[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 4, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2767-S2768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. Begich):
  S. 522. A bill to resolve the claims of the Bering Straits Native 
Corporation and the State of Alaska to land adjacent to Salmon Lake in 
the State of Alaska and to provide for the conveyance to the Bering 
Straits Native Corporation of certain other public land in partial 
satisfaction of the land entitlement of the Corporation under the 
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to speak to a bill that I am 
introducing today to resolve a land conveyance dispute in Northwest 
Alaska, the Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act.
  Shortly after Alaska became a State in 1959, Alaska selected lands 
near Salmon Lake, a major fishery resource in the Bering Straits Region 
of Northwest Alaska. In 1971, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act to resolve aboriginal land claims throughout the 49th 
State. In that act Congress created 12 regional Native corporations in 
state, providing the corporations with $966 million and the right to 
select 44 million acres of land in return for giving up claims to their 
traditional lands in Alaska. The land and money was to go to make the 
corporations profitable to provide benefits to their shareholders, the 
native inhabitants of Alaska. The Bering Straits Native Corporation, 
one of those 12 regional corporations, promptly selected lands in the 
Salmon Lake region overlapping state selections, because the lake and 
the waters upstream and downstream from the lake spawn and

[[Page S2768]]

contain fisheries resources of significance to Alaska Natives and also 
offer land suitable for a variety of recreational activities.
  For the past 38 years there have been conflicts over the conveyances, 
delaying land from going to the corporation, harming the economic and 
cultural benefits of the corporation to Native shareholders, and 
complicating land and wildlife management issues between federal 
agencies and the State of Alaska. Starting in 1994, but accelerating in 
1997, talks began among the State, Federal agencies and native 
corporations and towns in the region, located north of Nome--Salmon 
Lake itself is located 38 miles north of Nome--to reach a consensus on 
land uses in the region. Those talks reached agreement on June 1, 2007 
with a resolution that satisfied all parties. This seemingly non-
controversial legislation will implement the new land management regime 
in the area and finally complete the conveyance of ANCSA lands to the 
Bering Straits Native Corporation--giving the corporation title after 
surveys to the last of the 145,728 acres it was promised by Section 14 
(h)(8) of ANCSA nearly four decades ago.
  By this bill the Corporation will gain conveyance to 1,009 acres in 
the Salmon Lake area, 6,132 acres at Windy Cove, northwest of Salmon 
Lake, and 7,504 acres at Imuruk Basin, on the north shore of Imuruk 
Basin, a water body north of Windy Cove. In return the Corporation 
relinquishes rights to another 3,084 acres at Salmon Lake to the 
federal government, the government then giving part of the land to the 
State of Alaska for it to maintain a key airstrip in the area. The 
Federal Bureau of Land Management also retains ownership and 
administration of a 9-acre campground at the outlet of Salmon Lake, 
which provides road accessible public camping opportunities from the 
Nome-Teller Highway. The agreement also retains public access to BLM 
managed lands in the Kigluaik Mountain Range.
  The bill fully protects recreation and subsistence uses in the area, 
while providing the Corporation with access to recreational-tourism 
sites of importance to its shareholders and which might some day 
produce revenues for the Corporation. The agreement has prompted no 
known environmental group concerns and seems to be the classic ``win-
win-win'' solution that all sides should be congratulated for crafting. 
The key, however, is for Congress to ratify the land conveyance changes 
by 2011, when the agreement ratification window closes.
  Passage of this act is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the 
Alaska Lands Conveyance Acceleration Act that this body passed 5 years 
ago that was intended to help settle all outstanding land conveyance 
issues by 2009--the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood. In Alaska 
where controversy abounds over land use, this is a hard-fought 
compromise agreement that seemingly satisfies all parties and makes 
good sense for all concerned. I hope this body can ratify this bill 
swiftly and move it to the House of Representatives for its concurrence 
and eventual signing by the President. The bill is important for 
residents of Nome who utilize the area and for all Alaska Natives who 
live in the Bering Straits Region.
                                 ______