Sen. Lisa Murkowski is reviving an effort to grant land to five communities that were not included as recipients under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
Introduced Friday by Murkowski, R-Alaska, Senate Bill 1306 would enable certain Alaska Natives in Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee Springs and Wrangell to receive the same amount of land given to other tribes under ANCSA - 23,000 acres for each community.
Similar bills attempted by Alaska Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young failed. Opposition has come from environmentalists seeking to preserve the land that would be taken from the Tongass National Forest
"They took the Tongass from us. I think they should give some of it back," said Charles Paddock of the Chilkoots in Haines. Natives in his situation are referred to as "landless."
In the past, a Southeast Alaska Conservation Council representative said the they opposed the bills because it would have allowed land to be taken from national monuments and other forests protected by Congress.
SEACC media coordinator Beth Peluso said previous land given to the for-profit Native corporations have been "clear-cut" for logging, while harming habitats for deer and salmon.
The five communities have lobbied their cause since the act was passed in 1971. They watched other tribes receive land, but not themselves.
"It must have been an oversight," said Paddock, adding that a university study showed that no prejudices factored in the communities not receiving land.
"We feel it is important to give them the compensation that other Alaska Natives received," said the senator's spokesman, Elliot Bundy.
Regional Alaska Native corporation Sealaska would receive title to the subsurface estate of the designated lands.
