May 16, 2013
Thursday PM

I am a Sealaska shareholder. I grew up commercially fishing with my father, Moses Johnson, who taught us if we wanted the land to care for us, we needed to care for the land.

As we fished the waters of Northern Tongass in the 1980s, it was hard to ignore the large swaths of clearcuts stretching miles across the land. I was used to seeing Forest Service logging close to Sitka, but these were different. There were no wildlife corridors, the stream buffers were miniscule and the sheer scale was enormous. It was a sobering to realize I was a shareholder in the native corporations who showed such a blatant disregard for our land.

Twenty-seven years later, I have seen Sealaska grow into a powerful force in Southeast Alaska whose board and top-level staff live a privileged life. Through the use of discretionary voting the Sealaska board insures that very few independent candidates are ever elected. There is virtually no turnover as board appointments are equivalent to a life-long term. The average Sealaska board member earns an estimated $46,551 annually for attending meetings and also receives $888 monthly for health costs. The top executives continue to earn performance bonuses even as an increasing proportion of shareholder dividends are dependent on the success of other native corporations. Tlingit culture was stratified in the past, with nobles receiving much of the wealth and prestige. It s not hard to see parallels with the current system of entrenched Sealaska board members that are, in essence a privileged class of Tlingit noblility.

The most recent dividend for urban shareholders totaled $698 for urban, $544 of which was from ANSCA mandated revenue sharing. Approximately $100 was a result of Sealaska business profits.

Meanwhile, Sealaska continues its divisive and not very profitable business plan. According to Byron Mallott, the very future of Sealaska Timber Corporation seems to hinge on the passage of the controversial Sealaska Lands bill. In 2011, he testified If S. 730 is stalled during the 112th Congress, either Sealaska will be forced to terminate all of its timber operations within approximately one year for lack of timber availability on existing land holdings. The 112th Congress ended on January 3rd 2013.

Rick Harris implied in a recent Sitnews piece that annually, from just our timber operations, over $50 million is expended in Southeast Alaska, and encouraged readers to check the McDowell report on the Sealaska website if they didn't believe him. I did. The most recent McDowell report states Sealaska Corporation, Sealaska Timber Corporation, and Sealaska Heritage Institute spent $45 million in 2008 in support of corporate and timber-related operations in Southeast Alaska. According to the report less than 20 people work for Sealaska Timber, and while outside logging contractors are encouraged to hire shareholders, not many are interested in logging jobs. I did call Sealaska multiple times for clarification of this discrepancy, but did not receive a response.

Sealaska tries to frame the lands bill as a native rights issue. I have not heard any group say that these land claims should not be settled. Sealaska greed has alienated many residents of the Tongass, and even their own shareholders as they become aware of the Sealaska hierarchy and how it operates to benefit the few. Southeast voters ushered out Sealaska board members and SE legislators Al Kookesh and Bill Thomas in the 2012 elections. In 2012, Sealaska board and staff contributed over $7,500 to both campaigns and Sealaska corporation paid for glossy color postcards which were mailed to shareholders endorsing both candidates in their districts.

It seems clear that Sealaska Corporation will do anything to preserve the status quo - life time terms for board members, huge performance bonuses for top staff and clearcutting the heart of our ancestral lands. It s time for Sealaska to change the way it does business. The pending Sealaska lands legislation does not change anything. It just continues the status quo and will primarily benefit Sealaska s privileged elite.

Clarice Johnson
johnson [at] ptialaska.net
Sitka, Alaska

About: " Sealaska Shareholder - Worked on commercial fishing boats through Southeast Alaska for over 25 years - seining, trolling, and longlining."

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