[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1746 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1746

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 29, 2007

 Ms. Murkowski (for herself and Mr. Stevens) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for the recognition of certain Native communities and the 
settlement of certain claims 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 and Compensation Act''.

SEC. 2. 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 1 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.

SEC. 3. 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.''.

SEC. 4. 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).''.

SEC. 5. 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).''.

SEC. 6. 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:

 ``urban corporations for haines, ketchikan, petersburg, tenakee, and 
                                wrangell

    ``Sec. 43.  (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 1 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 6 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.''.

SEC. 7. 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.
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