Governor's Speech to AFN, 10/28/04

Let me thank President Julie Kitka, Board Co-Chairs Albert Kookesh and Trefon Angasan and the Board for inviting me to speak here today.

I want you to know how honored I was to join with many of you in attending the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The Museum was too long in coming as has been the recognition of the tremendous contribution of the First Americans to our society both in the Lower 48 and here in Alaska.

In that regard our administration's approach to rural Alaska is based on three policies:

First, listen to the elders; Second, value and provide for the young people because they are our future; and Third, respect the cultures that have held families and villages together through hard times for centuries.

My administration's first policy is listening to elders - thank you so much for your efforts and dedication to improving Alaska.

What do we hear today when we listen to the elders?

We hear concern about the education and jobs available to our Native youth.

We hear concerns about our Native youth leaving their villages and even leaving Alaska.

We hear concern about the viability of our smallest villages - are they safe?, can they afford the fuel they need for the winter?

We hear concerns about the impacts of high fuel costs and electricity costs on the ability to build an economy in rural Alaska.

We hear concerns about the impact of alcohol and drugs on families and children.

We hear concern about a growing feeling of hopelessness among young Native men, of too many of them in jail and of too many suicides.

However, what I've seen is the importance that a job plays in giving our young people hope for the future.

But for too long I've heard others say you can't have an economy in Rural Alaska. I don't agree.

Working together we can have an economy in rural Alaska.

And this illustrates this administration's second policy of valuing and providing for young people.

To begin with, I heartily endorse AFN's initiative to look beyond Alaska for models like those used by the Asian Development Bank to foster development and jobs in rural Alaska.

At the forums that were held in June and September, AFN sponsored meaningful discussions between Native corporations and tribes with global and national experts in education, bonding, and communications to formulate a new economy in rural Alaska. You are to be commended.

The theme of those forums and this convention fits with what our administration is doing. My administration's policy is to empower Rural Alaska to create the kind of economy and kind of future it wants. The objective is to have our children remain in Rural Alaska to pass on the traditions to their children.

We can achieve a strong economy in rural Alaska by listening to our elders and working together.

18 months ago Nels Anderson and Harvey Samuelson came to me. They told me that the high cost energy is a major obstacle to a healthy and robust rural economy. They said:

Many villages pay more than $5.00 a gallon for gasoline, $5.00 a gallon for heating fuel, and up to 50 cents a kwh for their electricity.

Many rural Alaskans are moving into hub communities because they cannot afford the high cost of heating fuel, gasoline, and electricity.

This is to the detriment of keeping village schools open and building rural and village economies.

It forces rural Alaskans to move away from their homes.

Well I agree with them.

To advance solutions to these problems I am announcing today that our Department of Commerce, under Edgar Blatchford's leadership, will work with regional organizations such as RuralCAP, AITC, village organizations, University of Alaska, the state, the federal government, and the Denali Commission to coordinate efforts to lower the cost of energy for our state and focus on making our state and villages energy self-sufficient by 2010.

We have already acted to promote gas exploration on the Alaska Peninsula with the purpose of reducing the cost of energy.

Last year at AFN I announced we would work to commence lease sales on the Alaska Peninsula and they are scheduled to be held next fall. The idea is to find gas for local commercial use. Gas can be used instead of diesel to generate electricity on the Alaska Peninsula.

In addition to addressing the energy problem, those lease sales will allow the local communities to create good jobs in Bristol Bay.

It is our policy that jobs created through oil and gas development on the Alaska Peninsula go first to local residents. We are providing the training to make this happen.

Another thing about the high cost of fuel in rural Alaska is that some rural communities were threatened with heating fuel shortages this winter.

Representatives Kapsner, Carl Morgan, Senator Lyman Hoffman and others have worked with us to assure that no rural Alaska community went without critical bulk fuel for the upcoming winter.

In cooperation with these and other rural legislators, citizens, and the Denali Commission we have developed a bulk fuel bridge loan program whereby small communities that cannot qualify for traditional loan programs, are able to enter into a managed fuel loan program with the state

And thereby assure essential fuel deliveries for the winter

As of October 1, the state had negotiated bulk fuel loans and secured fuel deliveries for the communities of: Alakanuk ($39,000) Crooked Creek ($12,000) Kotlik ($322,000), Koyukuk ($58,000) Tuluksak ($77,000) Chignik Lake ($50,000) St. George ($112,000)

Bulk fuel loans for these communities totaled $670,000.

The Department of Commerce is continuing to work with additional communities to develop bridge loans as necessary.

BECAUSE OF THIS PROBLEM WITH THE HIGH COST OF ENERGY IN RURAL ALASKA I AM ANNOUNCING TODAY THAT I WILL PURSUE A NEW ASSISTANCE PROGRAM FOR OUR SMALL VILLAGES IN NEED.

I am very aware of difficulties in many small rural Alaska villages with limited funding available for local services. The high price of fuel, oil & gasoline has put an almost insurmountable burden on these small communities and their residents.

Recognizing that these high energy costs are a barrier to economic development in rural Alaska, I am announcing today that I will submit to the Legislature a proposal to provide $4.7 million in state financial support to small, rural communities.

This will be included in the supplemental budget for this fiscal year. I will fight for this funding.

This will provide $25,000 for each community of 100 people or smaller, $50,000 for each community with less than 600, and $75,000 to each community that has more than 600 people but less than 1,200 people.

This program will help approximately 120 small communities to offset the high cost of energy to help make economic development possible.

The justification for this special assistance is clear. These communities have experienced much higher energy costs than the rest of Alaska and have no tax base and insufficient commerce to support a sales tax.

A great example of a rural community creating the kind of jobs future it wanted is Hoonah.

The people of Hoonah have taken the initiative. Hoonah has developed a first rate tourist attraction at an old fish cannery.

Ask Johan Dybdahl. He'll tell you how important it is that action comes from the local level first.

Hoonah Mayor Windy Skaflestad will tell you just how wrong are those who think jobs cannot be created in rural Alaska. Here's what he's seen:

There's a new spirit of hope in Hoonah where there was once hopelessness. There's a future there, and the residents of Hoonah made that future.

Alcohol abuse is down.

110 residents now are working.

But whether you are in rural Alaska or urban Alaska, there's no hope for a job if you don't have an education.

Last session we added $82 million to the current budget to improve K-12 education. Within the next few days I'll be advancing additional ideas to improve education.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind requirements, schools have to prove they are educating children and teachers have to prove their mettle.

Barbara Angaiak is a teacher in the Lower Kuskokwim School District in Bethel. She's one of 22 teachers statewide who are mentoring beginning teachers around the state. She's among an elite group of educators making Alaska classrooms an even better place to learn.

And Rural children are learning. We know that. Why, in this last round of testing, Alaska Native students across the state showed the greatest growth in meeting math and reading targets.

The Lower Kuskokwim School District in particular made tremendous gains in school improvement last year.

With a solid education, these children will be able to make their own future in a place where too many say there is no future.

Here are some of the other things we're working on to help promote jobs in rural Alaska. We're moving ahead with a natural gas pipeline that will create jobs for Alaskans from both Urban and Rural areas.

We're training those Alaskans right now. We're training welders so they don't have to be trucked up from the Lower 48 this time.

I recognize this convention's emphasis on safe and healthy communities which I fully support. For example, we added 10 new troopers for rural Alaska this year.

Safe and healthy communities are those that are free of crime, domestic violence, child abuse, suicide, and accidental deaths. What does it take?

Alcohol and drugs… keeping alcohol out of dry villages (new enforcement laws passes, more alcohol seized than ever before, troopers and prosecutors dedicated to this effort for first time in state history), attacking inhalant abuse.

In the past ten days alone, State Troopers have seized 170 bottles of liquor, 204 cans of beer, and 527 grams (18.5 ounces/1 plus pounds) of marijuana destined for our villages. The value in the villages of just these seizures exceeds $46,000!

If the marijuana initiative passes, dry communities that have banned alcohol will not be able to ban marijuana - our drug and alcohol problems are big and the last thing we need is more marijuana in our communities.

Marijuana contributes to suicide and accidental death and injuries, causes our kids to fail in school, and leads to addiction of more dangerous drugs and inhalants.

The nationally recognized "Dragon Slayers" firefighting/medics program is made up of dedicated youth from Aniak. The Dragon Slayers have trained youth from other communities and are an outstanding example of what innovation can bring to rural communities.

The DARE (Drug and Alcohol Reduction Effort) programs throughout the state are also excellent examples of programs that benefit our youth. We want our kids to work with Troopers, VPSO's and local police to make the right choices on drugs and alcohol.

We will work with the Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission to make recommendations by June 30th on how to best address the problems of alcohol, drugs and child abuse in our small communities. These recommendations will respect culture and the principles of local empowerment and control.

We will work with tribes to meet the most important needs in Native communities: protecting children in need of aid finding Native foster homes for children without safe home (TCC example) working together to deliver health care and drug and alcohol treatment and prevention.

I want to address a tragic situation that has been of great concern to our native people, to our state, to our families and to my administration. That is the unfortunate fact that on any given day, almost 500 of our young people are receiving residential behavioral health services outside of our state. Half of these are Alaska Native.

They are your children. They are our children.

And they are leaving our state, their communities, and their families not because they want to - but because the services that they need are not available in Alaska.

For the past decade there has been talk and expressions of concern. But the sad fact remained the same - the state had failed to develop local treatment services and our young people had to leave their villages and their families to seek services Outside.

Some of these kids have psychological disorders, some have learning disorders, others possibly abused drugs or alcohol. Some have all of these problems.

Once sent out of state, it takes a lot more effort and resources to bring them back home.

I find the practice of outsourcing services for our children, and in turn our future, unacceptable.

I am proud to announce today that we are officially beginning a new effort, called "Bring The Kids Home," which will ensure that our children will be cared for in Alaska - not Outside.

I am proposing over $5 million in funding to build a wide range of services, from therapeutic foster care to residential care in Alaska. It is a multi-year effort done in partnership with the Mental Health Trust, but this is a big first step.

We have been working with providers in our state already - and we have been able to bring home more than 50 kids in this last year. This is just a start.

We have been working with native health systems, including the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC), South Central Foundation (SCF) and others, to make sure our system acknowledges that many of these kids are native - and that their care is culturally appropriate.

Julie, I know this problem is of deep concern to you and to AFN. I know that you have spoken to my Commissioner of Health and Social Services about the need to serve these kids in state.

I want you and AFN to know that I am committed to bringing our kids home. Together we can make this happen.

My administration's third policy is respect for Native culture which is reflected in its beautiful art.

And yet, from my years on the East Coast, I've learned that the rest of our country doesn't see much, if any, of it. My wife, Nancy and I have always loved looking at and buying art from all around our state, perhaps made by many of you and your family members.

I am announcing today a partnership between the state, federal government, and the Alaska Native Arts Foundation.

Artists interested in selling their work through the Alaska Native Arts Foundation will be able to do so on the Internet. They will be trained on how to send a digital picture showing what they have for sale.

Next, e-commerce centers will be established in your village. We will start with 12 villages this year as a pilot program. The centers will be open to any artist to use.

The partnership also will offer technical assistance to any manufacturing business in this state. From fish processing to water bottling, from skin sewn garments to mukluks, from wood products to wild berry jams.

All will be eligible to get help to increase their sales. The program will be based in Anchorage, but more importantly it will come to you.

Edgar Blatchford, my Commissioner of Commerce, helped to make this possible and was key in bringing together this new and exciting team that includes urban businessmen and women, and representatives from around the state familiar with Rural Alaskan enterprise. Special thanks to Julie Kitka, Willie Hensley, and Alice Rogoff for establishing the Foundation that will spearhead these efforts.

Bringing these products to the world has the potential to represent the best kind of economic development for our state, and my Administration is making this a high priority.

I know that Julie Kitka and your Federation have provided leadership in bringing the concept of a knowledge-based economy to Alaska. Now we want to help build on those innovative ideas and make them a reality.

Over 24 years I have worked with AFN in the Senate and now as your Governor. I have deep respect for your organization and leadership. I have seen what we can accomplish for the Native people of Alaska when we work together.

We have a bright future ahead in rural Alaska

A future that includes a quality education and good jobs for our young people.

A future that ensures fish and game are available for subsistence.

A future that makes low cost energy available to villages.

A future where our families and children are safe from the violence caused by alcohol and drugs.

We can create this future by working together and by following my guideposts:

Elders Youth, and Culture

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you as your Governor.