ICAS 2013

Letter from the Executive Director Written by: Doreen Lampe,

ICAS has had an exciting and fast year since our last newsletter to our ICAS membership last year. The ICAS Board of Directors held our strategic planning workshop on February 28, 2013, and March 1, 2013 at the Inupiat Heritage Cen-ter, with co host of Cultural Flo, Mr. Jared Stewart, and Alaska Growth Llc., Ms. Elizabeth Rexford. I would like to take the time to thank each ICAS Board of Di-rectors who attended, ICAS’ top five priorities listed were: 1. Implementing Hunter/Gatherer’s Commission = 242. Protect Inupiat sovereignty (Lands, subsistence, Ocean, boundaries, control,

culture & values) = 133. Implement strategic plan and set priorities – Translate & use constitution

into guidance and action = 124. Sustainable Financial Stability = 125. Taxation = 12

Other topics include: Better communication will all stakeholders (Federal, Local, State, Industry) = 8, Facility for ICAS = 7, Cultivate partnerships (Federal, State, Local, Industry) = 6, Educate Staff, Members & Community about ICAS Constitution and Inupiat Sovereignty = 3, HR, Staffing and benefits for retention = 3, Health = 3, Housing = 2, More active membership participation/increased enrollment = 1, More active Village Tribal Governments = 1. Quyanaqpak to ASRC for having their subsidiary provide this much needed strategic planning workshop.

ICAS would like to thank the North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower, and her leadership team, along with ASRC President Rex Rock Sr, and his leader-ship team for assisting with ICAS President Olemaun’s first North/Arctic Slope leadership gathering to meet and greet, the Department of Interior’s Secretary of Interior Ms. Sally Jewel, in the first historic Arctic leadership meeting with NSB/ASRC/ICAS traveling to Washington D.C. to lobby on common issues affecting the Arctic we live and depend on.

The Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope Annual meeting date is scheduled for August 17th, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. at the North Slope Borough Assembly cham-bers, with school starting up on August 15th, 2013, ICAS was not able to utilize any of the school facilities this year. ICAS is hoping to have the annual meeting

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Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope

Tribal Operations 2

Executive’s Letter 3

Realty Department 4

Natural Resources Department

4

Vocational Rehabilitation Program

5

Indian Reservation Roads

5

Inside this issue:

We’re on the Web!! www.inupiatgov.com

Tribal Operations Written By: Helen Simmonds

The 2012 ICAS Board election was held November 6, 2012 where Delbert Rexford At Large, Lillian S StoneAnaktuvuk Pass, Patsy Aamodt Barrow, Dwayne Hopson Nuiqsut, Raymond Aguvluk Wainwright were voted to represent membership of ICAS. Anaktuvuk Pass seat has since become vacant due to her resignation, it is up to the council to meet and replace her seat.

The 2013 election will October 2 in all precincts and the following seats are up for election. Barrow Seat 1Held by Fannie Suvlu, Barrow Seat 2 Held by George Edwardson, Barrow Seat 5 Held by George Olemaun,

Kaktovik Seat 12 Held by Matthew Rexford & Pt. Lay 7 Held by Sophie Tracey. Letters of interest are being accepted until September 2 for registered members interested in running.

Submissions may either be mailed to the ICAS Tribal Operations Box number 934 Barrow 99723, dropped off to 6986 Ahmaogak St, faxed to 852 4246 or emailed to tribal@inupiatgov.com.

I have been with ICAS Tribal Operations for 3.5 years. I manage the monthly meetings for the ICAS Board, prepare for the annual meetings, yearly elections, and the 4 villages we hold resolutions with. Which include: Anaktuvuk PassActing Village Liaison Hattie Edwards and Homemakers, Cheryl Hugo, Susan Hu-go, Charlotte Ahgook & Seviana Wagner. Atqasuk Village Liaison Kathy Leib and Homemakers Dolly Itta & Amy Kagak Pt. Lay Village Liaison JoAnne Neakok Wainwright Village Liaison Ronnie Morales. The staff are very busy in their offic-es but always open please stop & see what they have going in your native village offices.

I do not want to exclude the busy native village offices of Barrow, Kaktovik, Nuiqsut & Pt. Hope. Your native village offices are an important aspect of our communities and do so much with sometimes so little. Sometimes a bit of en-couragement & support go a long way. And let’s not forget updating your mem-bership forms, especially for those who have not enrolled children.Tribal Operations has had serious concerns with enrollment because of the ex-pense which each native village much bear the cost for. The expenses include software, outdated equipment and the technical support costs and the staff that must be hired to input years of data. ICAS has enabled all the villages to receive new software and equipment for operation recently added from Autaaqtuq . This will enable each native village in the arctic slope to serve membership efficiently.

I have heard numerous comments of villages wanting to hold their own 638 grants. That holds a great opportunity for the interested villages. This site may be very helpful for info on the BIA grants itself for a starter. http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/mywcsp/documents/collection/idc017334.pdfBIA has a ginormous website and it may take a lot of research on anyone inter-ested in learning more about 638 contracts and how they may be obtained. The web is a great site to search for grants, when I googled grants in Alaska, sites like grants.com, Alaska Community Foundation, Fred Meyer come up. And each grantor has guidelines but the basic may be:1. Own Workers Compensation policy 2. Set up to do its bi weekly IRS tax deposits?

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Page 2 ICAS 2013

ICAS Board George Olemaun,

President Dwayne Hopson,

Vice President (Nuiqsut member) Doreen Ahgeak,

Secretary Patsy Aamodt,

Treasurer, BRW member Delbert Rexford,

At-Large Fannie Suvlu, Barrow Member

Raymond Aguvluk, Wainwright Member Matthew Rexford,

Kaktovik Member Sophie Henry,

Point Lay Member Ethel Burke,

Atqasuk Member Jack Schaefer,

Point Hope Member Vacant,

Anaktuvuk Pass Member

Page 3 ICAS 2013

early this fall in order to have elections for the ICAS Board to coincide with the State wide general elections in October of 2013.

I have attended meetings with the United States Coast Guard Admiral Ostebo, thanks to Sudi Hargis for her open communications and setting up timely meetings with our federally recognized regional Tribal Gov-ernment. The table top exercise of the Arctic Spills of National Significance (SONS), for an oil spill drill off the coast of Wainwright, Alaska was held on June 18, 2013 at the Annex building near the Federal building in An-chorage, AK. This was held from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and a lot of discussion took place on logistics, and housing plans for long term clean up, and lack of infrastructure in place to provide access to the site were the top problematic concerns mentioned. The need to do an actual oil spill drill on site in the Arctic were also mentioned, when you actually go to a remote site and visualize the area and the lack of all that is needed is clear and evident once you are on site.

I have continued to attend meeting with the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), their offices are in Anchorage, Alaska at the DOI BOEM offices at: Michael.Haller@boem.gov, Fax/907.334.5202, 3801 Centerpoint Drive, Suite 500, Anchorage, AK 995035823. ICAS continues to comment on the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease sales, to protect our ac-cess to harvesting our natural resources within the bountiful Arctic Ocean’s, Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea.

I attended a meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, with the Arctic Policy Commission at the UAA Commons build-ing. The website is http://www.arctic.gov. Ms. Fran Ulmer was chairing this meeting. This was the first time this summer they met in Barrow, AK at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC) building out by NARL. Ms. Qinugan Roddy and staff, presented the Arctic Slope Hunters/ Gatherers Commission in early February of 2013 discussions are on going to pursue this for the protections of our hunting rights, and access to our resources. A recommendation was made to proceed with the Regional Community Conservation Plan for the Arctic Slope Hunters/Gatherers Commission role. Mr. Bob Wolfe and staff traveled to four villages to survey expert hunters and elders in producing a report to proceed with this program.

President George Olemaun and I were invited to the Trans boundary meetings hosted by NSB Wildlife Department, and the Canadian Inuvialuit representatives, which was held on April 29, & 30th, of 2013. There was an Inupiat Inuvialuit Agreement termed as the I – I Agreement between the Inuvialuit Inupiat and the Inupiat of Alaska to foster collaboration and information sharing with regard to the polar bears and belugas also known as the Canada United States bi lateral agreement or Trans boundary agreement for its recent Arctic Foreign Policy statement the Canadian federal government emphasized its desire to work with neigh-bors to resolve boundary issues. This was a great meeting between us, and look forward to sharing and learning more from each other, this was facilitated by the World Wildlife Fund.

I’d like to thank the ICAS President George Olemaun for attending numerous meetings as the President of ICAS without much monetary consideration, his commitment to our membership is a tribute to our organiza-tion and membership of ICAS. Quyanaqpak President George Olemaun!

We hope to continue to strive to serve our people and membership and help our villages grow and con-tinue to serve their tribal membership to the best of our abilities. There are good permanent jobs in Tribal Government and I would hope that everyone takes advantage and get the training they need to hold these jobs for your tribal villages, accountants, grant writers, social service workers, EPA liaisons, village liaisons, homemakers, and administrators. Quyanaqpak and look forward to hearing from you all at the ICAS annual meeting.

Executive Director’s Letter (Continued from page 1)

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Natural Resources Written By: Qinugan Roddy

The Natural Resources Department advocates for protection of the environment and natural resources including water, land, fish, plants, mammals, and birds in the North Slope region and environmental justice for the Inupiat. Through knowledge and education, we strive to protect tribal members’ access to these re-sources, and assure that future harvests is sustained and promoted. The department is responsible for the EPA funded Indian General Assistance programs (IGAP) and provides assistance to three villages to design and implement this program at the village level.

The Natural Resources Department has grown with an ANA Project Coordinator, Flora “Aaglu” Agiak and a Natural Resources Office Specialist, Johncody Hopson. Aaglu is the manager of ICAS’ Administration of Native Americans (ANA), Environmental Regulatory Enhancement (ERE) Grant. She started back in Novem-ber and has helped with us training and preparing workshops for our ICAS Board. Johncody started in April 2013 and both have been a tremendous help within ICAS, they have been behind the scenes and helping with reports, filing, errands, surveys and help with organizing with our workshops.

ICAS has been able to host three workshops for the ICAS Board since April 2012. This has been done through our ANA and IGAP grant. With these workshops the ICAS Board has been able to communicate and voice current issues regarding our land and environment, which our tribal members subsist off of.

We have gone to several meetings throughout the year regarding subsistence and environmental con-cerns throughout the North Slope. We have attended the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission meeting in February, Subsistence Advisory Panel meetings in Nuiqsut, NSB Fish & Game meeting in April, the Polar Bear Commission and Beluga Commission meeting in May. We have also attended a tabletop exercise hosted by the US Coast Guard of an Arctic Spill of National Significance (SONS) in Anchorage and attended the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission meeting held here in Barrow.

If you have any concerns or comments regarding environmental/subsistence issues please call us at 907852 4227 or our toll free # at 1 800 788 4227 or you may email natural@inupiatgov.com or nrospecialist@inupiatgov.com. Quyanaqpak!

Realty Department Written by: Katuk Pebley, Realty Director & Lilly “Beeba” Aveoganna, Probate Clerk

We at Iňupiat Community of the Arctic Slope Realty Department have been busy assisting clients with Native Allotment/Restricted Townsite issues and probates. We serve 6 villages, Anaktuvuk Pass, Atqasuk, Kaktovik, Nuiqsut, Pt. Lay & Wainwright.

If you own restricted Townsite or Native Allot-ment, we highly recommend that you prepare your Last Will and Testament. Alaska Legal Services is there to assist. When an individual passes, if he/she has a Last Will and Testament, it makes probate a lot easier.

If you have any questions please feel free to call us at (907) 852 4227 or Toll Free @ 1 888 788 4227.

3. Set up to do its quarterly IRS tax reports?4. Set up to do its quarterly State of AK tax re-

ports?5. Procurement Policies in place6. Most importantly, an engaged council

The ASRC Community Foundation, NSB Grants divi-sion and Ilisagvik College are a great resources.

Tribal Operations (Continued from page 2) Vocational Rehabilitation Program Written By: Dallas Lee Brower

The Vocational Rehabilitation Program continued to work with Veterans who are clients or family members of clients. We have set up a Veterans Cor-ner in our office at Building #3210 with information for Veterans and their families. Staff have been trained in benefit applications and headstone and flag requests. In addition, Kim Edwards and Dee Nosbisch from Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospi-tal, as well as Ronnie Morales, Wainwright Village Liaison and Kathreen Lieb, Atqasuk Village Liaison have also been trained and we are all certified as Tribal Veterans Representatives. The Alaska Veter-ans Affairs Administration (VA) Director and the Re-gional Director visited and went to Wainwright as well.

Veterans need to bring their VA ID Cards or their DD 214 separation paper to Samuel Simmonds Me-morial Hospital so that they can be enrolled for VA health care. The VA will pay for health care, to in-clude ambulances, medevac’s, treatment in Seattle if needed, and much more. By having the VA pay for the Veteran, money is freed up at the hospital so that more people can get medical travel, and that may even include the Veterans family members. Dee or Kim will be happy to assist you.

We are partnering with Ilisagvik College, Allied Health Program to have the world renowned Dr. Madan Kundu, Chairman and Director, Department of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, Southern University provide a training on Medical and Psycho-social Aspects of Disability, September 10 12, 2013. This training will be open to anyone interested in the topic. Thus far, we have received notice from Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Programs from Nome, Ju-neau, and Fairbanks that they will have staff attend-ing, and we look forward to others from around the state as well as the Arctic Slope who will be coming to this ICAS/Ilisagvik sponsored program. The more people who gain knowledge about disabilities, the better it will be for individuals and their families, providers, and employers. We look forward to see-ing you there.

Page 5 ICAS 2013

Indian Reservation Roads Written By: William Hopson

I started working as the ICAS Tribal Transportation Program Specialist on June 28,2013.I have been Working with Andrew White of BIA’s main Point of Contact for ICAS to make sure we are in compliance with the TTP Requirements. He has been a big help getting ICAS back on track with the Program.

We have a new agreements between ICAS and BIA for the TTP program. I will continue to work with BIA so we are current with all the paper work.

I have been Working with Our Engineering staff at WH Pacific Inc. getting updated on all the ICAS TTP projects currently going on in Wainwright, Pt Lay, Atqasuk and Anaktuvuk Pass.

In Wainwright, we have road construction work that is 95% completed and this will be ready for final inspection in August. We have additional work that the contractor will do on roads that were not in the current construction contract.

In Point Lay the contractor is 98 % complete with the upgrades they have been doing and will be ready for final inspection in August.

In Atqasuk the north and south cemetery roads are in design right now and the project will be bid out this winter.

In Anaktuvuk Pass we have a bridge project go-ing on right now and the remaining materials should be in the village this fall and the construction will begin. Thank you!

P.O. Box 934 6982 Ahmaogak Street

We’re on the Web!! www.inupiatgov.com

Phone: 907-852-4227 Fax: 907-852-4246 E-mail: natural@inupiatgov.com

We exercise our sovereign rights and powers for the benefit of our tribal members to conserve and retain tribal lands and resources including subsistence and

environmental issues to establish and carry-out justice systems including social services pursuant to Inupiat Tribal law; generate sustainable funding sources for ICAS

as a regional tribal government.

Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope

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