Alaska Native Brotherhood Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand Camp

02/18/2024

A week ago I came home from an amazing week in Juneau!

Family, friends, new friends, and advocacy! ❤️💛

It was a busy week and had some great ups and a few downs. I’m grateful to have been a part of bringing awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person (MMIP) and advocated alongside many amazing Indigenous partners for 3 Alaska bill around MMIP - Alaska State SB 151, HB 244 and HB 235 and Tibal Sovereignty.

We were met with support, weird question at times, and slapped with the reality of the lack of awareness of the need for equity and not equality when it comes to facing the many crises People face, every day!

All in all it was a great opportunity to advocate for Indigenous People through my service to the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB).

I encourage each of you to learn more about these bills and ones in your state and let lawmakers know it’s time for action, protection, collaboration and time to let predators know their days are numbered!

Gunalchéesh to the MMIWG2S workgroup for including the ANB and ANS during this MMIP legislative fly in!

04/23/2020

Attention Local Camps - Email Response Requested:

Thank you to each and every one of you and your families for caring for yourselves and our communities during these difficult times! This pandemic something that we collectively are experiencing, and also personally are trying to process. Please know each and every one of you is in the thoughts and prayers of the ANB and ANS Executive Committees.

During this time, we have received word from Sealaska that both the ANB and ANS will be receiving Covid-19 relief funds from the Sealaska Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Package to help our communities respond to the impact from the coronavirus.

On Tuesday 04.21.20 the ANB Covid-19 Response Committee met with representatives from 8 ANB Local Camps. We recognize that not all ANB Local Camps received the invitation to participate in the conference call and we would like to connect with as many ANB Local Camps as possible. The ANS also held a meeting on Sunday 04.19.20.

We are requesting that Local Camps please email the ANB Grand Secretary their Local Camp’s responses to the following items. Please have your Local Camp President and/or Secretary (or designee) respond no later than the end of the day Saturday 04.25.20. There is an ANB Executive meeting scheduled soon after and we would like to be able to have as many Local Camp’s recommendations as possible.
In this email, please also ensure we have the most up to date contact information for your Local Camp Officers.

Please submit emails to the ANB Grand Secretary at [email protected].

The ANB and the ANS will be receiving a generous donation from Sealaska for Covid-19 relief. We would like to hear from Local Camps how these relief funds could best be utilized in communities. Please share the following information

1. What are the needs that you are all experiencing in your community? How could Covid-19 relief funds be best utilized?

Additionally, the ANB Executive Committee and the ANS Executive Committee have been having discussions about the 2020 Grand Camp Convention, and there are 3 options currently under discussion.

Please share your Camp’s opinion about which of the following options your Camp prefers :
1. Not hold the convention, as was done during the 1918 influenza pandemic, 1932 Depression, and 1942 WWII.
2. Wait until (the end of) June to decide.
3. Holding a virtual Grand Camp.

These are hard discussions to moderate and document on a social media platform, so we respectfully request that your Local Camp leadership discuss these topics with your Membership and email us your Local Camp’s responses.

Please note: any response made on social media may not be seen or responded to.

Thank you all and we look forward to hearing from you and how we can come together to continue supporting our People and our communities!

Be safe and be well, our love, thoughts, and prayers are with you!

In Brotherhood and Sisterhood,
Heather Gurko
ANB Grand President
[email protected]

04/16/2020

Immediate Action Requested: Updated Local Camp Officer Lists and Contact Information Needed

Greetings Local Camps!

We hope and pray that you and your families are doing well during this challenging time!

The Grand President of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, Heather Gurko, and the Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, Paulette Moreno, will be calling Urgent Local Camp President meetings in the next few days, and we have discovered that we do not have updated contact information for ALL Local Camps.

Can each Local Camp’s Secretary, or designee, please email to the Grand Secretaries the most recent/new Local Camp Officer list including contact information, as soon as possible, but no later than Saturday 4.18.20 at 5pm Alaska time.

We apologize for the short notice, but we want to make sure we have Leadership from all Local Camps on the conference calls that will be announced over the next few days, so we can discuss your local communities and your support needs during this time of crisis.

If there are any questions, please contact me or the ANB and ANS Grand Secretaries.

ANS Grand Secretary, James Llanos Jr., - [email protected]

ANS Grand Secretary, Carol Duis - [email protected]

Please know we each hold you all in our hearts and prayers. Be safe and be well!

In Brotherhood and Sisterhood,

Heather Gurko
ANB Grand President
[email protected]

04/04/2020

IRS has announced that distribution of economic impact payments will begin in the next three weeks.

- Eligible taxpayers who filed tax returns for either 2019 or 2018 will automatically receive an economic impact payment of up to $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 for married couples and up to $500 for each qualifying child.

- Individual taxpayers with an AGI of up to $75,000 and married couples filing jointly with an AGI of up to $150,000 will receive the full payment.

- If you did not file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 and do not receive social security, you may need to take a couple extra steps to receive your economic impact payment. Learn more here: https://tinyurl.com/uyzh7d8.

If you did not file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 and do not receive social security, you may need to take a couple extra steps to receive your economic impact payment. Visit the site below for more information on how much you may be eligible for and how to receive the payment:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/economic-impact-payments-what-you-need-to-know

04/02/2020

Social Distancing for Alaskans.
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District family, together we can do this for the peninsula!
It will take every one of us to of in our great state and locally.
Shout out to Alex France for this graphic

03/16/2020

“Did you know that if the person you put as Person 1 doesn't mark the Native American/Alaska Native box on the Census, that your whole household will NOT count as Native? ANYONE can be listed as Person 1, children included. If Person 1 checks "If Person 1 checks more than one race, your household wont be counted as Native either.” Thanks for the info Nicole!

It’s CENSUS TIME! Forms are arriving. Let's make sure Natives are counted! The forms are confusing, but we're here to help. To begin, this is CRITICAL information ALL Native households MUST know.

1) If you want to be counted as Native, THE PERSON LISTED AS “PERSON 1" MUST BE NATIVE. If you enter in a non-Native person as Person 1, NONE of the household will be counted as Native.

YOU CAN ENTER ANY HOUSEHOLD MEMBER AS PERSON 1, CHILD OR ADULT. Person 1 does NOT need to be enrolled to identify as Native on the Census.

2) Similarly, IF PERSON 1 CHECKS MORE THAN ONE RACE, YOUR ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD WILL NOT BE COUNTED AS NATIVE. Person 1 should check the American Indian/Alaska Native box *ONLY* for the household to be counted as Native.

Thank you Chinook Nation for this example. You'd enter your own tribal affiliation, obviously.

What questions do you have?

03/01/2020

Dunleavy spokesperson Jeff Turner said any future involvement by the Native groups would be up to Vice Adm. Tom Barrett, the chair of the work group.

The failure to include the Native groups was “not a snub to any group or any particular folks or location,” Gov. Dunleavy said.

02/24/2020

The Office of the Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President, Heather J. Gurko, and the office of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand President, Paulette M. Moreno, issued a letter to the Governor of Alaska and many officials via email on 2/17/20. We are asking 2 positions be added to the Alaska Marine Highway System Reshaping Workgroup, to be filled by 1 ANB and 1 ANS member who are of the People whose livelihoods have depended on Ancestral Highways since Time Immemorial, and who live in and/or work in the communities affected by the failure of the AMHS.

We issued the letter, on 2/18/20. We gave the Governor 30 days to respond, and in his press conference on 2/19/20 the Governor stated it was too late.

We the Alaska Native Brotherhood and the Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand Presidents disagree. As stated in our letter, it is imperative to have the voices of Alaska Natives on this workgroup.

Please use your voices, call, write letters, use any advocacy tools you can to tell Governor Dunleavy how imperative it is to have Alaska Native voices on this workgroup.

You can watch the press conference here, soon after the 16 minute mark.

https://gov.alaska.gov/newsroom/2020/02/19/amhspresser/

The Juneau Empire reported the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood have requested representation in the marine highway Reshaping Work Group announced in January.