Murkowski’s ‘landless’ bill advances to US Senate floor

Jasz Garrett
3 hours ago
5 min read

‘I believe that the people who live here are ultimately the best stewards and will determine the future of the region’

By Jasz Garrett

Juneau Independent

An Alaska Native “landless” bill the state’s congressional delegation has sought for more than three decades is a Senate vote away from passing both chambers of Congress.

The version sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, advanced to a floor vote earlier this month. Murkowski expressed optimism the legislation on behalf of five Southeast Alaska communities may finally succeed during a visit to Juneau last month for Celebration.

“I think really it is about a measure being ripe for passage, if you will,” she said in an interview. “It has taken us many years to negotiate the maps in terms of identifying parcels. As we know, when it comes to the Tongass, every acre is precious to someone. And so when you’re trying to identify areas that are perhaps outside of your immediate community, it’s challenging. What it has required is years of an open process.”

If the Alaska Native Landless Equity Act passes, the Native residents of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and Wrangell could form urban corporations and receive land entitlements. Murkowski said the bill fulfills a promise made more than 50 years ago.

Murkowski vowed continued efforts to pass the “landless” bill on June 6 during a Celebration event. The U.S. House companion bill by Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, passed without opposition on June 2.

“I share with people who will not understand back in Washington, D.C — I share with them that perhaps the most significant honor was when I was adopted into the Deisheetaan clan,” Murkowski told the crowd inside Centennial Hall.

She said with her gifted Lingít name Aan Shaawátk’i (Lady of the Land), she bears the responsibility “to care for our land.”

On July 16, Murkowski announced her bill had advanced to the U.S. Senate floor after passing out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In 2023, a landless bill introduced by Murkowski passed out of the committee for the first time.

She said the House support in moving the legislation was significant and credited Begich for his efforts.

“We’ve been working with the communities for years now in identifying the parcels to be exchanged,” she told the Independent. “We wanted to make sure that we were working with the House to do an identical measure, so that when it advances through one body, we can try to move it through as quickly as possible.”

On Dec. 18, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act into law. The law compensated Alaska Natives for the loss of lands historically used and occupied, allowing regional and village Native corporations the right to select 44 million acres of land and appropriated $962.5 million to them.

The five Southeast Alaska Native communities were excluded from ANSCA, the largest land claims settlement in U.S. history.

The bill directs the Department of the Interior to convey specified land to each urban corporation. DOI must also convey the subsurface estate for that land to the regional corporation for Southeast Alaska. Each community would receive 23,040 acres of federal land or “one township.”

The land conveyed to each urban corporation must include any U.S. interest in all roads, trails, log transfer facilities, leases and appurtenances on or related to the land conveyed to the urban corporation.

The bill also allows each urban corporation to establish a settlement trust to promote the health, education, and welfare of the trust beneficiaries, and preserve the Alaska Native heritage and culture of their communities.

“This is what Native self-determination is all about,” Murkowski said. “To make that decision for themselves and for the benefit of their people.”

Alaska’s congressional delegation has introduced “landless” legislation since the early 1990s. Several legislative attempts to recognize the five communities have failed. Murkowski said the current language and circumstances make her hopeful this bill will pass the Senate.

“Is it a perfect bill? No. Is it one that we have agreement amongst everybody as to the maps? Probably not. But is it a work product that I think we and the communities can stand behind? Absolutely,” she said. “We’re finally to that place where all of that legwork has been done.”

Murkowski said she and her staff have spent extensive time holding meetings in the impacted communities.

She noted support from environmental groups including The Nature Conservancy and The Wilderness Society, who previously opposed the bill.

“While our defense of the Tongass continues, we must correct the injustices faced by certain Native communities in Southeast Alaska,” a March letter from The Wilderness Society states in support of the House companion bill.

In contrast, Murkowski said there’s potential opposition from those who want to preserve lands in federal control.

“I will share that there are some on the other side of the aisle who have reservations about the landless bill because they philosophically disagree that land should go from the federal estate into private hands because they are looking at these areas in the Tongass and saying, ‘All of these need to be preserved, and the best way to preserve that is to keep them in — again — in the federal estate,’” Murkowski said.

She said the support from environmental groups made an impact on her colleagues.

“My observation is that when you return the land to the original stewards of the land, perhaps there’s going to be better balance there,” Murkowski said. “These are people who live and work and raise their families in these areas. Yes, they want to have jobs, but this is a place that they will call home.”

Murkowski added not all of her colleagues in Washington, D.C., understand Alaska Native cultural heritage and stewardship.

“The best way in my view to educate is to get people up here,” she said.

Murkowski said when this isn’t possible, leaders from the five landless communities travel to Washington, D.C., and explain why the bill’s passage is important to them.

She said striking a balance in the Tongass National Forest has long been sought after, and the Sealaska Corp. land settlement proved it’s possible without federal control through its carbon credit program. Sealaska was established in 1972 under ANSCA.

Not all environmental groups support that argument. The Legacy Forest Defense Coalition states, “between 1971 and 2020, Sealaska clearcut nearly all old-growth forests on these lands employing some of the most environmentally destructive logging practices seen anywhere in North America.”

The coalition adds “in an instant, this legislation could condemn these lands to industrial logging and mining projects that would not be subject to public input or oversight.”

Murkowski said one way many Southeast Alaska Native communities want to use the land is by developing greater ecotourism opportunities.

“I believe that the people who live here are ultimately the best stewards and will determine the future of the region,” she said.

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.