Larry Merculieff
Larry Merculieff, Alaska Native science Commission
Larry Merculieff has almost four decades of experience serving his people, the Aleuts of the Pribilof Islands and other Alaska Native peoples in a number of capacities. His reach has been broad and varied; a few of the positions he’s held include: City Manager of St. Paul Island, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce & Economic Development (a cabinet post), President and CEO of Tanadgusix (A.K.A. TDX) Corporation, and Deputy director of the Alaska Native science Commission. Larry served as the Director of the Department of Public Policy and Advocacy in the Rural Alaska Community Action Program. As Director, Larry led the largest subsistence rights march in Alaska’s history in 2001 and emceed the subsistence rally after the march. The march was instrumental in protecting Alaska Native subsistence rights that were legally contested by the State of Alaska, to fish for salmon along Alaska’s rivers. Additionally, Larry successfully led a four-year effort to gain federal and state recognition of Alaska Native subsistence rights to catch and eat halibut throughout coastal Alaska.
Larry is co-founder and former chairman of the Alaska Indigenous Council on Marine Mammals; former chairman of the Nature Conservancy, Alaska chapter; the former co-director of the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society, Alaska chapter, co-founder of: the International Bering Sea Forum, Alaska Forum on the Environment, and the Alaska Oceans Network. Larry served as the chairperson for the Alaska Sanitation Taskforce and co-chair of the Federal/State Taskforce on Rural Sanitation to bring support for running water and flush toilets to over one hundred Alaska Native communities. Larry also served as Chairman of the Board of The Aleut Corporation, Co-Chair of the Alaska-Japan Fisheries Association, Vice-Chair of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Chairman of the State Bond Committee, and Vice-chair of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
Related to the Bering Sea issues, Larry served on the National Research Council Committee on the Bering Sea Ecosystem, and was one of four Native Americans to present at the White House Conference on the Oceans during the Clinton administration. Larry was selected by Aleut leaders to be part of a one-hour Discovery Channel documentary about the history and spiritual aspects of Aleuts that was seen by an estimated sixty million people world-wide. In 2004, Larry received the Alaska Native Writers on the environment Award from the Alaska Conservation Foundation and, in 2006, he received the Rasmuson Foundation Award for Creative Nonfiction and was one of four who received recognition in the Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership.
Close to Larry’s heart are issues related to cultural and community wellness, traditional ways of living, Elder wisdom, and the environment. Having had a traditional upbringing, Larry has been, and continues to be, a strong voice advocating the meaningful application of traditional Knowledge and wisdom obtained from Elders in Alaska and throughout the world in dealing with modern day challenges. As the Coordinator for the Bering Sea Council of Elders, Larry works with some of the most revered Elders from seven regions throughout Alaska, focused on the health of the Bering Sea ecosystem and the viability and health of the coastal and river cultures dependent on it. Larry has shared Elder wisdom locally, nationally, and internationally, and his writings and interviews have appeared in such publications as the Winds of Change, YES, Red Ink, Alaska Geographic, Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Kindred Spirits. Larry was featured in the National Wildlife Federation Magazine as an “American Hero”, having called national and international attention to major adverse changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem.
