It features President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus to mark the 20-year anniversary of the law s passage . Public Safety, Education Important to Rural Alaskans . Protecting subsistence, improving schools and keeping communities safe were the hot topics for residents of St. Lawrence Island when Gov. Knowles made his first visit to the Bering Sea Siberian Yupik communities Sunday. The governor and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott also met in Savoogna and Gambell a number of Russian Far East Natives visiting relatives or trying to preserve their own Native cultures . The villages of about 600 people each are among the most remote in Alaska, located on the windswept island 160 miles west of Nome.
Most residents are heavily dependent on marine subsistence hunting and fishing.
They urged Knowles to continue his efforts to protect subsistence and asked for better service by state Troopers, whose numbers have been reduced by the legislature in recent years. Jobless Rate Continues to Drop . July s unemployment rate fell more than a percent to 4.7 percent, tying a record low for the month not seen since 1978. The fishing, tourism and construction industries added 7,900 jobs last month, keeping Alaska s economy healthy . The number of jobs in government dropped by 2,600 between July 1999 and last month.