Alaska Newspapers' Videos of the Graham-Palin-Parnell Yukon Trip

These are the YouTube versions of the videos that have been posted at the Bristol Bay Times and Tundra Drums web sites since Friday.

Part One has Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin arriving in Russian Mission, greeting people, and addressing a crowd in a meeting room. Part Two includes Alex deMarban's transcription of Nick Tucker's fascinating exchange with Gov. Palin.

Part One:


Part Two:

Update - 3:15 p.m: Commenter TLS at The Mudflats attached a complete transcription of the Nick Tucker-Sarah Palin YouTube at today's Mudflats long thread. I went through it, made a couple of minor changes. Here it is:

Russian Mission. SP meeting residents. Scene is inside a building with a large crowd, lots of background noise, quite crowded, all are dressed in outdoor clothes. Video is shot from behind Nicholas ‘Tucker (NT) mostly over his left shoulder. Audio picks up who he is talking to, but does not pick up his comments very well, so the video has his comments in text on the screen.

Starts with NT shaking hands with LTG Parnell, who says, “Thank you for being here.”

NIcholas introduces himself .

LTG Parnell: Hi Nicholas, nice to meet you too. Are you a good blogger? Aren’t you a blogger?

NT: I’m not a blogger.

Parnell: No.. OK. (unintelligble).. that was a very good one.

Scene cuts to a few moments later with NT talking to SP.

Someone off screen says to SP : This is Nick Tucker.

SP: So nice to meet you.

NT: I’m Nick Tucker from Emmonak.

SP: From Emmonak? So good to be here

NT: First of all I want to thank you, for the fact that you acknowledged the needs of our people, not only in Emmonak, but throughout, and as a common citizen, I have deep respect for government because they have power and I don’t.

SP : You know….(unintelligible).. (gives NT a hug)

NT: And one of the things is, don’t forget us. The thing is, this is temporary help but we need sustainable jobs, fisheries.
And you know, we’re an oil rich state, and from our cries and our suffering we have allowed other people coming into

SP: Yes,…Yes..

NT: (unintelligible)… Now look what happened.

SP: So here’s what we are trying to do, also. Allowing our young people in rural Alaska … to recognize it is their resource… and development of these resources needs to …..

NT: We need you to come out and make sure you get things done for us. Because you can, you can help us with the Denaili Commission and any other resource that we can come up with. BIA’s helping right now and who else can we look up to?

SP: Right. So, working together, you and the local communities and state government, we’re going to be able to allow the economies to be revitalized and job opportunities for the young people.

NT: Yes, I appreciate your help but that’s barely enough. We want to get restored back to who we are. The Native people are very strong people and this is probably the only time that they cried out for help.

SP: I recognize that.

NT: They’re hungry, I mean they’re not starving, they’re hungry. On your way home, you can read my original letter. These are from real people that started the outcry....

SP: OK

NT:....and respect for who they are.

(NT motions toward a women standing to his right. SP turns toward the woman and puts her hand on the woman’s back. The woman says “Hi”, and SP says “How are you doing” . We also now see a second woman next to the first .

SP to second woman:
SP: So nice to meet you, what is your name?
SP turns toward 2nd woman and bends over to hear the name.
2nd Woman: (unintelligble)
SP Turns back to first woman.
SP: What is your name?
1st Woman: Natalia (hard to hear the name)
SP: So nice to meet you Natalia.
NT (handing SP the letter): You know the oil money and everything else came out of our land.

SP: I’ll read …(unintelligble).

NT: We want you to think about this. We have a long way to go. The healthier, more jobs in the villages, more opportunities, you wouldn’t have to come back to us…..

(Now we see a young girl in background standing next to the 1st woman).

SP: Also, Mr Tucker, we’ll let people know, young people in these areas also, that its not just the jobs inside the villages, but good resource development jobs with the mining and with the oil production and fisheries even if they are outside the villages. Like my husband, who grew up in Dillingham, the native village of Dillingham, He’s worked on the North Slope these years, so he could come back to the village and participate in the community, then go off to work again, then come back. That’s the ideal way to work.

NT: Our culture is too tied into us. It’s hard for us to live in Anchorage because of all the discrimination and things like that.

SP: Right. See that’s what these resource development jobs allow, just like with my husband, he didn’t have to leave forever the village, he would be gone, .. be off….and that’s understood (unintelligible)

NT: Like her, (motions toward the young girl standing in beside him) she’s going to grow up to take care of us. She will need a job.

SP: Yes

NT: They will. I don’t do politics. I come from the heart and the sorrow of our people.

SP: I respect you for that, Thank you, Thank you so much. I appreciate that and I’ll read (this).

End of Video