Alaska's tribes are the weakest in the nation. We were never treated as sovereign until well after statehood. Our tribes are splintered; divided into individual village units that struggle to be heard when trouble rises. When our litigiously hostile state government sues us for pursuing our own sovereign agenda, it always feels like some kind of David and Goliath story. How do we win? How will we ever win?

2014 was the year though, that we did win. The Secretary of the Interior made it possible for Alaska's tribal land to be put into trust. Our Alaskan congressional delegation fought and succeeded in repealing the Alaskan Exception in the Violence Against Women Act. Our path is up to us. We can now self-determine our path of self-determination.

This path is a tough one, of course. 56 tribes cannot each do it alone. How do we do this? We do this with unity. The status-quo of operating 56 separate tribal entities, with state chartered non-governmental regional service providers, and without a regional governance structure has not proved adequate. We need to legally unify, with the authority vested in us by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. This method of governing would be tribally chartered, under complete authority of the tribes and tribal citizens.

Every individual village community has it's own choice of whether or not to be a part of the regional tribal government. No unwilling village will have the regional tribal government imposed on them. It is best to be a part of the dialogue. Not attending is ensuring that your voice will not be heard. If your tribal council is worried that a regional tribal government will diminish the village tribe's sovereignty, then they can attend the constitutional convention to advocate for a confederal government. Let me explain what a confederal government is.