Ketchikan Indian Community leaders urge censure, say trust was broken

Emily Eden Shaw, who introduced herself as CEO and tribal administrator of the Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC), told the commission: "We fully support the censure." Shaw said trust had been broken, that words have consequences, and that if the commissioner would not reach out to the tribe to apologize, it would be hard to trust the commission's fairness on future projects involving the tribe.

Gloria Burns, who identified herself as president of the Ketchikan Indian Community, urged the commission to take action and said speeches and phrasing that are inflammatory are harmful to substantive conversation about issues such as affordable housing. Commissioner Gubitayo also gave a personal account of facing prejudice in family history and said racist remarks from a public official are "purely unacceptable." Speakers asked the commission to develop or revisit a code of conduct to prevent similar incidents.