Subsistence News-10/28/94

To   Subsistence 2

From:      Larry Roberts:R10F02A

Postmark:  Oct 24,94  8:32 AM          Delivered: Oct 28,94 10:00 AM

Status:    Previously read

Subject: Subsistence News-10/28/94

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Message:

*George Frampton, Asst. Secty. of Interior, visited the southeast Alaska community of Hoonah to listen to testimony from the Tlingit clans on why they want the return of subsistence rights to Glacier Bay N.P. The people of Hoonah trace their origins to the area, which was made a National Park in 1925.

*Some call subsistence the most deeply divisive issue in Alaska since statehood. Urban interests call for equal access/rights, while the rural Native population claims special protection for the communal practices of subsistence that are at the core of their traditional cultures. This clash of fundamental values is likely to continue regardless of what the courts and legislators may do to resolve the subsistence preference issue.

*In southeast Alaska, the memorial potlatch took place in the late fall or winter, after the completion of most of the subsistence activities. In pre-contact times, gifts were distributed to the opposite clan. These gifts included furs, tanned skins, a few slaves, and large shields (tinaa) made of copper. In the second half of the nineteeth century, these indigenous objects were supplemented and gradually replaced by blankets, bolts of calico and other types of cloth, and money.