| Tanana Chiefs Conference (AK)
Location and Context
Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc. represents 42
federally recognized tribes in Interior of Alaska covering over 235,000
square miles. All 42 of the tribes live in villages that have been designated
"federally distressed areas" meaning the residents experience high unemployment
and extreme levels of poverty. According to the 2000 census, slightly
over 14,000 Alaskan Natives reside in the Interior. The majority of Alaskan
Natives in the Interior are of Athabascan culture. There are ten distinct
Native languages spoken in our 42 tribes. Travel to our villages is primarily
by air, river travel in the summer months and snow machine in the winter
are also used. Only nine of our forty two villages are connected by road.
Collaborative Structure and Strategy
The roles and relationships of our collaborative partners differ with
each project. The development of the appropriate financial institution
for TCC requires financial assistance and technical assistance in establishing
a solid institution that is able to serve bush villages.
To date, the only collaborative partner we have for the Alaskan Native
Arts & Crafts project has been the University of Alaska. This project
requires marketing assistance, Internet technology assistance and financial
aid. Because of the interest of volunteers from different villages, 70
Alaskan Native artists have been recruited and have interest in participating
in the Internet market. The University of Alaska has contributed $1,500.
We have a web site with the domain established for alaskanativearts.org.
Lack of funding has precluded developing the web site. A native artist
from Rampart and mostly recently Tetlin, has been taking courses to enable
her to coordinate the project in each village via computer. Grants have
been submitted to different foundations seeking seed money to allow the
web site to be developed and the Internet marketing of Athabascan arts
and crafts to begin. This project is planned to be self supporting within
six months and a small fee will be charged for each item sold to support
the project. Elders are especially excited about the project as it will
mean revenue for them and an interest at all levels of preserving Native
arts & crafts locally.
The financial literacy program requires technological/computer assistance
as well as financial assistance. This program has yet to receive funding
from foundations to develop the program on the web. However, TCC did collaborate
with First Nations Development Institute and the Fannie Mae Foundation
to offer a "Training the Trainers" financial literacy course in Fairbanks
to TCC staff who travel to our villages. This same course will again be
offered in Galena this late summer, early fall and in Fairbanks to visiting
health aides and other people from villages interested in financial literacy.
This training will fit right into the web site financial literacy program.
CDFI funding for a financial institution to serve Interior of Alaska has
been applied for but to date no word has been received. With seed money,
the groundwork will be developed that will enable an appropriate financial
institution to be established.
The development of the Alaska Interior Chamber of Commerce requires assistance
in business management and organizational skills that will help initiate
the organization within Interior of Alaska. This program is at the very
beginning stages of development as no collaborative partners or funding
mechanisms have been found that will assist TCC in developing this institution.
TCC has formed a committee of interested persons and are developing the
framework for the Chamber, mailing out letters of introduction and planning
a fund raising banquet/auction in the fall.
The cross-cultural wilderness camp in Birch Creek has established a partnership
with the Alaska Conservation Foundation. This project will require assistance
in marketing the program and continued assistance in developing the camp
program. They have funded an intern position to assist this winter in
marketing the program to attract participants. It is the first time this
Foundation has funded an Interior village project. The Alaska Foundation
for Community Self Reliance raised its commitment to the Birch Creek project
to $60,000 spread over three years in the hope of attracting additional
funding to support the work. The village of Birch Creek has invested $20,000
of their own money to start building the camp site this summer. Yukon
Flats Resource Conservation and Development Department has joined in this
effort by providing extensive technical support to Birch Creek. As part
of the process, for the first time in Birch Creek's 150-year history,
the community has come together and developed a comprehensive economic
development strategic plans document as a road map for the future. The
residents of Birch Creek now feel like they have a future.
Leverage and Impact
Tanana Chiefs Conference has been a leader in the Alaskan Native movement.
TCC was the first non-profit organization to independently contract directly
with BIA for health and social services. This allowed native tribes to
begin to have direct input into how the services would be delivered. TCC's
Interior of Alaska health aide system was the first in the State of Alaska
and is now considered a model even for outside Indian tribes. TCC has
taken a leadership role in seeing that co-management of our natural resources
is a priority and accepted by state and federal agencies. To date they
have assisted two tribes in gaining contracts to manage natural resources
in their areas. They are working with five other tribes in different areas
to do the same. TCC's greatest success has been to assist villages in
assuming responsibility at the local level for development of their economies.
Tanana Chiefs Conference's role is and will continue to be to provide
information, access to capital and a non-clutching helping hand to each
of our 42 tribes in economic development matters. In the last seven years,
tribes have taken over more and more programs formerly administered by
TCC. This, is considered, empowerment at the local level where it belongs.
TCC will continue to work toward this process.
Our biggest impact will be the ability to provide access to capital and
access to information that will enable Alaskan Natives to create wealth
through development of businesses and business related skills. With additional
funding, the program is designed to move villagers to the next level of
economic development and to prepare them to take advantage of opportunities
that presently exist. The net result of this would be creation of local
jobs in our villages and a dramatic reduction in unemployment and poverty
rates.
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