In this photo taken with a smartphone, Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks during a campaign rally in Juneau, Alaska, on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
My name is Chuck Totemoff. I’m an Alaskan, and my people have lived here for millennia.
My people are Sugpiaq. My parents and grandparents taught us a traditional value that underpins our communities. We call it sugtanartukut, the concept of trust.
Trust is the foundation of everything in our villages. Honesty is part of our social contract. Liars and deceivers cannot be tolerated, or our way of life, built on sharing and respect, will crumble. These values are shared across Alaska Native communities.
That is one reason I reject the political sideshow of having another Dan Sullivan on the ballot alongside our U.S. senator. Voters deserve a campaign focused on the candidates’ records and Alaska’s future.
The same goes for national Democrats who campaign on supporting Native peoples but repeatedly turn their backs on Alaska Natives. Worse, they have persuaded some of our own people to support policies that work against our interests.
Sen. Sullivan championed the Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans allotment provision that President Trump signed into law in 2019. But I believe the Biden administration failed our Alaska Native veterans by moving too slowly to deliver those allotments. According to figures cited by Sullivan’s office, the Bureau of Land Management had received 453 applications and completed 41 allotment certifications as of Feb. 13, 2025. Our veterans deserved faster results.
North Slope Native leaders flew to Washington, D.C., eight times to seek a meeting with that same Interior secretary about plans to lock up their lands. She initially refused to meet with them. And when the people of King Cove asked for a lifesaving road connection, she ignored them, putting an extreme environmental agenda ahead of access rights granted by Congress.
All of this happened while an Alaska Native Democrat represented us in Congress. So much for the promise that Alaska Natives would be treated better by national Democrats. Why should we believe those promises now?
Look at what happened when Democrats controlled the Senate. They excluded Alaska Native corporations from the historic American Rescue Plan Act’s $20 billion in Indian program investments and denied us participation in a provision of the $240 billion CHIPS and Science Act. This happened while we were fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend our right to participate in CARES Act benefits on the same basis as other Native Americans. We ultimately won that fight, but Senate Democrats sided with those seeking to exclude us.
Some people would rather pull the ladder up behind them than see Alaska Natives succeed. That is not solidarity. It is crabs in a bucket.
I have worked with Sen. Dan Sullivan for many years. He has consistently demonstrated a genuine commitment to Alaska Native people and our communities. He understands that self-determination means listening to our leaders and respecting our right to choose our own future.
He has fought for federal contracting programs that have become an economic backbone for many Alaska Native communities and a pillar of our state’s economy. He has stood with us in defending our right to responsibly develop our lands, create jobs and build opportunities for future generations.
Most importantly, he has stood against a Democratic agenda that puts environmental special interests and the interests of powerful Lower 48 tribal organizations ahead of fair treatment for Alaska Native people.
That is why I have endorsed Dan Sullivan for reelection.
Do not be led astray by national and Alaska Democrats who ask for our trust while using dishonest election tactics and making promises they have failed to keep. We should judge politicians by their actions, not their slogans, and by their record, not their rhetoric.
Our traditional value of sugtanartukut demands that we call out violations of trust and stand with those who have demonstrated that they stand with us.
I know where Dan Sullivan stands. And I know where I stand.
Chuck Totemoff is president, CEO and chairman of Chenega Corporation and chair of the Chenega IRA Tribal Council.
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