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ANCHORAGE - Alaska's Native tribes are meeting in Anchorage this week to discuss Sen. Ted Stevens' call for consolidating tribal funding and routing it through a smaller number of regional entities.

Stevens says consolidation is necessary to protect services for Alaska Natives after he leaves office. But many Native leaders fear it would undermine the individual tribes' sovereignty.

Stevens recently told delegates of the regional nonprofit Tanana Chiefs Conference in Fairbanks that he is willing to entertain ideas other than consolidation if they could achieve the same economic efficiency goals, said TCC president Buddy Brown.

Stevens has long believed that 231 Alaska tribes is too many to fund individually. He worries that funding for Alaska's federally recognized tribes will dry up when he leaves the Senate, and that consolidating services and reducing administrative costs now will help the tribes in the future.

Last fall, Stevens took unilateral action, inserting language in an appropriations bill that stripped funding for tribal courts and law enforcement and transferred it to the state of Alaska. He later rescinded the rider but created a commission to propose a new form of village government that could replace tribes.

Search unsuccessful for Chirikof rancher

KODIAK - Eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit are alleging rancher Tim Jacobsen and Herd Management LLC owe them $106,855.77 and 116 head of cattle from the Chirikof Island herd.

The only problem is that Jacobsen can't be found.

Process server Edward Zarfoss gave up the search for Jacobsen after a fruitless 10-hour effort. Jacobsen must respond by Sept. 30 to avoid a default judgment, according to published legal notices.

Seven plaintiffs charge Jacobsen owes them for services including transportation and care of cattle, while the eighth charges cattle purchased from Jacobsen were never received, according to the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

In 2000, the federal government ordered the cattle removed from the island at the south end of the Kodiak archipelago where the unique stock has lived for more than 100 years. Jacobsen, holder of a ranching lease on Chirikof, formed Herd Management LLC to evacuate the herd, but the remote location, severe weather and public controversy have dogged removal attempts.

According to a July 28 affidavit from Zarfoss, Jacobsen was not found at his last known residence in Kodiak. Zarfoss also looked for Jacobsen at an Anchorage address but was told he no longer was staying there, and most likely was in the Kenai area.

An employee of the plaintiffs attorney reported that an address for Herd Management LLC at an Anchorage retail store that offers mailbox rental included no mailbox number, and employees of the store had no further information.