In a familiar Anchorage ballroom, an Alaska political powerhouse emerges

Michael Carey, the longtime editorial page editor at the ADN, has been watching Alaska politics closely for decades. He knows a phenomenon when he sees one — and he details that here.

Thursday I attended the morning session of the Alaska Federation of Native convention, held at the largest convention hall in Anchorage. The event draws hundreds of delegates, their families, guests, legislators, professionals who have some role in the proceedings, and media members. There are vendors, too, from the local cable company to old ladies outside the doors selling Native delicacies. Most involve from salmon, but someone usually has bottled seal oil, too.

The entrance was mobbed as crowds swirled through the doors into the already packed lower lobby. I made my way to the escalator and rode to the center’s biggest ballroom on the third floor. The ballroom seats about 800 and most of the seats already were filled. (AFN is the kind of convention where many people don't sit. They stand in the back (perhaps a hundred at this particular time) and sometimes sit on the floor.

Of course I knew people - the former speaker of the house and a former senator, for example. I know a lot of formers because that's my age group: Former.

The former senator told me he had to leave early because his car was illegally parked. "Perfect," I thought.

Gov. Dunleavy spoke briefly. He used a device experienced reporters have seen many times, praising others to praise himself. Thus we heard what a great job his health pros did during the pandemic. It goes without saying he did the most important great job as the leader. But I don't like Dunleavy, a dull, unimaginative ideologue who is probably going to win the election anyhow.

I had come not for the campaigning governor nor any of the formers, but to see newly-elected Rep. Mary Peltola in her first appearance before AFN as a member of Congress. She was dressed in dark business attire, but did not look corporate. She wore a Native-themes jacket, but not the traditional kuspuk. After an effusive introduction (way too long), she started speaking after a standing ovation accompanied by cheers. The return of the hero.

She began with "There is no greater honor than to appear before AFN." Then she talked about her predecessor, Don Young, and his achievements in Congress (and by implication what he had done for the Native community). Actually, Don's story is interwoven with her father’s: white school teacher comes to the Alaska Bush, marries a local girl, and raises a family. Mary invited Don's two daughters on stage.

And then an incredible moment, unlike anything I’ve seen before over a lifetime of Alaska politics.

Mary said "Don was successful because of the support of his children, who lived a life of sacrifice." With that, one of Don's daughters came forward and placed Don's bolo tie around Mary's neck.

I had expected Mary's appearance to be a coronation, but this was an investiture, like placing a crown on the new queen's head or blessing her with a relic worn by departed king — a talisman perhaps, or a charm, but definitely a holy object.

This was a religious moment adjusted to the secular setting. Please understand: Don wore this tie campaigning and sometimes when making loud arguments on the floor and in committee. The bolo was special to him, and he had transformed it into a symbol of himself. We have to presume the bolo is suffused with his magic, perhaps electoral magic too, as Mary still has an election to win.

Mary beamed. And said to the audience "Now I am a real member of Congress." Wild applause.

To fully comprehend this, you have to understand that Don, for all his buffoonery, was beloved by much of the Native community. He was, after all, the Gentleman from Fort Yukon, his wife Lu was Athabascan, his children are Native.

Then Mary went into a short speech (less than 15 minutes) speech stressing the need for Americans to be unified just as Native people are unified — too many messages of fear, hate, self-pity that tear us down.

She told a story about a Juneau teacher who told the children "You are precious. All of you." Then Mary said "We have forgotten to say this." You don't hear this very often from an elected politician.

She closed with "I am uplifted in this moment because of you,” followed by loud applause, more cheers, a few whistles.

As I saw her up there, I thought "This isn't just a Native who has been elected to Congress, an achievement in itself. This is a Native woman who has been blessed as the successor to Don Young — by his children, no less — in a ceremony before the largest gathering of Natives in Alaska. This woman standing on stage with her family is idealized by Native Alaska, especially women.

She has ascended to the personification of modern Nativeness. From this moment on, she’s the touchstone.