Native Movement Administration - Alaska
 Evon Peter, National Director(Neetsaii Gwich’in / Jewish) is former Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich’in from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska. He has served as the Co-Chair of the Gwich’in Council International and on the Executive Board of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. Evon is an advocate of Indigenous Peoples rights, youth, and a balanced world, active as a speaker, strategist, writer, and organizer. His experience includes work within the United Nations and Arctic Council forum representing Indigenous and environmental interests. Evon is featured in the 2005 full-length feature film “Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action,” that follows the work of four Indigenous people who are working on issues of Environmental Justice in
North America.
 Cathy Rexford, Alaska Director
Cathy is Inupiaq, French-German and English of Kaktovik, Alaska. She is a writer, actor, and a lover/junkie/producer of short films. Cathy’s writing and activism centers around the unique worldview of the Indigenous peoples of Northern Alaska. She has worked extensively in Native education and language efforts as well as contemporary Native theater and film projects. She holds a BA from the Evergreen State College in Native American Studies and a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Creative Writing. She is currently writing a collection of poetry and a series of children's stories based on Inupiaq history
and culture.
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The Challenge
As young people we observe that the world we are living in is tremendously out of balance. For many of us it became clear at a very young age that humanity is headed in a direction that is leading us towards human and environmental turmoil, if not outright devastation. Furthermore, we understood that humanity has been on this path for quite some time. For example, decisions are based on profitability and greed rather than social welfare, environmental wisdom, human rights, and sustainability.
We also understand that we are part of a critical generation of humankind. We posses both the potential and passion to bring about needed change before it becomes too little too late for many of our human and other relations. We have begun to organize, develop skills, and generate dialogue and action to move toward a healthier vision for humanity.
We ground our work in the traditional values of our peoples, understanding the importance of our spirituality in relation to our activism and leadership. We established the Collective because we wanted the freedom to take organized action and to build a sustainable movement based in our personal development, collective alliance, and individual visions and passions.
Organizing Model
We function as a collective of projects and campaigns that are led by youth, wherein we support one another both on the personal and professional levels. We focus on peace, sustainability, youth leadership development, healing, community building, and movement building. As we carry out our work, Native Movement collaborates whenever possible with organizations that promote similar values and vision.
Within Native Movement we strive to embody the changes that we promote through our words and actions. We emphasize a healthy lifestyle, praying, adhering to traditional values, respecting and supporting one another, and challenging systems of oppression and
exploitation.
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