We, the undersigned, strongly object to federal legislation S.1889/H.R. 4748 the “Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act (aka “Landless”). This legislation would gift 115,200 acres of Tongass National Forest public land to five Southeast Alaska communities (Haines, Tenakee, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan) to form additional Southeast Alaska Native corporations under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). According to the forest service 52% of these lands are old growth forests currently protected by the 2001 roadless rule. If this legislation passes it is highly likely that these areas will be clear-cut, with devastating consequences for salmon runs, local biodiversity and the global climate.

The bill is about unabashed corporations seeking profit.

The proposed legislation is another, in a long series of Senator Murkowski’s singular-minded public land raids for resource extraction. Immediately following passage of the 2014, 70,000 acre Sealaska bill she proclaimed that Alaska indigenous land claims were finally settled—then proceeded to introduce Landless legislation five times— that is, every session of Congress since then.

Supporters of the Bill allege that they were unintentionally “left out” of ANSCA 52 years ago. This is untrue. Those communities simply failed to meet the uncomplicated eligibility criteria of having a majority of native residents and not being modern or urban in character. But, they are not landless nor were they “left out” since Congress made them “At Large” Shareholders of the Alaska Regional Native Corporation “Sealaska Inc” who hold surface and subsurface rights of Sealaska. Sealaska has clearcut their forested lands leaving stumps.

Not only did the so-called “landless” receive fair and substantial equitable benefits of the original ANCSA, but for decades have received dividends that “substantially exceed those paid by the regional corporations to village shareholders.”

The areas selected for privatization in this legislation were cherry-picked for their high value old growth timber, the privatization of these areas would displace existing and permitted uses. This legislation would giveaway unquantified millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded Tongass infrastructure including roads, bridges, trails, log transfer facilities, and more.

Not only do these land selections target public lands with the highest timber values, these land selections also target land many miles away from the location of these “landless” groups. For instance many of Ketchikan's land selections are on Northern Prince of Wales Island, miles away from any traditional use area or traditional village site of this group.

To quote from a comment submitted about HR 4748 by Wanda Culp, Hoonah-Glacier Bay Tribal Member and Shareholder, "Today, the ‘landless' is politically converted to five village communities for Alaska Congressional puppetry, bastardizing the English language in the process by renaming small remote communities as ‘urban' in nature for the purposes of 'settling ANCSA’– then extending claims to land that is not tied to those five villages. I use the small City of Tenakee Springs, population ~100, as an example. That “landless” community formalized and sent to D.C. their grassroots solution that has been ignored blatantly. Adding to the complications of S.1889 / HB 4748 is the mapping of landless claims within Hoonah’s traditional use area!”

According to the Forest Service, “Nearly all the parcels contain Inventoried Roadless Acres and 52% of the cumulative acres proposed for conveyance are roadless.” If enacted those acres would be transferred to private corporations and will almost certainly be roaded and clear cut for-profit. In a heartbeat, two decades of earnest public efforts to protect those acres will be erased in perpetuity.

Most importantly, if passed, this legislation would set a precedent, for 80 other Alaska communities where Indigenous people live but failed to meet ANCSA eligibility criteria. They will demand equity, creating 1.8 million acres of new land selections. S. 1889 does not require the selections to be near the communities which means many selections could come from “the best of the rest” of high value Tongass lands, which have not already been clearcut.

The legislation is unjustified and irresponsible. Any outstanding claims of the five Native communities under ANCSA, which we submit do not exist, should be settled by financial settlement from within the Sealaska Corporation land base, where Congress originally intended rather than the privatization and commercialization of protected public land.

Federal public lands should remain in federal public hands.