U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured tribal health facilities in Kenai on Thursday while a small group of demonstrators protested his presence and policies. It was Kennedy’s latest stop on a tour of Alaska he says is fueled by a desire to help Alaska Natives access traditional foods.
Sitting in front of a navy blue curtain and flanked by Alaska, United States and Kenaitze Indian Tribe flags, Tribal Council Vice President Jakob Kooly recaps the morning’s talks with Kennedy.
“We discussed Medicaid, food security, tribal court, which he was very interested in, and concerns over our fisheries,” Kooly said. “The fisheries is crucial for the well being of our people and to make our people healthy. And I think that's what his main goal is, is to make our people healthy.”
Kennedy said he focused on nutrition, and planned to tour the tribe’s greenhouses and salmon fishery, “ … to understand more about what we can do to improve Native health and improve access to traditional foods.”
While touring other parts of Alaska, Kennedy says he’s been collecting ideas for concrete ways his department can further that cause. In Fairbanks, tribal members proposed making it easier for Alaska Natives to buy for subsistence equipment using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Kennedy also says he wants to use his background in fishery issues to advocate for Alaska salmon.
“There are state interests, there are commercial interests, commercial fishery interests, there are sports fishery interests, and there are Native interests that are all struggling for access to that, to that resource,” he said. “And, you know, unfortunately, the Native interests often come last.”
Kennedy served as president of Waterkeeper Alliance for more than two decades. That’s the world’s largest nonprofit organization focused on clean water. The organization has hundreds of affiliated groups, including the Homer-based Cook Inletkeeper.
In 2005, he traveled to Homer to give the keynote address for Cook Inletkeeper’s tenth anniversary celebration. He’s also criticized oil and gas companies that dump toxic waste in Cook Inlet. And Thursday [08/07], he reiterated his interest in healthy salmon populations, including as critically important to the culture and history of Alaska Native tribes.
Kennedy also downplayed the impacts to Alaskans of new Medicaid eligibility requirements signed into law by President Donald Trump last month. He says “so-called Medicaid cuts” won’t impact Alaska Native tribes. And he says new work requirements that take effect in 2027 aren’t significant.
“You can meet those obligations by volunteering, or by – by education, or by showing that you are applying for work, that you're trying to get a job,” he said. “They’re really minimal requirements.”
A couple blocks away from the Dena’ina Wellness Center, a group of about 15 protesters stood on the sidewalk. They held signs with messages protesting some of Kennedy’s policies and challenging his fitness for office.
Robert Dederick organized the demonstration. He says he wrote a letter to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski asking her not to confirm then-nominee Kennedy. Dederick pointed to what he says is Kennedy’s inexperience in health care and views on vaccines as positions that should have been disqualifying.
“His rhetoric on the vaccines and stuff like that is hurtful, you know?” Dederick said. “And it has consequences and repercussions.”
Kennedy this week cancelled almost half a billion dollars worth of vaccine development projects that rely on mRNA technology, which was used in the COVID-19 vaccine. Kennedy doubled down on that decision during a Tuesday press conference in Anchorage.
LaDawn Druce was also protesting Kennedy’s visit. She says she wants to know how that money will be spent now that it’s not going to vaccine research. She says health care shouldn’t be a political issue.
“My grandchildren, I am afraid, will not be able to grow up now in a country where these things are valued,” she said. “Science is not valued right now, that's my opinion, because of the actions that are being taken. And I don't like that one bit.”
The protesters received mixed responses from people driving through the busy intersection. Some honked and gave thumbs up, while others offered middle fingers and cuss words.
Joel Stockton says he thinks they got more support than opposition. He thinks the federal government is harming people who can’t push back, pointing to possible hospital closures caused by Medicaid cuts as one example. Stockton says Kennedy drove past their demonstration earlier that day.
“When he drove by, he looked right at us, and that’s good enough for me,” he said. “I doubt that you know a bunch of people sitting at home is going to be what makes a change in our entire political system and I can't say that this is what it's going to do it, but it's – it's a start.”
After leaving the Dena’ina Wellness Center, Kennedy visited the tribe’s Ch’k’denełyah Yuyeh greenhouses and educational fishery site. Before leaving the Kenai Peninsula, Kennedy says he’s going fishing Friday.
“I heard it’s a record run,” he said. “ … There should be a couple there for me.”
