NYT: Interest Groups [Alaska Native Tribes Mostly] Turn Up Pressure on Senators Before Kavanaugh Vote

From the New York Times

“We view ourselves in solidarity with our native Hawaiian brothers and sisters,” said Richard J. Peterson, the president of the Tlingit and Haida Indian tribes. “The fact that he questions their validity tells us that he is going to do the same with us.”

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Alaska Natives have been strong supporters of Ms. Murkowski. The Alaska Federation of Natives, the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska representing 186 federally recognized tribes, raised $1.6 million dollars and grass-roots support for her in 2010, when she ran a write-in campaign for re-election after a Tea Party challenger beat her in the Republican primary.

“We helped most Alaskans learn how to spell ‘Murkowski,’” Mr. Peterson joked.

NYT Feature on Alaska Inupiat People and Oil Drilling

From the NYTs:

Damon Winter/The New York Times

A bone from a Bowhead whale skull rests on the arctic shore outside of Barrow as monument to the defining role that whaling plays for this coastal community.

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