Joaqlin Estus
ICT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Forty-year-old Ben Mallot will lead Alaska’s largest statewide Native organization, the Alaska Federation of Natives, as its president.

The board of directors announced the selection June 28 and highlighted that Mallott, who currently serves as vice president of external affairs, stood out to them for his 11-plus years commitment to the organization plus his alignment with the organization’s mission and values.

“Ben understands AFN’s diversity and has demonstrated steady leadership within the organization for many years,” stated board co-chair Joe Nelson, Tlingit, in a prepared statement. The key was “Mallott’s background in Alaska Native issues and state and federal public policy.”

Mallott has served as a legislative assistant to the U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. She sent her congratulations in a prepared statement, saying his “empathy, dedication, cultural values, and understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing Alaska Native communities make him an ideal candidate for the job.”

Mallott told ICT he was “shocked, honored, and a little bit terrified” when offered the position. “What I envision at AFN and what I really focus hard on is leading by example. That means being a true policy organization and being as collaborative as possible. One of the things that I really value is teamwork, transparency, and just having partnerships and collaboration.”

“At AFN, we’ve always done a lot with a very small team. We do that because we have such strong partners out there. I look forward to working off Julie’s foundation of that, having a strong collaboration with other organizations statewide, nationwide, and really bringing AFN to the table,” Mallott told ICT.

The organization was first created in 1966 to settle land claims in the state. It is governed by a 38-member board.

Of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States, 229 are in Alaska. That’s nearly 40 percent of Indian Country. Out of the 229, 177 tribes are AFN members along with 154 village corporations, nine regional corporations, and nine regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums that contract and compact to run federal and state programs.

The organization’s first president, Emil Notti, was integral to its creation and has witnessed its growth from afar. Notti, Athabascan, told ICT that Mallott “has a challenge to maintain AFN’s strength and bring back the people who have dropped out. To maintain the Native voice in the growing population, you have to have a strong AFN, and that comes from unity.”

Three for-profit Native regional corporations and three regional nonprofit or tribal organizations have left AFN in recent years. The Arctic Slope Regional Corp. resigned in 2019; Doyon, Ltd. of interior Alaska resigned in 2020; and the Aleut Corp. of southwest Alaska resigned in 2022.

Related: Alaska Federation of Natives see two withdrawals

Tanana Chiefs Conference, the regional nonprofit for Interior Alaska and the regional tribal entity Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of (southeast) Alaska resigned in 2023. The tribal nonprofit Cook Inlet Tribal Council of southcentral Alaska paused its membership earlier this year.

To bring lapsed members back into the fold, “In these changing times, where our values, cultural traditions, and way of life are often challenged, we remain steadfast. Together, we are stronger and will continue to thrive,” Mallott said in the statement.

“First I’m going to focus on our current membership, make sure our current membership is supported” as he sets up a policy team and gets the organization through its annual convention, Mallott told ICT.

He also extended his “heartfelt thanks to outgoing President Julie Kitka for her outstanding leadership and dedication. I look forward to building upon the solid foundation she’s laid over her decades of service to our communities,” the statement read.

Kitka, who is Chugach Eskimo, headed the organization for 40 years, and announced her departure in February. Board co-chair Ana Hoffman, Yup’ik, said the board “is grateful for Julie’s dedication to AFN and for her support during this transition.”

Hoffman said Mallott will begin assuming his new role in August and overlap with Kitka through October. Kitka will be the keynote speaker at AFN’s annual convention, which is scheduled for October 17-19 in Anchorage, “an occasion that will celebrate her outstanding legacy,” said AFN’s statement.

Earlier, Mallott was the organization’s director of communications and special assistant to the president. He is a member of the boards of a for-profit village corporation, Baan O Yeel Kon, and one of its subsidiaries, Northern Taiga Ventures, Inc. He serves on boards for The Nature Conservancy Alaska, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

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