Delegation Reintroduces Landless Legislation to Address Decades-Long Injustice
Bill allows for new Native Corporations for 5 Landless Communities in Southeast Alaska
Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Representative Nick Begich, all R-Alaska, today issued statements on the reintroduction of legislation that would allow the Alaska Native communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee to form urban corporations and receive land entitlements under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA).
The delegation’s bill, entitled the Alaska Native Landless Equity Act, would amend ANCSA to provide these five communities with the right to form an Alaska Native Urban Corporation and receive 23,040 acres, or one township, of federal land. The five communities were left out of ANCSA when it was originally passed on December 18, 1971.
Unlike in other communities in Southeast where ANCSA urban corporations were formed, Alaska Natives in the five landless communities have been deprived of the land entitlements and economic and social opportunities that come along with Native corporations.
Murkowski and Sullivan filed the measure in the Senate, and Begich will introduce when the House is back in session.
“It is long past time that we acknowledge that these five communities were wrongfully excluded from ANCSA. Our Landless legislation would remedy this half-century injustice. I urge colleagues on both sides of the aisle to look at the work that has gone into this bill to strike a balance on these land selections, and help us get this done, so we can finally resolve these land claims under ANCSA in Southeast Alaska,” said Senator Murkowski.
“For over 50 years, Alaska Native residents in Southeast Alaska have been unfairly excluded from the lands and opportunities afforded under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act,” said Senator Sullivan. “This exclusion is a lingering injustice that Congress must finally correct. I urge my colleagues to join the Alaska delegation and move swiftly to deliver this long-overdue recognition and fairness to these communities.”
“For over fifty years, Alaska Native communities in Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee missed the opportunity to build the same economic future that ANCSA afforded to other Alaska Native communities. ANCSA represented a landmark framework ensuring Alaska Native communities were provided the resources necessary for achieving self-determination and economic prosperity. Introduced in the House as the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act, these efforts make clear that Alaska’s congressional delegation is unified in addressing the historic oversight that excluded these five communities and is working to ensure they are provided the same opportunity for self-determination as has been provided to other Alaska Native communities through ANCSA,” said Congressman Begich.
Background:
ANCSA divided 44 million acres of land among more than 200 regional, village, and urban corporations to resolve land claims throughout Alaska—but did not include the five Southeast communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee.
The lands selected for conveyance to the new ANCSA Native Corporations in the bill were chosen in consultation with the Alaska Native communities, affected communities, local stakeholders, the U.S. Forest Service, and the public to allow for consideration of existing land uses.
Consistent with ANCSA, 23,040 acres will be conveyed to each community to form a Native Corporation. The total amount of land to be transferred equals roughly 115,000 acres and will account for less than 0.7% of the Tongass National Forest’s 17 million acres.
The Alaska delegation has introduced landless legislation since the early 1990s with Congressman Don Young leading the fight. In 2020, the delegation pivoted and introduced legislation with proposed land selections identified on maps. In December 2023 the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee favorably reported the Alaska Delegation’s Landless legislation.
To read the legislation, click here.
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