Short title

This Act may be cited as the

Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act

Findings and purpose

(a)

Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)In 1971, Congress enacted the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S. C. 1601 et seq.) (referred to in this section as the Act) to recognize and settle the aboriginal claims of Alaska Natives to the lands Alaska Natives had used for traditional purposes. (2)The Act awarded approximately $1,000,000,000 and 44,000,000 acres of land to Alaska Natives and provided for the establishment of Native Corporations to receive and manage such funds and lands. (3)Pursuant to the Act, Alaska Natives have been enrolled in one of 13 Regional Corporations. (4)Most Alaska Natives reside in communities that are eligible under the Act to form a Village or Urban Corporation within the geographical area of a Regional Corporation. (5)Village or Urban Corporations established under the Act received cash and surface rights to the settlement land described in paragraph (2) and the corresponding Regional Corporation received cash and land which includes the subsurface rights to the land of the Village or Urban Corporation. (6)The southeastern Alaska communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell are not listed under the Act as communities eligible to form Village or Urban Corporations, even though the population of such villages comprises greater than 20 percent of the shareholders of the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska and display historic, cultural, and traditional qualities of Alaska Natives. (7)The communities described in paragraph (6) have sought full eligibility for lands and benefits under the Act for more than three decades. (8)In 1993, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a report examining the reasons why the communities listed in paragraph (6) had been denied eligibility to form Village or Urban Corporations and receive land and benefits pursuant to the Act. (9)The report described in paragraph (8), published in February, 1994, indicates that— (A)the communities listed in paragraph (6) do not differ significantly from the southeast Alaska communities that were permitted to form Village or Urban Corporations under the Act; (B)such communities are similar to other communities that are eligible to form Village or Urban Corporations under the Act and receive lands and benefits under the Act— (i)in actual number and percentage of Native Alaskan population; and (ii)with respect to the historic use and occupation of land; (C)each such community was involved in advocating the settlement of the aboriginal claims of the community; and (D)some of the communities appeared on early versions of lists of Native Villages prepared before the date of the enactment of the Act, but were not included as Native Villages in the Act. (10)The omissions described in paragraph (9) are not clearly explained in any provision of the Act or the legislative history of the Act. (11)On the basis of the findings described in paragraphs (1) through (10), Alaska Natives who were enrolled in the five unlisted communities and their heirs have been inadvertently and wrongly denied the cultural and financial benefits of enrollment in Village or Urban Corporations established pursuant to the Act. (b)

Purpose

The purpose of this Act is to redress the omission of the communities described in subsection (a)(6) from eligibility by authorizing the Native people enrolled in the communities— (1)to form Urban Corporations for the communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell under the Act; and (2)to receive certain settlement lands and other compensation pursuant to the Act.

Establishment of additional Native Corporations

Section 16 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1615) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(e) (1)The Native residents of each of the Native Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, Alaska, may organize as Urban Corporations. (2)Nothing in this subsection shall affect any entitlement to land of any Native Corporation previously established pursuant to this Act or any other provision of law.

Shareholder eligibility

Section 8 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1607) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) (1)The Secretary of the Interior shall enroll to each of the Urban Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell those individual Natives who enrolled under this Act to the Native Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell, respectively. (2)Those Natives who are enrolled to an Urban Corporation for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell pursuant to paragraph (1) 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 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 the Native Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell, which decedent Native was not a shareholder in a Village or Urban Corporation, shall receive the identical number of shares of Settlement Common Stock in the Urban Corporation for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell as the number of shares inherited by that Native from the decedent Native who would have been eligible to be enrolled to such Urban 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).

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 thereof the following new sentence: Native members of the Native Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell who become shareholders in an Urban Corporation for such a community shall continue to be eligible to receive distributions under this subsection as at-large shareholders of the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska.; and (2)by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(s)No provision of or amendment made by the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act shall affect the ratio for determination of revenue distribution among Native Corporations under this section and the 1982 Section 7(i) Settlement Agreement among the Regional Corporations or among Village Corporations under subsection (j).

Compensation

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new section:

43.

Urban Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell

(a)Upon incorporation of the Urban Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, the Secretary, in consultation and coordination with the Secretary of Commerce, and in consultation with representatives of each such Urban Corporation and the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska, shall offer as compensation, pursuant to this Act, one township of land (23,040 acres) to each of the Urban Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, and other appropriate compensation, including the following: (1)Local areas of historical, cultural, traditional, and economic importance to Alaska Natives from the Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell. In selecting the lands to be withdrawn and conveyed pursuant to this section, the Secretary shall give preference to lands with commercial purposes and may include subsistence and cultural sites, aquaculture sites, hydroelectric sites, tidelands, surplus Federal property and eco-tourism sites. The lands selected pursuant to this section shall be contiguous and reasonably compact tracts wherever possible. The lands selected pursuant to this section shall be subject to all valid existing rights and all other provisions of section 14(g), including any lease, contract, permit, right-of-way, or easement (including a lease issued under section 6(g) of the Alaska Statehood Act). (2)$650,000 for capital expenses associated with corporate organization and development, including— (A)the identification of forest and land parcels for selection and withdrawal; (B)making conveyance requests, receiving title, preparing resource inventories, land and resource use, and development planning; (C)land and property valuations; (D)corporation incorporation and start-up; (E)advising and enrolling shareholders; (F)issuing stock; and (G)seed capital for resource development. (3)Such additional forms of compensation as the Secretary deems appropriate, including grants and loan guarantees to be used for planning, development and other purposes for which Native Corporations are organized under the Act, and any additional financial compensation, which shall be allocated among the five Urban Corporations on a pro rata basis based on the number of shareholders in each Urban Corporation. (b)The Urban Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, shall have one year from the date of the offer of compensation from the Secretary to each such Urban Corporation provided for in this section within which to accept or reject the offer. In order to accept or reject the offer, each such Urban Corporation shall provide to the Secretary a properly executed and certified corporate resolution that states that the offer proposed by the Secretary was voted on, and either approved or rejected, by a majority of the shareholders of the Urban Corporation. In the event that the offer is rejected, the Secretary, in consultation with representatives of the Urban Corporation that rejected the offer and the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska, shall revise the offer and the Urban Corporation shall have an additional six months within which to accept or reject the revised offer. (c)Not later than 180 days after receipt of a corporate resolution approving an offer of the Secretary as required in subsection (b), the Secretary shall withdraw the lands and convey to the Urban Corporation title to the surface estate of the lands and convey to the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska title to the subsurface estate as appropriate for such lands. (d)The Secretary shall, without consideration of compensation, convey to the Urban Corporations of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, by quitclaim deed or patent, all right, title, and interest of the United States in all roads, trails, log transfer facilities, leases, and appurtenances on or related to the land conveyed to the corporations pursuant to subsection (c). (e) (1)The Urban Corporations of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell may establish a settlement trust in accordance with the provisions of section 39 for the purposes of promoting the health, education, and welfare of the trust beneficiaries and preserving the Native heritage and culture of the communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, respectively. (2)The proceeds and income from the principal of a trust established under paragraph (1) shall first be applied to the support of those enrollees and their descendants who are elders or minor children and then to the support of all other enrollees.

Authorization of appropriations

There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as shall be necessary to carry out this Act and the amendments made by this Act.