Julie Kitka is applauded for her service at the AFN convention on Oct. 19, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Federation of Natives President Julie Kitka, who is Chugach Eskimo, received a long, loving farewell at the AFN annual convention in Anchorage last week. She announced her departure last February after 33 years with the organization.
In a keynote address Thursday, Kitka named more than two dozen people who were mentors and colleagues along the way. She credited the teamwork with them and her staff for a long list of achievements during her tenure. Afterwards, two or three representatives of each of the 12 regions of the state expressed their appreciation and gave her gifts.
Her talk took the form of a letter to her two grandchildren. She said she often told herself her job “was to expand the imagination of our people, to create opportunities for our people to grow and soar, and (to) have a future full of possibilities.” She said her professional goal was “ensuring that the Alaska Native community is at the table when decisions are made which affect their lives, and working to change government policy to reflect Native goals and aspirations for their future.”
The first accomplishment she mentioned was passage of 1991 congressional legislation amending a major portion of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The amendments prohibited the sale of stock in regional for-profit corporations on the open market which would have led to the loss of land and resources, Kitka said.
She described the many attempts to resolve subsistence, the intractable problem that AFN has fought to address over and over during Kitka’s entire career. The issue involves conflict between the state constitution and an act of Congress, and a dual management system over the gathering of fish and game for personal use.
First the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 extinguished aboriginal hunting and fishing rights. Then Congress took a step back from that in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA). The act included a section that makes subsistence for rural residents (not limited, however, to Native users) a priority use on public lands. That section of ANILCA, a 1990 court ruling determined, conflicts with the state Constitution.
Subsistence has been the subject of one lawsuit after another as the state manages it on state and private lands and federal agencies manage it on federal lands. AFN has adopted resolutions, lobbied Congress for changes to ANILCA, lobbied the state to amend the state Constitution, and held summits and countless meetings on the issue.
Kitka said, “we’ve also done major coalition building, (with) a major national forum, with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and other major national civil and human rights organizations. Over 220 national civil rights organizations helped us on subsistence rights in D.C. And we’ll need to call on them again.” She said AFN provided leadership “both within the Native community and in every regular and special session of the Alaska State Legislature for over a decade and more in seeking a solution to the constitutional federal law conflict over Alaska Native hunting and fishing rights.”
“This legal and political conflict over hunting and fishing between the federal and state governments remains unresolved today despite the best efforts of the Alaska Native people together with several governors, the Alaska congressional delegation and many others over the years, numerous task forces have been formed and the state has had several special and regular legislative sessions on this subject,” Kitka said. AFN had two resolutions on subsistence scheduled to come before the convention’s delegates on Saturday.
Building coalitions and partnerships with various entities came up time and again. For instance, Kitka organized major Alaska Day events in Washington, D.C., “One of the most remarkable events AFN put together. We had the participation of the president of the United States, the White House, four cabinet secretaries, congressional members, international representatives, top environmental organization leaders, national, state, Native leaders, Native elders and youth and so many individuals representing various people within the United States.”
She addressed a general in the audience, saying now when he looks at a map and sees all the Native villages and communities, he sees the people, “the capabilities, and our dreams and aspirations and what we’re trying to do for ourselves.”
She said AFN assisted tribal health organizations with COVID-19 prevention and response and worked with a team of lawyers to ensure eligibility of Alaska Native corporations for CARES Act funding. “It was teamwork to ensure our rights were protected. Without the collective efforts, we would’ve lost millions in COVID relief and our people would’ve suffered.”
Now, Kitka said, “we’re living in a time of historic levels of federal resources and investment and recovery from the pandemic. AFN has worked tirelessly to ensure Alaska got its fair share, not more, just our fair share. Alaska Natives will have to compete for these resources and new coalitions will maximize the benefits before federal resources expire.”
She said in forum after forum, “we believed and still believe that if Native people are informed of what’s going on that they could act in their own best interest.” She noted summits on subsistence. “The first Summit had over 900 Alaska Native people who attended and resulted after two days in a unanimous agreement. The governor, the Legislature, the policymakers were shocked and unprepared for the unity which came from the people.”
AFN also achieved legislation to expand the Native Allotment Act eligibility timeline to include Vietnam veterans. Kitka said, “I still remember the tears of joys of both being welcomed and recognized and the veterans knowing they had the opportunity for land.”
Kitka said AFN also assisted in some of the negotiations and analysis of land claims happening in Canada and the establishment of the latest territory in Canada, Nunavut. And “what’s relevant about that too even today is they embedded five co-management bodies into their settlement and also their settlement into their constitution.”
She said challenges lie ahead. “The key question to answer was, whose responsibility is it to end the alcohol-related violence and death, by extension, the social, cultural and spiritual problems that lie at the root of our lives?”
AFN has lost membership in recent years too, which reduces the income members contribute, as well as the unity AFN seeks to achieve and represent as an advocate for legislation and other actions.
Gayla Hoseth, Yup’ik, is director of natural resources for Bristol Bay Native Association and the 1st Chief of the Curyung Tribe from Dillingham, Alaska. She told Kitka, “the wealth and knowledge that you have and the mentoring that you have given me as a subsistence committee chair and guiding me and just being able to be under your mentorship for the last two years has been very meaningful to my heart. So with that, I want to say thank you and on behalf of our people, thank you so much for all you’ve done for Bristol Bay.”
Melanie Banhke, Siberian Yupik, is president and CEO for the regional nonprofit Kawerak. She said she met Kitka at an Elders and Youth Conference when she was 13 or 14. “What a role model. So I’ve kind of grown up with you and just being able to bear witness to how much care and loyalty and fierceness you have dedicated your whole life to the Alaska Native community. From the most remote village in our region, Diomede, to the southernmost communities in Southeast Alaska to the most urban folks here, you have truly been somebody that has devoted your entire self to the Alaska Native community,” Behnke said.
Saagulik Elizabeth Hensley, Iñupiaq, is legal counsel for the for-profit NANA corporation. She said: “Julie is so understated and when it’s necessary, she rises to the occasion and is so clear and raw in what she says and does, as she’s been weaving the fabric of the social, political, and legal systems that affect every single one of our lives today. And she’s been doing that for generations, for decades.”
Willie Kasayulie, Yup’ik, is president of the Calista regional for-profit corporation for Western Alaska. He said 1990 was a pivotal year as Assistant Secretary for Interior Ada Deer extended federal recognition as tribes to Alaska villages. “So the long work began at the time and we’re still fighting for our rights on all levels, not just the federal level, but also in some cases on the international level. I know that over the years I’ve worked with Julie on many of the issues that impact our communities and villages throughout the region as well as the whole state. I know that she has aspirations to move forward to continue her work in fighting for our people from today and on forward.”
Kim Reitmeier, Sugpiaq, president of the ANCSA Regional Association, said, “So many times throughout my tenure I have thought, ‘what would Julie do?’ And you have been really my grounding truth. And so thank you for always being so calm and so kind and leading our Alaska Native people to a future and a legacy that we will never forget.”
Rosita Worl, Tlingit, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, told Kitka, “You have led the way in putting Native people on the national stage, on the international stage for building relationships with tribes across the country, with our Hawaiian brothers and sisters, and with our armed forces and our military brothers and sisters. Julie, there are so many things that we will always thank you for, our children will be thanking you and singing your glory for protecting our subsistence, for protecting our homeland, for protecting our civil rights, for always trying to seek equity and justice for Native people.”
One of the presenters joked that Kitka will have to start a museum in her home for all the gifts she received. Gifts included large wall hangings, paintings, and masks as well as jewelry, baskets, flowers, jarred fish, and quspuks (traditional overshirts).
Kitka has served for more than 30 years as a commissioner for the Denali Commission, a federal-state rural Infrastructure commission under the guidance of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Monday she assumes the role of its federal co-chair.
ICT originally published this article. ICT is an an independent, nonprofit, multimedia news enterprise. ICT covers Indigenous peoples.
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