Listening to a report friday evening, from Alaska Public Radio Network, by APRN's Janelle Everett (one of my favorites!), on Barrow's KBRW, I was brought to tears. Again.Everett was reporting on the community responses from North Slope villages to the midwinter crisis in Emmonak and other lower Yukon villages. Please listen to her report, as she describes people in small villages, who themselves have probably been through the same experience as Emmonak's people, bringing together donations of food (even Beluga!), blankets, clothing, fuel and cash.
Some have been watching this crisis emerge longer than have others. The blog Real Alaska's Writing Raven, in describing the plight of the people of Adak late last summer, warned:
This is not the first Alaskan village to have to leave the land, and it won't be the last. How many residents will be forced into the city this winter? How many villages will be facing extinction?
Friday, in her third article about the Emmonak crisis, Writing Raven wrote the most poignant essay yet penned about reactions to the crisis:
To see people all around the nation band together to help out a village in Alaska is a wonderful sight. Donations of food are being flown in, cash donations have come from around the world. The media, and blogger, attention has had the effect of poking a stick in the side of the State, and several prominent Alaskan politicians and leaders have spoken out.
(My previous posts about Emmonak, #1, #2... Mudflats on Emmonak... ADN on Emmonak.)
Of course, with the good, must come the less savory. As I watch the story unfold, and try to do what I can, I must also address some that which goes on that doesn't help at all - and in fact can make it more difficult. That is, people spreading around ignorance.
The blatant racism toward Alaska Native people is not new to me, yet I cringe (and I imagine many other Native people as well) when Native issues are brought up in public. Why? Because you get to hear so consistently comments about just how unproductive, deceitful, lazy, greedy, and probably drunk Native people are. Comments like this on ADN, regarding how Native people (in general!) squander all their money:
"In the future the State of Alaska should hold the PFD's for all native households and only issue them out in monthly amounts."
I wish people who made these remarks knew how each one feels like a punch in the stomach.
Writing Raven goes on to describe several of the typical comments that stereotype Alaska's First People whenever attention is drawn to an issue involving one or another problem in one or another Alaska Native community or population.
Friday brought the first signs that the Palin administration is grasping the enormity of the lower Yukon winter crisis. Instead of Thursday's "I think we did a review of it, uh.......last year," now it is being reported that "Gov. Sarah Palin says she plans to travel to Emmonak to see the situation for herself [ - although -] according to the governor's press office there are no firm plans yet for that trip."
And this morning, the Anchorage Daily News, reports Palin saying yesterday:
"We want to make sure, of course, that no individual is hungry out there. And that nobody is cold out there. And we want to know if the community itself -- if anything fell between the cracks, between.... energy rebate checks that were sent to each individual."
Usually, when Palin uses the royal "we," it means that help is on the way, once she has figured out how to maximize her personal gain. I'm sure that either Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell or Todd Palin will be headed to the lower Yukon soon. If it is Todd, I'd go along with an Andy Halcroesque hunch, and predict that if one looks closely enough, one will find a hidden kickback or subcontract in the way the assistance is being processed.
Gryphen, at the Immoral Minority, has begun putting together a timeline that attempts to explain how the word has gotten out, and help organized on Emmonak and Lower Yukon midwinter relief:
Nick Tucker's letter was printed in the Bristol Bay times on Monday, CC spoke out about it on her radio program "Cutting Edge" on Tuesday, I wrote my first post on this crisis at 6:42 a.m. on Wednesday, by the time we reached noon of the same day almost EVERY progressive blogger in Alaska had weighed in on the topic, and contributions started rolling in almost immediately following my post and increased throughout the day.
And earlier today Dennis Zaki left to go to Emmonak to film the situation facing the villagers for broadcast on various news outlets. By the way his trip was paid for with money raised by Alaska bloggers in less then THREE hours!
So all of this happened in a two day span of time. And our Governor? Well she is "looking into a trip to Emmonak". That is the difference between WANTING to do something and HAVING to do something.
Are you impressed with her response? Neither are the native regional leaders.
Though the underlying problems go back for generations, the picture of suffering villagers poses a tough political problem for Gov. Palin. Some regional leaders are already saying her administration has been slow to respond to a problem that has been brewing since the end of fishing season.
"Gov. Palin was out on the campaign trail, so why would she have given a damn? She was trying to get elected," said Naneng, the AVCP president.
Governor Palin can try to change the facts and spin her web of deception, but we know the truth this time don't we?
Our Alaska bloggers will be trying to put together and then maintain the most accurate timeline on community action regarding this particular issue.
If you have input on how or when awareness of this issue first was published or acted upon, in Alaska or elsewhere, you can comment here, or find my email, under my profile on this page.
meanwhile --- Good Luck, Dennis!
image - Reaching the Campsite by Fred Machetanz