The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-11-09
Many Objections Voiced |As House Subcommittee Hears Witnesses on Land Claims
ANB Views

William l.. Paul. Jr., read a lengthy statement to the committee which. he said, generally expressed the views of the Alaska Native Brotherhood He appeared as sec retary of the Brotherhood instead of in his position as attorney for the natives.
 He said the possessory rights of Indians of Southeast Alaska are perfectly good. But he pointed out the difficulty in obtaining paper tile" to the land.
 He said so much of the land had clouded titles because of the in ability to get paper titles from the United States, that the Alaska Ma tive Brotherhood might agree to a reservation plan in order to have full legal ownership of their lands, When later questioned by Repre- sentative McMullen. acting chair man of the subcommittee, about his sincerity concerning the estab- lishment of reservations, Paul re- iterated his stand:
 Reservation Plan
 Many of us feel that reserva- tion plan would be acceptable be- cause that much of title would be better than no title at all Some thing must be done or we'll have nothing left but swamps and desert land"
 Representative Poulson said he thought any reservation plan would be pure racial discrimination and segregation. Paul later said that he could agree to the principle of Bartlett's bill but indicated that reservation plan would be more ac- ceptable than the bill as it now stands.
 Representative D'Ewart questioned Paul about part of his statement in which he said that "The United States as well as Russia Cat least to 191D has always subscribed to private international law" D'Ewart also questioned the statement that Indian possessory rights are perfectly good title, sub ject only to condemnation pro- cedure.
 Against Reservation
 Norman c. Banfield, Juneau att torney. appearing, he said, in un- official capacity for the American Legion, Department of Alaska, pointed out that it was necessary to make a settlement of land claims but not necessary to give title for possessory rights for wide areas h. dians have merely wandered over. He asserted that it was undemo- cratic and was an act of segregation to establish reservations. He asked that those now established be dis solved. He also asked for the ab- olition of Native schools because, he said, this too is a practice of segre- gation that is harmful.
 This is not the American way and it is not the Alaskan way" Banfield said.
 William Paul, Sr.. asked the sub- committee why his tribe could not deal directly with companies who were interested in bringing industry I to Alaska.
 "As lsng as we maintain our claims, there is no such things as public lands in the area which we claim," Paul said. We are capable of dealing with companies who wish i to use our lands. But why can't the United States act in a transfer of lands as trustee for us and let development go ahead He maintained that Chief Jus tice John Marshall had once given an opinion that Indian possession of land must be considered in the light of the mode of living and that lands used for hunting and fishing could to an extent be claimed. Paul said his tribe would rather own their land and have an in- come than outright money, and i stated that it was his opinion that the Bartlett bill would not be ade- quate in settling the claims. He broke up the hearing as he said, We would rather congress would give us the money and let us waste it ourselvesI"
 The group moves on to Sitka for hearing today, and to Ketchikan