Interns @ Alaska - Update from Brianna and Gabrielle and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council

Brianna Meyer (author) and Gabrielle Lupien are completing their CLA-ACE internship in Anchorage, AK.  -- I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska a few weeks ago with a single severely overweight suitcase thanks largely in part to aboriginal and property law textbooks. I have since purchased even more books (and also hiking gear) and have quickly realized that not only am I inside the legal system of a new country – but that I am inside a state with a legal context distinct from its lower 48 counterparts. Luckily, I am not facing this challenging discourse alone – Gabrielle, my fellow intern and roommate from Montreal joins me in the YRITWC office. 

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"I guess the view is okay." Seward, AK

Brianna Meyer (author) and Gabrielle Lupien are completing their CLA-ACE internship in Anchorage, AK.

I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska a few weeks ago with a single severely overweight suitcase thanks largely in part to aboriginal and property law textbooks. I have since purchased even more books (and also hiking gear) and have quickly realized that not only am I inside the legal system of a new country – but that I am inside a state with a legal context distinct from its lower 48 counterparts.

Luckily, I am not facing this challenging discourse alone – Gabrielle, my fellow intern and roommate from Montreal joins me in the YRITWC office.

Here are a few updates on what we are diving into this month:

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act [1971] abolished aboriginal title and set up village and regional corporations to hold Alaskan Native land. The idea of a corporation owning land on behalf of a tribe seems entirely foreign to me – and likely was equally foreign to the Alaskan Natives upon which this system was applied. Our first few weeks here were spent trying to digest this unique history – but it may take a few years (or a lifetime) to truly understand the scope of its implications for Alaskan Natives in the past and present.

Working at the YRITWC has allowed us to engage with this challenging material in a few ways. We are currently working on a research paper that digs into the benefits and implications of holding lands in trust for Alaskan Natives. This is the subject of active litigation in the US. Stay tuned for hopefully some breakthroughs in the near future.

We are also preparing for the Summit at the end of July. This event is a gathering of the 72 tribal and First Nation governments that have signed on to Yukon River Watershed Plan. We are actively trying to facilitate the adoption of ordinances that will serve as a platform for these governments to assert their sovereignty in the management of water quality along the Yukon River.

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Not a bad backyard for the summer. Exit Glacier, Seward, AK

Some fun things have been happening outside the office as well:

Last week we attended the 35^th Anniversary celebrations for the Alaskan Conservation Foundation with coworkers and met some of the dedicated faces behind Alaska’s protected wild areas.

This week we were lucky enough to attend the World Wildlife Fund’s presentation of Conservation and Change in the Arctic Ocean at the Anchorage Museum.

It was a fabulous meeting of scientists, legal scholars, economists and apparently CLA interns discussing the past successes and future challenges facing WWF in its Arctic projects.

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Gabrielle [left] and myself at the Alaska Conservation Foundation 35th Anniversary celebration.

Besides hitting the books (and realizing how much we need to learn) we have also been hitting the trails, mountains and beaches across Alaska.