Assessment of Rural Character of the Kenai Peninsula

Abstract

On January 3, 1991, over the objections of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe (see letter of December 19th, 1990), the Federal Subsistence Board declared an area encompassing the communities of Anchor Point, Clam Gulch, Cohoe, Crown Point ,Happy Valley, Homer city, Kalifonsky, Kasilof, Kenai city, Moose Pass, Nikiski, Primrose, Salamatof, Seward city, Soldotna city, and Sterling to be non-rural (see Map 1). This decision affects two-thirds of the population of the Kenai Peninsula (65 percent in 1990). Under this decision, over 26,000 residents of the Kenai Peninsula do not benefit from subsistence preferences which still apply to approximately 98 percent of the land area of the Kenai Peninsula. Included among these 26,000 residents are 58 percent of the Alaska Natives living on the Kenai Peninsula in 1990 (1,689 persons). In 1995, the Southcentral Regional Advisory Council recommended that the Federal Subsistence Board’s 1991 decision be reversed and the entire Kenai Peninsula be declared rural for subsistence purposes. The Native American Rights Fund commissioned the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) and specifically Jack Kruse, Director of ISER and Professor of Public Policy, to examine the question of whether a reversal of the Federal Subsistence Board’s decision is supportable on the basis of available information. This is a final report of findings prepared by Dr. Kruse with the assistance of Virgene Hanna, Research Associate at ISER.