Venetie, Alaska

How Venetie is governed

Venetie appears to be an unincorporated community or a census-designated place, so it may have no city government of its own — services usually come from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area and its elected officials. The chart below is a generic template; readers can correct it if Venetie does have local officials.

Form of government not yet listed.

0 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.

• Mayor

  Executive

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  The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.

  • City Manager / Administrator

    Executive

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    The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).

    • Police Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the police department.

    • Fire Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the fire and emergency services department.

    • Public Works Director

      Administration & departments

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      Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.

    • Finance Director

      Administration & departments

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      The budget, taxes, and city accounts.

    • Planning & Zoning Director

      Administration & departments

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      Land use, zoning, building permits.

    • Parks & Recreation Director

      Administration & departments

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      Parks, programs, and public facilities.

• City Council

  Legislative

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  The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.

  • City Clerk

    Administration & departments

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    Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.

  • City Attorney

    Administration & departments

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    The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.

  • Boards & Commissions

    Legislative

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    Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.

• Municipal Court

  Judicial

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  Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.

  • Municipal Judge

    Judicial

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    Presides over the municipal court.

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Population over time

From 166 in 2010 to 205 in 2020 (+23.5%).

History

Gwichʼin tribal leader John Fredson achieved federal recognition of the larger area of the Venetie Indian Reserve as Alaska Native territory in 1941, before Alaska was admitted to the union as a state. It was the largest reservation in Alaska, with approximately 1.4 million acres (5,700 km2) when established.

Under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, most reservations in Alaska were dissolved, and the federal government made payments to tribes for considerable territory, designating areas as tribal lands. The Gwichʼin tribal lands were reduced.

The people continued to adapt. In the early 1980s a "unified Venetie/Arctic village tribal government formally codified traditional principles of caribou management into tribal law," an example of Alaska Native subsistence practices. Anthropologist Steve J. Langdon lauded this action as a way of combining traditional spirituality with secular law, demonstrating "the resiliency of the traditional cosmology and behavior and its ability to be flexibly incorporated into contemporary institutions and practice." A majority of the residents approved limits on the harvest of the Porcupine caribou herd.

In 1987 the Gwichʼin tribal council tried to tax a non-native contractor building a school here, saying the council had the right as the government of tribal land. The case went to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, which ruled in 1996 "that the natives had the right to tax businesses on their land, about the size of Delaware, because it qualified as Indian Country, much like the reservations in the lower 48 states."

The state of Alaska appealed that decision, concerned that up to 44 million acres of tribal lands in Alaska might be classified as Indian Country and thus subject to local tribal taxation (in the Lower 48, by comparison, about 56 million acres are designated as federally recognized, sovereign Indian reservation lands).

In 1998, the case was heard by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government. It determined that the tribal council did not have taxing authority on its land, as the terms of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act had done away with almost all reservations in the state. Under that act, the federal government had made payments to the tribes for land claims and designated tribal lands for them. But, under the terms of the act, the tribal lands do not have the same sovereign status as federally recognized Indian reservations in the Lower 48.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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