[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3166-S3167]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MURKOWSKI:
  S. 2222. A bill to resolve certain conveyances and provide for 
alternative land selections under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 
Act related to Cape Fox Corporation and Sealaska Corporation, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that will address an equity issue for one of Alaska'a rural village 
corporations.

[[Page S3167]]

  Cape Fox Corporation is an Alaska Village Corporation organized 
pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, ANCSA, by the 
Native Village of Saxman, near Ketchikan, AK. As with other ANCSA 
village corporations in Southeast Alaska, Cape Fox was limited to 
selecting 23,040 acres under Section 16 of ANCSA. However, unlike other 
village corporations, Cape Fox was further restricted from selecting 
lands within six miles of the boundary of the home rule City of 
Ketchikan. All other ANCSA corporations were restricted from selecting 
within two miles of such a home rule city.
  The six mile restriction went beyond protecting Ketchikan's watershed 
and damaged Cape Fox by preventing the corporation from selecting 
valuable timber lands, industrial sites, and other commercial property, 
not only in its core township but in surrounding lands far removed from 
Ketchikan and its watershed. As a result of the six mile restriction, 
only the mountainous northeast corner of Cape Fox's core township, 
which is nonproductive and of no economic value, was available for 
selection by the corporation. Under ANCSA, however, Cape Fox was 
required to select this parcel.
  Cape Fox's land selections were further limited by the fact that the 
Annette Island Indian Reservation is within its selection area, and 
those lands were unavailable for ANCSA selection. Cape Fox is the only 
ANCSA village corporation affected by this restriction.
  Clearly, Cape Fox was placed on unequal economic footing relative to 
other village corporations in Southeast Alaska. Despite its best 
efforts during the years since ANCSA was signed into law, Cape Fox has 
been unable to overcome the disadvantage the law built into its land 
selection opportunities by this inequitable treatment.
  To address the inequity, I have introduced the ``Cape Fox Land 
Entitlement Adjustment Act of 2002.'' This bill will address the Cape 
Fox problem by providing three interrelated remedies.
  1. The obligation of Cape Fox to select and seek conveyance of the 
approximately 160 acres of unusable land in the mountainous northeast 
corner of Cape Fox's core township will be annulled.
  2. Cape Fox will be allowed to select and the Secretary of 
Agriculture will be directed to convey 99 acres of timber land adjacent 
to Cape Fox's current holdings on Revilla Island.
  3. Cape Fox and the Secretary of Agriculture will be authorized to 
enter into an equal value exchange of lands in southeast Alaska that 
will be of mutual benefit to the Corporation and the U.S. Forest 
Service. Lands conveyed to Cape Fox in this exchange will not be 
timberlands, but will be associated with a mining property containing 
existing Federal mining claims, some of which are patented. Lands 
anticipated to be returned to Forest Service ownership will be of 
wildlife habitat value and will consolidate Forest Service holdings in 
the George Inlet area of Revilla Island. The Forest Service supports 
the transfer of these lands back to Federal ownership.
  The land exchange provisions of this bill will help rectify the long-
standing inequities associated with restrictions placed on Cape Fox in 
ANCSA. It will help allow this Native village corporation to make the 
transition from its major dependence on timber harvest to a more 
diversified portfolio of income-producing lands.
  The bill also provides for the resolution of a long-standing land 
ownership problem within the Tongass National Forest. The predominant 
private landowner in the region, Sealaska Corporation, holds the 
subsurface estate on several thousand acres of National Forest System 
lands. This split estate poses a management problem which the Forest 
Service has long sought to resolve. Efforts to address this issue go 
back more than a decade. Provisions in the Cape Fox Land Entitlement 
Adjustment Act of 2002 will allow the agency to consolidate its surface 
and subsurface estate and greatly enhance its management effectiveness 
and efficiency in the Tongass National Forest.
  I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.
                                 ______