444 CONTENTS

NOTES:

Twentieth Meeting of the International Whaling Commission, 1968 . 509 Arctic Institute of North America: Study in Northern Transportation 509 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural

Resources (IUCN) : First Working Meeting of Polar Bear Scientists, 1968 511

Arctic sea ice studies with the aid of polar-orbiting satellites 513 United States federal expenditure on Arctic research, 1968 514 Use of inflatable boats in east Greenland waters. 518 Loss of aircraft with hydrogen bomb load in Greenland, 1968 . 518

Loss of Mischief, July 1968 United States Antarctic research vessel Hero . 519 Tourism in the Antarctic, 1968 . 520 Chronological list of Arctic and sub-Arctic expeditions and historical 520

events Opening of the new wing of the Scott Polar Research Institute . 521

OBITUARY 523

ERRATA. 526

RECENT POLAR LITERATURE 527

SCAR Bulletin No 31 Joint meeting of Working Groups on Geology and Geophysics,

Tokyo, 1968 . 571 SCAR/IUBS/SCIBP Symposium on Antarctic Ecology, 1968 . 575 National Committees of SCAR . 575 Permanent delegates to SCAR . 575 Permanent Working Groups of SCAR 575 Exchange scientists in the Antarctic, 1967-68 576

Th_e Pol<fr Record, Vol 14, No 91, 1969, p 445-458 Prmted 111 Great Britain

PARTY POLITICS OR PROTEST POLITICS: CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

Introduction .

potential . . The two Alaskas . Native Alaska

differences . '

e;:;? Adok :tl····'"='>

"'- .

its

BY GEORGE W. ROGERS*

[MS. received 1 October 1968]

CONTENTS

445 Native political 1912·60. .

developmenL . . .

446 Native political development in 448 the Sixties .

internal 451 References 451

Sketch map of Alaska showing major regions and urban centres.

Introduction

445

4:d

455 457

Politics has been a lively part of the Alaskan way of life since the Territory was created by ~he O~ganic Act of 1912 (a half-loaf of self-government), and assum~d new d1?1ens10ns with the Statehood Act of 1958. But with the exception of Indians resident in the south-east region Alaskan politics was a game that the Eskimos and Aleuts of the western and northern coastal regions

~f 'lj~!~f scholar, Scott Polar Research Institute and Professor of Economics, University

/ ,. CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

446 and the interior Indians (approximately 78 per cent of the total 1960 Native population) did not join in although they could participate automatically after 1924, and by application between 1915 and 1924. After World War II, these people began to exercise their right to vote, but they did not yet

constitute an important political force. The change from Nativet political impotence to political power came with

all the surprise and dramatic impact, though not the violence and destruction, of a summer uprising in a Black ghetto when, in October 1966, eight separate associations (four Eskimo, one Aleut and three Indian) joined together in the united front of the Alaska Federation of Natives. By mid-1966 these new N;itive group, had 8Ubmitted title claims, by right of aboriginal use and occupancy, to public lands covering approximately sq Alaska's 1 ·52 million sq km (this rose to 1 ·5 million sq km by April 1967). Faced with these massive filings, the Secretary of the Interior, in December 1966, halted all disposal of public lands in the State to which Natives claimed aboriginal possession until the United States Congress passed a bill defining the rights of these claimants and established machinery for settlement

(Brady, 1967). In one united action, the Native minority had temporarily thwarted the intent of the Alaskan Statehood Act to provide the new State with income from land resources during its initial development (the freeze applied to transfer of lands from the public domain to the State as well as to individuals) and threatened planned economic developments including oil and gas. But more important, the non-Native community had been shown that Alaska's Eskimo, Indian and Aleut peoples were a political force to be reckoned with. They had graduated from their long and little noticed apprenticeship in politics. They had found new aggressive leaders, their political voice and an economic weapon which could prove more effective in advancing their causes than the economic boycott and violence used by the minority groups elsewhere. The political pay-offs started coming in even before the land freeze. During the 1966 political campaign, the Native voters were courted as they had never been before. Major candidates visited isolated and remote villages never or rarely receiving such calls. The land claims had a galvanic effect upon government at all levels. Native matters small and large that had languished in bureaucratic pigeon holes began to receive priority treat-

ment (Rogers, 1967a).

The Native Alaskans' political potential

Before proceeding, some measure should be given of the political potential of the Natives. The 1960 census reported a total of 226 167 Alaskans of which 43 081 (or 19 per cent) were natives (estimates for 1966 were 272 000 and 50 700 respectively). Moreover some 32 489 of the non-natives were members of the armed forces stationed in Alaska (an estimated 31 000 in 1966) accompanied by a slightly larger number of dependents and slightly

t The form "Native" denotes Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians born in Alaska while "native" also includes people of European descent born there. Ed.

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA 447

~~;;:d:u:i: ~~s~::~!aninem!~fz;esd ~f the Department of Defense. Voting stationed, indicate th ~ ense r~rso1:Ilel and dependents are lower in them than tt~ ~r ker capita parti~1pat10n in elections has been of military duty in Alaska ~~/rr~;;~age. Tl71s would be expected as tours

:~'~01)~;:.;"~~;~~u~:t!ution of th;; ~~.{w!f ::;..;; ;:~ ;:~~;d:S"~:;:

and Fig) A T' L 'f . the 1:~t~re of representative democracy (Table 1 . zme- z e wnter v1s1hng Alaska found other factors politically

Table]. Alaska nativei population political potential, 1960

a otal population- 226 167 35 403 1 cen ia out west Interior Northwest ( ) T

Alaska Southeast Sot th t. l S h 108 851 21 001 49 128 11 784

(b) Total population excluding defence 2

perso,nnel and dependents

150 681 33 197 66920 16 500 22 664 10 680

Native population 43 081 9 242 -as percentage of (a) 19·0 26-l 5 514 14 314 4 638 9 373 -:-as _percentage of (b) 28·6 27 2 5·1 68-1 9·4 79·5

Leg1slat1ve representation, 60 · 8·2 86-8 20·5 87·8 by regio,ns, 1960

14 20 8 10 8

l. Native includes Alaska f b · . 2. Defence includes memb~~s 00

f aar%Ig~n;1 stock (lndi~ns, Aleuts, Eskimos). 3. Legislative representation allocate1 b 0cl!~ ~nd tJ:ie1~ de~endents stationed in Alaska.

ansd place of residence for members olthe s!~0a~ d~s:gts 111; House of Representatives

ources: US Bureau of the Ce · e, sess10n. of Al~ska, Session Lai~~udf 1Jf1sk!~d1J6~pu~lli~ed dorksheets. State data m Government Statistical C : I ary ependents from Fiscal Data, ]963 Alask St t D oioratwn, Alaska .Economic and population reported on a }t e eve opm~nt C?rporat10n and civilian rm 1 ary reservations m Census worksheets.

favourable to the Natives "Th . them: they were stable .. The ew~1!v~}ave a~":'ays had one thing going for always been as i·t still . . dy politic, on the other hand had

' IS, m a state of flux ·t h. hi b'l ' more sojourners than ·d ' 1 s ig Y mo 1 e members being a political force of g:::~e:n~~!:n~~a~et~a.tives have the. pote?ti~I of being 1960 census revealed that the h d e1~. numbers might md1cate. The increase was higher than that ~ t: :t ad:1ti;;al advantage: their rate of risen nearly 40 per cent since 1953 win es y . ·3 people per I O?O, and had of only about 30 e B . . companson to a non-native increase inevit!lble that th~ ~~;~~'s ~~:c;";n:a sizabie 1~-mig,ration of whites,. it seemed also rncrease iv· h . ge O aska s total population would the beginn· , g fmg t. em p~oportionally greater weight at the polls Now

mgs o native umty and the e f . . meant they could turn th · . mergence o a native leadership 1968). e1r special advantages to better account" (Smith,

Only two aspects of these political d I . unity among the Naf . eve opments will be considered people share the unt;ye ~:°bpel1~n andl th~fiir dmode~ of political response. Thes~

h . g c ass1 e as 'Natives" 'th t

t elf very great ethnic and other diff . w1 ou regard to of the federal government. But true ere~:;s, rnd _of bemg treated as wards coming and is a fragile thin when po ~ ica umt)'. has b_e~n a long time burst forth, in two distinct stag~s The /~1:,ievedf. Nath1ve politics emerged, or . n ians o sout -east Alaska had a head

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA 448 start beca'use of their aboriginal political unity when the Territory was created, and responded by 1n;aking the two party system work to their advantage. When the other Native people emerged as a political force some fifty years · later, it was not in this same earlier context of party politics as a continuing and changing form of bargaining, but contemporary politics as dogma, protest

and revolt.

The two Alaskas A visit to a native village, or the native section of a larger community, is

understand the full nature of poverty in Alaska. Poverty exists elsewhere, but here it dominates the life of the community. on village conditions by Charles Abrams, no stranger to human misery as exhibited in the underdeveloped nations and in the rural and urban slums of the developed, opened: "By almost every definition in the language of international economics, rural Alaska is an undeveloped area, . . . . In fact, thi:, conditions of the natives in Alaska's backlands are tougher to deal with than those in the undeveloped tropical belts." (Abrams, 1967). This should not have come as a startling revelation. A succession of earlier surveys and reporti. had made this common knowledge. In 1941 the National Resources Planning Board, for example, concluded a survey of development needs by stating, "Real poverty, and almost the oruy poverty found in Alaska, exists among the natives . . . The natives of Alaska are a depressed class, one of the poorest under the American flag." (National Resources Planning Board, 1941). A 1954 report of a major survey of health problems in Alaska found the Native peoples of Alaska to be "victims of sickness, crippling conditions and premature death to a degree exceeded in very few parts of the world ... Here in Native Alaska, public health problems are nearly out of hand . . . Here are found over 90 per cent of Alaska's tuberculosis deaths; here more than 10 per cent of all infants die during the first year of life. Here is almost universal prevalence of serious dental disease, the great bulk of the Territory's nutritional deficiency, the vast majority of its crippled children, and the heaviest concentration of people with serious hearing and vision defects. Here there is almost complete absence even of elementary sanitation." (Alaska Health Survey Team, 1954).

In establishing its annual estimates of income received by residents of the State of Alaska, the United States Department of Commerce selected calendar year 1957 as its bench-mark year. It collected detailed data on all forms of income including welfare payments and estimates of the cash equivalent of fish and game harvested for food and clothing, and organized this into four major economic groups. The 1957 per capita income for all groups in Alaska was $2 408, or 117 per cent of the per capita income for the United States as a whole, while that for the native economy was $1 231, or 60 per cent of the United States and only 46 per cent of the non-native Alaska per capita income (Graham, 1968). The social and economic characteristics reported by the 1960 census reveal further aspects of both the nature of poverty and its contributing causes (Table 2).

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

Table 2. Indicators of economic and social status, by race, 1960

White Races

Perce11:t~ge of families with income in 1959 rece1vmg less than :

$3 000 $5 000

Pe!centage of persons 25 years or older m 1969 with seven years or less education

1960 non-worker to worker ratio 1960 Infant mortality rate (deaths

under one year per 1 000 live

8·1 22·8

5·8

1·02 27·8

Indian, Aleut, Eskimo Total Southeast

Alaska Alaska

53-3 71·9 68·9

3·72 74·8

22·3 47·2 37·6

no 55·1

449

·Remainder Alaska

70·J 84·0 78·8

4·22 79·8

Source: Infa t t li n mor a ty rate from Rogers and Coole (1963 V ~~~~r (ili::me~ima~ ~rom populati<?n charaZteristics' fo~l ;~lw~N~ of high pro~o~~ cf orage an~ Fairbanks election district because

92.2

on ° no~-natJve persons in non-white catego ) distrid:rai~nt of total Native po,pulation resides outside these ::r~ these district~3·t§'e~ cent of iot~l other non-white races resides within p 3-106. . ureau o t e Census, 1960, PC (1) -3C- Alaska

Futu~~ Alaskan economic development provides no cause for com lacenc ~ a?d~tIO~ to such adverse factors as lack of education and skil1s raciri . is~rmi_nati~n, etc., the !?resent geographical distribution of native po~ulation ts eaviest Ill areas which are away from the centres of recent economic ~~;elopment and anticip~ted future growth. The 1960 census reported· only

per cent of tot~l native population residing in the growth centres of the Anchor~ge and F~1rbanks districts as compared with 67·2 per cent of total nonb:ttive population. Although there is evidence of increasing geographical :i~hin rh amon~ Alas~a's l;ative~ since 1960, they have traditionally remained

e ;111a1or ~eg10ns Ill which their ancestors lived. They also a ear to be occupationally 1~obile, . as the recent experience of the introduc~;n of a new f~rest products mdustry Ill south-east Alaska has indicated (Rogers, 1965).

The1r recent ~ates of natural increase further reduce the probabilit that g;neral econo~c development will automatically alleviate their cofdition ? poverty. Durmg ~he period from 1950 through 1964, rates of net natural mcreases among natives have been close to 4 per cent per year for the states (;o~e;shof ; 6;:)d

1?pro;c:o 5 per cen_t in the so1;1th-west and interior regions

, · we e e econormc progress Ill terms of per capita income gro~t?, . thes~ rates of population increase far outstri e optimistlc proJected rates of Alaskan development. p ven the most

Something should have been done to prevent or improve this situation and, of course, a number of things were done. All were well intentioned and some even soundly conceived, but in their execution and im lementation

~::y p!~t:~h:; J:~iv:~f :Je of their stated obje~tives an~ ins tea~ reinforced f rth . Ar . 1 3 ral government relat10ns and mter-dependence set o. Ill tic e of the 1867 Treaty of Cession which made the "u · 'li d

tnbes" of Al k d nc1v1 ze as a war s of the federal government. The Organic Act of

450 , CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

. il ment to Alaska, directed the 1884, which brought. th7, first ci~ !~~e:d report upon the condition of Secretary of the Int~rior . to ex~mm~ h t lands if any should be reserved

d. "d" m said Territory, w a • ' . ,, In the In mns res1 mg . . h 11 be made for their education . · · for their use; wha~ pro~is~on s a Sh Id n Jackson, was appointed the first 1884 the Presbyterian m1Ss1?nari~r l1as1a and given an appropriation of General Agent for Edu~ation " 1 obligation" to its new wards to $25 000 to meet the ~mted S_tates _mor~e of the white population of the "fit them for the social and ~dustrial 1· t t assimilation" (Jenness, 1962). United States and promote the~\ not-too~d~~ a;to multi-million dollars annual Funds for the programme sltea i yf exra were added to education and all budaets as health and wefare unc ions

resp~nsibility finally turned over t rhl social services was established and In effect, a dual system ;.f s~ho~8s84angoal of "not-too-distant assimil~tion" became firmly entrenche '. t e . d under the more immediately seemed to be forgotten or md~fimte;. ~orps~~:~on (Rogers, 1960, p 220-69). operative force of bureaucratic se p . .

. h d the effect of officially lumpmg all Native Federal wardship not only ~ th . thnic and geoaraphical differences,

Alaskans together witho~t reg~r to eir ~ ious division"' of a society on the but also of officially r~mfor~mg th~ pernt the Alaskan brand of politics. basis of race and _makmg this a; ~ ~~enf :0 and the attempted application Heavy-handed or_ mcompetent a m~ms_ ra ~ to meet needs of a modern of national soc1_a1 pr?grammes es1re nnecessary disruption and suffering. urbanized industrial society, often c~us~ u . . from the paternalism and

Over ~11 :was t~e stigm\ 0

~ i~e~;~~k ::i~:f;nship. Eighty years ago there patromzation wh1~h ~as t. e r1s ecial assistance and protection, but the may have been J~stt~cat1on or sbp f ture in a system which continues Native is now askmg if there can e any ~ . .

"d him as m· competent to manage his own affairs. to cons1 er

In common with the recently _dis~overed ~~;e~r f i;k~~c~~:::ee:e ot ~~; United States, Native Alaska 1~ hm t~ct oor the immobilizing effects of economy. Its members share. wit o_ :rdfucrimination ill health and mal­lack of education, lack of ~kills, rac1~ life and the ge~eral rising prosperity nutrition. The affluent American bway o b Native Alaskans, but for most of and development of Al~ska can e ~ee: yeffect a ghetto which has been them not shared. Native Alaska is hat is as real and operative fragmented_ a~d scattere~ th~ough thrv:~a~i ~:e~embers as any of the more in impoverishing and cripplmg t~e 1 · · The hetto has a curious visible bla~k. ghettos con~e~~ated :s~t ;~?:ft ~~~e~learI/ but those outside one-way v1s1?n. Those_ ms1 e c~ 1 ffort to do so. In addition, the isolation of can only seem by making a _specm e the Native ghetto out of sight of the settlements in Alaska has literally pu~ A h and Fairbanks and two dominant white society concen;:tedt i::dy ~~ic~:g~f natives from the bush or three other ur?an P!ac~. ~ ~ e this situation into more general view, into !h~se centhres isli?ti~gmln e~~r:~ o;~:ese people themselves that the vision but 1t 1s by t e po ca of all Alaskans is being made two-way.

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA 451

Native Alaska, its internal differences

The people within Native Alaska may share the unity of poverty and dependency, but they are descended from a variety of aboriginal economic and social systems, each reflecting the geographical and natural resources differences of the regions in which they developed and providing varied political influences. The north-west coast of north America, south of the main body of Alaska, supported a high primitive civilization extending from the northern end of the Alaska panhandle southward to northern California. This North-west Coast Culture at the time of the first significant outside contacts 1740)

10 000 people of the Tlingit and another 1 800 of the Haida (Swanton, 1952). The mild climate and abundance of readily harvested natural resources (most importantly salmon) resulted in one of the heaviest concentrations of aboriginal population north of the areas of highest civilization in Mexico and Central America. They also supported material wealth and leisure for the elaboration of a remarkably rich culture and a sophisticated social and legal organization. As in western culture, property and property rights were central to the Tlingit and Haida status system and basic values, and competition was the motivating force of their way of life. The population of the entire region was inter-related through the social system, trade and economic specialization. In many respects, the resulting culture was a caricature of the imported western culture (Rogers, 1960, p 175-98). These people accommodated themselves readily to the development of commercial fisheries during the present and nineteenth centuries, and similarities between their own and the new western culture assisted in other adaptations (Rogers, 1965, p 141-42).

The wide-open barren reaches of the Arctic tundra lands probably supported about 12 000 Eskimos in the south-west Alaska region and another 28 000 in north-west and parts of interior Alaska at the time of the first European contacts (Swanton, 1952). In contrast with the more favorably endowed south-east region, the severe demands of the Arctic environment and the scant raw materials with which men had to work produced a hardy, highly inventive and technically skilled race and a spartan social organization based on the family. Unlike in the North-west Culture, in the Arctic Culture of the Eskimo material possessions beyond the bare minimum required for survival were unimportant, or possibly even fatal, burdens. Much of this still holds today.· A 1964-65 study of the largest modern concentrations of Eskimos on the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta lands found the modern cash economy (including welfare payments), only supplements the continuing aboriginal subsistence economy (Klein, 1966). Other surrounding aboriginal cultures included the inland hunting culture of the smaller groupings of Indians of Athapascan stock, Swanton's estimates suggesting some 5 200 persons in all scattered over the interior plateau regions, 500 in the Copper River basin and 1 200 in the Kenai-Illiamna area. Sparseness of population (about 2·5 persons per 260 sq km) did not encourage the development of

452 CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

. . . f Finally some 16 000 Aleuts elaborate political and social. org~mza i~rthe Ale~tian Islands chain and aboriginally occupied the steppmg s ones . .

the Alaskan Peninsula. th aborignal cultures are also the The present .da~ descendan1s ofentse~~ the 19th and 20th centuries which

product of non-mdigenous deve opm . t another Prior to World War II, varied in nature and pace from = reg~n ~g of ~almon and gold mining. the basic economy was the. catc g an caindi enous population was in the and the largest concentrati~n of te n~:- st gAlaska thus came into early south-east region. The. Ind~an~o~i;~; ;:te culture. Except for the periods and intimate contac~ with t e . d f Alaska the contacts between the new of the gold rushes, m the remam er o and old residents were sporadic and ,nrtdsn·otp; by types of places that political development. The l9 60 ~e~s ~:jority position in total population, even where Natives had an over~ e fig ural laces making communication their n~mbers. wer~ scar~tl: ::~h-e:st Al~ska where Natives constitu~ed and umted action difficu t. . 1 while south-west Alaska, excludmg

5 t f the population was rura h t 79· per cen o ral and 86'8 per cent Natives. In sout -eas the US Navy base at A~akd w~~ r~dians constituted an important minority Alaska, on the other a~ , a~d even. their rural members were in clos~r group, were more urban~zed t (Table 3). In terms of economic contact due to geographical compac ness welfare they also were better off (Table 2).

Table 3. Regional distribution of native population: 1960 Native population

Total population

all races

Southeast Alaska · 35 403

Urban 1 places 16 517 Rural 18 886

Remainder of Alaska 190 764 Anchorage Spenard 53 3 l l Fairbanks 13 311

1 2 638

Noof persons

9247 2962 6285

33 839 1681

434 320

As percentage of Percentage total population

100·0 26·1 31·9 17·8 68·1 33·3

100·0 17·7 5·0 3·1 1·2 3-3 1·0 12-4

0th.er udrbfan p,aces 42 289 Maior e ence 79 215 31 404 92·8 Rural 500 s or more t

39·6

1 Urban denotes place of 2 p~rs.1,n d military population reported by census a 2· Major' defence, includes both c1v1 ian an ·1 ble but Native Alaskans at such places

. such places. Break~o~vl b°&a~~=s ~~!d:~a~: be' assigned to smaller and more remote assumed to be ~egligib e. d d endents remained in villages. . . posts (included 1Il rural above) an ep1960 PCC17 -3C- Alaska; and unpublished

Source: US Bureau of the Census, . ' . census worksheets.

, d th current petroleum developments, all World War II, the Cold War an e o of outside growth and contacts

of which have increased the extent and te{:1p. a dramatic impact. Whereas in the balance of. Alaska, have ;nd

4~~; :::!t of Alaska's total non-native

the south-east region accounted . or ~ed for only 21 ·4 per cent and 14·3 population in the 1939 censu~, it accoun. c and population changes prepared per cent in 1950 and 1960. T esedecont~i 1 mode of Native Alaska in the for the emergence of the secon po i ica 1960's.

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA 453

Native political development, 1912-60

Implementation of the Organic Act .of 1912 found the Native ,people of south-east Alaska prepared to participate in the resulting system of party politics and representative government. One of the two most influential families and their followers became Republicans and the other major group followed suit by becoming Democrats, and the rivalries of the past were continued with all their aboriginal enthusiasm under the rules of the newly introduced American two-party system. They also recognized that the party system was more than simply a device for competitive exercises. The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) founded in 1912, followed by the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS)-for women had the vote in the Territory of Alaska before

in the United .States-became effective bargaining instruments for promoting the common interests of the Native people of the region within the political system, and in dealing with the federal bureaucracy after winning, in 1915, the means to apply for citizenship and voting rights. The annual conventions became arenas for resolving internal rivalries and arriving at a temporary semblance of Native unity from which to formulate clear statements of policy for the next year. When conditions looked favourable for success, they might sponsor some of their own members to run for seats in the legislature, but more generally all political candidates were invited to attend the conventions and those offering the most favourable terms would be assured of voting support, a factor which no white political hopeful could afford to ignore. These people had an earlier reputation as hard-headed traders and this carried over into their political bargaining. Attendance of representa­tives of the federal bureaus was almost mandatory in order to be presented with the Indian version of programmes and policies which should be pursued, to call them to account for past shortcomings and otherwise make the will of the Indian people known (Rogers, 1960, p 264-69). ·

The political mode of the south-east Indian from about 1912-60 was not one of revolution or even protest, but of learning the intricacies of the established system and how it can be manipulated or influenced. One by­product of this was that these Indians became skilled parliamentarians. I have attended ANB sessions at which a panel of elders who apparently had Robert's Rules of Order by heart would back the chairman through sticky spots in the heated debates by citing chapter and verse determining each point of order. Largely because of his reputation as a successful legislative chairman, Frank Peratrovich, the only Indian delegate to the 1955-56 State Constitutional Convention, was elected vice-president and piloted that body through the stormy debates and cross-currents of conflicts of interest and sectional differences with a .skill and impartiality which none of his white brothers could have approached. As an instance, the Tlingit-Haida land claims, which emerged in 1907 when the United States Government appro­priated most of their lands for the Tongass National Forest, were presented and pursued through a maze of legal machinery. The seemingly endless steps included passage of a special act by the Congress in 1935 allowing the Tlingit and Haida to sue the government, initial decisions in 1947 and 1959 by the Court of Claims holding that they were entitled to compensation and the 1966

454 CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

decision setting an initial value on the 82 000 sq km taken (Brady, 1967, p 4). Even when plans to establish a large pulp mill at Ketchikan provided them with an opportunity to short-cut the process by posing a· threat to this project, they agreed to the compromise of the Tongass Timber Act of 1947 which permitted sale of timber from the lands in dispute with receipts to be held in a special fund until title was eventually determined (Rogers, 1960, p

223-24). Politics was something in which these people were involved, but the older political leaders were not in any sense men who depended upon political office for their livelihood. Prior to Statehood, election to the Territorial Legislature was a source of economic loss rather than gain, as reimbursement was a token flat and expenses only rather than the salary (minimum $6 000) now provided. These older leaders established their reputations and followings on the basis of successful careers outside politics, and assumed the responsibilities of leadership either out of a sense of noblesse oblige or to satisfy urges for the exercise of power. In part, this might be traced to the aboriginal system of earning rank and its privileges through achievement, and in part to the fact that their formal education had been by, or under the influence of, the Presbyterian missionaries of the earlier decades of this century and the close of the last. These forces no longer dominate the scene and the younger generation of leaders identify more with the motivies of the new political breed than with the "Establish­ment" values of their elders. This and other contemporary factors are bringing basic change to what has been treated here as the south-east Indian political

mode. Through natural political instinct and understanding of the white man's character, and strong unity in bargaining for their common interests, the Indians of south-east Alaska were able to exert political influence beyond that indicated by weight of numbers. In contrast, the numerically superior Eskimo, Aleut and interior Indians, because of their geographical and social isolation, their remoteness from major economic developments prior to World War II and their lack of traditions of strong leadership and co-operative action beyond small family units, exerted limited political influence even in elections in regions where they were overwhelmingly in the majority. Until the mid-1950's, for example, all members of the House and Senate of the Territorial Legislature from the north-west region were elected by a handful of white residents of the town of Nome. These Native Alaskans not only had no political voice but, because they did not exercise their right to vote, they could be ignored by politicians. During the 1940's the ANB and ANS . conducted missionary activities outside their region, but, aside from bringing in the Indians at Copper Center, were unsuccessful in attempting to broaden their base to include all Alaskan natives. The achievement of politically necessary pre-conditions by these other Native groups seemed impossible without basic changes in their way of living, their aspirations and their knowledge. Such changes were taking place.

World War II not only brought the twentieth century to these people, but started their real political education. When faced with induction into the

/

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA 455

armed forces and invited to join the Alask . . ~f the present Alaska National Guard) a Terntonal Sc~mts (the forerunner time seriously instructed m· th t , the 1;1orthe:rn Native was for the first

S . e na ure and nght f hi ..

tates c~tizen. During the war, the weekl . s o . s pos:t10n as a United comparues and units in th ·11 y dnll and mstruct10n of the Scouts became the first politicael vri lla~es pro~ided concrete evidence of this, and

S a ymg pomts for th 1

tatehood movement of th 1950' . ese peop e. The Alaska several Eskimos were elect:d ands acce~era~ed t~~ p~litic~l education and Legislature. serve with distmct10n m the Territorial

·h Na~ve political development in the Sixties • L e me first broad and ff · · .

orgamzation began to take h e ect1ve leadership and political impotent Alaskans, The Associ:tr:: o;~:: . these s_till rela.tively politically VISTA workers who served in th ·u ncan Indian Affarrs and the young interior Indians to the threats to eth:. ages alert.ed the Eskimo, Aleut and selection provisions of the Stat h d lr futures mh~rent in the State land "Project Chariot" in Northweste A~o k ctj the Atomic Energy Commission's dam (the 275 600 sq km of as .a, pans for the huge Rampart Canyon lands of the interior Indians a:~se~vorr would have inundated most of the of Indians and Eskimos down t a v)rsely affecte~ the traditional way of life of oil and gas lands in the As ~:am Thand the pnvate leasing of vast tracts rights and educated them in ma:~e;~· of et ~lso mfo~e~ them of their legal 1962, The Tundra Times edited b p; ~~cal orgamzat10n and tactics. From means of informing the 'non t· y an s nno, Howard Rock, has become a

-na ive community d · · hopes of the native community. an v01cmg the protests and

In .19?0 the Fairbanks Native Associatio d Association were established. In 19 n an . the Co~k I?let Native formed the Tanana Chiefs' Conf 62, represe?ta_tives of mtenor villages west Alaska (largely as a reactio~r~:c~ a1 ass?ciation was formed in north­fo; a testing area) and villages in the ~ ktomic Energ~ Commission's plans Village Council Presidents' Conf ~ on-Kuskokwim deltas formed the represent the Yukon Flats villag~t~ce. n 1?64 a group was organized to and the 1962 Northwest Association rn llopposmg the Rampart Dam project the Atomic Energy Comm1·s . 1 co apsed for lack of continuing support·

h . sion p ans were als b d d . '

as smce been replaced by tw . .o a an one . This last group Association and the Northwest ~a~r; ;:soci~tl?ns, the Arctic Slope Native ~uskokwim Valley Association in the B st;ciat10n. About the same time the differences in specific matters Nativ \ el ~l :rea was formed. Despite local and the filing of land claims t,h .e anl ng . ts was a cause common to all

An e uruversa tactic . apparent contradiction is the coincide . .

nghts movement with an apparent 1 n~e of the nse of the Native land from these lands into the t _acce erat10n of movement of the people Anchor~ge since the date of~~emo~:i:i°~ulation centres of Fairbanks and economic base of the Fairbank f 960 census. A 1967 study of the

E k. . s area, or example k f I .

s imos movmg into the city at th t f " , spea s o ndians and 1967 survey of poverty estimates th;t r;O e o several hundred per year," a per cent of the total population of

456 CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

the Fairbanks area are Indians and 5 per cent Eskimos (Negroes are estimated as 15 per cent),. and a 1967 estimate of native population by places puts the native population for the Fairbanks election district at 2 556 as compared with 1 268 in 1960, and the Anchorage election district at 4 539 as compared with 2 107 in 1960 (Haring and Correno, 1967; Sessions, 1967, p 13; Federal Field Committee). These statements do not make it clear whether in fact these people are becoming actual residents or are transients, but there is no denying the existence of a real movement seeking a better way of life. For the most part, unfortunately, these immigrants from the "other Alaska" are merely exchanging rural for urban poverty. The 1967 survey found that "a very high proportion of Indians and elderly people in the Fairbanks area are among the abject poor. Eskimos tend to be less poor and in the lower middle class with incomes between $7 500 and $10 000 annually. Most Caucasians are among the affluent with annual incomes in excess of $10 000." The rest of the report is given over to a statistical analysis of unemployment, lack of community involvements, alcoholism, illness and mental and social disintegration (Sessions, 1967, p 2, 18).

Whether the Native people continue on their ancestrai lands or migrate into the new development centres of the state, what has been described above as Native Alaska and the fragmented Alaska ghetto will remain unless the basic conditions of poverty and wardship are changed. This is the political movement's underlying meaning, land merely being a convenient and tangible symbol for deliverance from the Native problem. One statement of the real objectives is given in the following report of the participation by one of the most effective of the new young leaders in a 1967 land problems forum. "Hensley said the native associations which have filed land claims have several objectives, among them securing the claims, acting as political organizations and educating the people. "We in western Alaska," he said, "have given away our votes for years, putting big men into office and getting little in return. For all too long we have not had the benefit of our numbers." He said natives were not trying to hold up the development of Alaska with their claims. "Our contention is," Hensley said, "that if we do have a legal claim to the land, we want to be part of that development. In other countries, the benefits of development have not filtered down to the people. We are not trying to develop a racist state. We are not trying to drive anyone out of the state. Land claims have to be put on the basis of race because this is how the law has developed." He decried "Western standards being applied to villages just coming into the 20th century.". It is in helping the villages in making the making the adjustment, Hensley said, that the native associations are performing their educational functions. "In my view," he said, "life will be very hard in the next 20 or 30 years, until a cash economy is developed. We want to encourage this development, but at the same time, we want to be able to say "Hunt and fish if you want to." If there are no hunting lands, it will make the coming years more difficult." (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1967).

A legal analysis of Native land titles reflects the other aspect of Native Alaska being dealt with by this new movement. "Protection or wardship of Native-use areas has continued for 83 years since the Act of 1884 spelled out federal

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA 457

policy f?r Na~ve land ~g_hts. The question of whether the Natives, who became mcreasmgly sop~shcated,. were in need of or wanted such protection ~as never resolved. Native land n~hts might have remained in. congressional limbo-exce~t for the ~as~ la~d claims ~led by Native groups in 1966-67 ... The_ land clanns are an mdicat10n of the mcreasing independence of the Al k Native an? of their growing disenchantment with the government's philos;sh a of wardship" (Brady, 1967, p 12). p y

The form of organiz~tion and objectives of the new mode of Native olitics have more than a passmg resemblance to the national civil rights mo!ment ~ut an offer by Alaskan Negro.es to make common cause with their civii ~ights mov~ment was firmly reJected. It appears instead to be develo in 1ts . own v~1ce. and lea~ers, although in the process it is also pth! "'.hi~e mans. Eskimo Pie llllage of the Native-much as Black Power finall .. did m the mmstrel show buffoon and Uncle Tom y

1:_he ~conomic an~ social problems of Alask~ are of long standing but the ~:!:eist n~;' t~rgan~ed to bring political pressure to their consideration and

n ·. e w. te co~muruty reacts negatively, then Alaska will b saddled with the racial polanzation of which Hensley was speaking It , t e so~n to ddraw any conclusions, but during the next few years the obse~!ti~~ an stu y . of Alaskan politics possibly may shed some indirect Ii h understandmg the larger and more complex polit' 1 h . g t for

ica appenmgs to the south.

References ABRAMS, C. 1967. Housing the Alaska nati Al k .

Housing Report No 1, p 1. ve. as a State Housing Authority Remote ALASKA HEALTH SURVEY TEAM 1954 Al k ' h

States Department of the · lnteri~r Pitt:bu ea1{j,. a s~irvey report to the United School of Publi~ Health, p 32. · rg, mversity of Pittsburg, Graduate

BRADY, J. 1967. Native land claims R · f B , No 6. University of Alask~ 1~!tirufe 1tsess_ a

1nd EconomJc Conditions, Vol 4,

Research. ' 0 ocia , Economic aild Government FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS MINER 1967 H 1 .

years. Fairbanks Daily New~ Min~r, f:\inu~ays 11~d claims solution will take

FEDERAL FIELD COMMITI'EE FOR DEVELOPMENT PL ry 7. and other places having a native l . ANNING IN ALASKA, Villages in Alaska Anchorage [undated]. popu atwn of 25 or more, estimated 1967.

GRAHAM, R. E. 1968. Income in Alaska W hi . Commerce, Office of Business Econo : a~8 ngton, Umted States Department of

HARING, R. C. and CORRENo C 1967 rmJi~ Po : Alaska. University of Alaska I . . n m1c b~se of the North Star Borough, Research, SEG Report No 14 ' nstttute of Social, Economic and Government

HARRINGTON, M. 1965 The other A .· . Penguin Books p 171-86 mellca, poverty 111 the United States. London

JEN D , . . , NEss, · 1962. Eskimo-administration· 1 AI k .

Technical Paper No 10, p 5. 12. · · as a. Arct,c Institute of North America KLEIN, D. R. 1966. Waterfowl in the econom f h E . N Delta, Alaska. Arctic, Vol 19, No 4, p 31~-16 t e skimos on the Yukon-Kuskokwim

ATIONAL RESOURCES PLANNING BOARD 1941. p .

R Alaska. Regional Development Plan Report f. Jo9s4t-2war l6econom1c development of

OGERS, G. W 1960 Ala k · · · , or ' P · ROGERS, G w· 1965. An s1·nas'dm !ran_s1tton. Baltunore, Johns Hopkins Press

· · · 1 er s VIew of · 1 · · Papers and proceedings of the Firs reg10na science and economic development. September ll-13, 1963. Vol 1 p 135-~/T :ast UCo_nfer~nce on Regional Science,

ROGERS, G. W 1967a Eski d' . . . · . o yo, ruvers1ty of Tokyo Press ROGERS, G. W.' 1967b.' Alasb~s ~a:.~l~~~t~l~.m Al~ka. Arctic, Vol 20, No 4, p 269-70.

No 9, p 154-61. a ion an employment prospects. Inter-Nord,

CURRENT POLITICAL TRENDS IN ALASKA

458 R A 1963 Alaska's population and economy. Vol 2. ROGERS G W and CooLEY, · · · ·. f Al ska p 48-51 , Staiisti~al Handbook, ~ollle, Uruve~:~ osurve;; .; profile ~f poverty. Uni;ersi~ SESSIONS, F. A. 1967. Fairban .slcoEmm . and Government Research, SEG epor

Of Al aska Institute of Socia, conomzc . ' T" L"f Library

NoR16.A 1968 The frontier states-Alaska, Hawaii. New York, zme- l e SMITH, · · · . B k 42 f A . an of America Time-Life oo s,. p . "b f North America. Bureau o mer1c SWANTON, J. R. 1952. The India~ i~nesS~ithsonian Institution, P 529-44. . 1960.

Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washing 196, 0 United States census of populatzon S BUREAU OF CENSUS. . k h t

UNITED TATES d PC(1) 3C and unpublished wor s ee s. s l964 Alaska, PC(1)3B an 88TH' 2ND SESSION. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE . f th~

UNITED STATES CONGRESS, , h War on Poverty Program o Hearings before the ~ub-com;i£~bo:.n Ja:hington, United States Government Committee on Education an

Office,

The Polar Record, Vol 14, No 91, 1969, p 459-462 Printed in Great Britain

POLAR BEAR TAGGING IN ALASKA, 1968

Introduction Methods

BY J. w. LENTFER*

. [MS. received 7 October 1968]

CONTENTS

459 Results References

Introduction

459

460

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game started marking Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in 1967 to obtain life history information (Lentfer, 1968), and continued in 1968 with the assistance of the US Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. Special thanks for use of facilities are given to the Arctic Research Laboratory at Barrow and to the Tin City and Cape Lisburne Air Force stations. Participating biologists were J. W. Lentfer, L. H. Miller, S. H. Eide, and G. N. Bos of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and J. W. Brooks of the US Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife.

Methods

Bears were immobilized on the sea ice in February, March, and April by injecting phencyclidine hydrochloride (Sernylan, Parke Davis and Co, Detroit, Michigan) intramuscularly with a syringe gun from a helicopter. Methods were the same as in 1967 except that, after a bear was immobilized, 50 to 100 mg of a tranquilizer, propiopromazine hydrochloride (Tranvet, Diamond Laboratories, Inc, Des Moines, Iowa) was administered intramuscularly with a hand syringe. Large bears, and bears receiving the greatest dosages of Sernylan, were given the most Tranvet.

Bears were tagged with a monel metal tag in one ear and a nylon tag in the other. Both tags for one animal had the same number. Tag numbers were in the 1-250 series as designated for Alaska at the International Polar Bear Meeting in Morges, Switzerland in January 1968t. Each tag also had a legend that a reward.would be paid for its return. to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Bears captured in Bering Strait and north of Barrow had the ear tag number tatooed on the inside of the upper lip. Collars of nylon parachute webbing were fastened around necks of fully mature animals. Some collars were numbered with marking ink, and most had a label sewed to them stating that a reward would be paid for the return of the collar and skull. From 12 to 20 mg/kg body weight of Alizarin red S dye was injected

t P 511 * Department of Fish and Game, Anchorage, Alaska.

B