The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-08-20
RIVERS DENIES f F0UNDATI0NO OF
 TRIBAL RIGHTS
Attorney General Protests Ickes Withdrawal on
 Behalf of Territory
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fCOnttnued Jrom Page One]
 ton in setting aside reserved areas for the Indians has created log jam in Territorial affairs
 It conflicts with the Terri torial policy of eliminating racial discrimination, /. Leaders (among Alaska natives) are trying to lift the bulk of their people to in- dividual responsibility and free citizenship, not to restore them to aboriginal status. Let us not set them apart to the curtailment l of industrial development which will in the long run, deprive them and their children of jobs and the best features of our modern civil lization, while at the same time generating discord to the degrada- tion of all concerned.
 "2-Let us not set aside lands for l them to their confusion. If an In- -dian wanted to cut timber on such land, who would advertise it, grant a permit, limit an amount, make ! the rules? Will the Department of the Interior do it in an area al- ready covered by the Forest Ser vice land administration? Please note that Congress has set up no law for administering Indian lands in Alaska, especially as to areas the precise bounds of which the examiner was unable to determine from the evidence, however 'clari- fled by busy secretary who never heard the evidence.
 Development Board Stymied
 "'3-The last Territorial Legisla- ture also created a development board which is working hard so that Alaska can meet its share of the responsibility in the postwar world However, the board finds it's program undermined, and such will continue to be the case unless the present confusion is cleared up. To deny the Indians exclusive fishing rights as in your present ruling, is no reassurance. God alone can tell what attempted grants will be made in the future. To allow their claims to hunt, fish and trap in common with other persons is just window dressing They have always had that right under the law since we took over Alaska, subject only to the same general conservation laws as pertain to all persons. Furthermore, from a development standpoint, the land situation is bad enough without loading on generally undefinable aboriginal encumbrances, or the fear thereof
 "4-Taxes levied by the Territory on the fisheries produce the bulk of all Territorial revenues. Taken to- gether, the waters and shorelines claimed by the three native vil- lages embrace principal commer- cial fisheries of Alaska and plenty of upland. Cannery operations by natives, as at Metlakatla, cannot be taxed by the Territory the wedge attempted to be driven by these cases is regarded as just a beginner At least eight other vil- lages could be prodded by the de- partment into starting similar claims and the turmoil go on in- definitely. No new cannery sites can be acquired with assurances of unercumbered title. Even existing patents are made to look question: able, because the basic concept of tribal rights to large areas is that the Indians never ceded their land or shore line for incorporation in the public domain The corollary would be the Land Office had no right to grant patents in such areas, and that the exemption of patented lands by the secretary in this particular proceeding is just a gratuity beyond his power to allow. As is well known, uncer- tainty of legal status is great deterrent to the investment of new capital and the maintaining of old investments.
 TcO Many Bureaucrats
 Extending the program of ad- ministrative withdrawals, if al- ! lowed to stand, would lead to a fishing industry in Alaska exclu- sively for Indians, financed by Fed eral money and supervised by too many bureaucrats. This would pro duce no taxes for the Territory of Alaska"
 Attorney General Rivers offered further observations to make clear that the administrative attempt in question has put the political and economic entity known as Alaska in a disastrous position from the standpoint of Indians and whites alike"
 Further extension of such a pro- gram, if allowed to stand" he af- firmed, "could embrace the waters and uplands of the Yukon and the Kuskokwim riversheds and theil principal tributaries, and thereby complete a stranglehold by the Bureau (of Indian Affairs) in be-