the sustainability
and success of our fisheries.
• (that Congress respects) ••• highest priority will be to ensure that Congress acknowledges
our state's jurisdiction, considers our state's unique characteristics; recognizes our
management successes, incorporates local knowledge in the management process,
fosters strong federal-state partnerships.
• (for public involvement) Meaningful public involvement in resource management
engenders support for resource conservation and helps in the development of
harvest plans that increase efficient use.
• (for slowing time) As the State of Alaska attempts to slow 'the race for fish,' public
debates over rationalization and cooperative structures are ensuing.
• (for ecosystem considerations) For example, the department (state) generally manages
salmon stocks for a biological escapement goal, that is the number ofsalmon
returning to a river that is necessary to provide for maximum sustained yield.
587
• (for ecosystem approaches) Ecosystem approaches to management are the new trend in
marine management. Ifecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management are
added to the MSA, it must be appropriate to implement, scientifically defensible,
and recognize human uses as essential.
• (for fairness) Harvest allocation and resource management are distinct.
• The North Pacific Fishery
• The resource comes first.
• (for science) Management is based on science.
• (for the council and process) Management Council has proved to be an effective steward of
the marine resources. Consequently, the Act when reauthorized, should continue
to support the council process by:
• (the public role) The public has a meaningful role in allocation and management
decisions.
Sharing:
• After providing for the subsistence opportunities, the Board ofFisheries allocates
the remaining harvestable surplus among the other fisheries. (Indirect reference)
• Alaskan fishery management is grounded on obligations set in the state
constitution requiring management of fish and wildlife to provide for sustained
yield and reserving fish and wildlife for the common use of the people. (Indirect
•
•
•
•
•
reference)
In broad-brush strokes, the Board is charged with developing management plans
that provide for resource conservation and allocate harvestable surplus among
users. (Indirect reference)
The state's management program embraces an array ofhuman uses including
sport, personal use, commercial and customary and traditional subsistence
fisheries. (Indirect reference)
Thus, the constitution sets the standard for conservation of the resource with the
objective of allowing for human use of that resource in perpetuity. (Indirect reference)
Authorize Dedicated Access Privileges for use by RFMCs. (IFQs) (CDQs). (Setting a
sharing limit)
Alaska's experience with IFQs and cooperative management demonstrates that
share-based fishery management effectively addresses these problems. DAPs are
a tool that must remain in the RFMC management toolbox.
588
APPENDIXGG
A BRIEF TIMELINE OF EURO-AMERICAN CONTACT
1867: Treaty of Cession between the United States and Russia
When the United States acquired Alaska territories from Russia, the Treaty of Cession
stated that the United States had dominion over all properties except those owned by
"private individual property holders" (Case 1984:57). Cession of territory was to be
unencumbered by any corporate or incorporated companies, reservations, privileges,
franchises, grants, etc. Because aboriginal title is usually tribal or group title, some have
claimed that the treaty extinguished the rights of Indian title at the same time Russian title
was ended. The treaty gave all but the Indians the "advantages and immunities" of
citizens of the United States. As such, Natives could not "legally" claim land, not being
United States citizens (Case 1984:57-58). Before 1867, Tlingit people followed their own
social rules that differentiated land and resource use boundaries. They knew places
through their family ties to them (de Laguna 1960; Goldschmidt and Haas 1946). Clans
and house groups periodically occupied certain rivers, berry picking areas, and hunting
grounds through seasonal subsistence practices. Outsiders could gain access to lands,
resources and local knowledge by showing genealogical connections and a proper
awareness and deference to the local clan status. Permission could be obtained to share in
resources (Thornton 1997).
1869: Kake War
1884: The Organic Act
The act stipulated that settlers and others could not take lands that were in actual
use and occupation by Indians (Case 1984:58). The Organic Act recognized a degree of
property interest on the part of Alaska Natives, and was cited in later courts to
demonstrate that the 1867 treaty did not extinguish aboriginal title to properties (Case
1984:67). Newcomers failed to consider that for centuries Tlingit people had moved
seasonally throughout each year to harvest locations that were connected to their clans.
Tlingits did not occupy these places year around. Although the Organic Act protected
occupied Native lands, newcomers took land when Natives were elsewhere, thus
excluding Natives from access to traditional harvest locations and restricting Native
movement (Dauenhauer and Dauenhauer 1994).
589
1902 -1909: Pres. Theodore Roosevelt designated a reserve called the Tongass
National Forest
The boundaries ofthe new federal reserve closed off seven thousand square miles
of Southeast Alaska from private acquisition and unregulated private logging (Mitchell
1997). Eventually the designation would also prevent state title to the land. The
boundaries ofthe reserve excluded land that contained white settlement, but it
encompassed Tlingit and Haida villages. The General Land Office considered those areas
uninhabited (Mitchell 1997:162-164), although 800 Natives lived on Prince ofWales
Island, 100 lived on Kuiu Island, 500 lived on KupreanofIsland and more than 500 lived
on ChichagofIsland. While the reserve failed to recognize the Tlingit or Haida rights of
use and occupancy, primarily protecting the rights of white settlers, the reservation of
lands inadvertently prevented several major development projects such as mining and
logging that would have encroached, to a greater extent, on Native subsistence access.
The withdrawal of national forest lands "probably unintentionally" protected Native land
rights for Tlingit and Haida land claims and for the Alaska Native Lands Settlement Act
(Mitchell 1997). Yet the Tongass National Forest boundaries took from the Natives their
fishing and other food gathering rights in areas they once used and occupied as clans and
from which non-clan persons could be excluded (Johnson 2003:26). In the next 60 years,
during subsequent legal claim hearings, various levels of concessions were made
concerning aboriginal title to land and subsistence.
1946-1947: Walter Goldschmidt and Theodore Haas report to the United States
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
The report, reprinted in 1998 as "Haa Aani, Our Land: Tlingit and Haida Land
Rights and Uses," is a legal document that Southeast Alaska Natives continue to cite and
use in legal struggles to preserve land and customary and traditional use rights (Thornton
1998:Introduction). The document is the result of researching the "Possessory Rights of
the Natives of Southeastern Alaska," which involved interviewing and recording Native
Tlingit and Haida representatives about clan, house group, and family use areas and
territories. Goldschmidt (anthropologist) and Haas (chief counsel for the Bureau ofIndian
Affairs) spent three months in 1946 taking sworn affidavits from Tlingit and Haida
people. In their report, Goldschmidt and Haas described the land tenure system ofTlingit
and Haida groups and depicted territories in detail based on ethnographic data and
recorded testimony (Goldschmidt and Haas 1947, 1998; Mills 2000; Thornton 1998).
Thornton, in his 1998 introduction, describes how Natives claimed 90 percent of
Alaska up until the Goldschmidt and Haas report. The report was a legal tool for Natives
to validate their claims. However, when the land claims were "settled" through the 1971
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), Natives received 11 percent of their
590
lands. They received $3 an acre as compensation for the remaining 89 percent of their
territories (Mills 2000; Thornton 1998).
1958: Alaska Statehood Act
Alaska had been categorized as a United States civil and judicial district since
1884, but received little federal attention (Gislason 2007). In 1955, after several fights in
Congress, 55 delegates were elected based on geographic apportionment, and met in
Fairbanks to design a state constitution. During the convention the rights of natives to
land were debated extensively, but in early 1959, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower
signed a proclamation that made Alaska the 49th State of the Union, neither the federal
government nor the new state government had effectively defined Native land title and
rights. It would take more than a decade to "settle" the question Fisher (l975).
1971: The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)
The settlement act transferred 11 percent of Alaska's lands to Native groups in
compensation for lands taken. The land was to be administered through Native
corporations, 13 regional corporations and more than 200 local Native "village"
corporations. This act "settled" competing claims to lands that would have inhibited or
slowed oil pipeline development in the state (Thornton 1999). Within this act, Congress
made clear its intent that the State of Alaska and the Secretary of the Interior should
protect the subsistence needs of the Natives. The act emphasized a subsistence priority
(Thornton 1999:206). In the meantime, the law also required Native corporations to make
a profit from their allotted lands. Thus, Kake Tlingit residents became shareholders of the
Kake Tribal Corporation and members of Sealaska Tlingit Haida Regional Corporation.
1980: Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA)
ANILCA was enacted in order to strengthen congressional commitment to Native
subsistence through ANCSA. After compromising with the State of Alaska about
wording, Congress stated that rural (rather than Native) preference would be given for
customary and traditional uses ofAlaska's natural resources. According to ANILCA, "it
was in the national interest ofprotecting both subsistence resources and a subsistence
way oflife that an administrative structure be established for the purpose of enabling
rural residents who have personal knowledge oflocal conditions and requirements to
have a meaningful role in their management" (Thornton 1999:208).
Congress stipulated that the State of Alaska should control regulation of federal lands as
long as the state complied with ANILCA and the rural subsistence preference. However,
591
political and legal debate within the state prevented state compliance with ANILCA
requirements. Thus, the federal government took over regulation of federal lands in 1990
and regulation to protect subsistence fisheries in 1999 (Thornton 1999:208-209).
592
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