[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 17 (Friday, February 4, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S569-S570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. Begich):
S. 292. 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
reintroducing, being cosponsored by my colleague Mark Begich from
Alaska, 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
Alaska, 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. 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 promised the State at
the time that Alaska joined the Union in 1959. The corporation selected
the area around the lake because the waters upstream and downstream
from the lake are a prime fishery spawning area and contains fisheries
resources of significance to Alaska Natives, in addition to offering
land suitable for a variety of recreational activities.
[[Page S570]]
For the past 40 years there have been conflicts over the conveyances,
delaying land from going to the corporation, harming the economic and
cultural benefits of the corporation model for all 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 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 4 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 near the lake. 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. In return for the trade,
the Federal Government gains other lands from the State.
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.
After this bill was introduced in late winter 2009, only support for
its provisions was voiced by the public and the Administration and
Federal agencies during a Senate hearing held by the Senate Public
Lands and Forests Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources
Committee on Oct. 8, 2009. After that hearing, the bill was unanimously
approved by the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee on December
16, 2009; and it was awaiting passage at the end of the 111th Congress.
A nearly identical bill was approved by the full House of
Representatives on July 1, 2010 by a unanimous vote of 410-0. According
to Congressional Budget Office estimates last year, it would have
``negligible'' costs to the Federal Government during a 10-year scoring
window, and it actually will likely reduce Federal outlays since the
land's transfer will reduce Federal Bureau of Land Management
administrative costs.
Passage of this act is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the
Alaska Lands Conveyance Acceleration Act that this body passed 7 years
ago that was intended to help settle all outstanding land conveyance
issues in Alaska by 2009--the 50th anniversary of Alaska Statehood.
While the original agreement/extension covering the land exchange among
the Federal Government, the State of Alaska and Bering Straits Native
Corporation expired in late 2010, it has been extended once again by
all parties to give Congress additional time to ratify the land
exchange's terms. Ratification will largely complete the land
conveyance process in Northwest Alaska.
I hope that Congress this year, before the latest deadline passes,
will quickly pass this legislation. I particularly hope that the land
swap is ratified quickly since December 18, 2011 will mark the 40th
anniversary of ANCSA's passage. The shareholders of the Bering Straits
region have waited 40 years to finally receive the land and economic
benefits promised to them when they relinquished their aboriginal land
claims. It is only just that they not be made to wait any longer to
enjoy the full benefits of the claims settlement act. This bill is also
very important for residents of Nome who utilize the area for
recreation and subsistence purposes and for all Alaska Natives who live
in the Bering Straits Region.
____________________