Inuit need to obtain the right and authority to manage fish and game in their territory

Hunting and fishing is the basis for our culture and economy. It defines who we are as a people. Without guaranteed rights to access and manage our food resources, our culture and the Arctic overall are at jeopardy. It's really that simple. It goes without saying we will do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen. As the first inhabitants and stewards of the Arctic, Inuit have the right and responsibility to protect their environment and culture. We accept this responsibility on behalf of all people.

Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska recently completed the "Alaskan Inuit Food Security Conceptual Framework: How to Assess the Arctic from an Inuit Perspective" (the food security project). The food security project and report is the work of 146 Inuit (Inupiat, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Yup'ik and Cup'ik) contributing authors. Many others were involved from tribal councils and our member organizations within the North Slope, Northwest Arctic, Bering Strait and Yukon-Kuskokwim regions.

The report defines what our food security is, identifies 58 drivers of food security and insecurity, and provides a food security conceptual framework. This Inuit-led project links a lack of decision-making authority to food insecurity and calls for exploring ways of strengthening wildlife co-management bodies in Alaska's Arctic.

Through the food security report we see that not only is a lack of decision-making linked to food insecurity, it is the leading driver. For example: when we hunt marine mammals, which are under federal jurisdiction; we hunt for the community. This food is shared throughout the community with other families and those not able to go hunting. We have managed to have this understood as a principle of our management practice based on our culture. But when we hunt land mammals, which are under state jurisdiction, we find the regulations are tailored toward individual hunters with individual catch limits leaving less opportunity to share the food caught, which is contrary to our culture. There are other examples that have led to our management principles being outlawed.

The need for Inuit decision-making authority is more evident today with the rapid change occurring. We are inundated with reports and advice telling us how to adapt to this change. We have a thousands years of experience living in the Arctic and know best how to adapt on our own. However, we are not allowed to manage our food resources using our knowledge and practices due to 'outside' policies, regulations, and other intervening factors.

Today we face uncertainties with a management system that's fragmented between international agreements and state and federal government. Further fragmentation occurs within the many different government agencies concerned with different aspects of fish and game management.

We are being harmed by policies and decisions often made without the benefit of consultation with our people. These decisions are often based solely on western science and are not place-based. This top down approach to fish and game management forces us to use different cultural standards while dismissing our way of life and Indigenous Knowledge. The framework where decisions are made is not transparent and Inuit ways of managing are not considered. Current management policies and decisions are forcing Inuit and the entire ecosystem into a box that is not appropriate for survival in the Arctic.

Government agencies tend to look at Arctic wildlife by individual species. One group is interested in beluga, another in caribou, and yet another is concerned with ducks and geese. Within this silo thinking there is little room to consider the land, water, air, and culture and how it is all interconnected.

The Arctic needs to be looked at holistically, from the perspective of the whole ecosystem, including the people living in the ecosystem. What we're talking about here would apply to all food resources utilized by Inuit, including land and sea mammals, fish and birds. Bringing our knowledge, methods and culture to the table will aid in active stewardship of the Arctic, allow for adaptive decision-making and an ecosystem based approach. For years we have communicated this message and the need for true co-management to be put into practice.

Despite the best efforts of the federal government and Inuit to create a co-management system to manage our food resources, we remain at an impasse. That's because the federal government does not recognize or treat Inuit as true partners in their co-management efforts.

Generally speaking, the federal government comes up with a management plan and then asks Inuit what they think of it. This is not co-management; it's colonialism in the 21st century. Inuit don't need the government telling them what's best for them. History proves this to be a failed policy. Inuit want to be self-sufficient and be able to take care of themselves, especially when it comes to food security and feeding our families. We don't want to continue down a path that minimizes our knowledge, our culture and doesn't bring us any closer to co-management.

The relationship between Inuit and the state government with regard to managing our food resources is not any better. At least the federal government recognizes that Inuit have priority rights to the fish and game, the state government does not. This is a problem that we have faced since statehood.

The state legislature refuses to let the citizens vote on a state constitutional amendment on the so-called rural preference to fish and game resources as laid out in the federal Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). The rural preference has been ruled unconstitutional under Alaska's constitution by Alaskan courts. It's not time to get hung up on what's legal; it's time to do what's right.

So, after decades of trying to communicate this message, to communicate the need for true co-management, where do we go from here? The first step is for Inuit to obtain the right and authority to manage fish and game in their territory. In other words settling indigenous hunting and fishing rights through binding agreements with the state and federal government.

Without the permanent recognition of these rights we will be living from one election to another, at the whim of politics. It's time to act; the time for talk is over. If this means changing federal legislation or the Alaska State Constitution, so be it. In the real world change doesn't just happen, it takes hard work to make the kind of change being contemplated here.

To get to this first step, different options need to be explored by both federal and state government and Inuit. In the recent USA/Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy and Arctic Leadership, it's stated that the two countries will exchange best practices.

The agreement highlights the importance of respecting the rights and territory of indigenous peoples. This may be a good opportunity to learn from the Inuit land claims agreements in Canada. The systems of wildlife harvesting and management rights contained in Canadian Inuit land claims include: (1) Inuit harvesting rights, (2) Inuit governing bodies, (3) co-management boards through which Inuit participate as equal partners in wildlife management radically altered from existing 'state-based' systems and (4) standards for government restrictions on Inuit harvesting.

Perhaps it's time to create a commission comprised of Inuit and federal and state representatives, with the objective to negotiate an outline of an acceptable fish and game co-management system. The State of Alaska's newly created Tribal Advisory Council might be the place where this discussion could begin.

Whatever steps we take to move forward, Inuit will be actively involved in the management of the food resources they depend on for nutritional and cultural survival. The state and federal governments need to make room for Inuit at the table; after all, it's our table. We're not talking about consultation here; we're talking about priority access to and management authority over our food resources. It's time to address this issue once and for all.

ICC hopes to host an Inuit Wildlife Management Summit. An underlying purpose of the summit will be to address Inuit concerns over food security in these rapidly changing times. ICC Alaska hopes the summit will be the catalyst to create the change needed to move us towards food sovereignty.

James Stotts is a representative on the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska.