[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2812 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2812

To provide for the recognition of certain Native communities under the 
      Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 4, 1997

 Mr. Young of Alaska introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                     to the Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for the recognition of certain Native communities under the 
      Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native 
Communities Recognition Act''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF ADDITIONAL NATIVE CORPORATIONS IN SOUTHEAST 
              ALASKA.

    Section 16 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 
1615) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(e)(1) The Native residents of each of the Native villages of 
Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell, Alaska, may organize as an 
Urban Corporation.
    ``(2) The Native residents of the Native village of Tenakee, 
Alaska, may organize as a Group Corporation.
    ``(3) Nothing in this subsection shall affect any entitlement to 
land of any Native Corporation pursuant to this Act or any other 
provision of law.''.

SEC. 3. SHAREHOLDER ELIGIBILITY.

    Section 8 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 
1607) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(d)(1) The Secretary shall enroll to each of the Urban 
Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, or Wrangell those 
individual Natives who enrolled under this Act to Haines, Ketchikan, 
Petersburg, or Wrangell, and shall enroll to the Group Corporation for 
Tenakee those individual Natives who enrolled under this Act to 
Tenakee.
    ``(2) Those Natives who, pursuant to paragraph (1), are enrolled to 
an Urban Corporation for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, or Wrangell, or 
to a Group Corporation for Tenakee, and who were enrolled as 
shareholders of the Regional Corporation for southeast Alaska on or 
before March 30, 1973, shall receive 100 shares of Settlement Common 
Stock in such Urban or Group Corporation.
    ``(3) A Native who has received shares of stock in the Regional 
Corporation for southeast Alaska through inheritance from a decedent 
Native who originally enrolled to Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, 
Tenakee, or Wrangell, which decedent Native was not a shareholder in a 
Village, Group or Urban Corporation, shall receive the identical number 
of shares of Settlement Common Stock in the Urban Corporation for 
Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, or Wrangell, or in the Group Corporation 
for Tenakee, as the number of shares inherited by that Native from the 
decedent Native who would have been eligible to be enrolled to such 
Urban or Group Corporation.
    ``(4) Nothing in this subsection shall affect entitlement to land 
of any Regional Corporation pursuant to section 12(b) or section 
14(h)(8).''.

SEC. 4. DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS.

    Section 7 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 
1606) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (j), by adding at the end the following 
        new sentence: ``Native members of the communities of Haines, 
        Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell who become 
        shareholders in an Urban or Group Corporation for such a 
        community shall continue to be eligible to receive 
        distributions under this subsection as at-large shareholders of 
        Sealaska Corporation.''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(r) No provision of the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native 
Communities Recognition Act shall affect the ratio for determination of 
distribution of revenues among Native Corporations under this section 
of the Act and the 1982 Section 7(i) Settlement Agreement among the 
Regional Corporations or among Village Corporations under section 
7(j).''.

SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than December 31, 1998, the Secretary of the Interior, in 
consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, representatives of the 
Urban and Group Corporations established pursuant to section 16 of the 
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (as added by section 2 of this 
Act), and the Sealaska Corporation, shall submit to the Senate 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on 
Resources a report making recommendations to the Congress regarding 
lands and other appropriate compensation to be provided to such Urban 
and Group Corporations, including--
            (1) local areas of historical, cultural, and traditional 
        importance to Alaska Natives from the villages of Haines, 
        Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell, that should be 
        conveyed to such Urban or Group Corporation, together with any 
        recommended limitations or stipulations regarding the use of 
        such lands, including possible restrictions on the harvest of 
        timber from such lands; and
            (2) such additional forms of compensation as the Secretary 
        may recommend.

SEC. 6. MISCELLANEOUS.

    (a) Planning Grants.--There are authorized to be appropriated such 
sums as are necessary to provide the Native Corporations for the 
communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell 
with grants in the amount of $250,000 each, to be used only for 
planning, development, and other purposes for which Native Corporations 
are organized under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
    (b) No Inference on Creation of Entitlement to Lands.--
Notwithstanding any provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 
Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), nothing in this Act or the amendments 
made by this Act shall be construed to create any entitlement to 
Federal lands for an Urban or Group Corporation established pursuant to 
section 16 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (as added by 
section 2 of this Act) without an Act of Congress enacted after the 
date of the enactment of this Act.
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