Mayor Mark Begich Remarks
AlaskaFederation of Natives Annual Convention
10 a.m.; Oct. 23, 2003; EganConvention Center

 Thank you, Albert Kookesh, for that introduction and for your service to this organization and our state. Thanks also to Co-Chair Trefon Agnason, to President Julie Kitka, and to the entire AFN board for your tireless leadership on the issues that affect the Native peoples of our great state.

To Chief  Dorothy Cook of Eklutna: thank you for granting me the permission to be here on your traditional lands.

Thank you to all AFN delegates for the honor to address you and welcome you to the village of Anchorage.  Although I have attended many AFN conventions in the past, this is my first as mayor of Anchorage.

Earlier this week, I was excited to address the Elders and Youth Conference. It was inspiring to see respected elders filled with so much wisdom sitting side-by-side eager young people with such bright futures ahead. The important link between the traditions of the past and the promise of the future that you encourage with the Elders and Youth Conference reminded me of my own experience.

My parents came to Alaska before statehood as educators. They instilled in me and my brothers and sisters the values I’m teaching my young son, Jacob. The same values I bring to the mayor’s office. A belief in hard work. A strong commitment to education. A love of family. A reverence for Alaska’s many diverse cultures.

Those were the values my dad, Nick Begich, held as Alaska’s congressman in the early 1970s. He was strongly committed to improving life for Alaska’s Native peoples. I know one of his proudest moments was helping pass the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which happened just about a year before his airplane disappeared.

Many delegates to this conference have respected me and my family with warm remarks about my father. Thank you for your kindness. The traditions of the Begich family do not end with one generation. My brother Nick is the executive for the Chickaloon Village and my brother Tom works for Cook Inlet Tribal Council.

I know each of you look forward to coming to Anchorage for AFN each year. I also know you spend a lot of money traveling here and during your visit.

Certainly AFN is good business for this city. But I want your relationship with our state’s largest Native community – this community - to be much more. So much of what’s good for Anchorage is a result of what happens outside our city’s borders. The wealth of Alaska’s urban centers comes from rural Alaska – both in terms of natural resources and our rich cultural diversity.

I know many of you are familiar with a report produced a couple of years ago by the regional corporation presidents and recently updated It said that the 13 Native profit corporations and 30 village corporations produce nearly 3 billion-dollars in revenues and assets for our state. And that doesn’t begin to account for the additional revenue, jobs and other benefits created by our villages and traditional councils.

As Anchorage benefits from the wealth produced by Native organizations and rural communities, we have an obligation to you. To open the doors of our community to you, to do all we can to make sure the benefits are not a one-way street but a two-way street. We are in this boat together, rural Alaska and Anchorage.

To improve Anchorage’s understanding of the needs of rural Alaskans, I am in the process of establishing a Rural Affairs Assistant in my office - a first for our city. We want your welcome here to be not just for a week but all year long.

In preparation for this convention, I have directed city agencies – especially the Police Department – to extend every courtesy to you. We want your time in Anchorage to be productive and safe. In your packets, you should have a copy of the newly published “Alaska Native’s Guide to Anchorage.” It should help you find your way around safely.

Throughout my career in both public office and business, I have worked to advance positive opportunities for young people, as Albert described in his introduction. For example, I was proud to help create Anchorage’s first Youth Court. This gives young Alaskans an opportunity to get themselves on the right track and provides mentoring by inspirational adults and their peers. This program is modeled on the concept of traditional tribal courts.

I understand the need for different systems of justice that must recognize local concerns. That’s why I support efforts in many rural areas to establish tribal courts and elders panels, like in Emmonak.

Because you know best how to deal with concerns in your villages, from fighting drug and alcohol abuse to creating economic opportunities.

I am also a strong supporter of education for all Alaskans. I believe every young Alaskan should have the opportunity to live up to the potential of their God-given talents – whether they live in downtown Anchorage, Kwethluk or Barrow. They need an education and we need to provide it.

I will stand with you to make sure state leaders fully fund public schools in every community in our state. When I was on the Assembly, we were told about an education bill moving through the Legislature that would have benefited Anchorage, but would have hurt rural Alaska. I led the charge against it and said every community in this state needs to be treated fairly and equally.

Another issue I know you will be discussing during this conference is subsistence. I strongly support subsistence.

As you know, the state Legislature shamefully has refused to consider many proposals to protect subsistence, most recently by the governor and my old boss, Governor Knowles. So I worked with the Anchorage Assembly to try to put a little pressure on them.  

We put an advisory vote on the Anchorage ballot. It asked a simple question: do you support rural subsistence? The answer was overwhelming. Seventy-two percent of Anchorage residents said yes – they strongly support subsistence.

I want to work with you to make sure the Legislature gets that message loud and clear.

To ensure the residents of this city appreciate the rich diversity of Alaska’s Native peoples, I am proud along with the governor to proclaim November as Alaska Native Heritage Month.

In closing, let me again welcome you to Anchorage and wish you a productive convention. I know Anchorage and rural Alaska can prosper if we work together and respect each other.

Thank you for allowing me to address you.  Quyana.

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