[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 29, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S441-S442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING WILLIE HENSLEY

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to join in a colloquy with 
fellow Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to honor a giant of the Alaska Native 
rights and Native corporation movement, and an individual who has 
served his State and Nation for decades with great distinction, Mr. 
Willie ``Iggiagruk'' Hensley.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I too rise to join Senator Murkowski in 
honoring a personal friend and long-time political colleague, Willie 
Hensley. He soon will be retiring after spending the last 10 years 
representing the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in Washington, DC, the 
pipeline that brings Alaska's North Slope oil to the rest of the 
Nation. Immediately prior to that job, he was Alaska's Commissioner of 
Commerce and Economic Development, under the administration of former 
Alaska Governor Tony Knowles. He also has served on important State 
commissions under both Democratic and Republican governors.
  Besides leading Alaska's State department responsible for tourism and 
seafood marketing, international trade, insurance, banking and 
securities, and occupational licensing, he also was a director of the 
Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, the Alaska Railroad Corporation, and 
the Alaska Industrial Development Authority under Democratic Governors, 
and chairman of the Capitol Site Selection Committee and the chairman 
of the Land Claims Task Force under Republican Governors Jay Hammond 
and Walter Hickel.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. And before then, as Senator Stevens well knows, since 
he too served in the Alaska State Legislature at that time, Mr. Hensley

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served as both a State Representative in Alaska for 4 years, as House 
majority leader, and as a State senator, for 4 years from 1971-75 and 
again for a term starting in 1987, representing his home region of 
northwest Alaska. Mr. Hensley was born, in Kotzebue, AK, a small 
village about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle. He and his family 
lived in the Noatak River delta where they lived by subsistence 
hunting, fishing and trapping. While home schooled through the Harrison 
Chilbowee Academy, he studied for 2 years at the University of Alaska 
in Fairbanks before receiving his B.A. degree in political science with 
a minor in economics in 1966 from George Washington University. He then 
conducted postgraduate studies in law at the University of New Mexico.
  It was in 1966 that he wrote a paper in a constitutional law course 
entitled, ``What Rights to Land Have the Alaska Natives: The Primary 
Issue.'' The paper covered the background of public land issues in 
Alaska and forcefully made the case for Alaska Native claims to 
aboriginal lands, that coming 7 years after Alaska had won statehood. 
The paper, which laid out steps Alaska Natives should take to win their 
land claims, became an important underpinning of the Alaska Native 
rights movement that culminated in passage of the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act in 1971. The Act provided Alaska Natives with 44 million 
acres of Alaska and nearly $1 billion in funds and cemented Mr. 
Hensley's reputation as one of the most capable young Native leaders of 
Alaska.
  Mr. STEVENS. As Senator Murkowski knows, while Mr. Hensley entered 
the Alaska Legislature in 1967, he also was a founder of the NANA 
Regional Corporation, one of the 13 Alaska Native regional corporations 
formed by the 1971 Native Claims Act. He served as a director of the 
corporation for the first 20 years during its formative period, and 
ended his career at NANA as president. While at NANA, he directed its 
involvement in the oilfield service industry, most notably in 
environmental services and drilling ventures. He also was a guiding 
force in NANA's development of the Red Dog lead and zinc mine--the 
world's largest lead and zinc mine. While at NANA he also was a founder 
of the nonprofit Manillaq Corp., the regional nonprofit corporation 
that represented the tribes in northwest Alaska and that has been the 
leader in improving health care and social services for 11 villages in 
an area nearly the size of the State of West Virginia.
  While at NANA, Mr. Hensley also served in the formation of the Alaska 
Federation of Natives, the umbrella organization that represents the 
hopes and aspirations of all Native Alaskans, and served as the AFN's 
executive director, president and cochairman. In 1979, partially for 
his pioneering work in Native rights, he was named as one of the young 
leaders of America by Time Magazine in a cover story ``50 Faces for 
America's Future,'' He was honored along with then Arkansas Governor 
and later President Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Congressman 
and later Federal Budget Director David Stockman and Ted Turner.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. I understand that Mr. Hensley has recently completed 
his first book, a memoir entitled, ``50 Miles from tomorrow: A Memoir 
of Alaska and the Real People,'' which will be published later this 
year.
   Mr. Hensley, who joined Alyeska Pipeline Corp. years after Alaska's 
Prince William Sound oil spill, has worked tirelessly for the past 
decade to guarantee that Alaska's oil has flowed south without serious 
incident and without environmental damage or harm to the wildlife that 
is so important to Alaskans' way of life. He has worked tirelessly for 
the benefit of Alaska and all Alaskans. While he clearly has earned his 
retirement, Alaskans know that Willie will stay involved in issues that 
are vital for the economic betterment of his native State. I and I am 
sure Senator Stevens can't thank him enough for all of his efforts, his 
wisdom and wise counsel and his dedication to making Alaska a better 
place.
  Mr. STEVENS. I too wish him well and know that all Members of the 
Senate join us and all Alaskans in wishing him the very best in all his 
future endeavors.

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