THIS WAS EMAILED TO ME THIS MORNING AND I BELIEVE THAT IT IS WORTH SHARING. PLEASE PASS IT ON... THIS IS JUST ANOTHER WAY
THAT THEY TIGHTEN THE SCREWS ON THE ALASKA NATIVE ART MARKET WITH BLATANT DISREGARD FOR THEIR CULTURE AND LIVELIHOOD .

Regards,
Seawitch
************************************************************

Elephant Ivory Ban's Impact on Alaska Native Arts Market

Hi All,

This is the guy to write to for representation of our issue at CITES, Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species. Tell him to let them know the walrus are not endangered. And that we will fight every time they try to ban our food sources and arts material. Thanks! Copy or use however you'd like. Pass it on to others. I am soooo busy!

---------------------------------------------

From: Susie Silook

Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2016 5:01 PM
To: bruce.dale@alaska.gov
Subject: Elephant Ivory Ban's Impact on Alaska Native Arts Market

Dear Bruce,

My name is Susie Silook, from Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. I am a member of Sikuliiq, Alaska Native Artist's Advocacy Group, created to address the negative impact of the elephant ivory bans sweeping the states in response to the Executive Order eliminating the market in African Elephant ivory in the United States. I am an artist who works with ivory and whalebone from our food sources.

Alaska Native Tribes were not consulted in the process of the policy making in this ban because, as stated in a press release from the Department of Interior and USFWS, they reviewed this issue in relation to their legal obligation for consultation and decided this matter did not concern us. Pretty unbelievable, but perhaps unintentional. We became aware this was a serious issue through the confusion that has arisen over the poorly worded bans. Since then, however, AFN and the Eskimo Walrus Commission Director have communicated this matter to USFWS to no avail.

Although we are exempted as stated in the Executive Order and various state laws via the MMPA, this is never explicitly clear, and except for Washington state there is no mention of Alaska Natives and our sustainable use of walrus ivory from food sources. To make matters worse, states are adding whale, polar bear, and sea otter products to their bans. This has created mass confusion about the legality of all ivory, called "blood ivory" by DOI in their initial press release, and sales have already been diminished. I am in contact with retail outlets and they tell me of the confusion and loss of revenue. California in particular, where anti-trafficking wildlife organizations behind these bans were very active, is the site of the most confusion. Customers tell shop owners of confiscations of seal fur products from checkpoints in San Francisco. This probably stems from confusion over the EU ban on seal products.

The EU ban on seal products destroyed 90% of the Greenlandic Inuit sustainable seal products market. While the Prime Minister of Denmark, after the fact, sought changes to the ban in favor of Inuit Peoples, the damage is done and the market will probably not fully recover. This is disturbing as the exact same devastation has begun to our market, and left unchecked, will do similar damage from which we may never fully recover.

As you know, especially on St. Lawrence Island, the walrus are the main food source, with the sales of arts and crafts from the inedible products the sole source of revenue for a community with a 75% unemployment rate. Sales allow for further food acquisition, and the price of hunting is not cheap in the high energy costs of rural Alaska. Of equal importance as food source and arts medium is the bow head whale. Other places in Alaska depend heavily on sea otter and seal products, as well as polar bear.

The well funded wildlife conservation groups are behind this well coordinated effort to, in their words, eliminate all ivory markets worldwide. While the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has purportedly adopted the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples Rights in their work both domestic and internationally, in reality, during their recent highly touted convention via mass emotive emailing, including many headless and rotting elephant carcasses, they completely disregarded the Canadian Inuit Circumpolar Council's objections in regards to Inuit concerns. They declared victory and proceeded to their next step strategic mass appeal to donors, to help them at the CITES convention in Johannesburg achieve their goal of eliminating all ivory markets worldwide.

Walrus ivory is easily differentiated from elephant and mammoth ivory. Even in fossilized form. This is important as the problem is elephant tusks disguised as old tusks to bypass checkpoints. Some African countries are allowing sports hunting to finance their conservation efforts and US individuals are allowed to bring back two trophies a year. There are objections from other countries, Namibia for one, to an all out ban. Not all elephant populations are endangered, and the sales from elephants who've died from natural causes could help fund the expenses of habitat preservation and law enforcement, among other things.

Poverty, habitat loss, and climate change are listed as other factors causing the elephant decline. The exact same thing could be said for the walruses. I'm told by biologists that the melting of the sea ice is now irreversible and it will continue to disappear. In fifty years we may not have a walrus population for food, much less for ivory.

I am asking that you demand Alaska Native concerns are definitively addressed at the upcoming CITES convention when the elephant ivory ban issue is up for discussion. All conservation organization emailing must include an education of Alaska Native sustainable walrus ivory and other sea mammal products, our culture, and the protection afforded us via MMPA. This is the least they can do after seeking to destroy us. There also needs to be a national conveyance of this by your office and the Department of Interior, as the onus is on you to repair the existing damage caused by your oversight, and the damage that is set to occur if nothing is done.

Poverty is already a painful reality in the villages dependent on our ancient and sustainable relationship with the whales and walruses, but it can get unbearably worse. We already deal with highly complicated social problems, climate change, PCB's in our foods. I am told this makes it overwhelming, by a carver in my village.

Please, I urge you to responsibly address Alaska Native concerns and be our voice. A United States voice would carry weight. We are counting on you, as we do not have the funding of these powerful organizations to correct the damage they've created without a shred of regard.

Please call anytime

Sincerely,

Susie Silook
Sikuliiq Artist's Group