HCR 1: Urging the Governor to acknowledge officially the sovereignty of Alaska tribal governments, to create clear and consistent policies for increased state collaboration and partnership with tribes, and to direct the attorney general to conduct a complete review of the state's litigation against Alaska Native tribes; urging the Governor to acknowledge the inherent criminal jurisdiction of Alaska tribal governments over tribal members within the boundaries of their villages; urging the Governor to cooperate with tribes' efforts to transfer Native land to trust; and urging the Governor to support multilateral negotiations between tribal governments, nontribal municipalities, and the state government to delineate clearly tribal geographical jurisdictions.
00 HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1 01 Urging the Governor to acknowledge officially the sovereignty of Alaska tribal 02 governments, to create clear and consistent policies for increased state collaboration and 03 partnership with tribes, and to direct the attorney general to conduct a complete review 04 of the state's litigation against Alaska Native tribes; urging the Governor to 05 acknowledge the inherent criminal jurisdiction of Alaska tribal governments over tribal 06 members within the boundaries of their villages; urging the Governor to cooperate with 07 tribes' efforts to transfer Native land to trust; and urging the Governor to support 08 multilateral negotiations between tribal governments, nontribal municipalities, and the 09 state government to delineate clearly tribal geographical jurisdictions. 10 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 11 WHEREAS the 229 federally recognized tribes in the state represent a vast 12 continuum of cultural legacies enriched by thousands of years of traditions and place-based 13 ways of life; and
01 WHEREAS many Alaska tribal communities face severe problems relating to 02 poverty, lack of economic opportunity, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, and sexual 03 assault; and 04 WHEREAS the percentage of Alaska Natives living below the federal poverty 05 guideline is nearly twice the national average; and 06 WHEREAS the unemployment rate for Alaska Natives is dramatically higher than the 07 national average; and 08 WHEREAS the alcohol-related death rate for Alaska Natives has, in recent years, 09 been more than 16 times higher than the alcohol-related death rate for Caucasians; and 10 WHEREAS rural communities in the state have, in recent years, reported alarming 11 opioid, heroin, and methamphetamine abuse; and 12 WHEREAS Alaska Native women in rural communities have reported rates of 13 domestic violence multiple times higher than the national average; and 14 WHEREAS Alaska Native women suffer the highest rate of sexual assault of any 15 population in the United States, and the rate of sexual assault for Alaska Native children is six 16 times the national average; and 17 WHEREAS, while Alaska Natives represent 19 percent of the population of the state, 18 they make up 36 percent of Alaskans in prisons or jails; and 19 WHEREAS, in the past 25 years, state, federal, and joint commissions, task forces, 20 and committees established to address those issues have included the Alaska Natives 21 Commission, created in 1990; the Alaska Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Fairness 22 and Access, created in 1995; the Alaska Commission on Rural Governance and 23 Empowerment, created in 1998; the Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, 24 created in 2004; the Indian Law and Order Commission, created in 2010; and the United 25 States Attorney General's Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native 26 Children Exposed to Violence, created in 2013; and 27 WHEREAS each of those bodies concluded that the strongly centralized law 28 enforcement and justice systems of the state have been inadequate to alleviate crime, social 29 ills, and community distress in rural Alaska; and 30 WHEREAS each of those bodies identified the need to strengthen the authority, 31 responsibility, and capacity of local tribal governments to administer public safety and justice
01 in their communities; and 02 WHEREAS many experts agree that greater control, better defined jurisdiction, and 03 increased accountability at the local level will lead to swifter response to violence and 04 criminal activity in communities, increased crime prevention, and increased rehabilitative, 05 rather than punitive, sentencing models; and 06 WHEREAS, in matters of jurisdiction and the delivery of justice at the local level, the 07 state has too often and for too long been the adversary of Alaska Native tribes; and 08 WHEREAS ambiguities in state policy deprive Alaska tribes of jurisdictional tools to 09 make their communities safer and healthier; 10 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to issue a 11 proclamation officially acknowledging the sovereignty of Alaska tribal governments and 12 detailing clear and consistent policies for increased state agency collaboration and partnership 13 with tribes; and be it 14 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to 15 direct the attorney general to conduct a complete review of the state's litigation against Alaska 16 Native tribes; and be it 17 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to 18 acknowledge the inherent criminal jurisdiction of Alaska tribal governments over tribal 19 members within the boundaries of their villages, to be defined as an Alaska Native Village 20 Statistical Area delineated for the Director of the United States Census Bureau by officials of 21 a village for the purpose of presenting data for the decennial census conducted under 13 22 U.S.C. 141(a); and be it 23 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to 24 cooperate with tribes' efforts to transfer Native land to trust in order to affirm concurrent state 25 and tribal jurisdiction; and be it 26 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to 27 support eventual multilateral negotiations between tribal governments, nontribal 28 municipalities, and the state government to delineate clearly tribal geographical jurisdictions.