Lisa Murkowski

Let our Tribes help the federal government, and one another, to address salmon declines, climate change, and the impacts on our communities.

We especially thank you for your leadership to include language in the Fiscal Year 24 Appropriations Bill to reposition the Office of Subsistence Management to the Interior Secretary's Office.

We appreciate your support for greater Tribal representation on the NPFMC.

Senator Murkowski, we applaud the work you have done to support AYK salmon populations through Congressionally directed spending in support of research, monitoring, and comanagement.

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

It is my hope that these comments... will illuminate the crisis that has unfolded in our communities...

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…

You have shown that we do matter.

It is time for a new path.

Traditional ecological knowledge must inform our actions and decisions.

If we don't fish, we don't eat. It is pretty basic.

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

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

The need for the Federal Government to pay attention, to pay attention, to listen, to understand, and to act.

We can never thank enough those who have stood to defend us and our Country's freedoms.

The impact of the historic salmon declines is profound on our communities.

What good is the federal trust responsibility if the results in the loss of our fish, our communities, our culture, our lives?

We appreciate your support for congressionally directed spending for AYK salmon populations and are grateful for your work on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

I would like to thank U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski and the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for holding this Field Hearing

We need immediate action to find solutions to this crisis. That won't happen unless the Federal Government is willing to listen to and partner with Tribes.

I would like to thank Senator Murkowski, members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and your staff for organizing this field hearing to hear directly from our Tribes.

Congress needs to amend ANILCA to protect, once and for all, Alaska Native and Rural subsistence hunting and fishing rights.

Allow them to have an opening to enable their communities to continue to teach this way of life.

Today, we want you to understand the importance of Tribal voices, Local & Traditional Knowledge and cooperative management in fishery management processes.

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