Government matters will be the main focus of this year’s Tribal Assembly, as what’s normally a three-day event has been condensed to an eight-hour, online event to be held this week.
“We’re going to be focused on reports, passing a budget, resolutions and elections,” said Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson, president of Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. “We want to show that despite this pandemic, we’re still able to operate our government, still able to work for our tribal citizens.”
The assembly, which involves elections of Tlingit and Haida’s executive council and other official matters, typically takes place in April but was delayed this year because of the pandemic. When holding the event in person no longer seemed feasible considering the health and safety precautions necessary, the decision was made to hold the Assembly entirely online, Peterson said.
Samsung tablets with Tlingit and Haida’s specifically-designed Tribal Assembly app were sent out to all 113 delegates representing roughly 32,000 tribal citizens according to Tribal Assembly Coordinator Helene Bennett. Most citizens lived in the Pacific Northwest, Bennett said, mostly in Alaska and the Seattle area, but a tablet had been sent to a delegate in San Francisco as well.
[85th Annual Tribal Assembly postponed]
Tablets were used last year for voting and other business, but delegates were in the same room. This time, Tlingit and Haida staff worked with delegates and practiced different parts of the event.
“We’re running into a lot of learning curves on technology,” Peterson said. “Delegates have different levels of technical experience — or lack thereof in some cases.”
The Tribal Assembly app comes loaded with all the documents and other information delegates will need, such as candidate biographies, Peterson said.
The tablets were configured ahead of time, Bennett said, and delegates have been given time to familiarize themselves with the device. So far things are going well, Bennett said, but there are concerns about connectivity issues during the event itself particularly in communities with weak internet infrastructure.
This year, delegates will elect the nine-member executive council, which includes the president, president emeritus, six vice presidents and a younger member known as an emerging leader.
Events begin at 8 a.m. Thursday before ending at 4:30 p.m. The assembly will be livestreamed on Facebook, Bennett said, and would be available for the public to watch.
This year’s assembly, Tlingit and Haida’s 85th and themed “Our People, Our Land, Our Purpose,” will feature a keynote speech from National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp, but aside from that, most of the day will be taken up by official business.
“We enjoy coming together every year,” Peterson said, “for the camaraderie and just touching base with friends and family. We’re full of prayer this pandemic is behind us by next April, but knowing that may not be the case, we’re trying to take lessons learned from this process.”
• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.
