[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 152 (Tuesday, November 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    UNRECOGNIZED SOUTHEAST ALASKA NATIVE COMMUNITIES RECOGNITION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 4, 1997

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the 
Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition Act. This 
legislation provides long overdue recognition of five Native 
communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, 
which were wrongly denied the opportunity to establish and enroll in a 
Native corporation under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act [ANCSA]. The act also provides for a process to 
determine the lands or other appropriate compensation for the 
communities.
  This legislation is intended to rectify an injustice that is over 25 
years old. In 1971, ANCSA was enacted as the means to settle the 
aboriginal claims of Alaska Natives to their traditional homelands. The 
law provided for the establishment of Native Corporations, which were 
awarded land and compensation. Natives could enroll to 1 of 13 regional 
corporations and, within the geographic area of their regional 
corporation, to the village where they lived or had historic, culture, 
or familial ties.
  However, Natives in the five southeast Alaska villages of Haines, 
Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, were not recognized in 
ANCSA, and therefore were denied the ability to form Native 
corporations. The legislative and historical record of ANCSA does not 
clearly provide a reason for leaving these villages out of the process 
of forming Native corporations.
  A study ordered by Congress in 1993 examined why the five 
unrecognized communities were denied eligibility to form Native 
corporations. The study found that there was no meaningful distinction 
between the five communities and other communities in southeast Alaska 
recognized in ANCSA, and thus no justification for omission of the 
Native communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and 
Wrangell from eligibility to form urban or group corporations under 
ANCSA.
  The Natives and their heirs in these communities deserve the chance 
to enroll to Native corporations. The legislation I am introducing 
simply grants recognition to these communities and enables them to form 
Native corporations. The bill also directs the Secretaries of Interior 
and of Agriculture to submit a report to Congress regarding lands or 
other compensation that should be provided to the new urban and group 
corporations that are established.
  This is the first, but most important step to bringing the struggle 
of the Natives of five southeast Alaska communities to a close.

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