What is ANPC?
“Native Minds Shaping Our Future”
The Alaska Native Policy Center (ANPC) connects and amplifies Native voices, perspectives, and leadership on issues that impact our peoples and our homelands. By doing this, we seek to improve the lives of Alaska Native people while fulfilling our responsibilities as stewards of this place. Our work ignites social and political change for the advancement of our peoples and all Alaskans.
Out of love for our peoples and our responsibilities to future generations, together we are creating a path to ensure that our ways of knowing and being, our unique cultures, and our connections to the land, air, water, animals, spirits, and each other continue for our future generations.
Current Work
Our work is always transforming based on the needs of our communities. Below are some of our current projects:
Through our dialogue process, we foster deep and respectful conversation between people across Alaska to build understanding and nourish strong relationships that will help sustain our people far into the future. Dialogue topics include racial equity, Alaska Native law and policy, Tribal governance trainings, child wellbeing, compacting, and other community-specific issues. Learn more about our dialogues here. Truth Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT): Building off our racial equity work, we convene truth-telling spaces that prioritize our people’s healing, create a record of Alaska’s true history, and advance systemic transformation through our Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation endeavor. Past topics have included Alaska Native hunting and fishing rights, access to our homelands, the boarding school era and the issue of our missing and murdered relatives. Read more about this here
When Natives fight Natives, someone else is winning. We bring together Alaska Native organizations to address points of conflict and healing. Past examples of this work have included working with our federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Native Corporations to identify the barriers, opportunities, and possibilities in working together for our people. Read more about that here
As Alaska Native people, we deserve to drive the decisions that affect our communities and shape our future. When we vote, run for office, or otherwise get involved in civic life, it allows us to have greater say in the policies and laws that affect us. Our work includes Civic Engagement Trainings, Get Out the Native Vote, and participating in census and redistricting efforts. Learn more about this work here.
The Protecting Our Ways of Life (POWOL) Working Group was formed in an effort to address the enduring harm inflicted by current fish and game management systems over our homelands. Learn more about our work here.
The Federation of United Pacific Peoples (FUPP) is a movement to strengthen the role of Indigenous stewardship over the oceans throughout Alaska and the Pacific. The importance of the oceans as our Ancestral waterways to Indigenous peoples and culture cannot be overstated. To protect them, we will build a collaborative plan and strong worldwide partnerships to focus on ocean sustainability, climate change, and Indigenous rights. Read more about this work here.