ICC at risk of losing Alaska

SARA MINOGUE

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference could lose one of its strongest partners if things continue to deteriorate at ICC Alaska headquarters in Anchorage.

It’s been a year since ICC Alaska’s board of directors has held a meeting with enough members to make any decisions.

Attempts to reschedule board meetings have met with what Michael Pederson, an executive council member for ICC Alaska, called, “an unresponsive effort on the members’ parts.” Pederson had little activity to report at an executive council meeting in Nuuk on June 19.

Funding to the organization has been cut in half, and there has been no progress on the mandate set out by the Kuujjuaq Declaration that was created in 2002.

“This is a huge political issue,” said ICC Chair Sheila Watt-Cloutier, hearing the news for the first time. “ICC Alaska needs to mobilize the way we do. Our whole culture is at risk. We have to react, and especially in the United States. We need that strength to get on the political map.”

“Alaska is a cornerstone of the ICC,” said Aqqaluk Lynge, president of ICC Greenland and vice-chair of the executive council. “The most influential government is sitting there and dictating to the rest of the world. We need Alaskan Inuit to be there when we discuss our issues.”

Alaska was once a driving force behind the ICC.

Eben Hopson was one of the first Inuit leaders to recognize the power of a unified circumpolar voice. He played host to the first Inuit Circumpolar Conference in Barrow on June 13, 1977, when he was mayor of the East Slope Borough.

This year, Pederson was the only Alaskan representative in Nuuk.

ICC Alaska president Chuck Greene was unable to attend the council meeting in Nuuk because the timing conflicted with a meeting of the Nana Development Corp. board, of which Greene is the president.
A shortage of time and money are two of the reasons Greene offers for the lacklustre attitude of his board members.

“Most of our board of directors are presidents and CEOs of our native corporations and non-profit associations, and these native organizations are very large and very busy,” he says. “Many board members also sit on the board of directors for the Alaskan Federation of Natives.”

Greene says that, even without a scheduling conflict, ICC Alaska would only have been able to afford to send one representative to the meeting in Nuuk.

ICC Alaska relies on contributions from member organizations, some with their own financial challenges. The Bering Straits Native Corporation recently sent a letter saying they would not be able to contribute at all this year.

But these factors are a reflection of a wider shift in Alaskan politics that has made the Inuit Circumpolar Conference a limited priority.

“[ICC has] accomplished what it needed to accomplish for the Alaskan Inuit, and I think that’s why we’re playing a lesser role in the affairs of our Inuit than we once did,” Greene says.

“I think it has to do with the fact that the native corporations and the native non-profit organization have reached a point in their efforts where they’ve become quite self-sufficient and they’ve become quite self-determined,” Greene says.

“Most of their board members are Inuit and tribal members of their respective communities. They’re not relying on the forum that Alaska or ICC would have provided to them to accomplish much of the components of self-determination. They’re thriving organizations and thriving corporations and are becoming powerhouses in state and national politics.”

Greene says that the circumpolar Inuit still have important issues to address together, such as climate change, language, the care of marine mammals and the environment.

He also says that ICC Alaska has no intention of shutting its doors, adding that there has been talk of hosting a language conference related to the ICC in Alaska in 2005.

ICC Alaska is to take over the chairmanship of the ICC in 2006, and Greene says he is “hopeful that our Alaska membership will recognize and realize that.”

But Greene has already told Watt-Cloutier that if ICC Alaska can’t find the support it needs to host the chairmanship, he would recommend that Canada continue to assume the responsibility until the next general assembly meeting after 2006.

Greene is considering holding the next council meeting at the same time as the Alaskan Federation of Natives are getting together, which would make traveling more convenient for members from across the state who are already traveling to take part in the AFN.

ICC Alaska recently hired a new executive director to replace Paulette Schuerch, who resigned in January. Jack Zayon, who has an MBA from the University of Alaska, is mapping a new funding plan for the organization, and is looking after day-to-day affairs at headquarters in Anchorage.

“I see Alaska ICC becoming a viable, responsive, responsible, accountable and successful organization in the near future, and we’re going to be prepared for the next meeting in 2006,” Greene says.

Watt-Cloutier, meanwhile, is planning to contact all board members over the summer before traveling to Alaska in October. Her goal is to “ensure that the work is extremely relevant to Alaskans,” and overcome the funding issues that she says are endemic to all non-governmental organizations.