Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Natives want special fishing and hunting

Check out this article in ADN:

http://www.adn.com/2012/10/18/2664935/afn-delegates-asked-to-support.html

The title doesn't make mention of the worst things, like this goal:

"Urge Alaska Natives to vote in favor of convening a constitutional convention on the Nov. 6 ballot. This resolution, proposed by the AFN board, is aimed at amending the state constitution to provide a fishing and hunting priority for Alaska Natives and expand the number of state legislators to ensure more Natives and rural Alaskans win seats in Juneau.

There already is a subsistence priortiy for people in Alaska, it's called rural preference. This continual "I'm special and need to be treated that way" thinking in our society is crazy.

Everyone wants special hunting and fishing rights.

It's not like this is a new thing.

I'm native and have never received any special hunting or fishing rights, ever. Must be in the wrong part of the state!

Wait for it.......

Thought the natives pretty well did what they wanted up there.
I see they want the State to pay for salmon research...
Everybody wants their entitlements!

Big whoop, for the most part they do. With so few troopers, chances of getting caught are there but they take the chance.

I'm just waiting for the racism bit to come out.

I don't think folks will vote to change the constitution but on the other hand, throw in ANC and all the rural areas??????

It'll never be as bad as it is down here (hopefully). Our 'native' [bleep] have NO respect for the resource, can do whatever they want and get chit-pot loads of money from their casinos. The casino money has made alcohol a lessor problem and heroin and coke a BIG problem.

I suppose their addictions, at some point, will over-ride their rape of the resource...

I'm all for those special rights and to start things off lets take a page from history they can get out there on the river when the fish are running a grin down a bar or three.

There are no "real" native Americans. They are in reality the first immigrants since they came from Asia. Probably looking for a better life like all that came later and don't deserve any better treatment then those that came later.

Whether Alaska, Minnesota or Florida, it comes down to how much "white guilt" any special interest group can conjure up. Every generation of "whites" has to re-pay reparations all over again.
Its a shake down that minority groups have been able to use for a long time.

special hunting and fishing privileges already exist for the Native communities here.

I'm a slice of white bread Heinz 57 mongrel.


I married an Indian princess, my wife is half Athabascan (half a gascan, in slang)

being Native allows you to operate fish wheels,being Native or living in a village allows you subsistence permits not available to those living in our urban areas, being Native allows you to harvest game out of season for a potlatch ceremony be it moose, ducks, or fish, once you apply for the permit. Potlatches are most often associated with death and funerals, but there are also memorial potlatches.

My wife texted me the other day asking "how many .30-.30's do we have?"

I asked, who died?

her reply; nobody they're going to have a memorial potlatch in honor of some of her relatives that have been dead multiple years

there are vast tracts of Native land here, transferred by ANILCA, that adjoin state or federal land, no one can hunt there without their permission (usually involves a fee if they indeed grant you permission)


it's just my opinion, but I think the Natives already have a leg up on hunting and fishing "rights" I don't see the need for more, but it seems evident that some of them do.

I hear tell another reason for a constitutional convention is the democrats want to tap the permanent fund.

The fact they want to legally poach year round isnt my biggest concern, since they do it anyway. What does bother me is the special rpresentation they want just cuz the indians feel deprived. I would hate to be the rep for all thehomeless in anchorage.

selling untaxed tobacco in Indian smoke shops allows them to earn a good deal more than casinos.

What's the deal with how many .30-30s you have? I don't get it.

I seem to remember an equal opportunity clause in the Alaska Constitution... not special opportunity. Bad enough with the federal whooha exclusions.

If we're going to go with the museum exhibit culture thing, fish wheels, rifles, internal combustion engine devices of any kind, radios, cell phones, gps, all of it should go. THEN we can talk about cultural expression and subsistence.

This getting turned into a racial thing is wrong at any turn.

It's the battle between the state constitution and federal law under Anilca, i.e. equal opportunity vs. special opportunity.

It's been a racial issue for decades, really since statehood. It's not like this is something new, or that it will just go away or be solved easily. No one wants to concede on either side of the debate. The real issue is we have state and federal legislators that curry political favor by promising special rights to certain groups, and not just Native, there are commercial fishing special interests, sportsman special interests, guides, etc.

it's the dangedest thing!


if someone in your family dies you hold a potlatch, people come from your village and surrounding ones.

some of them are honored guests so you gift them, highest honor is gifting them a rifle, followed by beadwork, blankets etc.


the rifle "de riguer" is a Winchester .30-.30 in carbine length in the original box. Don't ask me why, it's just become the "tradition". Though the tradition started back when people had very little and some times they gave away enough stuff back in the day that they couldn't make it through the winter themselves.

it's kind of a head shaker, I've been involved in it for 25 years now and still don't completely get it.

end result though is through marriage, I've given away more rifles than I ever dreamed of owning in a previous life!

just is what it is, and if you're gonna love a girl from the tribe, and I do, you go along

Huh......But have you ever been given a rifle? I'm trying to conceptualize such doings and I might have a difficult time.

Natives want special fishing and hunting........they got it now......whats wanted is ....more.