by MIKE
O’NEILL (mtoneill@clearwire.net)
The
Bristol Bay Times
09 October 2008
We should
approach the goal of having healthy First Peoples and total
community wellness and independent living for everyone, including
elders and people with disabilities in rural Alaska, in light of
First People governments being truly sovereign.
One of
the first steps to achieving sovereignty in rural Alaska is for
urban Alaska to view ordinary rural non-white people as people.
We do not
help the general white public view First Peoples as valuable human
beings when we ourselves use negative slang words to describe
ourselves. Because of the constant use of slang to refer to First
Peoples by whites and most Natives, including the Alaska
Federation of Natives, as the name boasts, most mainstream people
see us as not respecting ourselves and thus not deserving of
respect. The end result of this is, we don’t get a thing and end
up surviving on meager corporate dividends, hand-outs or low
wages.
The AFN
name needs a major fix fast. A better name would be the First
Peoples Convention. When that change happens, we will be making
progress, and true sovereignty in rural Alaska will be a
possibility.
With AFN
just around the corner, the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU Channel
2 News are about to slaughter us with slang headlines again: “Natives
this,” and “Natives that.”
White
people would never apply these kinds of slang words to themselves,
or allow them to be used in the media.
“Whites
win major political battle against First People with Senate Bill
101, Healing Racism in Urban Alaska, voted down by majority,” is
not a headline that is likely to ever appear in local media.
Why,
then, should we allow slang headlines to be constantly used
against us or by us every day — particularly in the missions and
visions of the Native peoples’ health care system, the 13
regional corporations and the 13 regional non-profits?
First
People politicians, presidents, representatives, executives,
managers, employees and board members of the 13 regional
corporations and 13 regional non-profits who are managing the
ordinary indigenous citizen peoples’ assets, health care and
rights to economic freedom and prosperity, should advocate for
sovereign salmon and game rights, both for commercial and
customary traditional uses, for our much beloved rural and First
Alaskan communities.
If that
happens, there is hope for rural Alaska people to sing, dance and
participate. We want good paying jobs back in the homelands with
businesses that we own and operate.
This is
especially important in regard to the development of
environmentally responsible high-tech salmon trap operations and
processor plants in communities where salmon are in our hands, our
faces, our hearts and our minds.
Salmon
could bring us greater benefit if we were more often owners and
operators of salmon-based businesses. For example, chum salmon
caviar, called sujiko in Japan where it is a hot commodity, sold
for 2,200 yen per kilogram, or $43 per pound, there in Aug. 2005,
according to the Southwest Regional Office of the National Marine
Fisheries Service.
We don’t
need any more calculated, prepared speeches. For once, business
and community leaders ought to step up to the podium with no paper
or notes or power point presentations and speak from the heart.
They should stop the long, boring, heavy ego-oriented
introductions and speeches that take up valuable time and takes
away my chance and the chance for other people to express
themselves.
Give it a
try this month at AFN, which would be better called the First
Peoples’ Convention. We should throw out slang terms like “Natives”
and “Indians” and “subsistence,” which only imply “survival,”
according to the Webster Dictionary; whereas “trade” implies
commercial and “traditional and customary use” implies
prosperity and sovereignty.
If we
call our get-together the “Peoples’ Convention,” what will
the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU call us then? I think they would
continue to use slang for a while, “Natives at the People’s
Convention voted on this today.” What about all the powerful
whites who attend our convention and come with calculated speeches
and promises for a better life? Will they be singled out using
slang? Will the Alaska delegation and governor be singled out in
slang or even referred to as white? Not a chance.
According
to a recent Associated Press and Yahoo News poll, one-third of
white democrats have negative perceptions of black people —
using terms such as “lazy” and “violent” to describe them
— and 2-1/2 percent might not vote for Obama because of his
race.
In
Alaska, I’d say 75 percent of the total registered white voters
think First People are less-than, lazy, drunk, stupid, etc.; and
why not? Don’t the words “Natives” and “Indians” mean
just that in slang terms anyway to most of the general public, to
some Native people, to most politicians in Juneau and even the
ones that say, “Read my lipstick”? The other 25 percent
pretend they don’t hear it, see it or think it.
To Sarah
and Todd Palin, Native regional corporations, Juneau politicians
and Washington, D.C., politicians, read my heart: This is Alaska
history and fact. We are 230 sovereign nations. Instead of doing
something that will never work, such as importing floating fish
processing plants from Seattle or overseas to help Bristol Bay
citizens, elders, youth, children and babies, why not outlaw the
current Bristol Bay gillnetting systems, buying out the 98 percent
outside-owned gillnetting systems in Alaska for $7 billion, then
allow sovereign First People community governments to own fair
community salmon trap allocations and environmentally responsible
high-tech community processing plants? Support local people to
own, build, operate and market the best darn gourmet salmon
products and fresh frozen seafood products in the world to the
world. Stop the welfare bandage fixes. Stop the oppression
nonsense. Stop barbaric corporate financial greed, and think civic
economies. Bring justice back to the First People. Help restore
First People sovereignty; and the state, nation and world get
better.
Help stop
the out-migration from our homelands, and help us put an end to
all those really bad social statistics. Help us create ownership
and local jobs in our communities. Help transform our communities
into places that are healthy, clean, industrious, prosperous and
happy. Call us “people,” at every chance that comes along.
Make it a habit.
“Quyana
chuck nuk.” Thank you very much.
Mike O’Neill can be
reached at mtoneill@clearwire.net.
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