Chickaloon Indians = leeches?

Proposed Alaska Coal Mine Divides Alaska Communities, Elicits Racist Rant

By Terri HansenThe Wishbone Hills coal mine, a controversial project proposed by the Usibelli Mine Company five miles west of the small community of Sutton, Alaska, and Chickaloon Village of the Chickaloon Tribe, is driving a wedge between local community members.

At a contentious September 7 town hall meeting that overflowed the building’s capacity to discuss the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ mining renewal permits for the project, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly favored positively. The borough’s petition cited the mine as a “God given resource.” A Chickaloon Tribal resolution was against, said Ahtna Athabascan/Suqpiat and Chickaloon tribal member Shawna Larson, a spokesperson for Chickaloon Village Coal.

A news story September 8 in the Anchorage Daily News elicited a racist rant in the comments section that ran for at least one day before the newspaper pulled it.

“Chickaloon and Sutton now owe their existence to federal tax money that is given to the ‘Chickaloon Indians’ who, for the most part are less Indian than my dog, and who want nothing more than to leech off of the rest of us,” the comment read. “…This is about a few deciding on the basis of emotionalism and feelings about something that they perceive as a problem without bothering to find out what steps are required to mitigate the problem. We do need the jobs. The needs of the many outweigh the idiocy of the few.”Comment:  For the umpteenth time, mainstream Americans claim Indians are lazy, good-for-nothing bums. In other words, welfare leeches who want to suck on the government teat. In other words, subhumans who might as well die because they're not "real people" like you and me.

I don't know the racial makeup of the Chickaloon Tribe, but it's irrelevant. Membership in Indian tribes is based on political and cultural affiliation, not race. Too bad so many people are ignorant of this fact.

For more on Indians as welfare recipients, see:

Rubio:  Entitlements "weakened" us
Beck ridicules Lumbee woman
Aboriginals to be "weaned from government teat"
Commissioner:  Indians should get off the rez
Roger:  Let Indians commit suicide
Fox special on "Indian freeloaders"
Mines minister blames the victim

Below:  "A local drinking establishment in Sutton, Alaska proudly displays its support for the Usibelli Mine Company’s proposed Wishbone Hills coal mine."

Miller blames Natives for write-in loss

Joe Miller Blames Native Alaskan Groups For 'Writing In Corruption'

By Eric KleefeldIn a column on Friday in the Washington Times, Alaska Republican Senate nominee continued to rail against the apparently successful write-in campaign by incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. In this new column, entitled "Writing In Corruption," Miller blames the federally-charted Alaska Native corporations, which have a big presence in the state, for supporting Murkowski. They did this, he writes, in order to maintain a pipeline of federal earmarks that sustain them.

In this effort, he says, they formed a "super-PAC" called Alaskans Standing Together, which conducted all sorts of underhanded activities for Murkowski--such as running an ad campaign against him, educating voters on how to cast a write-in vote, and getting out the vote with rides to the polls.Comment:  Sounds like the Native corporations did what other special interest groups--businesses, unions, etc.--routinely do. In other words, sounds like Miller is a sore loser and crybaby.

For more on Alaska Native corporations, see Alaska Natives Invest in Film Production and Alaska Natives = Business Successes.

Alaska Natives invest in film production

Alaska Native corp. dives into movie biz

By Jill BurkeNANA Development Corp. is banking on the movie biz to help generate a new source of cash flow for its Alaska Native shareholders.

On Monday, NANA Development announced it is investing several million dollars in the production firm Evergreen Films, which holds offices in L.A. and Anchorage. The deal, more than a year in the works, makes NANA a minority owner--33 percent--of Evergreen. NANA Development is the business arm of NANA Regional Corp., one of 13 regional Alaska Native corporations formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.Comment:  For more on Alaska moviemaking, see Preview of Everybody Loves Whales and Sikumi the Feature Film.

Alaska Natives = business successes

Native contributions to Alaska economy are significant

COMPASS:  Other points of viewEagle River Senator Fred Dyson's recent commentary in the Anchorage Daily News, "Alaska Natives thrived before the coming of the white man," was a surprisingly positive essay from a conservative who often opposes legislation and funding to help rural, generally Native, Alaskans. So "good on" the senator for reminding all Alaskans about the skill and intelligence Native Alaskans have always demonstrated in living here.

It was an enlightening piece as far as it went, but it left the reader wondering if Native people had accomplished anything else worth noting since European contact in 1741. Today Alaska Native people are contributing to Alaska in ways few non-Natives appreciate.

The most significant accomplishment by Native people in modern-day Alaska was the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), the most successful aboriginal land claims settlement in history. The Act allowed the construction of the trans Alaska oil pipeline enabling Alaska's oil and gas industry to thrive, and it created a broad array of successful, Alaska-based, Native-owned companies.

In 2006 the thirteen ANCSA regional corporations and top three village corporations brought $6.965 billion into the Alaska economy as revenue, according to the ANCSA Regional Association's 2006 Economic Report. ... The Alaska Business Monthly Top 49ers list in 2008 showed 18 of the top 49 Alaska-owned companies as Native-owned businesses. Native companies on the list made up 78 percent of the total employees and 57 percent of the employees working in Alaska. Sixty-six percent of all the revenue earned by Top 49 companies was earned by Native corporations.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Eskimos:  The Ultimate Aborigines.

Below:  In contrast to this report, here's the typical American view of Alaska Natives: