The record is clear, Alaska’s Moose population as well as other game continue to dissipate while, once again, approximately seven hundred Alaskans have lost their constitutional right of access to subsistence meat along with their right to sport hunt due to “the luck of the draw.” As such the State of Alaska has allowed seven hundred permits to be issued to foreign nationals and non-resident hunters thereby giving them precedence over Alaskans’ subsistence and sport food gathering rights, provided for and guaranteed under the eighth amendment to the Alaska constitution. Wealthy local and non-resident big game guides take in millions of dollars from foreign nationals and non-residents at the expense of resident Alaskans who are thus denied their right, to gather meat, statewide, for their families to subsist upon.
How much longer will it take until our alleged Alaska Legislature accepts the fact that our state ceased to be a safari destination for the world upon statehood? No Alaskan family should be forced to enter a lottery with foreign nationals and non-residents in the hopes of putting meat in the freezer for their families on “the luck of the draw.”
