November 2, 2012– Attendees at the National Congress of American Indians raised more than $8,000 in a little over an hour to help defray the cost of attorneys defending the subsistence fishing rights of Yupiit Nation fishermen in court.
The case involves 14 Yupiit fishermen who were arrested last June 21 for violating a state- and federal government-imposed fishing ban on the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska near Bethel. But it represents a much larger issue—a statewide movement among Alaska Natives to restore their traditional hunting, fishing and cultural rights—rights that are supposed to be inalienable from indigenous peoples, but which nonetheless were “extinguished” in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
The 14 fishermen were scheduled to appear in court on Monday October 29 for the beginning of a trial on their pleadings of not guilty for violating the fishing ban. Last spring, elders and families of the Akiak Native Community reluctantly agreed with a proposal by the Alaska State Department on Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to close the river to fishing for seven days due to a shortage of King salmon, said Mike Williams, chief of the Yupiit Nation at the community, to ICTMN at the National Congress of American Indians’ (NCAI) 69th Annual Convention in Sarasota the week of October 20.
“We agreed to cooperate with the closure for seven days after a long winter, and it was very hard because people did not get their salmon, but before the seven days were over they extended the closure for another five days with the objection of the Kuskokwim Management Working Group, which I’m on,” Williams said. “The group recommended giving an opportunity to our fishermen for 72 hours to get the King salmon they needed and our elders said it wouldn’t impact the catch for the salmon.”
The state’s area biologist who had recommended the additional five days of closure vetoed the Alaska Natives’ suggestion for a 72-hour window to allow the fishermen to catch their traditional King salmon. Committee members decided to ignore his veto and exercise their inherent fishing rights. “The committee said, ‘We’re going fishing, the elders directed us to go fishing, and we’re hungry, and we need to fish,’ ” Williams said. The committee notified the State Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as to what time they would be fishing and issued a press release about their decision.
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