United States Senator Lisa Murkowski

Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska

Alaska has more indigenous people per capita than any other state in the Nation.  Alaska Native people, descendants of the original Aleut, Eskimo, and Indian peoples who first settled in Alaska, live in every community in the state.  Many Alaska Natives continue to maintain a traditional subsistence way of life in the rural communities across Alaska, also known as "Bush Alaska."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs recognizes 229 tribes in Alaska. Tribal organizations at the regional and statewide level – and the tribes themselves – work with federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service, to deliver programs directly to Alaska Native people. Two such consortia, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the Southcentral Foundation, operate the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, the largest primary care center for Natives in the state.

To settle the long-standing issues of aboriginal land claims and create economic opportunity, Congress established 13 regional corporations, 12 of which are land-based and located in Alaska. Congress also created over 200 village corporations to carry out the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. Congress has recognized these corporations as tribes in various federal laws. These corporations hold nearly all of the 44 million acres of Alaska Native lands conveyed under the settlement and are the largest private land owners in the State and the Nation.

Senator Murkowski is an active member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and served as Vice Chair of the Committee during the 110th Congress. She is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. She is also the Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies which allocates funds to agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.

Senator Murkowski was honored in 2009 with a Congressional Leadership Award by the National Congress of American Indians. She is the first Alaskan to receive the award. In that same year, she received the Jake White Crow lifetime achievement award from the National Indian Health Board.

Tribal Consultation

The first step in any meaningful relationship – political, cultural, professional or otherwise – is communication.  Senator Murkowski is concerned that Alaska Natives have not been consultated by federal agencies when it comes to decisions that directly impact them, their land, their culture and their future.  Senator Murkowski has been deeply concerned that the current administration is not following through on such communications with Alaska Natives and America’s indigenous populations nationwide.

Sen. Murkowski Reminds the Environmental Protection Agency about Tribal Consultation, 7/19/12 (Click to view)

In June of 2012, Senator Murkowski directly contacted the White House to question why several federal agencies were neglecting to interact with tribes when they should.

Just weeks later, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that he was revising Interior’s consultation framework, providing a greater role for Alaska Native Corporations to be involved in federal decisions affecting them and their Native shareholders.

Senator Murkowski was encouraged by this step, but she will remain vigilant and connected to the Alaska Native community to monitor the government’s follow-through on this plan.

Rural Energy

The high cost of fuel and home heating oil continues to present tremendous challenges to those living in Alaska’s rural communities. Governments, tribal offices, schools, hospitals, health clinics, corporations and families are being squeezed by the high cost of fuel. High energy costs also affect everything from the price of airfare to villages to the cost of buying groceries at stores, from the cost of running health clinics to the cost of preparing for subsistence hunts.

To ease the burden, Senator Murkowski has taken multiple approaches. She continues to fight for increased funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) despite attempts to reduce the program by the administration. Also when it became clear that not all those in need were able to qualify for the aid quickly enough, Senator Murkowski worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington to get the BIA to send additional general assistance to struggling communities.

Senator Murkowski has also introduced legislation to provide more aid, tax incentives and to streamline permitting to help small hydro and geothermal projects advance in Alaska. The ultimate solution is that Alaska is blessed with an abundance of renewable energy resources; Senator Murkowski believes we just need to make them more available and affordable for Alaskans.

Indian Health Care

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act, as a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as the national health care reform bill. While Senator Murkowski could not support the national health care reform bill, she has been a strong advocate for the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. As Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, during the 110th Congress, Senator Murkowski worked to pass the Indian Health Care Improvement Act in the Senate, by an 83-10 vote.

The Indian Health Service (IHS), which provides funding for the Alaska's Native health system, is chronically underfunded.  Senator Murkowski has also advocated for increased funding for the IHS, ensuring that the FY12 Interior Appropriations bill included $62.1 million for completion of an IHS hospital in Barrow and $472.1 million for IHS contract support costs.  She also recently convinced the IHS to direct funds to staffing packages for Alaska’s unique Native Health Clinics statewide. Senator Murkowski is deeply concerned about the high rates of Indian youth suicide in Alaska. In 2010, Senator Murkowski conducted a listening session in Bethel. She followed that up with a hearing at the 2011 AFN Convention in Anchorage.  Those discussions led Senator Murkowski to seek and obtain a commitment from Senator Inouye to increase federal funding for federal suicide prevention initiatives.

Climate Change

The very existence of the Alaska Native way of life may be threatened if climate change results in rising ocean levels, melting permafrost, increased coastal erosion and changes in fisheries and animal migrations, affecting subsistence hunting and fishing activities. Communities such as Shishmaref, Kivalina and Newtok are literally being swept into the sea because of coastal erosion.

Sen. Murkowski speaks about the threat of erosion to Alaska's tribal villages (Click to view)

Senator Murkowski understands it is necessary that rural communities have adequate evacuation routes in case of emergencies, but also help to deal with remediation costs and perhaps with village relocation costs. For years Senator Murkowski has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to attempt to increase aid for villages. Several years ago, the senator sponsored and won passage of legislation that is allowing Newtok to relocate to a new village site.

The ultimate solution, however, is to attempt to tackle climate change at its source. Senator Murkowski has led efforts to increase funding for renewable and alternative fuels that will emit no or less carbon dioxide, in case carbon emissions are leading to a Greenhouse Effect raising global temperatures. Senator Murkowski will continue to work on these issues.

Rural Law Enforcement

On July 29, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tribal Law and Order Act. The bill aims to improve public safety on Indian reservations in the Lower 48. Senator Murkowski, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, secured several provisions that would address the lack of law enforcement in Alaska's rural communities.  Roughly 90 communities in rural Alaska do not have law enforcement capabilities. One of Senator Murkowski's provisions in the bill allows the State of Alaska and tribal organizations in Alaska that employ village public safety officers (VPSOs), to fund VPSO positions with Community Oriented Policing grants, also known as COPS grants, and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants, or SAFER grants.

In 2012, Senator Murkowski cosponsored the SAVE Native Women Act and the Violence Against Women reauthorization bill (S. 1925), which passed the Senate by a vote of 68-31. Senator Murkowski supports these bills because they support programs that create safe environments for women across the state.  S. 1925 includes several provisions at Senator Murkowski’s urging – including VPSOs in the definition of law enforcement officers that can receive federal VAWA grants; allowing grant funds to be used to help Community Health Aides in rural Alaska respond to the needs of sexual assault and domestic violence victims; and requiring a report on federal funding for the Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission.  Senator Murkowski understands the importance of preventing sexual assault and domestic violence across the country and in Alaska, where the rate of violence against women is among the highest in the nation. For instance, Alaska’s rape statistics are 2.5 times higher than the national average. Since 1976, Alaska has ranked in the top five states for the number of rapes per 100,000 total inhabitants every year, and ranked first in the nation for nine out of ten years between 1991 and 2000.

Sen. Murkowski discusses the importance of VAWA prior to the vote, 4/26/2012 (Click to view)

In order to break the cycle of abuse in Alaska and across the country, Senator Murkowski has supported continuing to provide assistance to these important programs. However, she strongly believes funding domestic violence and violence against women programs is only the first step. We need to create a better environment for Alaskans by improving jobs, community, and family health. It is only through all-inclusive programs that conditions can improve to combat domestic violence and violence against women even when funding is not available.

Alaska Native Education

The primary federal program designed to maximize the educational achievement of Alaska Native peoples is the Alaska Native Educational Equity Program (ANEP), part of Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. ANEP’s purpose is to ensure that Alaska Natives, from infancy through adulthood, have access to programs designed to ensure their success in school, college, and job training through culturally and linguistically appropriate education.  Senator Murkowski has taken a leadership role in ensuring that this program is maintained and that the U.S. Department of Education implements it as intended.

Senator Murkowski’s amendment to further improve ANEP was accepted by the Senate HELP Committee unanimously during the markup of No Child Left Behind reauthorization legislation in October 2011.  She has also written letters to Education Secretary Duncan encouraging him to implement the law as Congress has directed.

Regardless of any specific program designed to help Alaska Native children succeed in school, Senator Murkowski believes we need to ensure that the underlying system of school improvement and accountability works for our Native students and communities. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, it laid out a blueprint for reforming our education system.

One big flaw in NCLB, however, is the lack of focus on American Indian and Alaska Native youth.  Senator Murkowski is working with the National Congress of American Indians to ensure more involvement by American Indian and Alaska Native parents and communities in the educational decisions that impact their children.

Alaska:

Bob Walsh, Anchorage Office
510 L Street, Suite 550
Anchorage, AK 99501
(907) 276-3023

Gerri Sumpter, MatSu Office
851 E. Westpoint Drive, Suite 307
Wasilla, AK 99654
(907) 373-6532

Washington, D.C.:

Kristi Williams
709 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-6665