The Daily Alaska empire., 1947-11-14
TIMBER ACT |5ATTA(kED
 ANB MEET
Declared Unconstitutional by DeieIgdfes-Atforney
 Curry Gives Talks
(By The Associated Press)

Officials of the Alaska Native Service were to go to Hydaburg to- day to discuss ancestral rights" with delegates attending the 34th Alaska Native Brotherhood conven- ton there.
 The major subject this year is the controversial ancestral or ab- original rights question under which natives of Southeast Alaska are claiming title to a large part of the land in the vast Tongass Forest.
 The first official act of the brotherhood was approval of resolution calling the Tongass Tim Der Act unconstitutional because it did not provide any manner for payments to be made out of the fund to parties concerned" The Act, passed at the last session of Congress to enable the estab- lishment of pulp and paper mills in the Territory provided that stumpage payments go into an escrow fund until the aboriginal rights question is finally settled.
 Secretary of Alaska Lew Will jams passed through Ketchikan last night on the way to Hydaburg to deliver message to the Brother hood from Alaska's Governor. He said this address would be main ly anti-reservation.'
 l rturry Talks To Natives
 Reports reaching here from the convention said 100 delegates rep resenting Indian villages from St. Paul Island in the Boring Sea to Metlakatla, south of Ketchikan, were enthusiastic over a talk by James Curry, Washington, D. c. attorney. He told them of the present status of land suits now in the Court of Claims and discussed present and future proposals to establish logging, lumber and pulp mills on reservations.
 We hope to obtain some real pIOopCilty iOi liiC pCoPiS Oi OuA communities he told an honorary banquet.
 Curry ia leader of the Indian aboriginal rights fight. He has already held meetings with Hyda- burg Councilmen and delegates of nearly all the native villages.
 Against Reservations
 Two years ago, the Alaska Ma tive Brotherhood went on record against the establishment of reser- vations in Alaska, Secretary Will jams pointed out
 Meanwhile, Ketchikan business leaders fear the present controversy will scare" interested investors in the pulp and paper industry from entering Alaska.
 The effect can already be felt in business here,'' one Ketchikan business man said. without furth- CT explanation.
 Details of the contract of the re- ported sale of Kasaan and Rake timber rights for $2O,o0O,o0o to a New York concern were disclosed at Ketchikan by Walter Young. president of the Indian Council at Kasaan. He was on the way to the convention
 Identifying the concern as the Development Corporation of New York, Young said the company will finance and provide equipment for logging on a five year con- tract"
 Stumpage Payments
 The money, paid the Indians in the form of stumpage pay ments." he said, will go to the Indian Council in each town. to be apportioned out as the Council may decide in the future"
 The contracts. he said, states that title to the vast timber areas near the two communities was confirmed by representatives of the Interior Department in a re- port dated October 3. 1947.' This was believed to refer to the Han- nah report. Under the seven-point contract. the Development Corpor- ation will explore and develop commercial market for Alaska tim ber"
 Scale For Pay
 The villages will be paid S3 per thousand feet dog scale) for spruce, he said. $l.50 per thousand feet for cedar, $2 per thousand feet for hemlock. one cent per lin- Ieral foot for piling or poles 95 feet or under. and 85 cents per 100