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.
She needs to stand down or be relieved of command. Enough DEI nonsense!
Hegseth should replace her, as she is apparently mentally unstable.
A military commander should know better than to make those statements.
She’s done. Termination coming this week.
Maybe some Native outfit will accept her woke resume.
I work for a Native outfit and trust me, we are not all woke.
Sounds like someone is asking to get relieved of duty. Air Farce, you paying attention?
100% DEI hire.
Everyone knows she was not the most qualified person for her position – everyone.
It’s time to STOP the Alaska native narrative of the “noble savage”.
The US Federal court had to stop slavery amongst the natives a full 20+years after the Civil War – look up Sah Quah – truly brutal.
The Catholic missionaries, while far from perfect – felt the ONLY way to break the EXTREME cycle of incest and the rape of little girls, women, and boys was to remove the children from these pedophiliac communities – think Bacha Bazi in Afghanistan, the same type of cultural incest going on.
All cultures and peoples have a dark sordid past – the Alaska natives are no different – please stop acting as though they are morally superior to white, Christian men.
Trump won – we can tell the truth!
Reassign.
This a WING COMANDER
My Air Force (1974-1992) was nothing liike this or disgracful
She is bucking the Commander in Chief of the US Military and the Executive Orders that say otherwise. Where is this going for her?
Fire her. She’s unfit for command.
Well, I’m gonna go ahead and answer that dog whistle. Why is this utterly useless woman the commander of ANYTHING??!
Somebody fire this idiot.
When Pete hears about this, he is going to be sooo pissed. Buhbye Missy Mabbutt. Pete should also do a complete review of Missy Mabbutts awards. I have seen tinpot South American dictators with fewer medals.
She needs to be relieved of command. Today.
Paging Pete Hegseth, paging Pete Hegseth, line 1 please!
Pete Hegseth needs to fire her immediately!!
Hope the Col. makes a correction.
ANSCA / ANILCA changed many things and clarifys ‘Indian country’.
I doubt it, but perhaps she was speaking historically. At any rate, her superiors need to let her know that the Alaska natives settlement act ceded those Dena’ina lands to the US federal government and they are no longer Dena’ina lands.
Greg, and who did the Dena’ina conqueor, drive out and send packing? A group of Eskimos inhabited the Cook Inlet area for thousands of years prior to the fairly recent arrival of the Dena’ina people.
Could the Dena’ina people be colonizers?
A. We are all American and we are all equal.
B. XYZ tribe is sovereign.
You can only pick one.
Someone call Hegseth please and fire her .
She’ll soon be taken care of by Pete Hegsteth.
Colonel Lisa Mabbutt should be relieved of duty immediately, demoted and expelled from the service!
NOT a real bright leader!
Your fired!
Colonel get your head out of your patoot. The base is on American land and we, the US, are not occupying any d… land. You sound like a DEI promotion and disgrace the uniform.
This woke garbage in the military must be removed. It is clear she has an agenda.
Dear Pres Trump,
Pls fire this woman as soon as possible… This obvious woke appointee is trying to screw up our traditional military lands. I’m sure China and Russia are encouraging her. What a disappointment.
We trust DOGE Alaska have made these points clear to President Trump and to the Secretary of Defense.
“……..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……..”
Why is there confusion or ignorance on this?
Someone send this to Secretary of Defense Hegseth.
Someone dial 911 and get Pete Hegseth on the horn seems the JBER Commander is going off half-cocked. But on the bright side, she is out next July (2026).
We can’t wait that long – she is seriously compromised and an extreme security risk. Relieve her of duties immediately, consider court martial, drum her out of the military.
You can contact Senator Dan Sullivan about this here: https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/contact
Lisa Murkowski is here: https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact
but I doubt it will do any good.
Nick Begich is here: https://begich.house.gov/contact
Write them all about this stupidity.
Good luck with Sullivan. Remember when he opposed Tuberville’s attempts to stop this woke crap in the senate.
Document please meme… So you hate Senator Sullivan – you don’t need to prevaricate to express your inner felt emotion.
A vestige of the Biden-Harris regime, showing how these people are completely WHACKED OUT. Wading into political waters ought to be reason enough to cashier her. If I was in the military, I would have a tough time respecting her. I am sure the more sensible subordinates have to bite their tongues. And how can we respect our military with a transgender Admiral? Consider their days numbered with the new Sec’y of Defense.
In a few more years, this whole charade will not have aged well. Kind of like the preferred pronoun thing: People will reflect on it and see how Junior High-ish and girly it was like when girls demand that you talk about them when they’re not around in a certain manner. Except we are adults doing the same thing. And trying to express our guilt and sorrow and shame by telling everybody who doesn’t really care that we are living on stolen land will look really stupid when we get a few years down the road. And then the majority of the people will of course say, I didn’t really believe in all that. Just like a majority of the people now say, “I didn’t really believe in masks.” But they still obeyed like good little sheep.
She’s an idiot! Needs to be relieved of command and immediately discharged.
Pretty sure this is the same base commander that was doing 100% sobriety and blood tests at the gate over a holiday weekend. Anyone coming through the gate that was driving had one hour to report to the base hospital to get their blood drawn.
Well she will never see the ⭐️
When I mentally picture a “war fighter” whose job is to protect American soil, this soft woman who looks about as tough as a handful of wet toilet paper, does not come to mind….
Good grief. Relieve her of her duties.
So homeless encampments on post no problem. Want to go to the National cemetery visit a loved ones grave you need to submit to a security forces background check. Check Roger this lady needs to be relieved due to incompetence.
The military doesn’t need or deserve DEI officers. She is incompetent and unqualified.
Why the surprise or discouragement? She’s an obvious DEI hire; just a virtue signaling figurehead. However, she is merely a symptom. The real problem is the steep decline of our culture. Imagine how depraved our nation’s leaders must be to place such a ridiculous caricature of an officer in charge of a major military base. The fact she remains in command says a lot about their meager efforts at reform.