- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Policy and Law
The Alaska Native Landless Equity Act has advanced to the Senate floor after clearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, marking the furthest progress yet for legislation aimed at Native villages excluded under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would allow five Southeast Alaska communities — Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Tenakee Springs — to form Alaska Native village corporations and receive 23,040 acres each. The communities were left out of ANCSA more than 50 years ago, a gap Murkowski said Congress has a responsibility to correct.
“There are no better stewards of our Alaska lands than the people who have lived on them for thousands of years,” Murkowski said during the committee’s July 16 markup.
She also noted new support from The Wilderness Society and The Nature Conservancy, two groups that previously opposed landless legislation.
The measure has drawn criticism from some conservation advocates who argue that transferring 115,000 acres from the Tongass National Forest to new village corporations could lead to privatization and commercial development. Murkowski told Alaska Public Media those concerns overlook the bill’s intent and the communities’ history.
A companion bill from Rep. Nick Begich, R‑Alaska, called the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act, passed the House in June with no opposition.
