Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska President Richard Peterson, right, poses with delegates during this month’s Tribal Assembly in Juneau. (Photo courtesy Tlingit-Haida Central Council)

Southeast Alaska’s regional tribal government is developing its business side.

Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska President Richard Peterson said funding cuts threaten its programs.

He said about nine-tenths of the council’s money comes from federal sources. And most of the rest comes from the state.

“That’s just not sustainable. That’s not sufficient,” he said. “So, we’re working on alternative sources of revenue.”

The Central Council has about 30,000 tribal members in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere in the Lower 48.

Addressing the organization’s recent Tribal Assembly in Juneau, Peterson said it needs to maintain its social-service, justice and training efforts. But that’s not all.

“We want to not just preserve programs that we have, but expand and grow,” he said. “If we’re going to do that, we need that economic self-sufficiency, that economic sovereignty,” he said.

That effort is being spearheaded by Tlingit-Haida’s Tribal Business Corp.

CEO Richard Rinehart said there’s growth because the organization purchased the government-services business KIRA last summer.

Its main customer is the U.S. Department of Defense, he said.

“We are running power plants, water systems, water-treatment plants. We have dozens of electricians, dozens of plumbers and a couple dozen carpenters,” Rinehart said. “We do vehicle maintenance, grounds maintenance. We do complete base operations services.”

KIRA has offices in the Bahamas, as well as Colorado and several other states.

Founder Carlos Garcia, who continues to be its president, said the company has about 600 employees.

He said it’s expanding, because tribal ownership allows it to bid for contracts under the 8(a) disadvantaged-business program.

“We’re going to need good employees, both Native and non-Native,” he said. “And I see in this room many, many people from all over the areas you represent that can help us.”

He asked the hundred or so Tribal Assembly delegates to point potential applicants to the company’s job openings.

But he said KIRA is a business purchased to make money for the Central Council, not an employment program.

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A creek drains naturally occurring rusty water from the KSM mine prospect in northwest British Columbia. It runs into the Unuk River, which enters the ocean near Ketchikan.  (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)

Southeast Alaska’s largest tribal organization said this month’s meetings with the U.S. State Department and Environmental Protection Agency were productive. Among other things, the agencies could help expand water-monitoring efforts along transboundary rivers

The 30,000-member Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska set up the government-to-government meetings.

President Richard Peterson said representatives heard about potential and existing pollution from British Columbia mines near rivers that flow into Alaska.

“I think we gave them some of our concerns and questions and whatnot,” he said. “That gives them a chance to go back and now have that next conversation that’s more action-based and promissory in nature.”

The federal officials met with tribal government and Native corporation leaders from Juneau, Ketchikan, Saxman, Douglas and Kasaan Aug. 9^th-11th.

Peterson said they talked about water-quality monitoring along fish-and-wildlife-rich transboundary rivers. He said the federal officials were interested in supporting the effort.

“And we were able to use that as an opportunity to push for more funding for activities regionwide, so that other communities can do that baseline analysis that needs to take place,” he said.

State Department and EPA public-affairs staff offered no comment on the meetings or any commitments made. That’s common for federal agencies.

But Peterson said they agreed to hold further meetings, which will happen this fall in Washington, D.C.

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and other state officials presented their concerns at the meetings.

He said they brought up a U.S. Canada boundary-waters treaty that includes a commission tasked with resolving such conflicts.

“We emphasized that if, when, how, in what manner, that the IJC, the International Joint Commission, might be engaged that we would No. 1, welcome it and No. 2, be part of it to the degree that that was appropriate,” he said.

Mallott heads up a state task force on transboundary mine concerns. He said his team also brought up the need for more federal support.

“To put it mildly, Alaska is resource-constrained, at least fiscal resource-constrained, right now,” he said. “And these collaborations and network-building is very important.”

Alaska and British Columbia officials have been discussing the state’s concerns for more than a year. A statement of cooperation detailing ways Alaska can provide more input into mine decisions is nearing a final draft.

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From the left, author and activist Wade Davis, Tlingit-Haida Central Council President Richard Peterson, Tahltan Central Council President Annita McPhee and Tahltan elder Mary Dennis wait to answer questions during a recent forum in Juneau on transboundary mines and the Tahltans’ “Sacred Headwaters.” (Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska)

Tribal leaders from Alaska and Canada say it’s time to work together to oppose mines affecting both sides of the border. It’s part of the growing scrutiny of projects near transboundary rivers.

Parts of Southeast Alaska are only a couple dozen miles from British Columbia. Historically, tribal groups from both sides have met, traded and married.

“Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian people who live in Alaska all have tribes, clans and relatives on the other side,” says Richard Peterson, president of Southeast’s Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

He says over the years, many of those connections have been lost.

Now, he says, they’re coming back.

“I’m really excited that we could remove these invisible barriers, this invisible line that they call the border, that somehow successfully separates us so well. We’re doing away with that line,” he says.

Peterson spoke at a recent program in Juneau about traditional life and changes coming to parts of northwestern British Columbia.

The main issue was large mine development, which is being closely watched by tribal leaders.

“We don’t want our livelihood destroyed. We don’t want our watershed destroyed. And it’s a very sacred place to us,” says Annita McPhee, president of the Tahltan Central Council, in northern British Columbia.

Tahltans have brought their message to Southeast Alaska for a number of years. But McPhee says most were not aware of possible impacts on rivers that cross the border.

She says meeting held this spring changed her perspective.

“One of the things I’m prepared to do is go back and carry that message. Back to our people and back to other tribes. And definitely talk to people in industry and say, just because people are on the other side of the border does not mean that it doesn’t impact them,” she says.

The Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell Mine is planned for an area northeast of Ketchikan.

Much of the recent focus has been on the KSM, or Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell, mine. It’s a gold and copper prospect, roughly 80 miles east of Wrangell, planned by the Canadian firm Seabridge Gold.

Opponents say its tailings could affect the Unuk River, which flows into Behm Canal, north of Ketchikan.

Other mines could be built near the Stikine, Taku, Alsec and Chilkat rivers.

They’re part of a British Columbia-government-backed mining boom.

McPhee says her council has about 250 projects to track – and that’s too many.

“Now that this big storm has come through, we are in a place where we’re getting organized, where we know what we want and we know what we don’t want. And we know what we’ll find acceptable and not unacceptable,” McPhee says.

The Tahltans have experience working with – and battling – big resource development projects on their land. About 10 years ago, they took on a Shell oil plan to frack for gas.

Tahltan elder Mary Dennis was among those blockading a road and to protest that project.

“We had to think of our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. So we stood up to them. We stood on the line and stopped them,” he says.

McPhee says the Tahltan council does not oppose mining. And it wants to increase economic opportunities for tribal members.

“There were some people who said, we want to work, we want this development, it’s going to pay us a lot of money. Then there were some people who said this is not worth any amount of money in this whole entire world. We don’t care. Take your money back. Our way of life, our animals, our waters, our culture is worth more than that money,” she says.

She says her council has since united on the issue.

Wade Davis is an author, anthropologist and resource consultant who lives in the Tahltan’s homeland.

“One of the things that happens is First Nations, I’m sure here in Alaska as well, are always given this false choice between poverty and economic projects that compromise their heritage. And that’s a choice that no people should be forced to make,” he says.

Tlingit-Haida President Peterson has worked with developers of mines near his Prince of Wales Island home.

He says he was willing to listen when KSM representatives spoke at a tribal meeting in Craig earlier this year. He says those representatives were not interested in listening.

“Every time anybody got up and said anything contrary to them, they snickered, they rolled their eyes, they laughed, they talked. I found them to be the most disrespectable people I’ve ever dealt with. They don’t care,” he says.

The Tlingit-Haida council and some other Southeast groups are lobbying the federal government to get involved in the transboundary mining issue. They want the feds to pressure Canadian officials to listen to tribal concerns.

They’ll take that issue before a National Council of American Indians conference next month in Anchorage. And they’ll bring along support from the other side of the border too.

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The Stikine River empties into the ocean near Wrangell. Mines and energy projects proposed for upstream sites in Canada are worrying some fishermen and tribal leaders. (Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)

Southeast Alaska tribal leaders meet March 25th and 26th to discuss Canadian mines that could impact regional fisheries.

The Summit on Headwater Transboundary Development was called by the Organized Village of Kasaan, where Richard Peterson is tribal president.

“When you talk about the Stikine and the Unuk and some of these other rivers, and the impact on the Chinook and the ooligan (eulachon) and the other fish that go up these rivers, we want to make sure they have adequate plans in place that can promise minimal impact,” Peterson says.

The Stikine is east of Wrangell and Petersburg, while the Unuk is northeast of Ketchikan. The Taku, east of Juneau, is another transboundary river with a mine in its watershed.

Chris Zimmer of the group Rivers Without Borders Transboundary Watershed Alliance says the main focus is the KSM Project. It’s a proposed gold and copper mine across the border in British Columbia, roughly 80 miles east of Wrangell.

“Basically, you have what could be considered a time bomb up there of a massive acid-mine drainage factory that’s going to continue to leach acid-mine drainage pollution for hundreds of years. So the question is, can that be contained? Can these tailings dams last forever? Can we trust the mines to do the job right?” Zimmer asks.

Randy Wanamaker says we can.

“Modern mining is different from older mining, when people didn’t worry about the environmental consequences of things,” Wanamaker says.

Wanamaker is a former Juneau Assembly member who ran a business training tribal members for mining jobs. He’s also a director of Goldbelt, the capital city’s urban Native corporation, and he’s working with the Palmer mine prospect upriver from Haines.

“Canada has a good permitting process and environmental review process. It’s different from ours, but it’s no less stringent. They will take into consideration whatever it is we point out to them that would be an issue for us because the same fish that we’re protecting also migrate up into Canada,” he says.

Some tribal leaders are already working with developers of rare-earth, gold and silver mines on Prince of Wales Island.

Kasaan’s Peterson wants a similar relationship with Canadian companies.

“Whether we come out pro or con depends a lot on the engagement of the mines. We’ve had really successful open dialog with Heatherdale and Niblack and Ucore. They’ve been really great about being forthcoming and I actually really have a lot of praise for those groups,” Peterson says.

A representative of British Columbia’s KSM prospect will be at the Prince of Wales Island meeting, in Craig. So will representatives of B.C. tribal groups, called First Nations.

Transboundary mine critics are also traveling to Washington, D.C., around the same time to lobby for federal involvement.

A group from Southeast will call for the State Department to increase Alaska’s voice in mine permitting and development.

Rivers Without Borders’ Zimmer says it’s a significant issue for the state.

“The scope here is massive. It’s across the entire transboundary (area). So you have tribes, fishermen and businesses almost from Yakutat to Haines and all the way down past Ketchikan concerned here,” Zimmer says.

Groups involved include the Alaska Trollers Association, Trout Unlimited, the Petersburg Vessel Owners Association, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Tlingit Haida Central Council and several tourism businesses.

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