Outlook; 207; Indian Pt. 1 / Midtown

Roll up and jam right now. Hello everyone I'm Beverly Michaels and welcome to Outlook and what is the outlook for Indian Country in Alaska. The Supreme Court will rule on that within months. Tonight we'll look at the historical context of this very complex issue. Principles and interests. What do you do with a permanent fund for the next 20 years. And what is the outlook for Midtown Anchorage a collection of box stores and parking lots or in addition to that a place to come with families enjoy activities have lunch stay awhile. Our choices are narrowing as development gallops forward Alaskans struggle to understand the legal political cultural implications of Indian country in Alaska tonight. Experts in those areas will contribute to the ongoing discussion. That's next outlook. Within the next six months the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision saying

whether or not Indian country exist in Alaska. And to what extent that decisions are expected to have a far far reaching implications for tribal governments for the state government and for the people of Alaska. At stake is the balance of power between the state governments and Alaska's native peoples in a special two part program Commonwealth North brought together many state and native leaders. Indian law experts and others to help explain the historical and other perspectives on this most controversial and complex issue. What we are trying to do is clarify that first of all it's a federal question. The relationship between Alaska native peoples and a governmental entity is firmly with the relationship of the federal government and the Alaska Native people of the state of Alaska is very limited in what it can do on this question. So if. Alaska has Indian country and those of us who live in Alaska. Everybody

needs to know what that means. Do what you hope the relationship between native populations and the American government has undergone several transformations over the years as attitudes and policy changes in Congress have affected the governments to governments trust placing American Indians under its guardianship and protection during the eighteen hundreds when Russia sold Alaska to the US. The mood had shifted from one of protection to relocation in 1901. Congress created the Met like Outlaw reservation in Alaska. The period of relocation ended in 1887 with the general allotment Act which sought to assimilate Indians into non Indian society like 1830 to the solicitor general issue an opinion that Alaska natives are now unquestionably considered and treated as being under the guardianship and protection of the federal government which would later become a key definition in Indian

country. The period of reorganization of Indian economic life gave way to a time of terminations of federal benefits and support services but in 1900. Yes it was during this era that Alaska became a state entitled to select one hundred four million acres of lands previously owned by the US government. But it was also a time of great social upheaval and civil rights activism swept the country. Young native leaders for me Alaska Federation of natives to fight the state of Alaska's claims to public lands. Pressure to develop the oil rich lands of Alaska's North Slope and conflict over land claims resulted in the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 171. This Act created 13 native regional corporations in Alaska entitling Alaska natives to nearly one billion dollars and forty four million acres of lands in exchange for Aboriginal land rights. The determination of tribes and Indian country was not expressly addressed. Indeed President Nixon

asked Congress to explicitly affirm the integrity and right of continued existence of all Indian tribes in Alaska native governments up until the late 1970s. Congress enacted several pieces of legislation providing benefits and assistance to American Indians which included Alaska natives. Where we are right now is that the secretary of the Interior has recognized over two hundred twenty five Native villages in Alaska as federally recognized tribes. The issue currently before the hordes is whether there is a territorial basis. For the exercise of governmental powers by those tribes that territorial base is usually called Indian country under federal law. And the question is is there Indian country for these two hundred twenty five or so Alaska native villages. In 1986 the tribal government of the native village of being a time taxed a construction company building a village school. Being a Thai was one of seven Alaskan

native villages which had taken the option to re-acquire and abolished reservation land in lieu of the actual lands and cash. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals a federal court has said that yes there is Indian country in Alaska that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 did not extinguish Indian country. What they said is that there remains a relationship between the federal government and the tribes and that the land that is held by the tribes in Alaska is land set aside for their use. The determination of Indian country in Alaska however would not take away all powers from the state. If the United States Supreme Court affirms the determination that this is indeed Indian country in Alaska then the state of Alaska will have criminal authority and some civil authority in Indian country by virtue of the 1959 federal law known

as public law to 80. And this law allows the state to share with the tribes authority within Indian country a ruling affirming Indian country would shift the balance of power from the State Government to tribal governments potentially affecting business through taxation and regulation. Well I think the the problem. Being afraid of the unknown is natural but when we're talking about something that isn't proven and simply an assertion from a judge it should be taken as lightly. Anything else that's gossip and. I think that if you went through each of those issues and tried to compare either with what the powers are under you know like what's called kind of in your life you'll find that the very shallow concern

a ruling restricting or abolishing Indian country in Alaska would not necessarily take away all powers from villages if it's not Indian country the native villages could still organize themselves as you know under Alaska state law and exercised powers in that capacity. Now of course then they are restrained by state law that applies to all municipalities. If it's Indian country the native villages are not subject to the constraints of that kind of state law. The interest is not there at least. Part of the problem that they have with municipalities is the fact that. The state oil wealth is not being shared properly. Most of it's going to urban areas and they get very little of it. We have many of the ones that do not have water and sewer and of course they don't have harming our center of that little place saved us. So you know the disparity in the allocation of resources creates serious problems so they got to go out and get

federal bucks and they do it under their own parliament so powerful relationship with the federal government. Whatever the outlook for the future Alaskans would be wise to work towards healing the growing rift between its native and non-native citizens. As a recent Anchorage Daily News editorial said it is hard to argue that the status quo is appropriate given the lack of government services and insufficient will to deliver them provided in the bush. Nearly 40 years after statehood in Anchorage at the Captain Cook hotel for Outlook I'm Gary Fife. Now next week we're going to hear about the concerns and perspectives of some Alaskans on Indian country. In part two of our series on what to do with the permanent fund in the next 20 years. Well a statewide dialogue is about to get on that topic. And that's next on the outlook. Everything important 10 second.

Simpler. And that's why the challenge is determining. The. Principles and interests is a state wide discussion about the Permanent Fund and Alaska's future. It's being organized by the Alaska humanities forum on the permanent fund's 20th anniversary. Count them folks 20 years already. I'd like you to meet Scott Goldsmith. He's on my right. He's a professor of economics at USA. And Mark Langan president of North Rim bank in your former fund trustee. Welcome both of you. Thank you. Now the first question is why do we need a dialogue about the permit. Doesn't everyone know it was designed to put checks in our pocket when

the program fund is now our biggest resource and it's time to have a discussion about what the ultimate purpose of the fund is. And that's really the purpose of this conference is to get people thinking about and talking about what the opportunity that the that the fund creates for us as Alaskans. How are we going to get a whole state talking about the fund Mark. Yeah good question that's been at best been a tip top issue as we try to work out these these these problems of trying to get an engagement of more people general public about the fun. So we're going to have a conference in Anchorage on the 20th and 21st. Then we're going statewide to some 40 some more maybe more than 40 venues throughout the state so every community of not every community but most of the communities in the state will try to get a way for people to engage in the discussion about it. No preconceived ideas. This is

open for the general information and and the feedback that can be received from the people that should be interested we're all stakeholders in the fun. We should have a vested interest in trying to understand where we are and where we're going with the fun. So people are going to in their communities talk together they're going to think about how much we have they're going to think about it's use are going to think about it and talk about a lot of different things. When is all this going to happen and why is there sort of an outcome that you're looking for. Well it's going to be happening this winter and running into the spring and the outcome is really the discussion and the dialogue. We don't have any preconceived agenda or ideas of what the end product should be in terms of a recommendation that the fund is doing fine and we should change this or or what have you but as Mark says the fund belongs to all of us and it's a tremendous opportunity and a resource. Let's think about what what the potential is as well as what the potential

dangers to the fund. We hear about what though OK let's talk about some of those potential dangers and what are some of the potential dangers that we could face down the pike. Well I think one of the dangers is just think of your own household if you had a large savings account and you had really no idea what you're going to do with the money. There's danger there is more danger in having a lot of money I think than there is in not having money. There's a lot more opportunities to do things maybe wrong. Maybe maybe not. But when you have that pot of gold or a pot of money sitting there if you if it's your own money you have a concern so you're going to try to figure out what you're going to do with that money in the future. And that's what we need to do. We need to think about if it's if it was our own money we would have a plan for that. There are two thing that's going to be tough for people to want to share that money. I mean everybody's getting a certain amount in their pocket and they say hey that's the highest and best use.

It's going to be tough and it is going to be tough. We have to think about a number of things and there are some other dangers one is that as as the fund grows bigger and bigger it's going to draw more and more attention from people and institutions outside of the state. People there's there's some concern that the fund may become a population magnet that is drawing people into the state just because of the existence of the fund. Another is that it will get the attention perhaps of the IRS and become it be turned into a taxable fund rather than as it is now. And so those are two potential dangers another is just with them the management of the fund itself we want to make sure that we're. That our investment policy and our management of the fund is being done in such a way that it's maximizing the long term earnings potential and power of the fund because that's really what we're relying more and more on. As time goes by as a resource. Right now the problem Fund Dividend

is generating about 5 percent of Alaskan personal income and that's going to increase in the next few years. Mark how can our viewers engage in this how can they get involved and give their two cents. I think one of the one of the ways is to think about yourself in the in your own money and be reached if you're going to be responsible for the way you handle your own money. That's what should drive you to be involved in this discussion. And so if more you can personalize this I think again think of it in that light. You should get involved you should be let your word be heard to the general community to the politicians. It's difficult for our system to work in a political sense when when when you're receiving money for really doing nothing that has some risk to it and some dangers. So we have to take that extra step by I think and responsibility for each one of us as citizens to become involved in the decisions of how this moves forward. And this is a

forum this is a way for maybe step one on. Maybe this is a baseline that we work from. Certainly isn't going to be the end of the discussion. There's no question it will continue it starts in November of this year it continues through the year and sometime around May you'll have a town meeting I understand and this is a chance then for all of us really to step forward and get involved. Thank you both for coming. Thanks for having you. Midtown has sort of grown topsy turvy. No planning to speak of. Now people drive there they park and they shop. Some people want to expand what is possible in midtown. See it as a place to live and to play. But time is running out on those divisions as zoning changes take place and more buildings and roads are planned. Think about midtown. What do you see.

Cars parking lots. Big big store. Cars. Parking lots. I think there's a general consensus today that Midtown is an unattractive and sprawling commercial area that we're not really where the traffic is fast the best it's high it's hard and it's a sea of parking lots and no ac a big boxes and parking. When my office moved to midtown I worked in the frontier building and I looked out the window at. At this place and thought it was dreadful. It was not a pleasant place to be. It was not a pleasant thing to look at and it was there was no place to go on my lunch hour. The blue you see is asphalt. The red equals stores. Three hundred and forty five acres in Midtown are commercially developed. Two hundred and fifteen acres of that are paved parking lots or roads. Cars are

king. I think there's a sense of kind of the metaphor for everything. Like it's not good is that it from the heart of angry. Do we settle for it being not good and just practice getting in and out as fast as we can. One possible future for Midtown is the one that it's really easy to see today and that is the large buildings. Places like Wal-Mart and the Sears mall and those are great places to shop. They've got lots of good parking but they're not necessarily the kinds of places you might want to bring a friend or family member to visit. They're not very memorable they're the kinds of places that you find all over the country. And I think another vision that's still within our grasp to realize is the midtown it's much more of a people place. Raise your hand if you've been to midtown park or even heard about it.

There's not a lot of people that know about the park. And I have a lot of friends that are outdoors and. They don't know about this park so it's nice it's quiet. The six acres are tucked away behind the post office in the library. In 1987 the assembly approved the concept of a 900 acre park here in the heart of Midtown. The next mayor and his administration turned it into a snow dump. Mayor my Stroom has brought it to life again. Our vision is to expand the 6 acres to the whole 19 acres so that we can have a true regional park a family park that can be used by the people that come to this library that can be used also by workers here in midtown there and that will also be a destination that will have room for things that people want to do a jogging trail around the perimeter a skating rink. A playfield perhaps for soccer great kid play equipment. The boulders to play on that we've already got a big start with

or place just to come and sit and have your lunch or take a few minutes break from work. We've got a wonderful library with great grands we've got an emerging midtown park. There is an opportunity that it could become really the scene or the example for the new kind of development that we want to see in the town. Now this is where changing the course of midtown to include open space in residence gets tricky. Pending rezoning of two large tracks to the south of the park in the library major in residential land commercial probably increasing its market value and making it more expensive if it's to be purchased for park or home. We have to as a community need to Kunder stand that we have limited land in the bowl. That we have consumed a great deal of our residential land. We're really we're reaching we're not at the point of sale that that in our lifetimes we're going to clearly see residential land not very available. We need to make some choices and it's an

intelligent choice to begin to think about concentrating residential development in downtown and one town and another threat to change for you to have you maybe build from Denali street to the busy AC thoroughfare. Our big concern is that it could really be a barrier for motion between north and south parts of midtown and a real nuisance along the edge of a park if it's a large highway carrying large amounts of traffic. It's not a good neighbor to a parka to build the road or not. What kind of road it should be and where it should go is complicated and predictably people see it differently. With the development of the box stores Home Depot and go read a lot of traffic in that area especially on Google. And you get around in MID. We need some road to take the pressure off the hooter and for some product. Remember the probably all 36 route and the only way to do that is if

and when you order your own Benelli over who gets you up with the 40th Avenue will be as I understand it a collector road and as such that it's insufficient to really draw a whole lot of traffic off into the road. You know has problems that will solve its intersections where the problem or tutor isn't very good will carry a lot of traffic as you enter sections of the model if for you the avenue is extended needs to be understood that it limits or preclude some of the options for improvements to the tutor and C Street intersection that that intersection would disallow an interchange ever going in at that location. That's the only decisions being made right now by the mayor as you know it's to be built it will be cool. It was great. We haven't even gotten into how many lanes we proposed a four lane road only because of the banality of the valley or 40th Street between the nally and University Center for lane it would seem logical to match it up with more and your tying into a major thoroughfare and the a c cup which is

four lane west currently. So even if 40 it goes through as a commercial grade road it goes straight through as a four lane road you would get a lot of impact from the traffic from the noize it wouldn't be very compatible with the park it's not a sure bet that 40th will be built although it is in the 5 year capital improvement plan before the assembly a design study of the road in the area will be conducted to decide which way to proceed and Public Works is exploring alternate ways to move traffic in the area. There's a sense of urgency growing about upcoming decisions to rezone this land or build that road. Some are saying whoa take a break from business as usual and decide if the current midtown path is really leading in the direction that we want to go. People know what they invite and they go to places that they like and so if you build a commercial center that's that's attractive to people.

People are going to shop there. Well this is one of the times when I think we do have to care how they've done it outside and we have to look at the bad examples and say we don't have to do it that way we have a chance here to do something different. If the vision of a town with an open space and flowers and places to walk and places for kids if that's going to come to be it's really critical to act now. Otherwise the opportunity is likely to slip away. If we want a more beautiful Militaire we have to do the work to get a more beautiful town and that's about being involved. It's about being present when decisions are voicing. Can you think inside. Once again you and I make a difference what we think counts. And it's just a matter of acting on our thoughts. Next week Indian Country part two Indian Country A Native sovereignty issues are complex and emotionally charged issues. We'll hear from some Alaskans about their concerns and their perspectives. The Anchorage school budget

affects each of us kids or no kids. We'll look at that. And speaking of school funding the state may change the way they fund districts. We'll look at the approaches on the table. That's next week on Outlook. Well that's our show tonight. Thank you so much for being with us Hope you enjoy the show and I hope you're with us next week for Outlook. I'm Beverly Michaels. Good night. If you have questions or information about today's segment of Outlook or if you have ideas for future shows contact the offices of KTM Channel Seven thirty eight seventy seven University Drive Anchorage Alaska 9 9 5 0 8 or call Eric 0 9 0 7 5 6 3 7 0 7 0.