Statement by Myrna Torgramsen, Chair, Southeast Alaska ANCSA Land
Acquisition Coalition
We Alaska Natives of the five "landless" communities of Southeast
Alaska have a higher profile these days because our years of hard
work are finally paying off. It's been an uphill battle since we
began working in earnest more than 10 years ago to correct an
inequity in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). I'd
like to thank the environmental community for their recent work to
elevate our issue - our right to select aboriginal lands and to
found ANCSA corporations - to such great heights in the public
eye. Unfortunately, they have cast the landless Native's struggle
for justice and equality in an adversarial light, and that's why I
am here to give you the views of the Southeast Alaska ANCSA Land
Acquisition Coalition, Inc. (SAALAC).
SAALAC is an organization we founded to represent the views of the
some 3,800 Alaska Natives who come from the "landless" communities
of Haines, Tenakee Springs, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan.
SAALAC representatives were elected in a public process through
democratic elections in each landless community. Although the
recent "landless Natives" article in the Anchorage Daily News
quoted Ken Arriola extensively as a landless Native, his
dissenting views do not represent the vast majority of the members
of the landless coalition.
Members of SAALAC take time away from our families and our lives
because we feel strongly that these 5 communities deserve an
opportunity to select aboriginal lands. We are just as entitled
as other Native communities in Southeast Alaska. The lack of
equal treatment for the landless communities is not clearly
explained in the provisions of ANCSA nor in the legislative
record. A recent report commissioned by Congress and the US
Department of the Interior, and other reports, have documented the
claim to our land that we feel in our hearts. Senator Murkowski,
speaking earlier this year to the Alaska State Legislature, said
these communities were left out of ANCSA for no reason he or
anyone else has been able to find.
The Landless Natives are not asking for any handout by any stretch
of the imagination. Perhaps you can look at the issue the way we
do. That is, with a little irony. It's ironic, you see, for us
to be negotiating for land that rightfully belongs to us.
Tlingits, Haidas and Tsimshians owned all of Southeast Alaska
before the Europeans first arrived in the 1700's. But no one can
turn back the clocks, and SAALAC is not advocating that. Rather
than looking backward, we would prefer to turn our attention
forward to the benefits and opportunities this would create for
our own people and for the entire region.
Alaska Natives live in a cross-cultural world that's increasingly
interconnected with everything else. You may feel overwhelmed
today by the information superhighway and the crushing pace of the
information revolution. That's sort of the way our people have
felt for nearly 300 years, coping with what Tlingit elders called
"yecs kusti" (or the New Way of Living). But, we have survived
and prospered in today's world. We have survived because of our
superb ability to adapt. We have prospered because our elders
taught us how to cooperate and how to counsel. We're going to
succeed in our effort to regain our land by cooperating and
counseling with all parties who have an interest.
The environmental community sometimes refers to a hyper-sensitive
species that might be an early indicator of the health of the
environment. I guess that we look at the environmental community
as one of our indicators of the social climate in which we exist.
If they are feeling threatened by our initiatives to secure
equality and fairness, then perhaps you do, too. I think our
elders would advise us that it's time to get together to talk, and
to listen. As this settlement progresses, at the right time we
will be sitting around the table to discuss all the issues and
concerns of all interested parties. And we hope to reach a
consensus on those issues, because justice and equality are always
advanced when people take the time to counsel, and to listen.
I want to touch on one other topic and that is the economic impact
of ANCSA corporations - current and future ANCSA corporations. I
have large quantities of information on the economic impacts of
ANCSA corporations in the region, and I would be happy to share
that with anyone interested. But let's just take a look as one
statistic as an example. The Institute of Social and Economic
research study on the 5 "Landless" communities commissioned by
Congress in 1991, and released in February 1994, said, on average,
shareholders in 5 sample village corporations had received more
than $57,000 in cash distributions from 1977 to 1992.
Where do you suppose all that money went? It went right into the
economies of Juneau, Sitka, Wrangell, and circulated throughout
all of the communities of the region. Alaska Natives spent the
dollars the first time, but it was the rest of the Southeast
Alaska business community that spent the dollars the second,
third, fourth, fifth time they circulated through the regional
economy. I'm not an economist, but I know everyone benefits form
this economic development. I have to say, "ANCSA Corporation
money - it's not just for Natives anymore."
If ANCSA corporations create one job, that one job supports 6
others in the community who provide that person groceries, heating
fuel, gas, housing, etc. Southeast ANCSA corporations' payroll
was $74 million in 1991. Multiply that by 6 to see how that
helped the entire region's local economies, not just Natives'
pocketbooks.
The issue is not as complicated as you might think. Sure, it
involves public lands and private lands, timber and economic
development questions, the use of lands by our ancestors, and a
host of other concerns. But it's simple as our desire to live the
dream of our elders and our ancestors, that our children and
grandchildren have a home in the land that sustained our people
for thousands of years.
We feel this tie to the land like we feel the tie to our children,
like we feel the obligation to provide for them now and in the
future. I know the environmental community feels strongly about
the land. We feel just as strongly about our land, our children,
and their future. Let's not stumble on the items that can divide
us. Let's talk about economic development and land management
issues, and anything else we need to confer on, to make a future
of opportunity for all our children and families.
Myrna Torgramsen is the elected chair if the Southeast Alaska
ANCSA Land Acquisition Coalition, Inc. (SAALAC). SAALAC is the
lobbying organization for the 5 "landless" communities of Haines,
Tenakee Springs, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan, who were
inadvertently left out of the ANCSA land settlement.
Submitted by Robert Willard, Jr, Project Director, SAALAC
320 West Willoughby Avenue, Suite 102
Juneau, Alaska, 99801
Telephone (907) 463-3500
Fax (907) 463-7324
Posted by Ben Chitty, NY/VVAW
-- Internet: abcqc@cunyvm.cuny.edu