🚀 go-pugleaf

[I have removed akr.newsadmin from the Newsgroup header, as they
have a bot that is canceling messages sent to that group which
do not mention "Akron" on the message body.  I suspect it was a
typo that put it there to start with, but...]

In article <Pine.SUN.3.93.970327020452.3764A-100000@dwarf.nome.net>,
Morgoth  <morgoth@nome.net> wrote:
>Indian Country as in many areas in the lower 48 is lands that the
>State Government has to ask the local tribal government to come
>onto Indian Land/Reservation.

That is no different than the State of Washington needing to
"ask" before exercising its authority within the jurisdiction
of the State of Alaska, or visa versa.

Would you change that?

>Basically the local sheriff/troops have no jurisdiction, the Feds
>have juridiction to a limited degree. If they were truely
>soverign then the Feds could not even come on the land without
>permission/etc. Basically seperate nations.

Cities and boroughs (or counties) are also sovereign entities
with the power to tax and police, do you object to the status of
Fairbanks and Anchorage within the State of Alaska?

Or is the only objection you have is that these are Natives?

>Basically until the courts get thru with it all, no matter what
>Venetie/Arctic Village/Tyonek and many other villages, they are
>not reservations/indian country. They are lands owned by the
>state, since the corporations are last I heard Incorporated thru
>the State of Alaska laws dealing with Corporations (Incorporated
>bodies).

Venetie, for example, has been a legal reservation for decades.

And the state does not own the land of entities incorporated in
the State of Alaska.  The State can "own" land for non-profit
corporations that are mandated under state law (an example would
the the Interior Region Emergency Services Council) to
accomplish tasks for the State of Alaska.  Any property that
corporation owns would default to State ownership if and when the
corporation dissolved.

Village corporations and Alaska Native Regional corporations do
not fit that category as they are not mandated to perform tasks
for the State of Alaska.

>I maybe behid on some of the court cases, but I think the issue
>has a ong way to still go. Problem is, until the issue is totally
>settled, Alaska can not supposedly get the lands in Alaska that
>were promised/agreed on by the Statehood Compact.

A great deal of land has been transfered to the State, so
settling that issue is unrelated except in any case where a
State selection and a Native selection overlap.

>If the native corporations wish to be sovereign bodies then give
>it to them, but that also means they will have to take care of
>themselves as such, basically no more BIA/IHS (Bureau of Indian
>Affairs/Indian Health Services), no more grants from the
>Feds/States, no more AFDC (Aid For Dependent Children), also they
>will have to negotiate with the State of Alaska for being able to
>leave the Reservation! Since if the native lands is truely
>sovereign then the residents of the reservation are foreign
>nationals and will need a VISA.
>
>Basically what I am saying is in many ways up to now, the
>Indians/Eskimos/Aleuts have been given a free ride (I know they
>suffered in the past, but that is the past). Now is the time to
>finally become adults in more than name only.

That is a spiteful and disgusting attitude to have.  Why should
there be a dichotomy that allows either Alaska Natives be this
or they must be that, where both this and that are defined by
non-Natives, and both this and that are non-prosperous by
definition?  We don't apply that kind of a rule to Mike Adams
and all that he purveys, do we?  

Government is supposed to be for the benefit of the people
(remember, "of the people, by the people, and for the people"),
and that does not mean only people who look and live in the same
manner that you do.  We have a government that builds roads,
adjusts tax rates, and guarantees services such as clean water,
garbage disposal, electricity, telephones, and transportation
for people who choose to live the way you do.  But with all of
the billions of dollars that the State of Alaska and the Federal
government have made by pumping oil out of land that was stolen
(and ruled stolen by the Supreme Court of the United States)
from Alaska Native people, we can't even find a way to get water
and sewage disposal in most Native villages.

And you are saying that now we shouldn't allow Native villages
_any_ of the value we get from that stolen land?

>I strongly suspect that in many villages with out State/Federal
>money the towns will DIE or have a much lower standard of living.

We also know very well that if you didn't have that same
support, or that if Anchorage and Fairbanks didn't have it, that
you and I and all of us would have a much lower standard of
living.  That is why we have city governments and state
governments, and that is why those sovereign entities are
mandated to provide services to everyone under their
jurisdiction.  Some of us think it is about time that the
benefits were equally distributed so that we can all flourish,
instead of only people who live in the traditional American
non-Native way.

>I know of a village or two that if all state/federal aid was cut,
>most of the people would leave, since there would be no more
>running water, no more sewers, no more electricity, since most of
>the above service are provided for from Grants/Aid.
>Not paid for by the local native group..

Fairbanks, for example!  Geeze, Mike, the only places in the
whole state of Alaska that do NOT fit that description are
Native villages!  If those things were taken away from all of us
the only ones who would stay and survive are some of the
villages.

>Or as someone once said, be careful what you ask for, you just
>might get it, and it often is worse than what you thought it
>would be.

Mike that is something you should give more thought to, in
particular to just how it applies to you.  Remember that if you
permit the Al Vezey's of the world to kick people you don't
like, who will prevent him from kicking at you when the others
are all gone?  That is what you are asking for...

Floyd

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson          Salcha, Alaska         floyd@tanana.polarnet.com