Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File 
Jim Hoff, right, and Frederick J. Jackson, Sr. study maps during a presentation about communities left out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced legislation Tuesday which would recognize five additional villages in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File Jim Hoff, right, and Frederick J. Jackson, Sr. study maps during a presentation about communities left out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced legislation Tuesday which would recognize five additional villages in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971

Advocates hopeful new bill will add five villages to ANCSA

‘Landless’ villages could receive over 20,000 acres

Clarification: Though not a sponsor to Murkowski’s bill, Don Young has been a supporter of past bills for landless Alaskans and has a congruent bill currently before the House of Representatives.

Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced legislation Tuesday that would create new Alaska Native corporations to receive lands on behalf of shareholders left out of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

That act divided more than 44 million acres among more than 200 regional, village and urban corporations, but thousands of Alaska Natives were left out of this arrangement for reasons that are not entirely clear. Five Southeast Alaska villages were left out of the ANCSA settlement and never received their land claims; Haines, Tenakee Springs, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan. The legislation would create new for-profit Native corporations that would be able to use the land for a variety of purposes.

In a news conference Tuesday, advocates for landless Alaska Natives said they’re hopeful Congress will finally act on legislation activists have been working for decades to pass. During the conference, activists, including members of Juneau-based Alaska Natives Without Land, recalled their parents or grandparents fighting for the right to own at least a small part of their ancestral homeland.

“We haven’t had this economic engine working for us for the past 50 years, this is in my mind an act of restorative justice and I am so pleased to see this moving forward,” said Nicole Hallingstad, member of the Sealaska Corporation Board of Directors. “For me sitting here now in 2020 knowing that over 100 years ago my grandmother was fighting for these same issues. She was confused and disappointed that Petersburg was not allowed to stand up its own corporation. I never imagined that I would have to worry that this legislation would pass during my lifetime.”

Murkowski’s bill, is supported by the entire Alaska delegation, which includes Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young, both Republicans. Young currently has a congruent bill before the House of Representatives. The current legislation will be the fifth attempt at legislation meant to address the issue, according to Richard Rinehart, Jr., CEO of the Tlingit and Haida Tribal Business Corporation. But Alaska Natives have been petitioning the federal government to gain control of their homeland for over a century, Rinehart said.

[Organization wants land, Native corporations for 5 Southeast communities]

“We first started petitioning Congress in 1890, we formed the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Central Council of Tlingit and Haida (Indian Tribes of Alaska) in the ’20s and ‘30s to take this all forward,” Rinehart said. “When you have taken away our land, you cut us off from our spiritual connection to the land and made us spiritually destitute. A spiritual connection that goes back thousands of years. This is what we want, this is ours, this injustice needs to be corrected.”

When ANCSA was passed, the Bureau of Indian Affairs asked all Alaska Natives to enroll in both a region and a village, said Jaeleen Kookesh, vice president of policy and legal affairs at Sealaska Corporation. But for reasons that are not quite clear, those five villages were left out of the agreement and no for-profit corporations created as they were for other Alaska Native villages like Angoon, Kookesh said.

Speaking to the Empire by phone Tuesday, Kookesh said while there was no documentation to validate these claims, it’s believed that resistance from the non-Native community played a role in excluding these villages from the agreement. Kookesh said there were pulp mills in the region at the time that took their lumber from public lands owned by the U.S. Forest Service.

“A transfer of land to private ownership means no wood to those mills,” Kookesh said. “It’s pretty clear to say at the time there was a lot of anti-Native racism and sentiment.”

Whatever the reasons for the omission, resistance to past legislation in recent years has come from recreational users concerned about losing access to the land, specific local concerns and opposition from conservation groups, Kookesh said. But in order to assuage those concerns, advocates have put considerable time into public outreach over the past two years, and even made concessions over which parcels would be transferred to the new corporations.

ANWL gave presentations across Southeast Alaska complete with maps to make their case to the public. Under the legislation, the new corporations would be eligible to receive up to 23,040 acres each. The corporations would then be able to use the parcels as they saw fit, for subsistence uses or resource development.

The legislation is being introduced in late into a lame-duck Congress but advocates at the news conference Tuesday said they believed there had been a sea change in national politics with regard to Native rights, and there would be enough support for the bill to pass. John Crowther from Murkowski’s office said at the conference if the bill failed to pass during this session, much of the work that went into it could be used to inform a new bill.

It will take some time between when legislation is passed and when land is actually conveyed to new Alaska Native corporations, Kookesh said, but the bill is about more than being able to use the land.

“The biggest reward for these communities is to be recognized,” she said.

• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Nov. 17

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

A butter clam. Butter clams are found from the Aleutian Islands to the California coast. They are known to retain algal toxins longer than other species of shellfish. (Photo provided by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Among butter clams, which pose toxin dangers to Alaska harvesters, size matters, study indicates

Higher concentrations found in bigger specimens, UAS researchers find of clams on beaches near Juneau.

An aerial view of people standing near destroyed and damaged buildings in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene flooding on Oct. 8, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Members of U.S. Senate back disaster aid request amid increasing storm severity

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s request for nearly $100 billion in natural… Continue reading

Media members and other observers gather at the Alaska Division of Elections office on Wednesday evening as the results of all ballots, including ranked choice tabulations, were announced. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Ranked choice voting repeal fails by 0.2%, Begich defeats Peltola 51.3%-48.7% on final day of counting

Tally released Wednesday night remains unofficial until Nov. 30 certification.

Looking through the dining room and reception area to the front door. The table will be covered with holiday treats during the afternoon open house. The Stickley slide table, when several extensions are added, provides comfortable seating for 22 dinner guests. (Laurie Craig / Juneau Empire)
The Governor’s House: Welcoming Alaskans for more than 100 years

Mansion has seen many updates to please occupants, but piano bought with first funds still playable.

The language of Ballot Measure 2 appears on Alaska’s 2024 absentee ballots. The measure would repeal the states open primary and ranked choice voting system. (Andrew Kitchenman/Alaska Beacon)
Count tightens to 45-vote margin for repealing Alaska’s ranked choice system going into final day

State Division of Elections scheduled to conduct final tally at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The drive-through of the Mendenhall Valley branch of True North Federal Credit Union, seen on June 13, is where a man was laying down when he was fatally struck by a truck during the early morning hours of June 1. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police: Driver of CBJ truck not at fault in death of man struck in drive-through lane of bank

Victim laying on pavement during early-morning incident in June couldn’t be seen in time, JPD chief says.

Juneau Assembly members confer with city administrative leaders about details of a proposed resolution asking the state for more alcohol licenses during an Assembly meeting Monday night. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Petition seeking one-third expansion of alcohol-serving establishments gets Assembly OK

Request to state would allow 31 licensees in Juneau instead of 23; Assembly rejects increase to 43.

Noah Teshner (right) exhibits the physical impact military-grade flood barriers will have on properties with the help of other residents at a Juneau Assembly meeting on Monday night. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Locals protesting $8K payment for temporary flood barriers told rejection may endanger permanent fix

Feds providing barriers free, but more help in danger if locals won’t pay to install them, city manager says.

Most Read