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The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) is pulling out all the stops to block a Safari Club International proposal to reform the federal subsistence board.
As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, AFN says it is a direct threat to the Alaska Native subsistence way of life.
Last year, Safari Club International, a sport hunting and fishing group, petitioned two Trump cabinet members for the review.
It asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to address what it calls “federal overreach” in subsistence management.
In mid-December, the Interior Department granted the request and announced a 60-day review, called a “scoping process”. During this period, it will consider the Safari Club’s recommendations, which includes a proposal to limit the size of the federal subsistence board to only the heads of five federal agencies.
AFN President Ben Mallott says this would eliminate public seats, including three held by tribal representatives.
“We’ve been working for that for a very long time, so we are concerned that any rollback in public member seats would just weaken our voices. And so for us, that is a major threat.”
The petition also seeks to change the make-up of Regional Advisory Councils, the volunteers who recommend policies to the Federal Subsistence Board.
The Safari Club says sport and commercial hunters and fishers are not adequately represented on these councils.
But beyond changing the leadership structure of subsistence management, the Safari Club calls on federal agency heads, when setting regulations, to defer to state managers – a move that opponents say would undermine the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), legislation Congress passed 45 years ago to protect Alaska’s rural subsistence lifestyle.
The Safari Club says it is stepping in to protect the state’s rights, because federal managers have repeatedly overstepped the bounds of ANILCA.
John Sturgeon, a leading advocate for the Alaska Safari Club says, says this is a fight about fish and game management, not about the rights of rural Alaskans to subsist.
“We have no problem with subsistence. We support it, so it’s kind of a perceived conflict. We just think the state of Alaska should be in charge of subsistence.”
The problem is, the state’s constitution does not allow for a rural subsistence priority, which federal law mandates.
Public comment on the Safari Club proposals closes on February 13.
The campus of Spokane Falls Community College. (Photo: T85cr1ft19m1n / Wikimedia)
Indigenous-knowledge focused centers are on their way to Spokane Falls Community College and the Spokane Community College campus on the Spokane reservation in Washington.
As Steve Jackson reports, a grant from Avista Utilities is providing the seed money.
Indigenous Healing Environments Across Lifeways (I-HEAL) centers will hold workshops on skills and concepts related to sustainability of water, land, animals, and climate.
They will also include studies related to using plants for food and medicine.
Spokane Colleges Tribal Relations Director Naomi Bender says she will seek out Indigenous presenters from tribes in the region, but she says instructors will be careful in what they present.
“Traditional knowledge of plants and medicines, for example, was illegal in the U.S. And to this day, we’re very careful about what’s shared and what’s not because people want to monetize and they want to harm what knowledge they gain at times.”
Bender says both Indigenous and non-Native students will be welcome at the I-HEAL centers.
She anticipates they will begin holding workshops in about a year.
(Courtesy IAIA)
Congress recently approved more than $13 million in federal funding for the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, N.M. for Fiscal Year 2026.
This comes after the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate IAIA’s federal appropriation.
The funding maintains the institute’s current funding level to support academic programs, student services, and general operations.
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