I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2812
To provide for the recognition of certain Native communities under the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 4, 1997
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
A BILL
To provide for the recognition of certain Native communities
under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Unrecognized South-
east Alaska Native Communities Recognition Act’’.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF ADDITIONAL NATIVE COR-
PORATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA.
Section 16 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act (43 U.S.C. 1615) is amended by adding at the end
the following new subsection:
‘‘(e)(1) The Native residents of each of the Native
villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell,
Alaska, may organize as an Urban Corporation.
‘‘(2) The Native residents of the Native village of
Tenakee, Alaska, may organize as a Group Corporation.
‘‘(3) Nothing in this subsection shall affect any enti-
tlement to land of any Native Corporation pursuant to this
Act or any other provision of law.’’.
SEC. 3. SHAREHOLDER ELIGIBILITY.
Section 8 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
(43 U.S.C. 1607) is amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection:
‘‘(d)(1) The Secretary shall enroll to each of the
Urban Corporations for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, or
Wrangell those individual Natives who enrolled under this
Act to Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, or Wrangell, and
shall enroll to the Group Corporation for Tenakee those
individual Natives who enrolled under this Act to Tenakee.
‘‘(2) Those Natives who, pursuant to paragraph (1),
are enrolled to an Urban Corporation for Haines, Ketch-
ikan, Petersburg, or Wrangell, or to a Group Corporation
for Tenakee, and who were enrolled as shareholders of the
Regional Corporation for southeast Alaska on or before
March 30, 1973, shall receive 100 shares of Settlement
Common Stock in such Urban or Group Corporation.
‘‘(3) A Native who has received shares of stock in
the Regional Corporation for southeast Alaska through in-
heritance from a decedent Native who originally enrolled
to Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or Wrangell,
which decedent Native was not a shareholder in a Village,
Group or Urban Corporation, shall receive the identical
number of shares of Settlement Common Stock in the
Urban Corporation for Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, or
Wrangell, or in the Group Corporation for Tenakee, as
the number of shares inherited by that Native from the
decedent Native who would have been eligible to be en-
rolled to such Urban or Group Corporation.
‘‘(4) Nothing in this subsection shall affect entitle-
ment to land of any Regional Corporation pursuant to sec-
tion 12(b) or section 14(h)(8).’’.
SEC. 4. DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS.
Section 7 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
(43 U.S.C. 1606) is amended—
(1) in subsection (j), by adding at the end the
following new sentence: ‘‘Native members of the
communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg,
Tenakee, and Wrangell who become shareholders in
an Urban or Group Corporation for such a commu-
nity shall continue to be eligible to receive distribu-
tions under this subsection as at-large shareholders
of Sealaska Corporation.’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-
section:
‘‘(r) No provision of the Unrecognized Southeast
Alaska Native Communities Recognition Act shall affect
the ratio for determination of distribution of revenues
among Native Corporations under this section of the Act
and the 1982 Section 7(i) Settlement Agreement among
the Regional Corporations or among Village Corporations
under section 7(j).’’.
SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
Not later than December 31, 1998, the Secretary of
the Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Agri-
culture, representatives of the Urban and Group Corpora-
tions established pursuant to section 16 of the Alaska Na-
tive Claims Settlement Act (as added by section 2 of this
Act), and the Sealaska Corporation, shall submit to the
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and
the House Committee on Resources a report making rec-
ommendations to the Congress regarding lands and other
appropriate compensation to be provided to such Urban
and Group Corporations, including—
(1) local areas of historical, cultural, and tradi-
tional importance to Alaska Natives from the vil-
lages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, or
Wrangell, that should be conveyed to such Urban or
Group Corporation, together with any recommended
limitations or stipulations regarding the use of such
lands, including possible restrictions on the harvest
of timber from such lands; and
(2) such additional forms of compensation as
the Secretary may recommend.
SEC. 6. MISCELLANEOUS.
(a) PLANNING GRANTS.—There are authorized to be
appropriated such sums as are necessary to provide the
Native Corporations for the communities of Haines,
Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell with
grants in the amount of $250,000 each, to be used only
for planning, development, and other purposes for which
Native Corporations are organized under the Alaska Na-
tive Claims Settlement Act.
(b) NO INFERENCE ON CREATION OF ENTITLEMENT
TO LANDS.—Notwithstanding any provision of the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.),
nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act
shall be construed to create any entitlement to Federal
lands for an Urban or Group Corporation established pur-
suant to section 16 of the Alaska Native Claims Settle-
ment Act (as added by section 2 of this Act) without an
Act of Congress enacted after the date of the enactment
of this Act.
Æ