"When the harvestable surplus of a replenishable resource is insufficient to provide for all beneficial uses, other beneficial uses shall be limited to protect subsistence uses of the resource," it says.

Baker, who is Alaska Native, said he introduced the resolution based on his experience subsistence hunting and fishing in Northwest Alaska where he lives. Federal and state managers set different rules on adjoining lands that hunters can cross unknowingly, setting them up for potential violations, he said.

He said his measure is designed to start a conversation.

It isn't expected to pass this legislative session and will need much more public input, he said. He'd like to at least see it pass the House this session, so the Senate can begin considering it.

Heather Kendall-Miller, an Alaska Native attorney who has long worked on subsistence issues, said the proposed amendment is a giant issue that so far has received little attention.

The measure's language says the state "may" provide a preference, so it does not mandate a rural subsistence priority, she said. The Native community in the late 1990s rejected a similar proposal during the administration of former Gov. Tony Knowles, she said.

The only way an amendment will work is if the state abides by the terms of the 1980 federal law that established the federal priority, she said.

"History has proven time and time again that the state will not protect subsistence," she said. "At this point in time, we want our stringent federal protections."

Alaska Native leaders say the Dunleavy administration's fight with the federal government on the Kuskokwim River threatens the federal protection for subsistence fishing.

Jeff Turner, a spokesman for the governor, said Dunleavy did not ask Baker to introduce the measure.

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