Sec. 2. Findings and purpose
555 words·~3 min read·
/bill/115/hr/229/ih/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds that— in 1971, Congress enacted the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ( 43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq. ) to recognize and settle the aboriginal claims of Alaska Natives to the land Alaska Natives had used for traditional purposes; that Act awarded approximately $1,000,000,000 and 44,000,000 acres of land to Alaska Natives and provided for the establishment of Native Corporations to receive and manage the funds and land; pursuant to that Act, Alaska Natives have been enrolled in 1 of 13 Regional Corporations; most Alaska Natives reside in communities that are eligible under that Act to form a Village or Urban Corporation within the geographical area of a Regional Corporation;
Village or Urban Corporations established under that Act received cash and surface rights to the settlement land described in paragraph
(2)and the corresponding Regional Corporation received cash and land that includes the subsurface rights to the land of the Village or Urban Corporation; the southeastern Alaska communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell are not listed under that Act as communities eligible to form Village or Urban Corporations, even though the population of those villages comprises greater than 20 percent of the shareholders of the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska and display historic, cultural, and traditional qualities of Alaska Natives; the communities described in paragraph
(6)have sought full eligibility for land and benefits under that Act for more than 3 decades; in 1993, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a report examining the reasons why the communities listed in paragraph
(6)had been denied eligibility to form Village or Urban Corporations and receive land and benefits pursuant to that Act; the report described in paragraph (8), published in February 1994, indicates that— the communities listed in paragraph
(6)do not differ significantly from the Southeast Alaska communities that were permitted to form Village or Urban Corporations under that Act; the communities are similar to other communities that are eligible to form Village or Urban Corporations under that Act and receive land and benefits under that Act— in actual number and percentage of Native Alaskan population; and with respect to the historic use and occupation of land; each such community was involved in advocating the settlement of the aboriginal claims of the community; and some of the communities appeared on early versions of lists of Native Villages prepared before the date of the enactment of that Act, but were not included as Native Villages under that Act; the omissions described in paragraph
(9)are not clearly explained in any provision of that Act or the legislative history of that Act; and on the basis of the findings described in paragraphs
(1)through (10), Alaska Natives who were enrolled in the 5 unlisted communities and the heirs of the Alaska Natives have been inadvertently and wrongly denied the cultural and financial benefits of enrollment in Village or Urban Corporations established pursuant to that Act. The purpose of this Act is to redress the omission of the communities described in subsection (a)(6) from eligibility by authorizing the Native people enrolled in the communities— to form Urban Corporations for the communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ( 43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq. ); and to receive certain settlement land pursuant to that Act.
Connectionstraces to 1
Traces to 1 document
Citation graph
cites case law
Sec. 2
Findings and purpose
Cites 1Cited by 0 across 0 sources