t
1
CunDra ^^tntrs icc
Pena Nena Henash The Land Speaks I
I '' ^ Ml 4 ^ * Ut kah neek Informing and Reporting
Unungang Toonooktakuks The Aleuts Spenk | _ ** ** T& im
— ■ T> N°’ 11__Monday, March 4, 1963 Fairbanks, Alaska
Bitter Dispute
Breaks Out Over
Meaning of Word
The state of Alaska and the fed
eral government is engaged in a
bitter dispute that has bogged down
the state land selection program al
most to a standstill.
And the_whole dispute is over
the meaning of a word, “compact
ness.” The state claims it means
one thing: the federal government
contends it means quite another.
According to state land officials,
the state will soon bring a suit
against the federal government to
get a legal definition of the term
so that the land selection program
can proceed.
According to the statehood act.
85-508, land could be selected by
the state in fairly compact units.
With minimum selections being half
townships, or 5.7G0 acres.
The state has proceeded to make
Its selections in these half town
ships.
Car] Landstrom. director of the
Bureau of Land Management in
Washington, D.C.. however, has
ruled that “fairly compact” means
all lands in the same topographic,
geographic, or economic area, there
by making some of the selections
over 1 million acres in size.
The BLM has maintained it will
survey only the outside of these
large selections.
State land officials say it would
bankrupt the state for it to survey
these large tracts into smaller dis
posable areas.
The state maintain the intent of
the statehood act was that the Bur
eau of Land Management was to
survey the exterior boundaries of
the quarter township selections.
For some time now. the BLM has
been rejecting state land selections
as being to small.
According to the state officals,
they are being forced to select land
which they do not want to select.
State officials deny that native
rights assertions are blocking the
Nome Prepares
For Festival
Nome is getting ready to hold its
annual Midnight Sun Festival that
opens on June 21 this year as usual.
Tickets on a polar bear rug are
now being sold and the tickets are
available from Ann Chambers of
that city. The rug is now on display
at Dooley’s Sales & Service of
Nome.
Purpose of the drawing is to
raise money for the Midnight Sun
Festival and the money realized
from it will be used to award
prizes for Eskimo games and to help
to preserve Eskimo games and Es
kimo dancing.
Drawing for the winning ticket
will be held March 30, at Arctic
Club Carnival at Nome, Alaska.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE — E. R. Fryer, left,
assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington,
D.C., and Janies F. Canon, right, area director, BIA, Wyoming and
Montana, were among many government officials on hand for the
3-day economic development conference in Fairbanks. Feb. 19-21.
Thirteen Catholic missionaries (representing about 216 years in
Alaska) and ten Episcopal missionaries (representing about 106
years in Alaska) attended the conference. —Tundra Times Photo
land selection program but say the I
stoppage results from the contro- |
versy concerning the meaning of
the word, “compactness.”
Last year the BLM put together
four small state selections in the
Susitna Valley and patented them
as one selection. Of course the BLM
surveyed only the exterior of the
four tracts as a group.
The state promptly refused to
accept the patent from the federal
government.
And so the controversy goes on
and the new state land program
has come to a screeching halt.
According to the statehood act,
Alaska is allowed 25 years to select
104 million acres from the public
domain.
Items Needed
For Art Exhibit
Alaska Art Gallery. 419 Second
Avenue. Fairbanks, will be holding
its Annual Winter Carnival Art
Exhibit March 15 through 30.
The gallery expressed the need for
Native Arts and Crafts for exhibi
tion. It needs watercolors. carvings,
drawings, and crafts. The art pieces
should be wrapped carefully and
art pieces that need matting should
be sent prepared in that manner.
There will be three money prizes
for best works in the art show.
Fairbanks and all outlying areas
are asked to submit work for the
exhibition. All ertries should be at
Alaska Art Gallery by March 15,
which is the deadline for all entries.
All art pieces should have the name
of the artist, price, and address on
each piece. 50 cents is asked for
return mailing but if the work is
sold the 50 cents will be returned.
JSC To Build
New Store
The Northern Commercial Com
pany. which operates 32 stores in
outlying areas in Alaska, will build
and open a new store at Unalakleet
this summer.
The decision to build the store,
replacing the Unalakleet Trading
Post which burned last year, was
made recently at a manager's meet
ing in Anchorage.
The company has bought the in
terest of Jim O’Sullivan, former
owner of the historic post, and will
start building the store this spring.
New lines of shoes, sportswear,
and women’s wear will be added
and special storage facilities will
be installed for handling fresh, un
frozen meat.
1,000 SIGNERS ASK
FOR 'UNO FREEZE'
AROUND VILLAGES
Petitions bearing the signatures*
of about 1,000 Indians, Eskimos j
and Aleuts from twenty-four vil
lege were sent today to Secretary
of the Interior Stewart Udall ask
ing land around Alaska native
villages be “frozen” and closed to
all selections.
The petitions were transmitted to I
Secretary Udall by Alfred Ketzler,
chairman cf last year's Tanana
Chief’s meeting and chairman of
the Interior Indian organization,
Dena Nona Henash.
The petitions asked Udall to close
the land around native villages
for selection until such time as the
question of “aboriginal rights and
or native inheritance rights are
settled.”
Ketzler said state withdrawals
in the vicinity of villages last
year had created a crisis situa
tion and that the Dena Nena Hen
psh organization had circulated the
petitions on a recommendation
passed unanimously by the chiefs
conference last June. I
Indian rights in Alaska were
recognized by Congress in the Or
ganic Act of 1884,” Ketzler said.
He pointed out a section of the
act which reads, “The Indians or
other persons in the Territory of
Alaska shall not be disturbed in the
possession of lands actually in their
use or occupation, or now claimed
by them, but the terms under which
such persons may acquire title to
land are reserved for future le
gislation by Congress.”
“Almost 79 years has gone by |
and still these terms have not been
defined.” he said.
Ketzler also pointed out that state
hood act also reiterated that the
federal government would retain
all lands and property held by na
tives until the rights were defined
by Congress.
ORGANIZATION S ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT-Robert L. Bennett,
area director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska, was speaker
and member of many of the panels of the three-day economic devel
opment conference in Fairbanks recently. At right is Mrs. Kay Hitch
cock of the Alaska Association for Native Affairs, and at center,
Howard Rock, editor of the Tundra Times and executive-secretary of
the inuplat Paitot. -Tundra Tunes Photo
The statehood act also empowered
the state to select 104 million acre3
in 25 years of “vacant, unappro
priated and unreserved” lands from
the public domain.
“Some of the land selected by the
state as unapportioned and unre
served goes right up to the village or
townsite boundaries," Ketzler point
ed out.
He said in most instances native
people also claim the land around
their villages as subsistence, hunt
ing. fishing, and berrying areas.
According to Ketzler, the over
lapping claims have created the
: conflict and according to both the
I Organic Act and the Statehood
Act. only Congress can settle the
| matter.
I As a case in point, Ketzler sited
I the present overlapping claim on
I the Minto Lakes area by the Minto
J people and the State of Alaska.
/ Ketzler said tie personally op
poses a proposed bill in the State
House of Representatives, House
Bill No. 68. to create reserves of
20 square miles by the state around
isolated villages.
“For one thing that's only four
miles by five miles which would
be much too small,” he said.
Petitions were sent from nine In
terior Indian villages, Beaver. Men
tasta, Tannacross, Dot Lake, North
way, Venetie, Nulato, Anvik, and
Nenana; eight Indian and Eskimo
villages in the Kuskokwim area,
Nickolai, Kwethluk. Andreafski,
Chefornak, Chevak. Tuntutuliak.
Newktok, and Shageluk; Stebbins,
Yukon Delta; Koyuk, Norton Bay.
Manatotak, Bristol Bay. Perryville.
Aleutian Islands, and New Whalen,
near Lake Iliamna.
School Named
After Sioux
Three years ago. a fine new
school building was completed in
Bethel, a large Eskimo community,
and the good folks there sat down
and deliberated, encountering little
or no obstacles, and named the
spanking new building, John Kil
buck School.
| There is also an old school build
ing. a log structure, which they af
fectionately called, Old Log School,
and which is now known as, John
Samuelson School.
There are some - people who say
John Kilbuck was a government
official while others say he was a
missionary teacher. Whether he was
one or the other does not make
much difference to this paper, but
it was amused and pleased to find
out. that John Kilbuck was Sioux
Indian.