Lisa Murkowski

I have a Tlingit name, Aan shaaw tk'i. I do not have a Yup'ik name.

Congress needs to amend ANILCA to protect once and for all Alaska Native rural subsistence hunting and fishing rights and ensure our people's ability to co-manage these resources.

Discontinue using four-inch nets. They are killing my salmon out there.

The traditional harvesting culture in Alaska Native communities remains really strong.

I really hope that we could move forward with a just path and that the tribes are listened to and heard, and their opposition to this project as a majority of the tribes are opposed.

Do it now, because you don't want Alaska to be the next devastating American dust bowl.

Stop allowing the status quo so as to not affect industry harvest to the extent practicable in fisheries management.

I hope Senator, that we have an opportunity to do something about this, either by legislation or amending that treaty to have them all included.

It seems to me that the Yukon is in a humanitarian crisis.

I want you to look into that. That is coming from near and dear, from my heart.

We need some answers. We need to be heard. We cannot accept this as a government formality for turning a deaf ear on the poor.

We have sacrificed a lot on the Yukon, from salmon gear to fishing times, of the whole people on Yukon River.

We, the end users, the little people, the people that matter, have been silenced, we have been ignored.

Thank you very much, Senator Lisa Murkowski, for being with us today on this historic day, as you said.

The way we are going, yes, we are going to see extinction of salmon within 10 years.

We are tired. No more.

We are practicing cultural genocide from the Federal and the State government.

It is time for a change.

The loss of our critical salmon is ripping and tearing apart the fabric of who we are as Yup'ik and Dene people.

This is not the time or the place to develop the world's largest open pit mine on the backs of the tribal nations of this region.

Failure to do so will be a death blow to my river, to my people, and our survival, before we go extinct.

Subsistence matters, our villages matter, salmon matters, and our way of life matters.

The record will remain open for two weeks now.

Again, it is not going to be a perfect solution, but hopefully it is a stepping stone in the right direction.

Thank you for sharing in ways that are both informative and personal.