AFN argues that Alaska wants to ‘destroy’ the rural subsistence priority. Attorney General Treg Taylor said the group is mischaracterizing the issue as one that pits the state against Alaska Natives.
Salmon being cut at a fish camp along Kuskokuak Slough on the Kuskokwim River near Bethel, AK on Saturday, June 28, 2014.
AFN represents 160,000 Alaska Native members, and next week will hold its annual convention that draws thousands of residents from around Alaska to help chart the group’s political course.The federal government had allowed limited salmon-fishing openers for rural Alaska subsistence fishermen, as required by federal law. On those same days, the state had authorized subsistence fishing openers for all Alaskans, not just rural residents, in accordance with the state constitution.
But the Alaska Federation of Natives said in a statement on Thursday that the case, called U.S. vs. Alaska, could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, raising questions about how the court will rule on the federal subsistence priority, according to a statement from the Native organization on Thursday celebrating the ruling that they can intervene.
Attorney General Treg Taylor said in an email from his office on Friday that he “strongly disagrees with AFN’s mischaracterization of its position and goals.” “The state is simply asking the federal court to limit the reach of the priority to ‘public lands,’ consistent with the language of ANILCA,” Taylor said. “Public lands include all land owned by the federal government — which is more than 60 percent of the state. That is not the equivalent of ‘destroying’ the priority.”
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