[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 69 (Monday, May 23, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1055-E1056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INTRODUCTION OF LANDLESS ISSUE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 23, 2005

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing legislation 
which will correct an injustice to five Southeast Alaska Native 
villages.
  For over 25 years, the Southeast Alaska Villages of Haines, 
Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and Wrangell have been denied 
fundamental rights and compensation afforded other Alaska Native 
villages under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). ANCSA 
fails to recognize these five villages for the purposes of establishing 
urban or village corporations under the Act. Consequently, the Alaska 
Natives from these villages have been denied the rights afforded other 
Alaska Natives to proper settlement under ANCSA of historical land 
claims.
  A significant number of Natives enrolled at each of the villages of 
Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and Wrangell during the original 
ANCSA process, but they were denied the opportunity to establish 
village or urban corporations in 1971. Consequently, although Natives 
enrolled to these villages during the ANCSA process and did become at-
large shareholders in the regional corporation for

[[Page E1056]]

Southeast Alaska, Natives from these five communities were denied 
rights to land and local resources that Natives enrolled to other 
village and urban corporations in Southeast Alaska received under 
ANCSA.
  ANCSA prohibits the Native villages in Southeast Alaska from 
obtaining an administrative and/or judicial solution. Section 11 of 
ANCSA establishes a general process for determining Native village 
eligibility for villages outside Southeast Alaska. A completely 
different process was set forth under Section 16 of ANCSA for 
determining the eligibility of Native villages in Southeast Alaska. 
Unlike Section 11, there is no provision in Section 16 providing an 
appeal right or other procedures for qualification of Southeast Alaska 
Native villages not included in the original list.
  Appeals to the Alaska Native Claims Appeal Board of the U.S. 
Department of the Interior in 1974 and 1977, on behalf of Natives 
enrolled to the villages of Haines, Tenakee and Ketchikan were denied 
based on a narrow, technical reading, of ANCSA Section 16. The Appeals 
Board ruled that Section 16 prevents the Board from even considering 
whether ``unlisted'' Southeast villages could be determined eligible 
for benefits, thus precluding any administrative or judicial redress.
  In 1994, a congressionally directed study determined the omission of 
these Southeast Alaska Native villages from ANCSA to be erroneous. In 
1993, the Federal government contracted with the Institute of Social 
and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, to 
prepare a report on the status of these villages. ISER presented its 
report to Congress in February 1994, concluding that the eligibility 
requirements for villages eligible to form Native corporations were met 
by the Native communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and 
Wrangell. The report notes that, with the exception of Tenakee, the 
communities appeared on early versions of Native village lists, and 
their subsequent omission was not clearly explained in any provision of 
ANCSA nor in the accompanying legislative history. In short, the ISER 
report found no distinction between the five communities and other 
Southeast Alaska communities listed in Section 16, and thus no 
justification for omission of these five Southeast Native communities 
from ANCSA.

  A solution to the myriad of issues that have prevented a resolution 
to this situation has presented itself in past congressional sessions. 
These past legislative attempts have failed for a variety of reasons 
outside the control of the Southeast Alaska Native villages. My 
legislation addresses these issues and seeks to build a solid, 
bipartisan coalition of support among key members of Congress, the 
Administration, and other outside interest groups. The legislation 
presents a compromise that has been favorably received by the affected 
villages, Sealaska Corporation, the state and others. The elements of 
the compromise include the following:
  The Native residents enrolled to the five Native villages will be 
allowed to organize five urban corporations, one for each unrecognized 
community.
  The newly formed Corporations would be provided the following 
compensation package:
  The Congress would recognize the five communities as Alaska Native 
Villages, pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
  The Secretary of the Interior would offer, and the Urban Corporation 
for each community could accept, the surface estate to approximately 
23,000 acres of forest lands.
  Sealaska Corporation, the Native Regional Corporation for Southeast 
Alaska, would receive title to the subsurface estate to the designated 
lands.
  The Urban Corporations for each community would receive a lump sum 
payment to be used as start-up funds for the newly established 
Corporation.
  The Secretary of the Interior would determine such other appropriate 
compensation to redress the inequities faced by unrecognized 
communities for the past 30+ years.
  I thank my colleagues and urge your support for this important 
legislation for five Southeast Alaska communities.

                          ____________________