Native groups beat expectations for rally

More than 200 people met Saturday with local organizations at the Wrangell Cooperative Association's first membership rally.

Representatives from the Association, the Indian Environmental General Assistance Program, Alaska Island Community Services and Tlingit-Haida registered, updated, collected and distributed information for 210 people by the end of the four-hour event at the Stikine Native Organizations building. Organizers from the WCA's Membership Committee had worked on organizing the rally since early December.

Officials had expected between 50 and 100 people to show up for the event, but when members of the Tlingit-Haida organization were forced to close the registration line in order to make an afternoon flight, the door count stood at 210, according to figures provided by Apryl Hutchinson, a member of the membership community.

"A lot more people than I thought would participate, and they're still coming," she said, midway through the event. "A lot of people are updating their membership cards with Tlingit-Haida cards ... it's been a long time coming, and then updating their membership rolls for WCA."

The updated membership is one step in a plan which eventually culminates with the creation of Wrangell-specific photo id, though that goal may be some months off, said Christie Jamieson, another member of the WCA's membership committee. Committee members had met with officials from Tlingit-Haida, who pledged to help the process, Jamieson added.

Representatives from the organization had originally scheduled registration for earlier in the year, but their Wrangell appearance was cancelled because of inclement weather.

Betsy McConachie attended to update her membership for the first time in two years.

The rally "is a good opportunity because I don't get here very often," she said.

The event, and registration in general, is aimed at collecting information on members of the two most prominent local nation groups (Tlingit and Haida), but also the wider Alaskan Native community, Hutchinson said.

"It's a great opportunity to find out and regroup as a tribe here in Wrangell and to any of the other natives that are here to update any of their information," she said.

John Waddington, for example, is Tahltan. For him, registering with the WCA isn't just about community solidarity or updating a database. It's also about obtaining documents necessary for his children to obtain services from local groups.

He attended "to get my children enrolled with the WCA so that they're covered under all the eligible programs and (Southeast Regional Health Consortium) and that type of thing," he said. "My children are Tahltans, so we're here for the enrollment to be part of the WCA membership, but not Tlingit-Haida."

The strong head count also plays a role in the amount of money groups like IGAP receive, and also to show borough officials that the groups have a strong local presence, Hutchinson said.

"We just want an accurate count so we can present it to the city and saying we are a number and we're a great number and we're a lot bigger than we thought we were," she said.

The event also provided an opportunity for local groups to outreach not only to local WCA members, but the general public. Jessica Whitaker with AICS said the group had talked to about 50 people by mid-afternoon about general information for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare. Alaskan Natives, for example, are allowed to file an exemption form under the Act to avoid paying for either plans sold in the government's healthcare marketplace or fines levied on the uninsured, but they still must provide forms showing their enrollment, Whitaker said.

The government recently extended to March 31 the deadline for obtaining some kind of insurance, whether through SEARHC, an employer, Medicaid or the exchanges, Whitaker said.

"If we can spread it to information, and they spread it to one person, it's better than we had before," she said. "Most people are pretty self-sufficient. They go on the Internet and figure out what they need, what they want to do. The rush we expected to come into the office has been more of a trickle."

Attendees ranged from children barely old enough to speak and walk, up to 89-year-old Yvonne Stough, who reckoned she might be the oldest person to receive a registration card that day.

The event drew large numbers because many Wrangellites can claim a tribal connection of some kind, WCA membership committee member said.

For example, Anita Ferdinand isn't ethnically native, but is married to an Alaska native. She was there to register her two children, Isabelle, 8, and Amy, 17, for SEARHC.

"They have to have them, for insurance, for coverage for SEARHC," she said.

She feels connected to local native groups nonetheless, Ferdinand said.

"I'm not native blood, but I'm married to one and then my girls are," she said.

Waddington agreed.

"I kind of figure if you live in Wrangell, you got some native in there somewhere," he said.