BYRON MALLOTT: Thank you, Janie, and thank you, Commonwealth North for offering this venue to the First Alaskans Institute and the Alaska Native Policy Center. I don't think Janie mentioned it, but she is chair of the First Alaskans Institute's board of trustees in addition to everything else that she does, so I kind of had to be here. Thank you, Janie, also for making this possible.

The First Alaskans Institute began existence as the Alaska Federation of Natives Foundation, was spun off as an autonomous institution in the year 2002 at which time the owners of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system and Alyeska Pipeline Company committed to provide First Alaskans Institute with an endowment of $20 million. It's an interesting endowment in that it was the result of a handshake. There was no formal obligation on the part of the First Alaskans Institute to do anything in particular. The relationship grew in some meaningful part from the relationship of the owner companies and Bob Malone who at the time was CEO of Alyeska Pipeline Company and Morris Thompson who at the time was chairman and CEO and president of Doyon Corporation and the chairman of the First Alaskans Institute board.

Having been done on a handshake though, and with no formal obligation one to the other the relationship began in recognition of the fact that the Alaska Native community and the oil industry were very significant sectors, not just of the Alaskan economy but of Alaskan society and we pledged to work with one another on issues of common concern. And we meet on a regular basis in order to see how we're doing.

The First Alaskans Institute is today organized around the Alaska Native Policy Center. The mantra of the Alaska Native Policy Center is Native minds shaping our future. Those of us who have been -- were involved at the time and have been involved since in the formation and the implementation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, have always dreamed of having an Alaska Native think tank. The notion of a research institution that could look at issues of importance to us as well as all Alaskans, and to provide information, data, dialogue to others in a manner that, hopefully, allows the issues under discussion. Those matters that we are focusing on, the depth and breadth and kind of involvement that takes public policy discussion and public policy information in those areas to another level. And I mean up not down.

The Alaska Native Policy Center as has been mentioned is headed by Greta Goto. It was founded two years ago and Greta is the first director. The notion of Native minds shaping our future is taking several forms one of which we will be discussing today, the actual research that the institution does. One of the other compelling missions of the First Alaskans Institute is to be involved with the development of Alaska Native leadership. And we have pledged that in the work of the institute that that will be one of our missions and one of our values.

So, for example, we are in the process of creating what for lack of a better title at this point we call the brain trust. All of us in Alaska and Mark Hamilton, the president of the University of Alaska, soon upon his arrival with a big bang, I might say, indicated that the University was very concerned about the number of Alaskans attending the University of Alaska and, of course, we all know developed an innovative response to that issue.

We at First Alaskans are just as concerned with the overall leaving of Alaska of some of our best talent, but particularly within the Native community. And so the brain trust is an effort just aborning (ph) if we can't bring our leadership those that we've educated and send off into the world home physically we want to bring their brains home. And the brain trust is a concept which will use a powerful web portal where we will engage Alaskan Native leaders and emerging leaders wherever they are in dialogue, in issues, keeping them acquainted with their culture, with what's going on in our state both generally and with respect to Alaska's Native people. And to develop a robust relationship and network that will allow to, as I said, bring our brains home if their physical beings can't be. It's an existing concept and we look forward to working with other institutions, the University of Alaska and many others as we evolve.

Several years ago the Alaska Federation of Natives commissioned the Alaska Native Policy Center to do the Our Future, Our Choices project. And essentially to take the result of research and analysis and data gathering conducted by the Institute of Social & Economic Research at the University of Alaska which first had been compiled in 1989 and then updated at the time of the award of a contract to the Alaska Native Policy Center looking at a range of issues that affect rural Alaska and particularly Alaska's Native peoples.

AFN at the time that it commissioned an update of that 1989 data with ISER wanted Alaska Native Policy Center particularly to look at the information in the context of the Alaska Native community. And Greta, for example, and the folks working with her on the analysis -- and I'm not using research language here because I ain't one, but took the data and made it fit the regional boundaries of the Alaska Native corporations so that we would have a frame of reference that would be useful to us as we looked at the data.

We also took the data and tried to conform it to how we look at our world. And we took the data out to seven of the 12 regions and met with some 1,400 people, I think, across the state. Looking at the data, getting feedback, trying to understand their reaction to it, asking them to help us identify gaps, having them respond to the data in terms of what more is needed, whether we were looking at the right issues, at the right areas. And trying to -- and this is what we will be doing next with that base of feedback that we received is to get behind the numbers to look at the data that has been accumulated.

And it's very important data because as all of you know some of the most important data that we can find and keep useful is data that we're able to trend. Data of a particular point in time can tell us something, but it is much more meaningful in the context of being able to see it over a long period of time. And we intend to do that with this data and most importantly the mantra, again, within the First Alaskans Institute is we intend to get behind the data and to understand it and to mine it and to parse it and to look at it in the context of what it really means both to evolve understanding, to evolve dialogue, and hopefully to evolve where it's appropriate the kinds of public policy responses that we and all Alaskans can become involved in making happen.

So at this time I'd like to introduce Greta Goto who will walk us through the data and both of us will be available after her presentation to be responsive to any questions that you may have.

Duane said to me just prior to lunch he said, gosh, Byron, this is the first time that I think I'll be seeing you make a formal presentation. Everything you've done before has been ad libbed. And I said it's still going to be that way because Greta's going to be making the formal presentation, so I'd like to introduce Greta Goto. (Applause)

GRETA GOTO: Thank you. And thank you, Byron. Thank you Commonwealth North, Governor Hickel. This is quite an honor to be in front of you this morning, early afternoon.

I'm going to just briefly walk through the four sections of the report, but before I do that there's some folks I see in the audience that I'd like to just recognize because they played a very significant role in helping us pull this report together. It was a collaborative effort as Byron mentioned with the Institute of Social & Economic Research. Dr. Goldsmith is here in the audience. I saw Jane Anvik over here. Senator Vic Fischer, Lance Howe, Paul (indiscernible), Lexie Hill, a number of people at ISER were just very generous in making themselves available to us to answer questions and providing some the graphs and charts that you're going to see.

We also as Byron mentioned took this information out to several of our regions and there are lot of regional organizations that played a big role in this as well. And our staff. I mean this couldn't be done without staff too, and I want to recognize them. George Ervin who's over here in the corner. Sarah Sherry, who put in a lot of time and effort. Sarah Scanlon. A number of us in the office had a role in this.

What I want to do is just take you quickly through some population numbers, some education, health and economic numbers, and briefly just kind of tell you what we found. As you know, demographic and data information is important because it can help us and be used for planning and for decision making and allocations about resources.

The 2000 census showed here that the Alaska Native population makes up about 19 percent of the total Alaska population for the last census. The trend, that percentage wise trend has been about the same over the last 40 years. It's projected to be -- our population is projected to be about 165,000 Alaska Natives by the year 2020. And in terms of percentages based on calculations that ISER did as well as checking them against the recent Department of Labor stats probably about 22 percent or so of the population in 2020 will be comprised of Alaska Natives.

We're a very young population. Our median age is about 24 years old. And at the 2000 census about 44 percent of our population was aged 19 years old or younger compared to about 31 or 32 percent of the non-Native population in the state.

I'm moving a little fast here. As we've been presenting this information around the state we've been told that people really appreciate seeing this information broken out by the regions as Byron mentioned. It provides a different perspective. And kind of thinking outside the box I recall when we presented this to a group of the College of Education entities throughout the state they were -- it took people kind of by surprise because they hadn't seen it like this before.

The majority of the Alaska Native population still lives in rural and remote Alaska. The urban Alaska Native population is increasing. And I think it's interesting to note, too, that the data shows that the non-Native population in remote and rural Alaska is a little bit larger than the Native population. Migration to and from rural and urban centers between the two and to our regional centers, I think is going to require consistent and updated demographic data so that communities can plan for current and future changes in the economic health and economic -- education systems.

Speaking of education, in many of the meetings that we've been holding and presentations that we've been giving we've heard that public schools need to be effective community institutions that teach Native as well as non-Native students the basic academic skills that are necessary to succeed in all areas of their lives. The data showed some really, really good things like that. Access to local high schools. In 1960 about 1,700 Alaska Natives were reported to have high school degrees. By the year 2000 over 53,000 Alaska Natives had reported having high school degrees. I think that's really something to celebrate. But with these improvements comes challenges.

First Alaskans Institute had commissioned two surveys that asked Alaska Natives what they think about the state of public education. The results of those surveys showed that Alaska Natives highly value education, but they're concerned about the performance of our schools. We didn't stop there. We wanted to know who they are identifying as people or those entities that are responsible for dealing with the issues. And the survey results identified school districts, school boards, parents and the state.

One of the reasons that the public school system is so important to and for Alaska Natives is that 24 percent of our public school enrollment is comprised of Alaska Natives. And, of course, this again varies by region. In the Calista region, for example, about 95 percent of the school enrollment in the public school system is comprised of Alaska Natives. In the Cook Inlet Region which includes the Anchorage School District, Kenai and Mat-Su about 11 percent are Alaska Native students, but that's 8,000 kids.

This next couple of slides that you're going to see I want you to be sure to understand that these are from the 2003- 2004 school year. We're in the process of updating this report for the 2004-2005 school year. But I think it kind of gives and paints a picture of some of the things that we're concerned about that we see in the data. And that is an academic achievement gap of approximately 30 percent across all three grade levels here as well as in the high school graduation qualifying exams. And the data that ISER pulled together supports this notion as well. But we believe that this is an issue of system, something that can be fixed because it's not about the individual students.

Our data as well as ISER data supports and indicates that Alaska Native students do succeed in school, do go on to get further training and can be quite successful in careers. But if our kids are not staying in school those opportunities, education, economic and others become much more limited. The data shows that Alaska Native high school drop-out rate is almost twice as high than all other students. And this drop- out rate measures the number of students in grades seven through 12 that have left the school system for one year during a particular school year. And the percentages may not seem that high, but when you start to look at the numbers 1,000 Alaska Native students, 1,800 of all other students, that's a lot of kids.

I think perhaps more alarming is the high school graduation rate where the data indicates that only 47 1/2 percent of Alaska Native students graduated high school for the 2003-2004 school year. This rate measures how many kids who start out in ninth grade who stay in school to complete their four year degree.

Now no child left behind, I know, is not the favorite topic for many people, but one thing that it has done is provided information in a way that we can look at it by groups. And that's something that's very important. And, again, some of this information isn't new, but the way we're looking at it is new and it's from a different perspective. And, again, as Byron mentioned we want to be looking at the trends, what's happening over time.

The other thing I'll point out there, too, is that we're not only concerned about Alaska Native students, we're concerned about all students because if everybody is successful the whole state benefits.

From the feedback that we received regarding economics we learned that local and regional leaders really want to have an understanding of how their local economies are working. They want to be sure that economic development respects cultural and traditional values, and that it truly provides an opportunity for successful future both rural and urban Alaska.

You'll see from some of the data up here that ANCSA regional and village corporations generate almost $13 billion in revenues. They employ 13,000 people. Native profit and nonprofit corporations are among the largest employers in the state. But the economic picture for the average Alaska Native isn't quite the same. 17 percent of the Alaska work force 16 years old and older is Alaska Native, but 33 percent of the unemployed are Alaska Native. Most of these employed -- the data shows are employed in labor service, clerical and operative type positions.

The 2000 census showed that 71 percent of all income from Alaska Natives comes from wages and salaries, but the statewide average income per Native household is over $17,000 less than the non-Native household income. And, again, this varies by region. In poverty there is a continued disparity between Native and non-Native households with 20 percent of Native households living below the poverty line compared to about 7 percent in the non-Native households.

And we also wanted to see where the money went so we looked at cost of food. A week's worth of groceries purchased for a family of four in Bethel in 1983 cost about $128. Twenty years late it was $186 compared to 106 in Anchorage.

And we've heard a lot in the news lately about the price of electricity, the price of fuel and while we're feeling some pinches here in Anchorage the situation is much worse out in our rural communities. This slide shows that the power cost equalization adjustment helps to lower the cost of electricity for residents in many communities. This particular slide is just showing an example of electricity costs for a few communities in the Calista region. If PCE were not in place these residents would be paying over 50 cents per kilowatt hour for their electricity compared to about 11 cents for what we pay here in Anchorage. And I think it's interesting to note, too, that ISER found that the average residential customer in remote rural Alaska uses quite a bit less electricity than we do here in urban areas and it costs quite a bit more.

The final section I want to share with you is in health. And here, again, the data indicated some great things happening, some very positive things happening and there's still some challenges. One of the successes here is in the health data with the life expectancies and that they have increased so much. Another great success story is the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium that operates the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. And one of the reasons why we think this is a great success story is it demonstrates how people can come together with a common vision and accomplish something quite amazing. Health data indicated improvements in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

The health data also indicated some challenges in health such as higher rates of smoking, higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse than non-Natives. And these are some of the risk factors for higher rates of STSD, physical abuse and suicide. New challenges in Native health include obesity and diabetes and we've been hearing more about that in the news lately too.

Feedback to all this data were numerous. Specifics regarding health included suggestions for information on health issues impact education, how they impact economic systems. People are concerned about having appropriate policies in place that provide for them. We also heard that some of these health data are likely a symptom of larger and deeper issues that are affecting many people.

In closing, there's a lot of information not only in our analysis but in the ISER report. And I would urge you to take a look at that. They're both available on our web site as well the ISER web site. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

And as Byron mentioned this project is not completed. We're going to be working with other organizations to figure out more effective and efficient methods for updating this information and continue to provide it to leaders such as yourselves to be using in decision making and planning for the future. Thank you. (Applause)

MR. MALLOTT: Thank you, Greta. One of the things that I found over my years of involvement in these kinds of issues is that sometimes we get a little bit uncomfortable when we talk about distinctions, when we talk about differences. The reality is that it's there. And our work is not focused on mining those distinctions in any way other than to close the gaps so that ultimately we can all achieve the kind of Alaska that we want where there are no distinctions other than those built upon respect for those things that make us different in terms of culture, in terms of our values, in terms our beliefs, and ultimately to celebrate those kinds of differences in the most positive way possible. In order to get there we have to understand, we have to be responsive to, we have to build the kind of social and public policy that are responsive to the kinds of issues that we show here.

The Alaska Native Policy Center has just let a follow- up contract to another report that it finished last year looking at kindergarten through 12th grade education. The follow-up contract, again, is designed to look behind the numbers to try to look at the data in order to allow us to be involved with all of you who have interest and concern and direct involvement in those areas in order to build toward the kind of Alaska we all want to achieve.

As we begin like the First Alaskans Institute hosted three -- over three years three Native education summits. Our notion at the time as we were looking for our place was that there was a real need for focus and statewide Native educational advocacy. We believe that possibly the creation of some entity in that area might be appropriate.

What we found very heartening was that there is tremendous work happening all across the state in every area that we looked at. Much of it is siloed. People with their heads down doing wonderful work in education. And the major issues that flowed from these three educational summits, and I don't think it's surprising upon reflection, but it is important. It wasn't so much about education, the notion of the parental involvement, the notion of the educational system being involved with the community in powerful ways, and particularly in rural Alaska where multi-million dollar physical plant is made a part of the community as opposed to operating only from 9:00 till 3:00 and then being closed up for the rest of the 24 hour period and closed up during the entire, you know, non-school year.

And as we began to look at that information, and again, it wasn't a revelation, it just seemed to swim into focus in a common sense kind of way, but much of what we're looking at is the notion of creating healthy communities. Not just healthy in the physical sense, but communities whereby we can look at and determine and begin to measure and create responses to what can help us create healthy communities. For example, parental involvement. It isn't about banging on the school administrator although some people like to do that, it isn't about, you know, cursing the University system for not being responsive at a local school district. It's about how can a community have an attitude and the relationship with its school such that that happens and such that there is support and a community value in that area.

And so as we look down the road both in the work of the Alaska Native Policy Center and with First Alaskans Institute generally we keep moving toward this notion, this holistic notion of what is needed is a public policy effort to build healthy communities and to have that vision in our minds in addition to the notion of funding this program and doing this and doing that and doing this other thing in an incremental way, but to try to bring the vision thing into the reality of what we do every day.

And so as we look at our polestar as the First Alaskans Institute evolves we're moving more and more toward this notion of a shared community vision and creating healthy communities. Greta and I would be pleased at this point to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. (Applause)