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HA3DA CORPORATION 



TESTIMONY OF BRUCE COOK, JR. 

 PRESIDENT, HAIDA CORPORATION 



on Proposed Tongass Legislation 



Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands, 



National Parks and Forests 



Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 



United States Senate 



February 26, 1990 



I respectfully offer the following testimony on proposed 

 Tongass legislation on behalf of Haida Corporation. Haida 

 Corporation is the Native Village Corporation which was created 

 pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 for the 

 village of Hydaburg, Alaska. Hydaburg is located on Prince of 

 Wales Island in southern Southeast Alaska, in the heart of the 

 Tongass National Forest. 



We offer this testimony to draw the Committee's attention to 

 Haida Corporation's land selection rights in the Tongass National 

 Forest. We are deeply concerned that the commitment of the 99th 

 Congress to Haida Corporation could be jeopardized by proposed 

 legislation affecting the Tongass National Forest. 



In 1986, after many years of effort by Haida Corporation to 

 rectify its ineguitable land selection rights under ANCSA which 

 had left the corporation with virtually no choice in the lands it 

 could select, Congress enacted P.L. 99-664, the Haida Land Exchange 

 Act of 1986. That legislation was intended, among other things, 

 to provide Haida Corporation with choices regarding future land 

 selections, and "the opportunity to receive lands pursuant to this 

 section [Section 10] which are economically valuable." (See p. 15 

 H.Rept. 99-930). Section 10 of the Act provides that Federal lands 

 in Alaska shall be made available for selection by Haida 

 Corporation which meet the following factual criteria: 



Lands withdrawn pursuant to this subsection shall be, to the 

 maximum extent possible, lands accessible from the coast which 

 are of like kind and character to those traditionally used and 

 occupied by the shareholders of Haida Corporation and shall 

 be, to the maximum extent possible, capable of utilization for 

 economic return to Haida Corporation. 



Haida Corporation is entitled to select about 7900 acres under the 

 authority of Section 10. 



