Alaska Federation of Natives honors Julie Kitka for more than 3 decades of leadership

A procession of Alaska Native leaders from around the state took the stage Thursday to bid farewell to the longtime leader of the Alaska Federation of Natives on the opening day of the group’s convention in Anchorage.

In an hourlong ceremony, they praised Julie Kitka for serving 33 years as the group’s president, a span marked by major advancements for Alaska Native people in health, education, business and other areas.

Amid multiple standing ovations, they held Kitka up as a tireless champion for Alaska Natives and an inspiration to generations who often convened Native leaders with decision-makers in D.C. to influence Native policy.

The Native delegates gifted Kitka with kuspuks, masks, grass baskets, berry buckets, jars of smoked salmon, eagle feathers, and even a traditional spear and throwing board like the tools once used for hunting in the Kodiak region.

“I thank God for sending Julia Kitka to our people to fight for us,” said Lillian O’Brien, chair of the Old Harbor Native Corp. on the island of Kodiak.

“She is a warrior,” O’Brien said.

“Gunalchéesh,” Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, thanking Kitka in Tlingit.

“Our children will be thanking you and singing your glory for protecting our subsistence, for protecting our homeland, for protecting our civil rights,” Worl said.

Kitka said earlier this year that she was stepping down from the state’s largest Native organization to make way for a new generation of leaders and ideas.

But at 71, she won’t stop working to improve Native communities, she said in an interview after her speech.

On Monday, she’ll start her new job as federal co-chair of the Denali Commission, an independent federal agency focused on improving infrastructure in villages.

Kitka gave the Alaska Native federation’s keynote address early Thursday, helping kick off the convention.

The annual three-day event draws together more than 5,000 Alaska Natives who gather to find common ground on policy.

Held at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, it includes nights of Native dancing at the popular Quyana events, plus a sprawling Alaska Native art show.

[Alaska Federation of Natives convention has begun. Here’s an overview and schedule.]

Kitka described her farewell speech as an open letter to her two young grandchildren.

She ticked off a long list of current and late Alaska Native leaders to emphasize the value of teamwork, and that no one person can make change.

So much has been accomplished, she said.

During Kitka’s tenure, AFN helped expand the Native health system in Alaska, and helped to build public-private partnerships that benefit Alaska Native communities, among other accomplishments, according to a statement from the Native organization.

“My professional goal was ensuring that the Alaska Native community is at the table when decisions are made which affect their lives, and working to change government policy to reflect Native goals and aspirations for the future,” Kitka said during her speech.

Under Kitka, AFN for decades successfully fought to protect Alaska Native hunting and fishing rights.

The group won critical amendments to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, including provisions that ensured the continued Native ownership of Native corporations and the land, and that led to opportunities for corporations to secure valuable federal contracts.

[Etching salmon and belugas on bowhead baleen, Alaska elders and youth partake in Iñupiaq art form]

The group supported the successful effort by Native corporations to receive relief funds under the federal CARES Act during the pandemic.

It also worked with the oil industry to give awards to jumpstart rural entrepreneurs in the Alaska Marketplace program.

Without vision, a people will perish, Kitka said.

“We must have vision not just for ourselves in Alaska, but for the entire world,” Kitka said from the stage. “Big ideas, big dreams, big expectations and big victories. If we allow ourselves to aim high, look far enough, work hard enough and transform ourselves in the world, our destiny and that of our nation is in our hands.”

From the AFN stage, she told her grandchildren there were still challenges.

“The biggest obstacles facing us were negativity and the victim mentality,” she said. “The effects of oppression still are with us and are expressed in the abuse of alcohol and widespread depression among our people.”

“I viewed my role as expanding the imagination of the people, not recycling pain and furthering the victim mentality, and providing leadership and encouragement to the best of my ability,” she said.

During the ceremony that followed, Kim Reitmeier, president of a group that represents Alaska Native regional corporations, said when facing tough decisions she asks herself: “What would Julie do?”

“You have been my grounding truth,” she said. “And so thank you for always being so calm and so kind and leading our Alaska Native people to a future and a legacy that we will never forget.

Benno Cleveland, with the Alaska Native Veterans Council, said Kitka was a strong supporter of the veterans group.

“You have left your footprint on all of our vets and all our people across this state and across our nation,” he told Kitka.

Wayne Morgan, traditional chief in the Southwest Alaska village of Aniak, gave Kitka artwork featuring a dance group, with drummers holding small skin drums.

“That perfectly describes what you do for our people, being the leader with the drum and singing what we need to get done for our people,” he said.

It wasn’t just Alaska Native leaders who took the stage.

Randy “Church” Kee, director of the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, said Kitka’s vision helped inspire the center. It’s one of six regional Department of Defense centers of its kind.

Kitka helped convene roundtables with military brass, Alaska Native leaders and others to help make the case for why America needs to take the Arctic more seriously in national security and defense, he said.

Kitka’s time at the Native federation hasn’t always been smooth.

In the last five years, six major tribal and corporate organizations have left the group, some citing tensions over issues such as salmon or land — resources that Alaska Natives cite as critical to their survival and spiritual well-being.

Ben Mallott, the group’s new president, said in an interview that one of his goals will be bringing back those members who left the organization.

Cook Inlet Tribal Council, a tribal nonprofit providing services in the Cook Inlet region, left the group this past summer, he said.

“I’m going to lead the best way I can and hopefully they come back,” he said of the groups.

The other groups that have left the Native federation include the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., representing Native shareholders from the oil-rich North Slope region, and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, representing tribes in the Interior.

Mallott also wants to improve communication with Native communities and AFN members and work with a wide array of Native groups to move forward on issues, he said.

Mallott had worked under Kitka as a vice president. Wiping away tears, he said it’s been “amazing” to work at her side.

“Now, it will be kind of like riding your bike for the first time without training wheels,” he said.

The long ceremony honoring Kitka came to a close when delegates from the Northwest region stood and in soft voices sang the Inupiaq gospel song “Aariga.”

It’s used to express thanks for a job well done.

Peltola

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who is running for reelection, spoke later Thursday afternoon.

Peltola teared up as she spoke about fish policy, showing a note she received from a 9-year-old resident of Fort Yukon who wrote, “we have faith in you to save Alaska’s salmon.”

“That is what motivates me. That’s what gets me up in the morning,” said Peltola.

Peltola addressed criticism from her detractors, including from Republican Nick Begich III, who is running against her for the state’s lone U.S. House seat. Though her work in Congress has largely focused on fish policy, she said it is “absurd” to expect fish abundance to have markedly improved during her first two years in Congress.

She also addressed concern that her proposed policies don’t go far enough in banning all bottom trawling, which is frequently accused of harming Alaska’s fisheries and limiting Alaska Natives’ access to subsistence fishing.

“There are Alaskans who say, ‘Well, if you were serious, you’d ban it all.’ I am serious, and I want to be taken seriously. And if I drop in bills that start out the conversation there, I will not be taken seriously,” said Peltola. Her comments were followed by a standing ovation.

The convention agenda does not include a candidate forum for the U.S. House race, as it has in the past.

Peltola apologized for the congressional campaign being “just incredibly negative.” Peltola, Begich and several political action committees have spent millions on attack ads in recent weeks. The attacks have also surfaced when Peltola and Begich have met in person for debates.

“There are so many falsehoods. There are so many misleading things being shared,” said Peltola.

The Alaska race has attracted more spending than in previous cycles because it is one of a handful of swing districts seen as winnable by Democrats and Republicans in a closely divided Congress.

“Both sides are fighting tooth and nail to make sure that their side gets Alaska. And I just want to make sure everyone in this room knows I’m on team Alaska,” said Peltola.

Peltola urged conventiongoers to vote in the November election. Early voting is set to begin in Alaska on Monday.

“Whoever wins this race is going to win by dozens of votes,” said Peltola.

Peltola also addressed comments from Alaska’s House Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Wasilla Republican, who said during a radio interview last week that Republicans in the House blocked an election reform bill because they believed it would have tilted the congressional race in Peltola’s favor by making it easier for predominantly Alaska Native rural residents of the state to vote.

“There is a concerted effort to erase us,” Peltola told the audience. “There is a concerted effort to silence your votes, to make it harder for you to vote. Hey, if we can survive in Alaska for over 12,000 years, we know how to file the polling place, we know how to mail in a ballot.”

Daily News reporter Iris Samuels contributed to this story.