Colonel Lisa Mabbutt, the commander of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) and the 673d Air Base Wing since July of 2024, told a legislative committee in Juneau last week that the base occupies Dena’ina land.
Mabbutt was speaking to the House Military and Veterans’ Affairs Special Committee when she made a “land acknowledgment,” statement, both verbally and printed on her presentation.
Mabbutt was speaking on behalf of the US government when she essentially said that the government base occupies Native land.
JBER is not on Native land. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act finalized an agreement about what land is “Native” in Alaska, and those lands do not include JBER’s 64,213 acres. The largest land claims settlement act in world history, it resolved land claims and economic development issues for Alaska Natives.
Here are Mabbutt’s comments, which came near the beginning of her presentation:
The woke commander’s words were backed up by her slide presentation, which said JBER occupies Dena’ina land.
In her presentation, Mabbutt also made a pitch for the Legislature to increase the base student allocation for school funding, one of the hottest issues in the legislative session. This could be seen as a violation of the Hatch Act, because she used her official position to try to influence funding legislation.
During her presentation, she was asked by Reps. Jamie Allard and Dan Saddler about the large encampments on the base land known as Davis Park and also Arctic Valley. Mabbutt said JBER has some kind of agreement with the Municipality and indicated that the homeless occupying the base (which she believes occupies Native land) is not a security threat.
Watch her presentation at this link:
In her role, Col. Mabbutt oversees operations of the 673rd wing’s four groups, and maintains the joint base for air sovereignty, combat training, force staging, and operations in support of worldwide contingencies.
“Five of the seven command experiences at the Mabbutt-Zuhlsdorf household have been at joint bases,” said Mabbut last July when she took over as commander. “The reputation for partnership and support that you and your organizations provide, the JBER Arctic Warriors, families and mission, tops them all. I cannot wait to meet, learn from, and work side by side with each of you.”
Mabbutt previously served as commander of the 633d Mission Support Group at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
Although Mabbutt does not list her pronouns on her official military biography, she lists herself as a “she/her” on her LinkedIn bio.
