On Oct. 28, the state of Alaska’s Citizen’s Advisory Commission on Federal Areas, or CAFCA, held a public meeting where testimony was taken on Senate Bill 730 and House Resolution 1408, the Sealaska land bills, now before Congress.
The commissioners, appointed by the governor and state Legislature, voted unanimously to nix this legislation.
CACFA rejected these bills after two years of fact finding that included discussions with congressional staff, meetings with Sealaska, and review of public testimony and letters.
After a thorough evaluation, CACFA reached the same conclusion that U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman made during the Senate hearing on S. 730: “The selections identified by Sealaska within the original withdrawal areas are more than sufficient to meet Sealaska’s remaining ANCSA entitlement.”
The Commission’s comments further echoed Sherman’s view that, “neither S. 730 nor H.R. 1408 will accomplish [completion of the entitlement] in a manner that is fair and equitable to all of the residents and communities who depend on the resources of the Tongass National Forest.”
The heart of the issue is that Sealaska needs to finalize the selections it requested from the Bureau of Land Management in 2008, which are in the area they asked Congress for in 1976 through the testimony of John Borbridge, Sealaska’s president.
Thirty-five years is too long for Sealaska to come back and upset the apple cart by going hundreds of miles from the 1976 areas. The U.S. Forest Service’s Tongass Land Management Plan and Transition planning would be thrown out the window by this bill.
In order for Sealaska to receive its current legislative selections, families and businesses that have lived and worked in the region for decades would, in fact, be thrown to the wolves.
Rather than “jobs protection,” the consequences of this legislation are the destruction of jobs and the ruin of communities.
I am grateful to CACFA for voicing the same valid concerns the nine towns most affected by the bills have raised: No new legislation is necessary to settle Sealaska’s land claims.
Passed in 1971, the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act was and is a fair, just, and equitable settlement of all claims. CACFA has taken a position based on true facts and its conclusions are valid.
Hopefully, Gov. Sean Parnell and our congressional delegation will respect CACFA’s letter by encouraging Sealaska Corp. to move forward and get its just entitlement by dropping this unfair legislation.
Myla Poelstra
Edna Bay
Comments (18)
Add commentNot enough proof.........
Sealaska didn't demonstrate that the lands within the boxes wouldn't meet their needs.
How on earth.........
is Sealaska going to pay executive bonuses without the public's old growth timber?
50 miles
Senator Murkowski and Representative Young need to explain to me how they can justify giving away a swath of public beachfront land 25 feet wide by 50 miles long. Unbelievable.
The land grab is slimy for many reasons, but that one alone should tank these bills.
Finish the Selections
It is long past time for the selection Sealaska and its shareholders to be completed. This process has stalled out based on unreasonable expectations of the Sealaska Board, poor staffing selection back in Congress and time wasted on the Tongass Timber Futures talkathon process, etc.
It's time to resort to an efficient selection process that affords Sealaska with a method of finally completing the selection process while insuring minimal protection for valuable public resources, including community watersheds and salmon & wildlife streams.
This can get done and done well but only if the dynamics of the discussion are altered and some adult thinking is applied to the problem. More of the same will yield more of what has already been produced in abundance here and that is nothing other than a waste of time and bruised feelings.
Agree Joe
Though I would amend your statement: "It's time to resort to an efficient selection process that affords Sealaska with a method of finally completing the selection process while insuring minimal protection for valuable public resources, including community watersheds and salmon & wildlife streams."
to read: "...while insuring REASONABLE protection for..."
Lat 58
Fine. We all need to get this done. The sooner the better.
Sealaska - dividing the region with thier greed
joegeldhof:
"It's time to resort to an efficient selection process that affords Sealaska with a method of finally completing the selection process"
Done - done a long time ago.
For your information the only hold up on filling Sealaska's claim is the top officer's greed. Sealaska was required to submit their "final and irrevocable selection priorities" to BLM in the spring of 2008. They did so. They can have their claim filled and done anytime - no one is standing in the way.
The rest is smoke mirrors and BS on a fishing trip to high grade and rip off public lands.
Everyone should be outraged at their regionally divisive actions.
"Passed in 1971, the Alaska
"Passed in 1971, the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act was and is a fair, just, and equitable settlement of all claims".
The above statement can be torn apart in so many ways. By both sides really.....
This issue has been hotly
This issue has been hotly debated both here and in meetings. Finally a group that can not be called environmental extremists has looked long and hard at this issue, and come up with an unbiased opinion. It is unfortunate that this was not assessed long ago before this bitterness had to go so far. Unfortunately this will not stop Sealaskas representatives in the Federal government from still trying to push this bad legislation down SE AK's throat. That is why they want this in a bigger lands bill, because they know it will not stand on it's own. It is time to finalize Sealska Corporations lands from within the original withdrawal areas picked by them in 1975. The communities of POW have been held hostage too long to this legislation
Sealaska land entitlement
It is time to get this settled. This is good news for us in SE Alaska. It will be nice to get this behind us and know that our communities can be at ease.
Good
No need for "outrage" here. Instead, how about if we work to find a solution here?
Yes, it is true Sealaska seeks to select outside the old proscribed areas but there are some decent public policy arguments for allowing the corporation that opportunity, including permanent protection of community watersheds and to possibly protect some high-value fish production areas from logging. There is no need to stick with the boundaries set out decades ago as an absolute. There might actually be an intelligent and even elegant solution that works here if approached a bit differently.
Whether the Sealaska Board and some of the folks involved with the issue have overreached while attempting to select outside the old boundaries is debatable. I think there is evidence to support the contention that the corporation has overreached or at least engaged in low level demagoguery with regard to completing the selections. But in the end, so what? These kinds of actions are pretty much tactical mistakes. One sees them all the time, e.g., the ongoing NBA contract talks that are in danger of cratering with loss of entire NBA basketball season. There is no need to vilify the folks at the corporation and suggest that they on a mission based on "greed." It is far more likely that a bunch of the folks have simply misread and bungled the negotiations as much as anything else.
It is time to get this tedious problem resolved and end the arguing. In the end, finishing off this long-running issue will be good for the corporation, their shareholders, the region, a bunch of communities and probably the public lands, if done right. That will certainly take a different approach and some new participants with different skill sets instead of relying on the same cast of characters and the old agendas and rhetoric.
The kind of 'take it or leave it' approach you apparently advocate for hardly ever works in the real world and will not solve this issue for anyone. Not every fight has to wind up like the fight over Palestine,e.g., Northern Ireland and Basque territory. Whether we Alaskans can solve this is up in the air at this point but rhetoric like you offer doesn't really address the core problems or get the job done.
The hypocrisy of the media is quite shocking -
If the commission had come to a conclusion that favored Sealaska and their legislative endeavors, it would have been front page news all over the state.
It is unbelievably disrespectful to this State Commission and its members for the media to refuse to cover this crucial, pivotal decision which clearly impacts the validity of this legislation.
CACFA's position reaffirms what has been discovered over and over by anyone who takes the time to look closely enough at these one sided, unnecessary bills.
To read the entire CACFA letter google Tongass Low Down.
No way
Joe:
A few environmentalists of low character that are evidently more interested in their funding then doing right by people and the Tongass stepped into the picture as self appointed non-elected negotiators.
They ran right over the top of people and interests and traded away guides and communities lands, resources and interests without doing the slightest consultation with them.
The result was particularly onerous - particularly toward personal sport fishing interests.
There is nothing but outrage here.
Real southeast Alaskans on a grass roots level have had to put up the real fight here to keep from getting run over by money and politics. And they've done a heck of a good job.
No the real answer is to put the boots to a few weasels.
The deal is done Joe - it's over. This elaborate unseemly scam to screw over the public needs to end.
Good
Well, I guess about all there is to say here is: OK, if you say so, it must be so.
Hoonah and Kake............
never again!
Exactly
Go watch Hoonah's Legacy on you tube
What next for Sealaska's Management?
TERM LIMITS!
How strange - Poelstra all of a sudden becomes interested...
in the history of ANCSA and takes quotes out of context, misconstrues the facts, and otherwises twists events around to fit with her version of a bunch of tiny communities in Prince of Wales. Tell me, why did it take you so long to become interested in Alaska Natives, and since you recently revealed that your own family were loggers and profited from unregulated clear-cutting, why are you so against it now?