Two tribal groups on Prince of Wales Island are asking the Federal Subsistence Board to reverse Ketchikan’s rural designation. The board’s decision last year to reclassify Ketchikan from a non-rural designation allows all residents to hunt and fish on lands once closed to them.
The Craig Tribal Association and Shaan Seet, a tribal organization on Prince of Wales, submitted requests for reconsideration to the federal Office of Subsistence Management last July. Both cite what they say is the board’s failure to “fully consider the unintended consequences” of allowing 13,000 new subsistence hunters from Ketchikan to access Prince of Wales Island’s deer population.
The requests go on to say that the rural designation intensifies pressure on “a cornerstone of our food security, cultural practices, and economic sustenance.”
The board is set to vote Friday on whether the requests meet the criteria for a full reconsideration process. If it does, the Office of Subsistence Management will conduct a one to two year analysis of the request for reconsideration.
Ketchikan was granted rural status a little over a year ago, but the Ketchikan Indian Community worked for years to get rights to federally regulated subsistence activities.
KIC argues that the rural designation allows its tribal citizens to exercise traditional subsistence practices. For years under a non-rural designation, people from Ketchikan couldn’t hunt or fish on federally managed lands and waters.
KIC chief executive officer Emily Edenshaw said advocating for Ketchikan’s rural status is a fight the tribe will never stop. She said Ketchikan has “always been rural.”
“We are not on the road system,” Edenshaw said. “We meet rural designation by every standard and more. We’ve had schools shut down. We’ve had a grocery store shut down. Cost of living is higher. Access to goods and services, health care. I mean, you name it, we meet that definition.”
Craig Tribal Association President Clinton Cook declined to comment. But in the tribe’s request for reconsideration, Cook argues that the board expanded subsistence eligibility without mitigation efforts like harvest limits.
Elders with both Craig’s tribe and Shaan Seet report that hunts were getting harder and the deer population was declining even before Ketchikan’s rural designation. A report from the Office of Subsistence Management states that Ketchikan’s rural designation will also have impacts on hooligan in the Unuk River and southern Southeast Alaska’s salmon populations.
Ketchikan’s tribe officially proposed the reconsideration of non-rural status in 2022. Ketchikan’s local governments supported it. The Office of Subsistence Management conducted a formal study, and their analysis was inconclusive on whether Ketchikan was more rural or urban. They said there was enough evidence to support both.
But the subsistence board’s decision to reclassify Ketchikan as a rural community last year came as a surprise and went against the Regional Advisory Council for Southeast Alaska’s recommendation.
The request for reconsideration of Ketchikan’s rural status is being considered by the board in a private executive session tonight. The Federal Subsistence Board will reconvene tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.
Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
