The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, based in Juneau and representing more than 35,000 tribal citizens, and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, based in Fairbanks and representing 42 villages, announced they are leaving the state’s largest Native organization.
In earlier decisions, three of the state’s 12 regional Native corporations have also left the politically powerful Alaska Federation of Natives in recent years.
AFN continues to represent more than 200 federally recognized tribes, 184 Native village corporations, nine Native regional corporations and 11 regional tribal consortiums. It was formed in 1966 to settle land claims and now works as a cultural, economic and political advocacy group.
The Tlingit and Haida Council executive council voted on May 1 to end its long-standing membership with AFN. Tlingit and Haida is the largest federally recognized tribe in Alaska.
In a statement, Tlingit and Haida officials emphasized the tribe’s desire to carve its own path in a region it knows better than anyone, and to collaborate with other governments and entities as a sovereign power.
“It has always been in the best interest of the tribe to directly promote, advance and advocate for our people and communities, and we have positioned the tribe and strategically built our capacity to do just that,” said Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson, Tlingit and Haida council president.
Peterson said members of the executive council believe Tlingit and Haida is at a point now where the tribe can manage its relations without AFN assistance. The Southeast tribe will save about $65,000 a year in dues to AFN.
The Tlingit and Haida council will continue to collaborate with AFN as needed, Peterson said.
Some of the other organizations that have recently quit AFN cited a variety of concerns, including disagreement on how disputes between organizations are handled.
The Tanana Chiefs Conference said in a statement that its biggest priority is the protection of salmon that feed communities in the Interior region, and that its goals are not being met.
“Over the past few years, over 40 resolutions were passed by the full board at AFN that support a subsistence way of life, but no significant action has been taken on those (salmon) directives,” the organization said. “A lot of effort, time, and money goes toward participating in AFN and it is important that those resources be utilized to their maximum potential to advance TCC’s tribal priorities.”
Tanana Chiefs Conference said a poll of tribal delegates led to a majority vote against renewing membership in AFN, the statement said. On April 28, the executive board approved the withdrawal and notified the statewide organization.
The Aleut Corp., representing Alaska Native shareholders from the Aleutian Islands region, decided shortly after the AFN convention last fall that it would not renew its AFN membership this year, said Skoey Vergen, chief executive of the Aleut Corp., in a phone call.
In the convention in October, people from the Aleutians region and Alaska Peninsula stood and turned their backs to protest a floor vote that pitted their region against others seeking to protect salmon runs in Southwest Alaska and the Interior.
The AFN decision called for a potential reduction in the amount of fish caught in a state-managed fishery off the Alaska Peninsula, in order to protect salmon runs that have crashed on the state’s two largest rivers, the Yukon and Kuskokwim.
“The AFN motto last year was unity, and AFN has bylaws that should not allow a divisive resolution to make it to the floor,” Vergen said. “We were just trying to protect our fishery and felt we were unfairly being singled out.”
Two other regional Alaska Native corporations withdrew from AFN in recent years and have not returned.
The board of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., representing Native shareholders from the oil-rich North Slope region, approved a withdrawal in 2019, citing long-standing tension with AFN.
The board of Doyon, the biggest private landowner in Alaska and representing Native shareholders from the Interior, voted to remove the corporation from AFN in 2020.
Last week, Doyon publicly explained the reason behind its decision, at the urging of shareholders, according to a statement from the corporation.
The regional Native corporation said that for well over a decade it has sought to see improvements in the organization, but not enough has changed.
“The needed work on conflict resolution among various Native constituents was highlighted at the 2022 AFN convention when a proposed resolution addressing subsistence fish declines on the Yukon River was met with impasse and conflict,” the statement said.
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