Glowing Reminder
Small Village With Much Oil
Has Bright Future Prospects
A small Indian village in the*
Cook Inlet, Tyonek, has the bright
est prospects of becoming the weal
thiest village in Alaska.
A brightly burning fire in the
Cook Inlet about 10 miles north,
northeast of Tyonek gives that small
community of about 130 inhabitants
a brilliant hope for future enrich
ment.
The giant blaze which goes 24
hours a day is from millions of
cubic feet of gas and oil that is
spouting from submarine well drill
ed by the Pan-American Petroleum
Corp.
Big Strike
To the Tyonek villagers, the fire
Is a beacon to remind them of the
likelihood of valuable minerals be
neath the surface.
The Pan American Petroleum
Corp. leased a portion of the inlet
from the State, and in May last
year drilled a well there. A layer
of gas was struck which blew the
well out of control. Later, the hole
was plugged and abandoned.
The second offshore well also was
blown out of control but eflorts to
cap it were stopped by inlet ice
the last part of November. The
Coast Guard set fire to the gas and
oil accumulating on the surface as
a safety measure against polluting
the water of the Inlet and damag
ing the fishing industry.
The 25,000-acre Moquawkie In
dian Reserve is the stie of the vil
lage of Tyonek, about 50 miles
Southwest of Anchorage.
Recently, Congressman Ralph J.
Rivers has announced that the In
terior Department has opened the
reserve to oil, gas, and coal leasing.
1 Royalties In Escrow
Secretary Udall has instructed
the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
lease the land for mineral explora
tion and production with all re
sulting revenues and royalties to
be held in escrow, pending claims
of the Tyonek Indians and other
parties.
Representative Rivers has said
he will introduce legislation for a
congressional determination of the
rights of the Indians.
The two wells have been drilled
by Pan American as operator of a
joint venture. The venture includes
Phillips Petroleum Co. Skelly Oil
Co. and Sinclair Oil and Gas Co.
Great Activity
The Tyonek area is a beehive of
activity with many happenings that
may well bring big changes in the
lives of the people.
Standard Oil Co. has put down
two wells about fifteen miles north
of Tyonek. A 5.000 ft. north and
south airstrip and a 3,000 ft. east
west airstrip has been built. Heavy
I
equipment is being flown in near
ly everyday.
Fifteen miles of road from the
strip down to the beach and on to
the Chuitt River has been built.
Superior Oil Co. has put down
two wells about ten miles west of
Tyonek. Gas has been hit in most
of the wells drilled.
Village History
Tyonek's history is traced back
to the village of Kuskatan, an old
village on Cook Inlet, when the
first white man’s boat landed there.
The people who lived there were
called Chickalushions after their
chief, Chickalushion. They built a
little church.
Years later, the people moved to
Old Tyonek, but for many years
continued to fish and trap at Kus
katan.
■
School Reserve
The federal government set up a
school reserve there but it was set
aside in 1915. The Bureau of Edu
cation maintained an orphanage at
Old Tyonek where students learned
basic academic skills.
The people also grew bountiful
gardens. In the words of a pre
sent Tyonek villager, “They learn
ed how to take care of themselves.”
In 1924, the orphanage was mov
ed to Eklutna. Old Tyonek was one
of the first Army camps in World
War I. Many people died off there
in the flu epidemic of 1918.
Many white people lived at Old
Tyonek before a reserve was estab
lished sometime after the early
1900’s. Groceries were unloaded
there, prospectors were outfitted,
coal was obtained for steamboats
and was taken across the inlet to
I Hope in the mining days.
Great Storm
Then came the big storm and de
vastating tide of 1931. The village
was flooded out and afterward was
moved to higher ground.
"This was a garden of Eden,"
said one of the present villagers.
Yet another factor influenced the
move of the people. "They wanted
to be with their own people—not
mixed-up with so many nationali
ties.”
The Chuitts from Chuitt River
moved in; the Susitna folks moved
down in 1932; the Kenai people
moved up.
Until recently the Moquawkie In
dian Reserve was not eligible for
mineral leasing. The Interior De
partment has apparently reversed
its stand and opened the area for
leasing because it believes that
drainage from sub-surface oil wells
in adjacent areas leased by the state
is causing the value of the reserve
to be depleted.
Specializing in
Stoker and Lump Coal
and Heating Oils
Phone
GL 2-2088
Johnny's
Express
Famous Author Writes President
About Native Land Problems
President John F. Kennedy ♦
The White House
Washington, D. C.
September 18, 1962
Dear Mr. President:
I am the author of the text of
The American Heritage Book of In
dians, for which you were kind
enough to furnish a Foreword.
I write to you now about the pre
sent emergency besetting the na
tive people of Alaska.
The Alaska Eskimos and Indians
were assured of certain “aboriginal
rights" by Congressional Act of
1884, although these rights have
never yet been defined by Congress.
In common usage, such rights are
assumed to be basically land rights.
But—until the matter receives Con
gressional definition — how much
land and where remains undeter
mined.
The Alaska Statehood Act of 1958
re-asserted these still-undetermin
ed rights. But this same Act grant
ed to the new State of Alaska gen
erous portions of Alaska “public
lands." to be selected by the State
within twenty-five years.
Lands considered their own by
Alaskan native people fall, more
often than not, within these “pub
lic lands.” There are reports from
Alaska that the State is moving to
posses itself of the homelands and
hunting areas of some of these na
I tive peoples, particularly where
such lands are of special value.
Such atfts of technically legal but
morally questionable dispossession
seem almost unbelievable in the
present day. They recall the dark
ages of the mid-Nineteenth century,
in Indian Affairs.
As I understand it, the Interior
Department is empowered to with
draw from the "public lands” in
Alaska tracts of territory around
all native villages. This would af
ford protection to the natives
against any encroachment by the
State while all parties await the
eventual definition by Congress of
aboriginal land and hunting rights.
Alaskan Eskimos and Indians have
urgently requested such action. I
wish to join my most earnest plea
to theirs.
Without doubt such action by the
Interior Department would gener
ate some resistance here and there,
and would need the vigorous sup
port of your high office.
But it seems to me that seldom j
have Indian matters presented the I
Executive with such a clear cut
opportunity to act in the interest
of justice, and in championship of
rights and protection for which the
Federal Government is historically
responsible.
It is my conviction that this re
quested action would have the sup
port of most Americans, including
most Alaskans. It's really hard to
knock fair dealing. But even if the
Alaskan non-native should oppose
to a man this protective measure it
would still seem inequitable that
the demands of some 180,000 per
sons could subject our entire coun
try to a glaring instance of nation
al misbehavior and international
disrepute.
The situation in tote in Alaska
is of course much more complex
than I have outlined it here, and
the emergency action entreated
here is certainly no easy solution,
and would certainly present con
siderable problems in execution.
But, just as certainly, it does seem
gravely needed. Whatever its at
tendant problems, it would never
theless forstall great and perhaps
irreversible wrongs.
There are immediate analogies be
tween this present situation and
that confronting the administrations
of Andrew Jackson in regard to the
Indians of Georgia, Mississippi, and
Alabama. General Jackson’s admin
istration declined to provide the
protection of the Executive. A
strong body of opinion at the time
held that this was the course of
greatest national benefit. It is, I be
lieve, apparent by now that the
! ultimate effect was not good foi
our country.
Alaska is a new frontier literally,
! and the spiritual climate created
there will be a factor in its develop*
: ment It is my belief that more than
' physical factors have contributed
i to the backwardness of Georgia,
I Mississippi, and Alabama. The
j treatment of the native people in
Alaska will have its effect on all
1 the people there, not just the na
! tives. And it is the people there, in
the words of Thucydides, who will
make the State—not the possession
of some Eskimo village's oil and
gas deposits.
In my work in the history of
American Indians I have gotten the
j impression that the record of the
United States in Alaska, from the
time of Sheldon Jackson in the
1880’s until Statehood, was rather
good. I was proud to say so in the
American Heritage text, with praise
that, as remarked therein, wag
rarer than rubies, examples for it
being scarce.
I feel confident that your admin
istration will, in your own words
in that book, continue to “do what
must be done if our treatment of
the American Indian is not to be
marked down for all time as a na
tional disgrace.”
In any case, please be assured
I that I wish you every success in
j your difficult task. I am a mem
her of no organization and this
letter is not intended simply as spe
cial pleading for any group, Indian
or Eskimo. It is meant to plead
only for what I deeply believe to
be in the best interest of our coun
: 1 try.
• Very sincerely yours,
William Brandon_
L I
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