Emmonak's Nick Tucker demands apology from Palin administration.

From ADN reporter Kyle Hopkins:

Check out yesterday's post for more background, but back on Friday, Palin tweeted that there was good news coming out of her rural adviser's visit to the lower Yukon village of Emmonak.

"John Moller just returned from Emmonak, reports 50% of residents have subsistence needs met already, others confident they can do the same," she wrote.

And: "Good update re Rural Advisor John Moller's recnt Emmonak trip, great news he reports; we'll twitter assuming press won't pick up good news.

What was that good news? I asked Palin's spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, today in an e-mail.

"The good news – At the Federal Subsistence meeting in Emmonak last week, Nick Tucker reported that 50 percent of the residents have met subsistence needs and other 50 percent are confident they will meet their needs," Leighow replied.

(Tucker drew statewide and national attention this winter when he wrote a letter describing a food and fuel crisis on the lower Yukon.)

Here's where it gets complicated. Tucker says he never said that and is demanding a public apology from the governor's camp.

“I want them to take it back," Tucker said in a short phone interview today.

“I’ve never said that. Ten times over, I’ve never said that. It was from one fisherman in Alakanuk," he said. "I do not believe that we in Emmonak – Emmonak never said that.”

Those of you who are long time readers of this, and other Alaskan blogs, are probably very familiar with Nick Tucker and his amazing letter that prompted an incredible outpouring of support which helped save the village of Emmonak and other Yukon Delta villages during extremely harsh times last winter.

Mr. Tucker is an extremely honest, no nonsense, fellow that speaks his mind when asked a question and does not put up with liars or people who make promises they do not intend to keep.

Trying to gain credibility by using Nick's name to fabricate a story about how well the people in Emmonak are doing was a huge mistake on the part of the Palin administration and one that is definitely going to bite them in the ass.

(By the way Dennis Zaki is working on videos of his interviews in Emmonak and I will try to get them up as soon as they become available. He also interviewed Nick Tucker about this issue.)

Nick Tucker's response to the dismissive attitude he endured while meeting with Governor Palin.

Nick Ticker had to fly from his village of Emmonak to Russian Mission to finally get a chance to talk to the Governor, and to give her his heartbreaking letter which brought national attention to the crisis in the Yukon Delta. Here is the video of that meeting:



And here is what Nick Tucker wrote about his feelings afterward.

First off. I am outraged.

Think of this: Did Martin Moore and I have to go meet Gov. Sarah Palin there in Russian Mission and Marshall? Why did she not come here to Emmonak?

I don't have the latest figures, but Martin had told me that there are over 20,000 people in our region, the Wade Hampton district. If at least 50 percent are employable and are not working, where are these 10,000 young and older men and women going to exodus in trying to find jobs; who has 10,000 jobs available?

I felt like Governor Palin treated Emmonak with most disregard and disrespect by not coming here where it all started. Instead, we had to go up to Russian Mission to meet her and followed her to Marshall.

I was there. About whom and to whom was she referring that top leadership in what village(s) should be changed? This is a blow to all rural villages telling each one of us that our past and current leadership isn't worth being there!

Why and on what basis? This message is dismal, not of hope. How do I take things?
Here, I had a person whom I voted for and who turns around and stabs us? I tell you, I want things done for Emmonak. And now, for all rural villages. We deserve better than that — respect.

(You can read the letter in its entirety by clicking the title at the top of the page.)

Nick Tucker has become a symbol of Alaskan natives today, and a very dignified symbol at that. By contrast Governor Palin has become the very symbol of the arrogant, apathetic government in Alaska. Her actions are a reflection of just how poorly these proud people have been treated for hundreds of years, and is the living embodiment of what is wrong with how those of European descent view the indigenous people of North America.

It is time for new leadership in Alaska, and to start taking a critical look at how those in power have treated the people whose land they have so callously usurped. Surely we have evolved enough to recognize that our behaviors of the past must not be repeated in the future.

I am very pleased with some who are currently in leadership positions in Alaska, like Lisa Murkowski who helped get Emmonak $20,000 in aid and promised more to come. And future leaders like Walt Monegan, who is part native himself and who wrote about the coming crisis in the rural villages years before Nick Tucker's letter gained national attention.

So there is hope for how the native people are to be respected by the government in the future, but clearly Sarah Palin is NOT part of that healing process. As if we needed another reason to vote her out of office at the next available opportunity, THIS one should be the final nail in her political coffin.

(BTW I must give a hat tip to my good friend AKM, over at Mudflats, for the heads up concerning this letter by Mr. Tucker.)

Here is video of Nick Tucker trying to explain to Governor Palin how difficult life in the rural native communities has become.

(Please click the title to have your heart broken by Nick Tuckers emotional plea and Governor Palin's dismissive response.)

Look how eloquently Mr. Tucker expresses the needs of his people and look how uncomfortable Palin becomes when he will not accept her standard BS in lieu of a real solution to their crisis.

I cannot believe she still has the gall to use her husband as an example of a "native that did good" by leaving the villages. The place that he grew up in Dillingham, Alaska , is NOTHING like the small villages in the Yukon Delta! That is so incredibly insulting! And he NEVER worked on the slope and returned to live in Dillingham either! (I covered that on February 20th.) That is an out and out lie!

God she is absolutely empty inside.

Nick Tucker, the man whose letter brought national attention to the plight of rural Alaskans, finally gets some face time with Sarah Palin.

(Photo of Nick Tucker courtesy of Dennis Zaki.)

Palin, with evangelist Franklin Graham at her side, arrived Feb. 20 with planeloads of food for rural Alaskans beset by a cold winter, sickening fuel costs, poor commercial fishing and staggering unemployment. The governor’s arrival scene was repeated later the same day in another Western Alaska village.

Palin spread a message of hope in Russian Mission and Marshall, and said often that youths should get resource-development jobs so they can earn money and return to their village part of the year.

The entourage’s short visit to each village mixed a campaign-trail energy with brief elements of a church-rally. (It is unsurprising that when confronted with a problem like this that Palin resorts to her comfort areas, campaign style interactions with large audiences and faith based solutions to the "problem".)

Palin worked the adoring crowds, squeezing cheeks, bending low to pose with elders and kids and bear-hugged strangers as if they were old friends.

“I’m so happy to be here, especially to get to meet all the kids in this village. You are beautiful kids!” she shouted, doing a sort-of gunslinger motion with her index fingers. ("Duck kids she is channeling her wolf hunting personality!")

She said the rest of Alaska and the nation care about the village. (Which is the only reason you will find her ass in such a god forsaken place.)

“As your governor, we’re here to partner with Samaritan’s Purse and other churches and other people across the nation who recognize Alaska’s uniqueness and recognize that Alaska faces some challenges right now with the high costs of food and high costs of energy,” she said. “Just know that we ask for God’s blessing over this part of Alaska also and those things the state government can do to assist, we’re here to help.” (But we are really hoping God does something because we Republicans just don't believe in spending too much time with people who cannot make large contributions to our political campaigns.)

Yoo know it still bothers me that Sarah Palin went to these two villages. And I am not the only one who is confused by the choice.

Several people in Marshall and Russian Mission said most people have enough to eat, but they said they appreciated the help.

George Owletuck, a middle-age man and former tribal law professor in Fairbanks who recently moved back to Marshall, said some elders were amused by a television news report that people were starving in the village when there’s so much fish around.

So as I said in a previous post this was nothing more then a glorified photo op which allowed Sarah Palin to appear to be doing something about the native Alaskans in crisis while avoiding the potential embarrassment of running into actual natives in crisis who are angry with her lack of response. Going to Emmonak meant interacting with people who have been suffering terribly and who are demanding that something be done to keep this same thing from happening next year.

But you know what they say, if you cannot get Mohammad to the mountain, then bring the mountain to Mohammad.

Nicholas Tucker flew to the villages to personally hand Palin the letter he’d written six weeks earlier. His plea for help described vivid stories of hunger in Emmonak, another village down the Yukon River from Russian Mission and Marshall.

Throughout the day, Tucker listened and watched Palin. Not being from Russian Mission or Marshall, it would be rude to steal their chance for attention, he said.

But in the Russian Mission gym, he jostled his way through the crowd and caught up to Palin.
During a four-minute conversation, he thanked her for coming, and asked if she could provide help to create jobs in the villages.

She bent over to speak close, and said resource development can create jobs for young people.

“So working together — you and the local communities and state government — we’re going to be able to allow these economies to be revitalized,” she said. (This is Palin talk meaning that if the damn Democrats will just let the oil companies drill in ANWR or if she can somehow get her natural gas pipeline through then the streets of Emmonak will be paved with gold. Beyond that she simply has no solutions.)

He said what the Native people really want is “to get restored back to who we are. The Native people are very strong people and this is probably the only time they … cried out for help.”

Tucker gave her his letter and asked her to read it.

She said she would.

Then she waded back into the crowd.

Look I know that I can be very cynical sometimes, and I really hope that she took that letter with her and read it on the plane on her way back to Anchorage, but I cannot help but feel that somewhere between Russian Mission and Wasilla that letter found itself deposited in a handy trash receptacle.