ABSTRACT
The Native people of Alaska, having battled with Congress for a settlement of their aboriginal rights, find that they must struggle with federal and state agencies to maintain their traditional access to and use of resources on the large portion of the state that is public land. Effective participation of Native people in agency decision-making requires clear communication, in both directions, across the language barrier. There are 20 Native languages in Alaska, divided into two major families. The Eskimo-Aleut family of five languages is spoken in the western and northern portion of the state and the Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit family of thirteen languages is found in the central and southern part of the state. In Native communities the elders typically play the dominant role in decision-making. English is recognized as a difficult language for public meetings in rural Alaska, in part because it may eliminate elders from the discussion.
