10.20.23

Sullivan Emphasizes Power of Working Together at Alaska Federation of Natives Convention

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), in a virtual address to the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) annual convention on Friday, spoke to the strength and connection of family and cultural ties within Alaska Native communities and the value of using this unity to address vital topics and celebrate successes. Senator Sullivan is currently traveling to the Middle East with a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues to show solidarity and support for Israel and to ensure there is common interest among America’s partners in preserving the stability, security, and prosperity in the Middle East.

“While we all live in different parts of the state, come from different areas, different backgrounds, there are really strong ties that bind all of us,” Senator Sullivan said. “When we're all working together, it's amazing. Unlimited, in my view, is the amount of things that we can get done for our Native communities, for our state, and for our country.”

Senator Sullivan discussed his focus on reviving healthy salmon runs in Alaska and the passage of his Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act; his work to address the lack of affordable housing in rural Alaska and to increase broadband connectivity throughout the state and the vital role of responsible resource development for better health outcomes and life expectancy. Sullivan also stressed the importance of urging federal officials attending AFN—including Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland— to stop delaying the issuance of Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans land allotments—only 14 out of 2500 have been granted during the Biden administration. He also urged the members of AFN to demand consultation from the federal officials attending AFN.

Click here to watch Senator Sullivan’s remarks.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Introduction

Hello, AFN, and greetings from Washington, D.C.! I want to begin by just saying I really wish I could be with all of you. AFN is certainly one of the highlights of my and Julie's year. I've never missed an AFN as your U.S. Senator.

Unfortunately, you’re probably seeing-- I'm sure you're seeing-- all the very dramatic world events that are happening right now. I am going to be heading out to the Middle East with a bipartisan group of senators to show our solidarity and support for our most important ally in the Middle East. That's the state of Israel and the people of Israel. We are also going to Egypt and Saudi Arabia to look at ways in which we can try to make sure that the conflict there does not broaden into a broader conflict, and we are also looking for opportunities for humanitarian assistance for the people in Gaza, the civilians who are suffering, while backing Israel's ability to defeat the terrorist group Hamas.

As you all know, I talk a lot about how it's becoming a dangerous world, the new era of authoritarian aggression with dictators in Beijing, China, in Moscow, in Tehran, the Iranian terrorists, dictators. We know as Alaskans in many ways we are on the front lines. We saw that joint Chinese-Russian patrol near our shores this past summer. Alaska natives have been great patriots and veterans defending our country for generations. I thank you for that.

That's unfortunately why I'm not going to be with all of you. I would love to. When I when I gave Julie Kitka-- by the way, she's doing a great job as president of AFN-- a call and said, “Hey, Julie, I'm not going to be able to make it,” and I told her why, she said, and I quote, “Senator, don't worry, I don't think you're going to be missed as long as your wife, Julie, is here.”

She literally said that. So Julie is there. So, hello, Julie. I miss you. And so you'll be in great hands with my amazing wife.

Recent Travel Across Rural Alaska

So, I want to give a DC update for all of you. I first want to talk about some of the travels that I've been doing in rural Alaska. Our recent trip to Bethel, of course, was under very tragic circumstances with our Congresswoman Mary Peltola and the loss of her beloved husband, Buzzy. Julie and I traveled to the services there in Bethel. The community and outreach was really powerful. I would ask you to continue to keep Congresswoman Peltola and her family in your prayers. It's just an unbelievable, tragic situation that Mary's going through right now.

This August, I was able to see, with Julie, a number of you. We hosted the Secretary of Transportation with all of you in Kotzebue. We were in a Kiana, Shungnak, Kobuk, Huslia, Hughes, and Allakaket. In Allakaket, my wife Julie had an amazing homecoming because her great grandmother, Josephine Yeedohdelnoh Evans, is actually originally from that community.

Now, Josephine Yeedohdelnoh Evans is a legend in that community. During a time of great famine, she actually walked by herself over 100 miles from Allakaket to Rampart when she was just 13 years old. Think about how tough that was. A trek by herself in the winter. What a brave, tough woman.

My wife obviously got those genes. It was so wonderful because so many of the elders in the community of Allakaket came out to greet Julie like a long lost daughter in a homecoming. It was a really, really special day that we will remember the rest of our lives.

You know, like I said, that grit and determination from Julie's great grandmother, Yeedohdelnoh, certainly reminds me of the women in my family-- my mother in law, my wife, my daughters-- it reminds me of so many of our strong Alaska Native women across the state. Those kinds of trips also remind me that while we all live in different parts of the state, come from different areas, different backgrounds, there are really strong ties that bind all of us. And that was a really good example of that, when we had the opportunity to travel in rural Alaska for a good part of August.

Salmon

Let me let me go to some of the big issues. The number one issue that I know all of you are focused on, probably your number one issue, is salmon and subsistence, and the way of life that's so important from a food security, cultural perspective, heritage perspective. Unfortunately, we have seen shocking declines of some species of salmon on our major rivers like the Yukon and Kuskokwim, kings, chum, while in other parts of the state, in Bristol Bay, for example, with sockeye salmon, we've seen epic, historic runs.

You might remember last year at AFN, I talked about my legislation, the Alaska Salmon Task Force Research Act, that was all about focusing on trying to get to the bottom of what is happening. Why are we having these horrendously difficult, major declines in the runs of our salmon in many parts of Alaska?

Well, the good news is, that bill was signed into law at the end of last year, and we are now implementing that. Many of you are part of the Salmon Task Force Act, both in the working group that is primarily focused on Alaska Natives from the Kuskokwim and Yukon and Interior regions, but also from other parts of the state.

The goal of this legislation, which we are now implementing, is to bring the best minds-- Alaska Natives, state and federal officials, university officials, traditional knowledge, the best minds in Alaska, literally the best minds in the world-- to figure out what is happening with these salmon runs. These huge declines are unacceptable. We need to get to the bottom of this in terms of the best minds, the best science, the best data. So I want to thank so many of you who are already part of the implementation of our bill. We are going to find out what's happening. We're going to try and then, of course, take action on that.

We're working on some other issues that are focused on our fisheries. I know many of you have been concerned about the unfair trading with Russian salmon flooding world markets, which has crashed the price of salmon and other species around the world, hurting our fishing communities throughout the state of Alaska.

We're working on a farm bill provision that enables fishermen and fishing communities in our state to have the same benefits that farmers do to lower the risks of fishing. There's a lot that we're doing on fisheries, and I know that so many of you are focused on that, particularly on subsistence fishing. I can guarantee you, myself and my office are 100% focused on these big challenges.

Housing

Let me give you another area that I know is a big one that we had some good progress on this past August, and that's housing. Safe, affordable housing. It's a crisis throughout the whole state, whether you're in Anchorage or Fairbanks or in some of the most remote communities in our state, where housing is so expensive for everybody.

Some of you know, I hosted the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary Fudge, this August, and we did a big roundtable. A number of you attended, so thank you. A number of you traveled hundreds of miles to come to this roundtable in Anchorage. It was fully focused on the high costs of housing in rural Alaska. In your communities.

She got an earful, I will tell you that, from so many folks, because as you know, HUD and NAHASDA housing, to build a duplex in some of our rural communities, can cost up to $1,000,000. No kidding, a million bucks. Crazy. One of the things that we got out of that summit with the Secretary of HUD is [a commitment] to work with us to create a task force on why there is so much red tape from the federal government that makes our housing costs in rural Alaska so very expensive.

Stay tuned on that. The Housing and Urban Development Secretary is going to be announcing this task force soon. But I will tell you, we also saw some great examples of innovative housing that was taking place, building of housing in different communities-- Huslia, Hughes-- some of the leaders there, the tribal leaders, community leaders, are doing incredible work, bringing good, affordable, beautiful housing at much more competitive costs than NAHASDA and HUD do. So we have some great example of how it's actually working.

Importance of Unity

Let me just end by mentioning a couple of things. First, it's this issue of the importance of unity. Last year in my AFN speech, I spoke a lot about the importance of unity. When we speak with one voice, we can get really big things done for our state. It's not always easy to speak with one voice, we know that. But on some really important issues, I think we can do it.

Let me give you a couple of examples where we are doing it. Some of you I know attended the summit that I hosted last August on broadband connectivity, internet connectivity, with the goal to get every community in our state the most remote rural communities, broadband and internet connectivity.

Think about what we can do as a state in terms of education, health care, small businesses, if we achieve that goal. We're starting on a good path to achieve that goal. Some of you might know on the infrastructure bill that passed a couple of years ago, I fought for a formula that prioritized communities that had nothing. That's where the federal government should prioritize its resources for broadband deployment.

Now, some of my colleagues in the Senate were saying, no, we want to go from 4G to 5G in our communities. That's where we should be putting the money-- 4G to 5G. I was saying, what about no G? There's so many communities in Alaska that don't have anything. Fortunately, we won that battle and we’re starting to see hundreds of millions of dollars coming to our state in terms of broadband connectivity in rural communities. It's happening all over the state. We'll continue to press it. The money needs to be well-spent, not duplicated, of course, spent according to the rules, but it's a great opportunity for us.

The other thing that I mentioned last year where we needed to come together-- and AFN has done a great job, so many of you were part of it-- was getting the federal government to approve the Willow Project. We got that done. I think it's going to be a really important project for our state, for our communities, for jobs, for resources.

Here's one reason why I think resource development, responsible resource development, for Alaska is so important. It's why I, and so many of you, are so passionate about this. I have a chart that I want to show you that I frequently trot out in speeches and in hearings.

This is a chart from the American Medical Association that shows the change in life expectancy in America from 1980 to 2014, a 25 year period. If you look at it, the state that does the best in the country in terms of life expectancy is ours. If you see this chart, the dark blue and the purple, show life expectancy increases up to 13 years.

Now, that's great news for Alaska. Why did that happen? Well, to be honest, we started at a low level. Many of these areas that have a dramatic increase in life expectancy are in our rural areas where, unfortunately, our life expectancy in rural Alaska was quite low. Then what happened? Responsible resource development happened. On the North Slope, in the Northwest Arctic Borough, out on the Aleutian Island Chain, with the fishing opportunities there.

You saw this great surge in life expectancy in our state because people got jobs, and revenues, and clinics, and gymnasiums, and schools, things that people in the lower 48 take for granted. So as I tell my colleagues, I don't think there's a policy indicator of success more important than the people you representing living longer. That is happening in our great state. We need to continue that trend and that's why resource development is so important.

Federal Officials Visiting AFN

Finally, in terms of unity and being able to lift up our voices, there's going to be a lot of federal officials, as you know, always are, at AFN. And I think we should make sure that the federal government officials hear our voices.

One that I'd like to specifically request, respectfully, your help with is on an issue I know you care deeply about, that I care deeply about. And that's the Vietnam Veteran Land Allotment. This was my legislation for our brave, patriotic Vietnam veterans, Alaskan Native Vietnam veterans, who were not able to get their allotment because they were serving in the military when, let's face it, many Americans were avoiding service, and they got home and they missed the opportunity to apply for their allotment.

We fixed that in legislation, but the implementation of this has been very poor. I've talked to the Secretary of Interior, who will be at AFN, a number of times, I recently sat down with the director of BLM and said, “You've allotted now 14 plots of land out of an estimated 2,500. 14, in three years. With respect, that is a failure. It should be 14 per day, not 14 in three years.”

So if you see the secretary, please reinforce what I'm saying. We need to get these allotments to these great Vietnam veterans, Alaska Native Vietnam veterans. 14 total is unacceptable. And that's what I've been telling her. And if you can deliver that message as well, that would be great.

Finally, we always need to make sure every federal official knows that they have to conduct consultation with Alaska Native groups and Alaska Native organizations. For far too many big issues, particularly some of the resource development issues, they're not doing any consultation. That's also unacceptable.

Thank you again. I know you're going to have a great AFN. There's so much power and goodness in this room. There's so much unity, and when we're all working together, it's amazing. Unlimited, in my view, is the amount of things that we can get done for our Native communities, for our state, and for our country. Have a great conference.

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