Respect for land critical to all

I grew up hearing stories of things that happened to my Ahtna ancestors since the arrival of the newcomers. My very own grandfather from Arkansas was a mean drunk, selfish, and took advantage of the innocence of the original peoples of this land. He was 38 when he “married” my grandmother, who was 15. This happened in 1920. He was in the first wave of abusers and exploiters who entered into our territory. His last name was Wickersham; we heard he was a shirt-tail relative of the “honorable” judge James.

There was another phony newcomer who slyly won the trust of my great-grandfather. He taught him patriotic songs and warned him to carefully watch his three daughters because of the caliber of people soon to be arriving. Eventually this “friend” talked great-grandfather into telling him where a gold mine was and had him wait by the mother lode while he went to file the claim. Of course it wasn’t long before miners showed up because the “friend” had sold the claim.

I can’t drive by Ship Creek without remembering what my mother told me about when the military base first moved in and she and great-grandfather were walking to Anchorage. When he saw all the salmon that had been slaughtered needlessly and thrown on the banks to rot, he cried. I never met my great-grandfather, but that’s how I think of him, caring for his family and the land, and sad and worried because of the destructive changes.

Of course there were many people who came up here with love and appreciation for the magnificence and wonder of this place. One fine example was my dad. He grew up in Washington and once he came to Alaska, he never wanted to go back.

He respected this land and the original peoples.

Great-grandfather and his ilk governed this land for millennia with reverence. Unfortunately they didn’t use the word “government.” I guess that’s why it’s so hard for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the state of Alaska to realize that tribes are actually governments. In fact when I first started working for my v illage of Chickaloon 15 years ago, we were visited by a high official from HUD out of Washington, D.C. He told us at that time that tribal governments were on the same level with the federal government, which was higher on the scale than boroughs or states. Seeing how it was always “ingii” or taboo to brag, we didn’t tout that fact like perhaps we should have.

Presidents of the US of A have decreed that all governments must work with tribes on a government-to-government basis.

So what happened here!? Greedy corporations deal with the corporate governments of boroughs and states to accomplish their money-making schemes such as coal mining, no matter what the cost to the animals, land and peoples. One of my intelligent friends had a suggestion: By leaving the coal in the ground, we’re avoiding the carbon that would have been created from burning it AND we’re absorbing carbon by leaving the trees growing over the coal.

In case you wondered what happened to the original exploiter in my family tree, my grandfather… my grandmother wound up defending herself against his attack — she shot and killed him.

And no, I do not advocate violence to resolve matters. I prefer to tap into the care and respect of people like my great-grandfather, my father and mother, and the care and concern of the newcomers who aren’t ruled by greed and ignorance.

Patricia Wade is a Palmer resident