While some of this plan’s goals involve actions aimed at influencing outside parties such as political leaders, the media and others, many of the goals listed below revolve around the ongoing need to coordinate in an effective manner within Alaska’s Native/Tribal community.
1. To protect the inherent rights and special political relationship of Alaska’s Native peoples, including federally recognized Tribes and other Native institutions. 2. To be proactive and involved at every level—international, national, statewide and local—and to be prepared to put our own proposals on the table.
3. To achieve perpetual and full protection of Alaska Native culture, subsistence, and political rights regardless of the political makeup or behavior of any elected body such as the State Legislature or the Congress.
4. To ensure that Alaska’s Native/Tribal peoples have a seat at the table on all issues regarding their status and political relationship with the state and federal governments. 5. To participate fully in the congressional process to reauthorize the Marine Mammal Protection Act and to work to enhance the co-management provisions of the act.
Internal Community Goals
1. To commit to ensuring that the internal decision-making process within the Alaska Native community is conducted in open meetings with maximum participation from interested individuals and organizations. In the interest of continuing to build trust, brief written reports summarizing discussions would be distributed via email and disseminated through other means to those unable to attend to ensure that no one feels excluded.
2. To unify the Native/Tribal community in support of a strategy that will: 1) achieve maximum self-determination for Alaska’s Native peoples and 2) effectively respond to state and congressional threats to undermine and redefine Alaska Native policy. 3. To strive for synergy by working to bring alignment to the many different efforts which are already going forward and to help bring greater focus in our effort to be more effective.
4. To unify the Native/Tribal community in support of a solution to the subsistence impasse that protects the inherent rights of Alaska Native peoples and provides for co-management and long-term protections for the Native hunting and fishing way of life.
5. To adequately fund the effort so that we can be engaged in a proactive fashion at every level possible.
6. To build the science, management, technical assistance, and policy development capacity of the Native community on a local, regional, and statewide basis with adequate resources to effectively advance our interest in co-management with the federal and state governments regardless of the ultimate solution.
