15 



tleman right here, his decisions are not Hstened to anymore, and 

 that is unfortunate, and it is not this administration or any other 

 administration. It is just a concept and philosophy. It started com- 

 ing from Washington, D.C., about thirty years ago that the states 

 and people really do not have any rights. We have to look on the 

 so-called national side of it. I do not think that is the way our coun- 

 try should be run. 

 Ted, you are up next. 



STATEMENT OF THEODORE C. BORBRIDGE, VICE CHAIR, 

 SITKA TRIBAL COUNCIL 



Mr. BORBRIDGE. Thank you, Mr. Congressman. 



First off, I would like to correct, my last name is Borbridge. 



The Chairman. I thought I said 



Mr. Borbridge. You mispronounced it, but that is neither here 

 nor there. 



Mr. Congressman, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska appreciates your in- 

 vitation and the opportunity to testify on the Tongass transition, 

 whether the State should even be given the opportunity to take 

 over the operation of the forest. 



The Sitka Tribe of Alaska, as a federally recognized government 

 for over 3,000 tribal citizens, respectfully but firmly opposes any at- 

 tempt to transfer ownership of the Tongass National Forest from 

 the Federal Government to the State government, and I will ex- 

 plain that a little later. 



The Tlingit people, including those of the Sitka Tribe, have a cul- 

 tural history in Southeast Alaska which spans 10,000 years. His- 

 torically, the traditional territory of the Sitka Tribe extended the 

 full length of the Pacific Coast of Chichagof and Baranof Island 

 from Point Urey in the north to Cape Ommaney in the south; it 

 extended up Peril Strait between Chichagof and Baranof Islands 

 into Hoonah Sound as far as Patterson Bay. Further, there has 

 been virtual unanimity in agreement in reports made by scholars, 

 travelers, traders, and missionaries, from Veniaminov in 1835 to 

 the present, that similarities in names, geographical data and 

 other evidence point to the fact that the Sitka Tribe has occupied 

 roughly the same territory since the beginning of time. 



The traditional territory of the Sitka Tribe is heavily populated 

 with the sites of ancestral smokehouses, cabins, villages, forts, fish 

 traps, gardens, hunting and gathering territories, and other sites 

 of cultural significance. Over 50 of these same clan smokehouses 

 and hunting sites and gathering territories are either held in re- 

 stricted fee status by citizens of the Sitka Tribe or are subject to 

 their claims by applications filed under the Alaska Native Allot- 

 ment of 1906. 



Historically, this distant territory was not only recognized by 

 Sitka tribal members themselves but also by neighboring commu- 

 nities; that these lands and waters were held under a recognized 

 tenure system by the clans of the Sitka Tribe; that the ownership 

 of the land was recorded in tradition by means of the potlatch and 

 totem pole; that the lands, beaches, and waters were used inten- 

 sively by the ancestors of the people of the Sitka Tribe, according 

 to matrilineal succession; that the use of these lands, beaches, and 



