tEun&ra i^c
Pena Nena Henash The Land Sneak*
-- Tlingit
All Ut kah neek Informing and Reporting
Aleut
Prtungang Toonooktakuks The Aleuts Speak
Vol. 2, No. 4__ Monday, Nov. 18, 1963 Fairbanks, Alaska
NO RAMPART SAY VILLAGES
Reindeer
Report Out
Things don’t look too good for
four types of native industry in
Northwestern Alaska, according to
a study made for the Bureau of In
dian Affairs by the Arthur D. Little
Co., a well-known economic con
sulting firm.
Of the four industries, only one,
reindeer ranching, is given much of
an economic chance. And this with
a great deal of federal aid in the
early stages.
The others, all said to be tech
nically feasible, are; fur farming,
hide tanning, and commerical shee
fishing. Lack of experience, poor
transportation, equipment costs,
and remoteness from markets were
the reasons given for the poor out
looks of the latter three industires.
Three Phase Job
The reindeer industry, which has
had ups and downs in Western and
Northwestern Alaska for about 70
years, is given a chance provided
a complicated, three stage, 10-year
program outlined by the consultants
works out.
Each stage of the program deals
with government objectives, mark
eting and training.
The first stage calls for federal
aid, in establishing qualified herd
ers, upgrading present herds, and
to discourage natives whom it ap
pears would not make successful
herders.
The first stage also calls for fur
ther developing reindeer meat sales
in Western Alaska, on a cash,
rather than barter basis.
This switch to cash, now rare
among the established herdsmen is
also a key portion of the first stage.
Basic animal husbandry, disease
control and slaughtering practices
are also important in this stage.
The consultant also recommends
(Continued on Page 7)
RAMPART WITHDRAWAL
SUBJECT OF HEARING
Sen. Ernest Gruening has an
nounced that public hearings con
cerning the proposed Rampart
powersite withdrawal in north
eastern Alaska will be held at times
and places not yet announced.
Gruening said notification of the
hearings came to him from Secre
tary of the Interior Stewart L. U
dall, whose Bureau of Land Man
agement is processing the with
drawal of 11.000 square miels on the
tapper Yukon River, for a power
a'te and reservoir for the proposed
Rampart Hydroelectric project.
“While the request for withdrawal
serves to segregate the land from
all forms of alienation, Udall wrote,
the area remains open to uses not
incompatible with development for
powersite purposes, including oil
and gas development,” according to
Gruening.
Application for the withdrawal
was made at the Fairbanks BLM
Land Office early this year. The ap
plication was filed by the U. S.
Geological Survey.
LITTLE VILLAGERS—Two of the more than two score children of Canyon Village, an Athabascan In
dian community on the upper Porcupine River, are shown intently listening to the words of "big
folks” last week, as four strangers visit in the house of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Carroll.
Canyon Village, located northeast of Fort Yukon, celebrated its first year of being in August. It was
founded by former Fort Yukon residents. The strangers in the village last week were Neal Jensen,
Bureau of Indian Affairs housing officer, Murray Campbell, BIA area field representative from Fair
banks, Wien Alaska Airlines pilot Bob Kaleta. and a Tundra Times nhotoe'-nher ill visiHno- th" vil
lage. Chalkyitsik and Fort Yukon were also visited on the trip. —Tundra Times Photo by Terry Brady
Guest Editorial
What? 'Lethargic Leaders?'
(Editor's Note: The following Guest Editorial is the second and
concluding part of the penetrating answed to our October 21 issue
in which the editorial “Lehargic Village Leaders” appeared. The Guest
Editorial was written by a white man who has lived with the Indians
and who has a wide knowledge of Indian problems especially in the
Interior Alaska.)
Now, I don’t want just to knock things down: criticism is
always too easy; it’s only justification is to focus attention on def
icits in order to bring remedy: constructive criticism they call it,
I think. It is my underlying intention in presenting the avalanche
of facts and situations above, just so you may realize the problem's
magnitude.
Knowing better the facts of ‘life in the Bush,’ you may see the
conditions that foster lethargy at our level: after witnessing the
waste, inefficiency and contradictions, sometime plain ineptitude
of the bureaucratic machine, year after year, would YOU (with
all your background of education, training .. .) still keep plugging
day after day, in the faint hope that someday, somehow, maybe
... Is this man-made environment conducive to action? It can only
and does generate apathy, lethargy, pessimism ... or at best some
educated scepticism.
(Continued on Page 7)
I
Yukon Economics
Talked at Meet
Problems of seasonal employment
and the high rate of unemployment
were major topics at the recent
meeting of leaders from six Yukon
Flats area villages, held Oct. 25-28
in Fort Yukon.
The villages of Fort Yukon.
Chalkvitsik. Venetie. Birch Creek.
Arctic Village ana Canyon Village
were represented at the meet.
One full day was devoted to these
problems.
Rev. David Salmon, representing
Venetie. urged the people of the up
per Yukon area to draw up a long
range development plan. He noted
that his village is working on such
a plan. It calls for the village to
seek a loan from the federal gov
ernment to start a community busi
ness, and to provide for the tourist
trade.
William B. Fredson of Chalkyit
sik spoke on a plan his village has
formulated, and the progress al
ready made.
(Continued on Page 7)
Meeting Held
I At Fort Yukon
! Hits at Project
The recent meeting of Yukon
Flat village leaders, held Oct. 25
28 at Fort Yukon, revealed that the
majority of leaders in that area are
against the Rampart Dam project.
One of the purposes of the Fort
Yukon meeting was to discuss the
proposed multi-billion dollar dam
and resultant 11,000 square mile
lake that would innundate the up
per stretches of the Yukon River
in Alaska.
With one exception the delegates
at the conference spoke out against
Rampart. This atitude is in appar
ent contradiction to published re
ports of native feelings, as releas
ed in recent months by pro-Ram
part politicians who have traveled
in the Yukon region.
In addition, other Yukon villages,
not directly affected by the pro
ject, but which will sustain side
effects from the altering of Alas
ka’s mightiest river, have begun to
voice opinions concerning the pro
ject.
So far four village councils, and
several individuals have expressed
that they are not in favor of Ram
part Dam.
Native Comment
Following are the comments con
cerning Rampart from the Fort Yu
kon meeting:
Mardow Solomon. Fort Yukon; “I
am against Rampart Dam. because
I do not W'ant to relocate some
where else. They claim there will
be a lot of work, but not for the
natives,”
Rev. David Salmon, Venetie; ‘T
am against it because there would
be no suitable place to move to.
Further, that should the dam be
built, all the young people would
move to the dam site, and all the
old people and villages would fade
away.”
Percy Herbert, Fort Yukon: "l
am against it because I don’t want
to see Alaska experimented on.
How do they know the lake will
stay open. We might have one big
glacier on our hands.”
Steven Peter, Fort Yukon; “A
I way of life will be changed. How
| will our children make a living””
Thomas Williams; Chalkyitsik,
I “What will happen to people like
I me who haven't had any school
ing?”
Ambrose Williams, Arctic Village;
“I won't know how to make a liv
ing if the land is flooded.”
Birch Creek James. Birch Creek;
"I do not want to lose the land, nor
relocate somewhere else. The land
will never be the same.”
Frank John, Fort Yukon; “I am
against it. because the native people
will be left out."
William Fredson. Chalkyitsik:
“Rampart Dam is a ‘white elephant.’
It is a hand in the pork barrel on
the part of the people who advo
eate the dam. I would stand for
an alternate proposal, such as a
series of nuclear plants strategical
ly placed about Alaska, which
would lead to a firm foundation
(Continued on Page 7)