At least 40 tribes have signed up to join a new state transportation task force announced by Attorney General Dan Sullivan today.
The group is led by three chairmen representing the state, feds and tribes. It held its first meeting Oct. 26.
It’s a little unclear what the task force is going to do, beyond talk about transportation in Alaska. Will it set priorities for road construction spending? Write a blueprint for connecting remote communities?
Sullivan told the Alaska Municipal League today that the task force could take advantage of the federal Indian Reservation Roads program that has about $100 million for Alaska tribes, according to a copy of the speech. Twenty years ago many rural communities weren’t interested in being connected to the road system, the state says, but that’s changing as people look to lower the cost of food and fuel.
Click here to read the speech. (Note it begins with Sullivan saying Alaska’s sexual abuse rate of children is five times the national number and said the state is issuing new guidelines to prosecutors calling for maximum jail time for sex offenders.)
The transportation task force idea came up during a transportation summit last October in Anchorage that involved the state, feds and tribes, said Peter Putzier, senior assistant attorney general.
Here’s the task force agreement signed by the state, feds and tribes. The first page says it “reflects and supports the government-to-government relationship between the Alaska Tribal Governments, the State of Alaska, and the Federal Government.”
I asked Putzier if that means the state considers Alaska tribes sovereign governments.
“The idea behind, and the purpose behind this task force really stemmed from the meeting last year and there really hasn’t been a focus on state rights versus tribal rights or otherwise,” he said.
The chairman representing tribes on the task force will be Kawerak Inc. board chairman Robert Keith, according to the Department of Law.
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1 December 21, 2009 - 11:44pm | replica_rolex
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