Eben Nanauq Hopson, Sr.

Son of Al & Maggie(Itta) Hopson, Eben was born November 7, 1922, grandson of Alfred Henley Hopson a whaler from Liverpool, England who settled in Barrow in 1886. Eben's introduction to white social institutions began early, he was the first child born in Barrow's Presbyterian Church Hospital. His formal education began and ended at the BIA Barrow Day School. At 15, he wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.to complain abt the school principal's use of the unpaid student labor on small BIA public works projects and was branded a trouble maker and was prevented from boarding the BIA ship, the "Northstar" to travel to boarding high school!!! So he lived in Barrow thru his teens, worked as construction laborer, married Rebecca Panigeo in 1942 @ age 20 and supported his family as a construction worker until 1965. He became member of the Union of Operating Engineers in 1957. He was drafted to the Army when Rebecca was 8 month pregnant with eldest son Charles and did not see his firstborn until 1946 when he returned to Barrow after the end of World War II. In the Army, Eben went thru training in Nome, when he was employed by the land lease program that delivered new war plans to Soviet crews stationed at Nome. Later he served as bosun's mate aboard an Army tugboat in the 1,000 Mile War of the North Pacific along the Aleucian Chain of AK. Eben joined the Alaska National Guard in 1949 and by 1953 attained the rank of Captain for Company D, 1st Scout Battalion in Barrow. In 1956 Eben was elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature Senate seat and when Ak became a State he was elected to the State Senate. He served as Chairman of the Labor & Management Committee where he and Lew Dishner became longtime friends as well as Governor Egan. He narrowly missed serving as Senate President in the 2nd session because he was absent from Juneau leading a Eskimo Scout Battallion in President Kennedy's Inauguration Parade in 1960. In 1965, Eben helped organize Alaska's first regional land claims organization which entered an aboriginal claim to all of the traditional land of the Arctic Slope Inupiat and became the 1st Executive Director of the Arctic Slope Native Assn(ASNA) which helped launch the Alaska Native Land Claims movement that year. In 1968 he became the 1st Executive Director of AFN, moving to Anchorage with his family. Under his direction, the AFN became a strong, well financed federation of the native regional associations of ALL Alaska. During that time, he launched the Washington, D.C. native land claims lobby that secured the enactment of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 which awarded the Alaskan regional and village corporations a cash settlement of nearly $1 Billion and entitlement to roughly 40 Million acres of land. He negotiated a $225,000 loan to the AFN from the Yakima Nation of Washington State and went on to secure large Federal grants to pursue strong regional community organizations (Village Corporations) thru-out rural Ak. In 1970 Eben left AFN to become Special Asst for Native Affairs to Gov. William A. Egan, he worked closely with the Governor and helped shape a new State policy toward the Native Land Claims settlement enacted by Congress. At the same time, he influences further the development of local government in rural Alaska, a Hopson dream since the mid 1950's! From his desk in the Governor's Office, he insured the State's cooperation with the Arctic Slope Native Assn to organize the North Slope Borough; a plan that would provide the 4,000 residents of Ak's 8 most northerly villages with a home-rule municipality, encompassing 88,000 sq. miles, reaching from the Canadian border to Pt. Hope on the Chuckchi Sea, from the Arctic coast to the crest of the Brooks Range. Revenues would come from the Billion dollar tax base now growing on the oil fields of the Prudhoe Bay. In 1972, Eben left the Governor's Office to campaign for voter approval of the North Slope Borough and for the Office of Borough Mayor to which he was elected. One of the most innovative accomplishments of Hopson's career as Borough Mayor was his $150 Million Capital Improvement Program(CIP) which used its tax revenues and bonding authority to provide not only civic improvements such as roads, sanitation services, water & electrical utilities, health services and other amenities long denied Northern residents, but also low income housing and locally controlled schools. Substandard housing had been tolerated too long, according to Eben. Upon incorporation Hopson sold $13.7 Million in municipal bonds to finance the construction of public housing for low income families. The project was plagued with setbacks, which included the capsizing of supply barges on the Ak Coast, ice conditions at Nome

which prevented passage of barges for months for their North Slope destination. Once the supplies arrived, much time was taken hiring and training locals which Eben demanded for the housing construction. Eben finally saw construction of the homes and won participation of HUD in the NSB housing project!! A strong Democrat, Eben was called to Chair the 1972 State Convention of the Democratic party and his well known strength as a mediator enabled the Convention to join peacefully together the young pro-McGovern activists wing of the Party with older party regulators in a coalition which developed a strong Democratic statewide party. In 1974, Eben declared his candidacy for the Democratic party's gubenatorial candidate against Governor Egan, however he withdrew his nomination after reaching a 9 point agreement for rural Alaska, including the development of modern communications. Most of the points in this agreement with Governor Egan were later implemented by Governor Jay Hammond who defeated Egan in the general election. In 1975, Eben was reelected as Borough Mayor. That same year, he was invited by House Chair, John Melcher of the House Interior Subcomittee on Public Lands to send a planning team to Washington, D.C. to work with the staff to draft legislation that resulted in the transfer of the Naval Arctic

Petroleum Reserve #4 to the control of the U.S. Dept of Interior. Earlier in his career, Eben had been successful in getting the Dept of Navy to share with Barrow residents the abundant and low cost natural gas derived from the nearby Pet4 reserve.