Tribal organizations respond to COVID-19 hardship

Native Americans nationwide have been especially hit hard by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but tribes and Alaska Native Corporations in Nome and the surrounding region have put up a strong response to assist tribal members and shareholders through these difficult times.

Nome Eskimo Community, NEC for short, is the largest tribe in the Nome area, with just over 1,700 members living in Nome and another 1,500 living elsewhere. They had a number of ongoing relief programs even before the pandemic started in March to help low-income tribal members.

“Under normal circumstances Nome Eskimo Community does offer income-based financial relief programs to our membership,” said NEC Executive Director Tiffany Martinson. “After we received our

CARES Act funds, we were able to revise the program to help support more families who were impacted by the pandemic.”

The Emergency Welfare Assistance Program and the Emergency Housing Assistance Program provide reimbursement for a wide range of essential expenses, including mortgage assistance, childcare, fuel and utilities.

While the programs existed before the pandemic, Martinson said that NEC was able to expand them with a combination of federal CARES money as well as grants from the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act, Norton Sound Health Corporation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

On top of the existing programs, NEC also instituted the Coronavirus Emergency Financial Assistance Program to help tribal members with pandemic-related expenses and economic losses.

While the existing assistance programs are only available to tribal members living within the City of Nome, the coronavirus-specific program is available to any tribal member, Martinson said. This program has already helped more 750 families.

Approved applicants receive a month of funding, Martinson said, and can reapply for up to two more. The original deadline was August 31, but because of the continued hardship brought on by the pandemic and availability of funding, that deadline has been extended to December 11.

“We extended the deadline because we’ve gotten this huge response, but there are still some people who could be unaware,” Martinson

said. “Or perhaps some folks are just a little bit behind the curve and haven’t had a chance to apply yet.”

She encouraged NEC members facing financial hardship to visit NEC’s website at necalaska.org or call the main office line at 907-4432246.

Another organization working to alleviate the pressure of the pandemic on Native people is Kawerak, which operates a broad range of support programs even in normal times. Outreach Coordinator Danielle Slingsby said their first priority was making sure those regular programs stayed up and running.

“Initially the physical office shut down, and we ensured that critical staff were set up to work from home,” she said. “Staff that were unable to work from home were put on paid leave, because Kawerak wanted to ensure employees were not put in a position where they could not pay their bills or feed their families and the priority was to do our part to keep everyone safe.”

Operations that could be done from home like the welfare assistance program and Child Advocacy Center continued as normal, and Kawerak staff found creative ways to adjust other programs to a remote model.

They distributed laptops to students in the GED program and childcare supplies to families in need, Slingsby said. They worked with

small businesses to apply for relief loans, and the Head Start program started remote activities for kids online and through take-home packets.

Slingsby said Kawerak received close to $6 million in CARES funding, some of which has gone to various programs and some of which is being distributed in the form of direct financial assistance.

The AK Can Do program is available to all residents of the region who have been economically impacted by COVID-19 and can help with basic expenses like rent, utilities and childcare. Similarly, the COVID-19 Income Loss Support Program is available to tribal members and can help with similar expenses.

Applications for both programs close on September 30, so Slingsby encouraged those struggling financially to visit the Kawerak website or call either 907-443-4367 or 907-4434466 to learn more about applying.

Meanwhile, Bering Straits Native Corporation has also been providing pandemic relief, in the form of dividends to shareholders.

At the very beginning of the pandemic in March, BSNC sent out $2.1 million in financial assistance to shareholders, according to President and CEO Gail Schubert. This took the form of a special emergency dividend of $3 per share and a special emergency Elder dividend of $250.

She also said BSNC would issue a record-high dividend of $8.33 per share in November, in addition to a 2020 special Elder dividend of $1,500. Additionally, BSNC donated $5,000 to the Food Bank of Alaska, which last year provided more than 105,000 pounds of food to a number of Bering Strait communities.

“We exist to support our Alaska Native communities and shareholders economically, culturally and socially,” Schubert said. “We have been paying close attention to the COVID pandemic and have advocated for Alaska Native Corporations, including village corporations, to receive Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding.”

While tribal organizations like Nome Eskimo Community and tribal governments in the villages received part of the $8 billion in CARES money allocated to “Indian tribes,” Alaska Native Corporations like BSNC have not.

The issue has been the subject of a prolonged legal battle after a number of tribes in the Lower 48 and Alaska sued the federal government to withhold CARES funds from ANC’s, arguing that they did not serve the same purposes as tribal governments.

At the end of June, a U.S. District Court ruled that ANC’s should be eligible for the funds. According to Schubert, however, that litigation is still ongoing and BSNC has yet to receive any funding. It is not yet clear whether BSNC will be reimbursed for the increased dividends paid to its shareholders.

The plaintiffs of the suit argue that since Alaska Native tribal organizations like Nome Eskimo Community received CARES funding, Alaska Native corporations should not. But Schubert disagreed.

“Alaska Native people who are ANC shareholders are also tribally enrolled. This does not mean we are ‘double-dipping,’” she said. “Our tribal rights were bifurcated by the federal government such that our tribes have sovereign status, while our ANCSA corporations own our Native lands. Together, we work to benefit all Alaska Native people.”

She pointed out the severe lack of infrastructure in many regional villages, with five villages lacking basic water and sewer, as well as the disproportionate rates of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization among Alaska Native people, as evidence that the additional support is badly needed.

The lawsuit is ongoing, and for now all Alaska Native organizations are working with what they have to ease the pressure of the pandemic on their communities.