Help me end suicide. Help me protect our Native rights. Help me restore our resources for future generations. And most of all, help me save Alaska.

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

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

I think we recognize, as important as your Federal delegation is, Federal legislative changes are just tough.

I am absolutely not dismissing changes to ANILCA or any other legislation here.

I also want to say quyana to the Association of Village Council Presidents for encouraging and organizing this event...

We have no choice but to be aware of every part and piece of the ecosystem, because everything is connected.

Ensure Congress, and all agencies within the federal government, within the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Interior, and State uphold their Federal Trust obligations to the federally recognized Tribes of all Alaska as mandated by…

Let's have a demonstration project on co-management. Let's fund it.

This is not a check the box. This is not something that I had to do. This is something that I want to do, because I hear you.

We must work together, because ultimately the loss of salmon threatens your ways of life.

I do want to just note that there are no permanent protections for that co-stewardship.

Our tribes matter. Subsistence matters. Our villages matter. Salmon matter. We cannot be ignored any longer.

I feel this is historic in many ways, to actually be able to bring the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to Bethel

We have no choice but to be aware of every part and piece of the ecosystem, because everything is connected.

short of legislation, what needs to happen, because legislation will take a long time, I know that, but I think even something as simple as crossing the lines, crossing parties and getting a compromise on this one issue

I do not have that magic button that can put fish back in the river now.

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

When you rely on salmon for your food source, it is not just because it is what is on sale. It is because it is what you have.

If we were able to manage the resource, if we have funding that was stable for a dedicated period of time...

Our subsistence way of life must have unconditional federal support.

We need your support for funding these, I don't know if they are private companies.

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

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

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