{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/vice-chairman-murkowski-leads-us-senate-committee-field-hearing-in-bethel-to-hear-about-impacts-of-salmon-declines", "Vice Chairman Murkowski Leads U.S. Senate Committee Field Hearing In Bethel To Hear About Impacts Of Salmon Declines", "2023-11-15", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=16", "scraper", "Dozens Testify and Provide Public Statements From Yukon-Kuskokwim Communities and Call for Action to Address Salmon Declines\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indians Affairs (SCIA), recently chaired a field hearing and public listening session in Bethel, Alaska on \u201cThe Impact of the Historic Salmon Declines on the Health and Well-Being of Alaska Native Communities Along Arctic, Yukon, and Kuskokwim Rivers.\u201d The event was held at the Yukon Kuskokwim He Corporation\u2019s \u201cGathering Place.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is significant and historic to bring the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to Bethel to understand how the salmon crashes in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region are affecting those of you who live here,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski. \u201cI have traveled through most of the villages in this region over the course of many years. I've been into many of the fish camps up and down the Kuskokwim and the Yukon. I have heard how the lack of salmon is affecting your ways of life and the need for the federal government to pay attention, to understand, and to act. We brought the Committee to Bethel so those in the region and surrounding villages who are most impacted can be heard and offer potential solutions on the official record.\u201d\n\nPictured: Senator Lisa Murkowski with witnesses following SCIA field oversight hearing on November 10, 2023\n\nFor additional photos, click here.\n\nThe following witnesses testified at the field hearing:\n\nThe Honorable Thaddeus Tikiun, Jr., Chairperson, Association of Village Council Presidents, Bethel, AK\n\nThe Honorable Brian Ridley, Chief/Chairman, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Fairbanks, AK\n\nMr. Jonathan Samuelson, Chair, Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Bethel, AK\n\nMs. Karma Ulvi, Chair, Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Fairbanks, AK\n\nMr. Dan Winkelman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, Bethel, AK\n\nMs. Nicole Borromeo, Executive Vice President, Alaska Federation of Natives, Anchorage, AK\n\nMs. Tisha Neviq\u2019aq Kuhns, Vice President of Land and Natural Resources, Calista Corporation, Anchorage, AK\n\nMr. Charles Menadelook, Subsistence Director, Kawerak, Inc., Nome, AK\n\nVice Chairman Murkowski underscored some of the goals of the hearing and listening session. \u201cTraditional ecological knowledge must inform our actions and decisions,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski. \u201cI am interested to hear more from our witnesses about how we can strengthen co-management relationships and help improve the federal subsistence management program.\u201d\n\nVice Chairman Murkowski asked witnesses, when they do not have salmon, what do they do, given the high cost of living?\n\n\u201cI had an elder talk to us from our region who said they lived through the Great Depression, but they didn\u2019t even know there was a Great Depression, because we had all that we needed,\u201d said Chief/Chairman Ridley. \u201cWe had all the fish and game that we needed. I\u2019m seeing the economy the way it is, the cost of living, and all the issues that we are dealing with. And if our people had the fish and game and all those things, we\u2019d have full freezers, and all those things about the economy wouldn\u2019t even matter. But that\u2019s not the case.\u201d\n\nVice Chairman Murkowski asked witnesses about the impact on young people.\n\n\u201cThe provider role in our communities is so important,\u201d said Chair Samuelson. \u201cWhen we are forced to deviate from our traditional ways of life, it only amplifies our unwellness. Our way of life and our cultural knowledge and the way that we are in the world is our path to wellness. We know that. When we\u2019re forced to go off that track and we have no means to get back to wellness, we end up with things like mental illnesses, suicide, physical unwellness. [\u2026] It all comes back to the fish. It\u2019s at the heart of it. So our people really suffer when everything is not in balance.\u201d\n\nDuring the listening session, Vice Chairman Murkowski heard from more than 30 individuals who addressed the Committee on the record.\n\nRay Oney from the village of Alakanuk described the importance of salmon.\n\n\u201cThe salmon is who identifies us as people of the Yukon River. And as you heard, many a times we haven\u2019t had an opportunity to subsist or even to put salmon on the table, even to taste. I recall when the elders heard that they were going to be allowed to harvest Chinook salmon, the elders cried. They relied on that resource from their ancestors, from their parents and their ancestors that taught them that way of living. Because that was the only way of living that we knew,\u201d said Ray Oney.\n\nNick Andrew from Bethel and Marshall described the significance of salmon.\n\n\u201cWe come from the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta region, the size of Oregon. Everything\u2019s up in the stratosphere here where we live. The cost of living, crime, violent crime, all the disparities in the book are here. I am a hunter, fisher, and gatherer. I was born into a culture that prioritized food and shelter. Food meant salmon. It meant smoked salmon. It meant salted salmon, salmon in the freezers. [\u2026] People in my village, the fish camps are empty. The cultural activity that involves family is gone, meaning cutting salmon, preparing salmon, spending time with family, sharing with the elders \u2013 that has been broken. There was a time, our world was complete, when the rivers were teeming with salmon on both rivers. Our people were happy. Not only the people, but the animals that rely on the salmon were also happy. We need some answers. We need to be heard,\u201d said Nick Andrew.\n\nTim Andrew from Bethel described the cultural value of salmon.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve seen all these cultural values that people are fighting to retain our salmon, retain our cultural way of life, return to sharing our salmon that we harvest, with our elders, with the people that we feed. All we want to do is accommodate our guests. All we want to do is feed our families. All we want to do is continue with our ceremonies. The beat of the drum is common through the entire area. All the Native people in Alaska want to beat that drum, beat that drum of sharing our salmon resources,\u201d said Tim Andrew.\n\nJoseph Asuluk Sr. of Toksook Bay spoke in Yup\u2019ik and issued a call to action.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s too much. That\u2019s enough. On the Yukon and Kuskokwim, it\u2019s not the people\u2019s fault. Think about it. Think about it. [\u2026] Lisa, you have to fight for us. We believe in you. Let\u2019s wake up. Let\u2019s wake up, become one voice. We won\u2019t always be alive. Our children and our great grandchildren \u2013 let\u2019s leave some salmon for them,\u201d said Joseph Asuluk Sr.\n\nNikki Pollack from Bethel spoke about the salmon declines and impacts to health.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m Yup\u2019ik from the river. I have a background in nursing. I graduated in 2010 from the University of Anchorage as a registered nurse. I've been a lifelong Kuskokwim fisher woman, subsistence gatherer. I'm a mother. I've spent my entire life on the river just like many of us here. I want to speak to the disparities that are affecting our people particularly our health and well-being. I want to talk about the amounts necessary for subsistence. This jar is what we now use to put our jarred fish away. In our family, our fish camp alone has six families that we feed. This is a jar that we used we used to use about 10 years ago. We used to use larger jars. I don't have any of those anymore because we don't use them in our family because there is simply not enough fish to go around. It's no surprise that there are direct correlations with health consequences and increasing insecurity for food, housing, and economics,\u201d said Nikki Pollack.\n\nGabe Canfield from the Yukon River Drainage Fishers Association shared the importance of the youth perspective.\n\n\u201cThe first thing that we see and hear from this crisis is the physical effects, the actual tangible results of not having salmon in our rivers. We don't see birds, bears, wolves, and animals alongside the banks of our rivers whenever there's a salmon crash. We don't see our neighbors in fish camps. And we don't see our children cutting fish. We don't see the salmon bright pink bellies and we don't see the smoke rising from the smoke house and the scented dry fish filling the air. We don't see the kings, chums and cohos that have been coming for a hundred generations or more. We can see the cultural costs and impacts of this. We see less of our traditional foods in our homes, less potlucks and gatherings, less fish camps, less fish skin arts and handicrafts that we adorn throughout our lives. We see mental health impacts from not practicing our culture and falling into harmful habits that have taken up our time. We see monetary costs in our community members who spend their own money to get more expensive and less valuable foods,\u201d said Gabe Canfield.\n\nAt the end of the Listening Session, Vice Chairman Murkowski thanked everyone who shared.\n\n\u201cI want to share with you my deep appreciation, because for some of you the comments that you shared are very deeply personal and that you were willing to share them is very meaningful,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski. \u201cI've also heard that the traditional knowledge that you bring to the table has led long before much of the science or the actual management actions that come. We need to be paying attention to that aspect of knowledge that you bring to the table. You have given me a great deal to consider here today along with my staff. I want to be able to report back. I owe it to those of you who've come, those of you who have spoken, those who have just listened, those who are living with the reality that your way of life is being threatened right now. And as Vivian [Korthuis] reminded us all at the beginning, your way of life matters. Know that I carry that with me back to Washington, DC. Thank you for the time that you've given me and know that together we've got some work to do.\u201d\n\nFor thousands of years, salmon have been critical to the survival of the people in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region. However, low Chinook and chum salmon runs in the Yukon and Kuskokwim river systems have led to restrictions on commercial and subsistence fisheries, causing severe hardship to Alaska Native communities in this region.\n\nTo read witness written testimony, click here. And to watch the field hearing and listening session, click here.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska's Fisheries", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/vice-chairman-murkowski-leads-us-senate-committee-field-hearing-in-bethel-to-hear-about-impacts-of-salmon-declines"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.3176529686897993, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}