Chickaloon chief addresses United Nations

Spectrum, by Gary Harrison

The following was presented at the United Nations United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Second Session, May 12-23, in New York:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Permanent Forum. I am Chief (Tyone) Gary Harrison from Chickaloon Village (Nayâdiniâaa Naâ).

My recommendation is for Alaska to be put back on the de-colonization list, for the mental, physical and spiritual health of the indigenous peoples so we may have freedom. Freedom to make our own security agreements, freedom to control our own resources, freedom to control our own health care, freedom to hunt, fish and gather our foods so we can be healthy.

Freedom is the building block to a healthy, productive life. The overall health problems that the indigenous peoples of Alaska suffer are from the illegal taking of land and resources, and the extinguishments of our cultures, religions, subsistence and traditional forms of government, and also from genocidal acts against our children and peoples.

I watch on TV certain governments criticizing Iraq for the mass graves that are being found. I went to a potlatch to repatriate a person who was dug up from a mass grave in Sitka, where indigenous students went to boarding schools and never came home. It is a fact that they have injected our children and adults with radioactive iodine and many other inocculants. According to the Arctic Policy Research Plan, they are still using indigenous peoples as guinea pigs for research on cancer, pneumonia and hepatitis. Also, because of the fact that our health records are called a "matter of national security," even I cannot get a copy of my own health records.

Resource exploitation has put profits into just a few hands of the multi-nationals. So much oil has been taken just from Prudhoe Bay, not to mention the oil from Cook Inlet, or the fish, the timber, gold, coal, precious stones, etc., taken from Alaska. If the money from the resources that were already taken had been shared equitably, every man, woman and child, regardless of race, creed or color, would be a multi-millionaire, and many of the unhealthy conditions that people live in would not exist.

In closing, research conducted in Alaska by Dr. Albert shows indigenous peoples suffer from prisoner of war syndrome, with all its detrimental health problems. We are prisoners in our own land. Our government was illegally overthrown with statehood in 1959, and with the U.S. misrepresentation to the UN of the de-colonization process and the discontinuation of reports. The process was flawed because it is a fact that indigenous peoples were not allowed to vote on statehood if they did not speak and write English. Yet the military voted on statehood. This means that statehood was a military takeover and not de-colonization, and not a decision of the peoples of the land.

Thank you, and may Creator guide your footsteps.

(Tyone) Gary Harrison is the chief of Chickaloon Village (Nayâdiniâaa Na,).