Governor Soys State Won't Select
Land Without Consulting Natives
Thomas Snapp
Times Staff Writer
Governor William A. Egan has!
recently written the chiefs of 22
villages that the state is modifying
its land selection program.
The villages were those recently
to petition the Secretary of Interior
. to take steps to prevent state selec
tion of land surrounding villages.
• The state does not wish to select
such lands without consulting vil
lage people,” the Governor wrote,
“and then only if the State is con
vinced such selection may bo help
ful to the village and its people.”
Previously, in 1961, the state se
lected land around the Interior In
dian villages of Minto, Tanaeross,
and Northway. without consulting
the people involved and the villages I
lodged protests with the U. S. In
terior Department.
Daniel Jones, manager of the
Fairbanks Land Office. Bureau of 1
Land Management, dismissed the !
protests. The three villages then ap
pealed his decision to the Secretary
Of Interior Stewart L. Udall.
Tn his letter, Governor Egan said
the state was interested in working
With \Tllages in future land use to
provide a favorable economic base
and that “the use made of land
around villages should depend on
the wishes of the villagers.”
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“Under a land use plan, for ex
ample. a village could have cer
tain land set aside for streets
houses, school, airport, fish racks
and so on.”
“A larger area not to be sold or
leased could be set aside for the
residents' hunting and fishing.”
Governor Egan said.
As a beginning step. Governor
Egan said the state had encouraged
the U. S. Bureau of Land Manage
ment to recognize village owner
ship of fish camps so that villagers
won’t be disturbed in that historic
use of land.
“In this the Bureau has agreed
to cooperate,” he said. “This will
insure that your historic ways of
land use may continue.”
In the meantime. Governor Egan
said the state would seek to work
with the villages to develop new
and additional plans of land use
to aid their economy.
“Because of your request to the
Secretary of the Interior. I have in
structed the Director of Division
of State Lands not to select lands
near your villages until he or his
people have talked with your vil
lage councils.”
In a letter to the Tundra Times.
Governor Egan said. “I am confi
dent we can accomplish through
State land use planning a great
deal more than might be achieved
by federal land withdrawals.”
“In so doing we can prevent the
inflexibility and various obstruc
tions to village development that a
federal land freeze in various parts
of our state would cause.”
In the meantime, petitions ask
ing for the land freeze has con
tinued to come in from villages to
Alfred Ketzler. of Nenana. chair
man of last year's Tanana Indian
7 Conference. The petitions were clr
/ eulafed upon a resolution unani
I mously adopted at that meeting.
A petition has even been received
from 52 non-native technicians em
ployed at the Ballistic Missile Early
Warning Site at Clear, Alaska, also
asking for the land freeze.
Roscoe E. Bell, director of the
state Division of Lands, told Tun
dra Times that the reason the state
selected land in the vicinity of
Tanacross, Northway, and Minto
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was because the BLM had indicated
the areas were upon for selection.
Daniel Jones, of the BLM, said
in the late thirties ar.d early forties.
54 villages in the Fairbanks District
had claimed areas around their
villages and sought title to the land.
He said they had filed petitions
through the Bureau of IVidian Af
fairs and that the claims had ap
parently gone directly to Wash
ington.
Jones said throe protests against
state selection were filed with him
and he had ruled these illegal. Ap
peals are still pending, he said.
Jones said he considered none of
the 54 claims were legal, that there
was no existing law under which
the BLM could grant title to the
land sought.
The 54 villages who filed the
| blanket claims are: Akiak, Akia
chak. Allakaket, Alatna. and Anvik.
Chalkyitsik. Circle City, Deering,
Buckland. Galena. Golovin, Good
news Bay, Holikachuk, Hungry
Creek. Fort Yukon.
Kaguyak. Kalskag. Kaltag. Ki
ana. King Island. Kivalina Kotlik,
okhonak. Koyuk, Kwethluk, Kwi
gillingok. Mekoryuk. Minto.
Napakiak, Napaskiak. Noatak,
Northway. Nulato. Nunapitchuk,
Piamute, Point Hope, Point Lay.
Quinhagak, Savoonga, Shageluk,
Shismaref, Sleetmute, St. Michael.
Stevens Village, Tanacross Tunu
nak.
Teller Mission, Tuluksak. Tun
tutuliak, Unalakleet. Venetie, Wales,
White Mountain, and Wainwright.
In their petitions the villages
claimed:
1. That on May 17. 1884. Congress
passed a law stating that the land
which the natives of Alaska used
and occupied or claimed should for
ever be reserved for their use and
promising that these lands would
be surveyed and that at some fu
ture date Congress would provide
a way for natives to receive paper
title of their lands.
2. That they had never given up
thei rrights in these lands; that
they had never ceded, abandoned
or sold the lands.
3. That no survey had been made
of the lands, nor had any action
been taken to protect the rights of
the natives in their lands except
the Act of May 1, 1936.
Jones said it was his opinion that
the general land laws that Congress
had passed, for instance, the Home
stead Act and the Native Allot
ment Act, permitting individuals to
obtain land had fulfilled Congress'
obligation to pass legislation pro
mised in the 1884 Act.
Because of the pressure from
other states, he said he believed
Congress would never pass a law
allowing native villages the land
they claimed.
Everybody is cleverer than any
body—CARL SANDBERG (Ameri
can poet)
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Fairbanks jeweler, left, was voted president; Marge Moore, Center,
secretary at University of Alaska, was elected secretary treasurer,
and Nick Gray, employee of a local music store, right, was made
vice president. FNA was primarily formed to provide a social outlet
for Fairbanks natives. —Tundra Times Photo
Task Force Says Religious Store
Refused to Stock Cigarettes
While recognizing the desirability'
of making credit available for
economic development operations
througout Alaska, the Task Force
also is aware that little can be done
until the situation in the villages
of southeastern Alaska has been
improved.
Its comments in this section,
therefore, are largely concerned
with the credit program as it re
lates to the cannery and boat loans.
The following problem areas are
cited:
1. The need for a study of the
cannery and fishing situation to de
termine the feasibility of continuing
the native canneries.
2. The need for maintaining fish
production if the native canneries
are to continue operation.
3. The need for developing a pro
gram for cannery consolidation.
4. The need for much closer
working relations between the Bu
reau and the village councils.
5. The need for decentralization
in the management of the cannery
program.
6. The need for extending the na
tive store program into additional
villages. •
Comment: In several of the Es
kimo and Athabascan villages
which the Task Force visited, the
prices charged by .the traders were
more than the natives could pay.
Questionable credit operations by
some of these traders had plunged
the natives deeply into debt and
the Task Force was told that in in
stances were the traders also serv
ed as postmasters, checks sent to
the natives were often opened and
the natives forced to endorse them
over to their creditors.
Cooperative stores in these com
munities would have been of sub
stantial advantage to the native
economy.
Since the village stores have
proved a good credit risk, the Task
Force feels the Bureau should try
to free small additional amounts
from the present fund and make
them available, through ANICA, to
establish more native stores.
Along with loaning additional i
money for the establishment of vil
lage stores, the Bureau should work
with ANICA in a program to pro
vide better business training for
store managers and in improving
the stocks of the stores themselves.
Some of the stores appeared to
the Task Force to be exceptionally
well managed and stocked; others
suffered seriously in both depart
ments.
The Task Force also observed that
in one community, management of
the village store had fallen into
tbe bands oX a local religious orga
nization which refused to stock
such items as tobacco and cigarettes.
Not all the members of the com
munity belonged to this denomina
tion and those who did were being
forced to suffer at the hands of
their own community enterprise.
The Bureau and ANICA should
work together to prevent this kind
of situation.
7. The need for making the pro
gram of boat loans more generally
available throughout the Bristol
Bay area where the fish runs are
greater and more dependable than
in southeast Alaska.
Willow Parmigan
Information Need
The Laboratory of Zoophysiology
of the University of Alaska is anxi
ous to obtain information about
two kinds of willow ptarmigan they
believe migrate to native villages
of Alaska.
The ptarmigan are of two kinds,
the “Far South” and the “Far
North.”
The “Far South” ptarmigan is
recognized by the thin feathering
on their feet that easily allows the
skin on their toes to be seen.
The “Far North” ptarmigan, on
the other hand, have feathers so
thick on their feet that it is diffi
cult to see through to the skin.
For a long time the Eskimos at
Anakuvuk pass have said the “Far
South” ptarmigan migrates there
during the second part of northward
winter migration, about the middle
of March.
Thereafter their numbers increase,
but some of the “Far North” kind
continue to be with the big migra
tion flocks right to the last days
of the migration about the first of
May.
“I suspect that these two kinds
of willow ptarmigan are known in
other parts.” said Dr. Laurence Irv
ing. of the laboratory, “but the best
way for us to learn is to ask the
native people who really watch
and know the ptarmigan in the
winter.”
If persons in villages other than
Anakuvuk Pass are visited by these
two kinds of willow ptarmigan,
the Tundra Times ask that sub
scribers from those villages write
to Dr. Laurence Irving. Laboratory
of Zoophysiology, University of Al
aska, College, Alaska.
The more we understand indi
vidual things, the more we under
stand God.—SPINOZA (Jewish phi
losopher). _j