This image of Emmonak elder Nick Tucker (image courtesy of Anonymous Bloggers) might have been taken today in Bethel (it wasn't), where Tucker hopes to speak to somebody from the State of Alaska or - preferably - from the Obama administration - about the plight of villages on the Yukon River that are getting shafted by the ongoing Federal policies that enable a 25- to 30-year old fishery destroy the basis of a 7,000-year-old culture.He wants to communicate an important message:
Help us now!
Not by handouts, not by applying band-aids, not by shipping us out of the area.
But by helping us regain control of our long-term future.
Seems like it could be simple, doesn't it? Especially with so many "helping" people in Bethel:
• Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell
• Alaska's junior U.S. Sen. Mark Begich
• U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu
• U.S. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan
• U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan
• U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
• former Alaska House of Representatives Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz
----- and other local dignitaries
I believe both Parnell and Berkowitz are there separately, and not as part of the Federal Cabinet/Senate party.
Surprisingly, the only person in the mix who has begun to publicly address the concerns of Nick Tucker is Gov. Parnell, with his request, made last Friday, for Federal didaster aid to communities devastated by the Bering Sea pirates' rapine and waste. Even National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration administrator, Jane Lubchenco, who comes to Alaska at the end of the week, and oversees both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the North Pacific Fisheries Advisory Council, hasn't specifically addressed the growing concerns of Tucker and many others, who see the devastation of the Yukon River Chinook fisheries as one of the most important environmental questions now facing Alaskans and Americans.
Meanwhile, the long-touted Bethel meetings have had to be severely truncated with plane trouble this morning in Anchorage for the Federal government people, and morning fog in Bethel. I doubt the shortened, hastily re-arranged Bethel events will go over well with Alaska Native leaders, who have flown in from all over the YK Delta to perhaps get a point across. After all, the group is supposed to be in Hooper Bay within 75 minutes from right now, and only go into Bethel 40 minutes ago.
What a circus, eh?
You can keep up with the "tour" at:
Anonymous Bloggers
ADN Rural Blog
Update - 2:05 p.m: Kyle Hopkins writes at the ADNRB:
This thing's about to wrap up ... the secretaries' staffers are getting ready to whisk their bosses away to the airport, headed to Hooper Bay.
and Martha Unalaska Yardsign, commenting at Anonymous Blogger, writes:
We need to write letters. We need to gather information on how much financial outlay and traveling time away from fishing or late summer subsistence activities some of these rural residents spent to be in Bethel. I hope I’m wrong, I hope a lot of folks won’t find this a huge disappointment....
…if only it weren't so true, Martha. Bethel circus, indeed.
When will people learn how to make adequate time budgets for the inevitable climate or equipment problems endemic with Alaska Bush travel for such appearances? As it stands, this was nothing more than another lame fucking dog & pony show.