Policy Priorities

AFN's annual policy activities are informed by the resolutions that are passed by our membership at AFN's Convention every October. Convention is the largest representative annual gathering in the United States of any Native peoples. Delegates are elected on a population formula of one representative per twenty-five Native residents in the area and delegate participation rates at the annual convention typically exceed 95 percent. Strategic planning policy guidelines and advocacy work are set by the dozens of resolutions passed by voting delegates at the Convention every year.

Click here to download our convention resolutions. 


Strategic Plan | 2017-2022

Create Opportunities with the Federal Administration

  • Work with delegation to educate administration and Congress about Alaska and Alaska Native issues
  • Promote job growth and workforce development
    • Prepare to take advantage of opportunities from growth in military spending
    • National legislation to enable large scale projects with Native hire agreements; such as the gas pipeline
    • Encourage entrepreneurship and small business development
    • Support reduced federal taxes due to tax reform
    • Secure tax credits for Alaskan investments
  • Pull together a national coalition to achieve passage of hold-harmless legislation to protect existing Native American program funding
  • Ensure Alaska Natives are eligible to for all federal resources, including school funding and public safety (+ opioid epidemic, broadband)
  • Achieve the removal of regulations which impede Native development of natural resources on Native lands (+ engage in planning process)
  • Address trespassing on our lands and protect our resources and subsistence rights, including game management
  • 2020 Census

Assert Our Rightful Place in the State of Alaska: In Law, Policy and Public Engagement

  • Mobilize every region and village to exercise greater self-determination
  • Expand compacting saving the State funding and expanding our capacity, such as:
    • Education
    • Corrections
    • Tribal courts
    • Fish and Game enforcement
  • Achieve formal recognition of Alaska’s federally recognized tribes in law and policy
  • Engage with parents, teachers, school boards, universities and government to accomplish better educational opportunities for our children;  boarding schools, teacher training, especially Native and local teachers, Native language, curriculum development
  • University system
  • Empower the next generation by actively supporting and fostering collaboration across generations with opportunities to shape the future of the Native community
  • Improve the in-state investment climate, which supports economic growth and sustainable economies for the future 
  • Combat racism; promote education for cultural competence
  • Foster care

Enhance Relationships Between Alaska’s Federally Recognized Tribes, Tribal Consortiums and Corporations

  • Enhance collaboration between Tribes and Corporations
  • Ensure maximum transparency on policy decisions
  • Communication: enhance internal mechanism for sharing and leveraging
  • Adopt standardized norms for process such as Informed Consent
  • Develop new ground for sustaining a respectful, genuine dialogue and successful partnership between tribes and ANCSA corporations and among all AFN member organizations.
    • Support development of a new paradigm for self-governance which recognizes our inherent rights
    • Empower a strong tribal voice and its critical role in the Native community
    • Empower ANCSA corporations to grow and adapt to opportunities in the economy
    • Empower our young tribal leaders to create new ground for their generation, which learns from those who are in leadership positions now, and those who have gone before us
  • Emergency preparedness for all our communities
  • Engage with UN and other international arenas
  • Co-management