Who we are...

The Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments

Long before the first Russian explorer gazed upon the shoreline of what is now known as Alaska, the Gwich’in and Koyukon people of the Yukon Flats lived according to rules established by our own traditional governments. These rules were not written down on paper but even so were known and followed by the people. Through them the Gwich’in and Koyukon were able to maintain social order, develop our economies and manage the populations of animals and fish in a way that insured the survival of both wildlife and the humans that depended upon it.

At no time in the history of the Gwich’in and Koyukon did we ever agree - by treaty, warfare, or any other means – to cede our right of self-government to any other entity. Following the purchase from Russia by the United States of the right to trade with the Native people of Alaska, outsiders who did not always recognize the traditional forms of government of the Gwich’in and Koyukon began to pass through our country. Many came in search of wealth through the commercial exploitation of fur, gold or other resources. Others came as missionaries and schoolteachers, establishing churches and schools to educate the people in western ways. As Alaska was now considered to be a territory of the United States, federal and territorial government officials assumed that that they and the institutions they represented now had jurisdiction over the affairs of the Gwich’in and Koyukon, as well as the right to manage the animals and fish that had always sustained us. After Alaska became a state in 1959, the pressure upon the people of the Yukon Flats began to steadily increase. Former Governor Wally Hickel advanced a plan to build a dam on the Yukon River that would have flooded the villages of the Flats, along with the land that our people lived and hunted on. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed in December of 1971, creating Native regional and village corporations that were given legal title to the small portion of traditional tribal lands that were left in Native ownership.

Today, the biggest part of those traditional lands lie in the 12 million acre Yukon Flats Wildlife Refuge, managed out of the distant Fairbanks office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Yet, our tribes continue to exist and to hold the right of self-government. The United States Constitution recognizes three types of sovereigns within the boundaries of our great nation: the federal government, the tribes and the states. Even as citizens of states are also citizens of the federal government, we, as tribal members, are citizens of the State of Alaska and of the United States. Even as states interact with the United States on a government to government basis, our sovereign tribes retain the right to enter into government to government agreements with both state and federal entities. Ten tribes are located within our region, and the right to self-government rests with each tribe individually. Even so, recognizing that we are stronger together than we are separate, in 1985 we came together to form the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, or CATG. It is up to each member tribe to decide which services of government it will exercise individually and which it will join in with the other tribes under the umbrella of CATG. For example, the CATG Health Department oversees the operation of clinics in most of our villages and also staffs a large clinic in Fort Yukon that serves the entire region. We run our own Natural Resources department, with a staff that includes two wildlife biologists, one of whom is Gwich'in, and they work closely with hunters and elders educated in the traditional ways. Although we have faced many obstacles, CATG has accomplished much in a short time, and we yet have much more to do. We hope visitors enjoy this website and come back often, as we will be adding onto and updating it in the future.