Patrick Norman, CRRC Chairman & Port Graham Village Council Chief Quote

"Our Tribes in the past have been nomadic which is an English term, but the way you explain it is exactly how our people were. We were not stuck to where we are now. We were spread out all the way from Prince William Sound to Lower Cook Inlet and other places and got drawn into being in these one places during the Russian period. Then, when the canneries came around more permanent residences were established where we are now. But even during that time, our elders were still going out and doing their traditional hunting and harvesting in the spring and summer even though they were needed in the canneries. They maintained those traditions of going where they knew the animals and sea life were. The elders were so in tune with everything they used, they knew when to move to another area to let those resources build back up over time. That type of management of the resources that we use contradicts what we must follow now with the western culture where it is based on the western model based on my experiences of dealing with it. I look at it as they feel they have a need to control what we Natives are doing the same way they do with their own western cultures. So, it is an ongoing issue on trying to get them to understand our traditional way of doing it and them not fully accepting that yeah, we did manage these resources, and accept that when we make a request under their regulations to try and move our harvesting practices back to more traditional times is hard. Trying to get those things understood has been an ongoing issue for us. If they just understand that what we are asking is our observational look at the resources and try to get the best for our people."