An invocation on the state House floor Thursday that acknowledged being on Alaska Native land and making an appeal to work together — made in recognition of more than 100 tribal leaders meeting in their annual assembly a few blocks away — prompted an objection that was supported by six of the 36 legislators present.
The invocation offered by Rep. Sara Hannan, a Juneau Democrat, is a land acknowledgement that’s been an official practice since 2021 at Juneau’s government meetings, as well as many other local gatherings. Normally invocations at the beginning of each floor session by legislators and guests of all faiths — or none — are then “spread across the journal” as a matter of form.
“For more than 10,000 years the Tlingit people have been the caretakers of this place and its people,” she said. “As we work together may we seek to speak to each other with love and care. May we work to seek the common good and work in accordance with our highest aspirations.”
But an objection was voiced on Thursday by Rep. David Eastman, a Wasilla Republican known for his frequent dissents on many floor matters and repeatedly drawing ire from Alaska Natives.
“The daily order of business during the invocation time is generally something is invoked,” he said. “I didn’t hear anything invoked. I simply heard a political statement, so I object.”
A rebuttal was immediately offered by Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, a Sitka independent.
“According to the Supreme Court, the purpose of the invocation to help us focus on work ahead,” she said. “I heard a call to focus on the work ahead in multiple phrases in the invocation this morning and I’m grateful for it.”
Hannan, who made no comments about the objection on the floor, said in an interview afterward the invocation was in recognition of the 88th annual Tribal Assembly of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska that’s taking place about four blocks away. But she felt no need to make the objection into a bigger issue.
“I have no idea what people were objecting to,” she said. “I wasn’t going to participate in any kind of charades about offering comments on an invocation.”
The vote to override Eastman’s objection and include the invocation in the journal was 30-6. Besides Eastman, no votes were cast by House Majority Leader Dan Saddler of Eagle River, Jamie Allard of Eagle River, DeLena Johnson of Palmer of Anchorage, Will Stapp of Fairbanks and Sarah Vance of Homer. All of the dissenters are Republicans.
A protest at the Capitol against Eastman was led earlier this session by Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 2, seeking his ouster after he asked if the deaths of children from abuse might be “a benefit to society,” which resulted in the House censuring him. He was also censured in 2017 after claiming some rural Alaska women become deliberately pregnant, and others delay abortions so they can get a “free to trip to Seattle” with Medicaid funds.
Eastman , in an interview after the floor session, said he wasn’t referring to Alaska Natives when he made his objection, which instead was about procedure. He said he’s raised objections before, generally before floor sessions, about other invocations he felt were inappropriate, but “in this case there wasn’t any warning.”
“I didn’t hear anything to anyone,” he said, referring to Hannan’s comments, while acknowledging “it happened kind of fast” so he might have missed such words in the message.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com
