USFWS On Indigenous Alaskan Woman Who’s Making A Difference

Great story from our friends at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska region. Ciisquq Crystal Leonettii was featured by USFWS for her current position as the Services’s Native American liaison. Here’s more about Crystal:

To this day, Crystal teaches her agency colleagues to save their job title for the end of any introduction. “Native people want to know your heart,” she says. Naming your ancestors means you accept responsibility to behave a certain way, that you will be accountable.

This is the seed of trust with any Alaska Native community. She shares concrete stories about the difference it makes in government and tribal relationships. So why did Crystal take a job with an agency that historically has caused anguish among Alaska Native peoples? First, many people who knew her thought she’d be good at it. During her 16 years at the NRCS, she’d earned the title of peacemaker between tribes and her agency.

With such widespread encouragement to take the job, she sought advice from elder Larry Merculieff. “As elders do, he had a completely different thought process,” she said, smiling. “He asked, ‘Do you wonder why Mother Earth is crying?’” Crystal found his question frustrating; she had her own answers.

But, he continued. “People don’t take care of Mother Earth because they don’t respect themselves. In turn, they treat others badly. We have to work on respecting and loving ourselves first, in order for Mother Earth to heal. And the Fish and Wildlife Service needs to heal from the inside out.” He never told her to apply for the job. Instead, he suggested she go somewhere quiet, somewhere where she could stop thinking. “An answer will come to you,” he promised.

So, she sat beside the ocean near her home in Anchor Point and did as he said. She stopped thinking. After a time, when she climbed back up the hill from the sea, she was calmed by a sense of deep peace. She had her answer. “I am going to apply for this job,” she told herself. “And if I get it, I am going to pour my whole heart into it.”

Keep up the good work, Crystal!