136 



July 18, 1996 CONGRESSlOfiAl RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E1321 



ALASKANS ARE THE BEST 

 STEWARDS OF ALASKA 

 LANDS AND RESOURCES 



HON. DON YOUNG 



OF ALASKA 



IN THE HOUSE OF 



REPRESENTATIVES 



Thursday, July 18, 1996 



Mr. YOUNG of Alaska Mr 

 Speaker, I want to bring the 

 attention of my colleagues to a 

 guest opinion that appeared in the 

 June issue of Resource Review It 

 is by Jake Adams, an Inupiat 

 Eskimo who is both a whaling 

 captain and president of the Arctic 

 Slope Regional Corp He makes 

 the important point that Alaskans 

 are the best stewards of Alaska 

 lands and resources, not the 

 political leaders and activists who 

 live here in Washington, DC, The 

 text of his opinion follows my 

 remarks Just ai Eskimo self- 

 regulation under the Alaska 

 Eskimo Whaling Commission has 

 suc-ceeded in protecting both the 

 Bowhead Whale and the 

 communities that depend on the 

 whale for subsistence, I believe 

 that the resources of the Tongass 

 National F^orest will be best 

 managed by the State of Alaska, 

 as I propose in MR. 2413, Time 

 and time again Alaskans have 

 proven their ability to manage their 

 resources responsibly, an 

 accomplishment, as Mr. Adams 

 points out, that Washington, DC, 

 cannot claim. I hope that my 

 colleagues will read the wise 

 words of r/lr. Adams. [From the 

 Resource Review, June 1996] 

 ALASKA— A PLACE THAT 

 WORKS (By Jacob Adams) 

 Compared to the rest of the nation, 

 Alaskans enjoy a relatively 

 untouched, pristine environment 

 This fact has led some people who 

 have mismanaged their own 

 environment and communities to 

 view Alaska as a public museum; 

 a place they want to control and 

 preserve, untouched and 

 suspended in time. This, of 

 course, does not work well for 



those of us who live in Alaska, 

 have families to support, 

 communities to nurture and 

 shareholders' economic interests 

 to protect and advance Yet, many 

 Alaskans often find that they are 

 forced to be major actors in 

 contentious national debates over 

 the use of public lands and 

 resources and, in some cases, 

 even their own pnvate lands and 

 resources. 



It is a shame that many political 

 leaders and activists who live and 

 work in the middle of the poverty, 

 crime and hopelessness of 

 Washington. D C, — a city that 

 does not work — are determined to 

 second-guess so much of what we 

 Alaskans do and aspire for. 

 Alaska, after all, is a place that 

 works We educate our children 

 We meet our people's needs We 

 protect our fish and wildlife. We 

 believe in the work ethic And we 

 take care of our poor and 

 disadvantaged. Profit is not a dirty 

 word in Alaska Free enterprise 

 works here It is part of a proud 

 American tradition that produces 

 income, jobs and tax revenue It 

 improves the quality of people's 

 lives But, it can also be a hard 

 task master Those of us who live 

 on the North Slope have seen 

 some successes and a fair share 

 of failures. One success story that 

 continues today is the Alaska 

 Eskimo Whaling Commission 

 (AEWC) In the late 1970s, the 

 International Whaling Commission, 

 elements of the federal 

 government and animal nghts ac- 

 tivists pushed hard to terminate 

 my people's traditional subsistence 

 hunts for the Bowhead Whale We 

 fought those efforts. We proposed 

 a system of Eskimo "self-regula- 

 tion " through AEWC, Who better 

 to protect the species and regulate 

 the hunt than the people whose 

 subsistence and culture is at 

 stake? We were successful 

 Today, the whales, our people and 

 our culture are thnving And we did 

 It by ourselves Self-regulation by 

 the parties who stand to lose or 

 gain is a concept which should be 



used more by the state and federal 

 governments But, we have also 

 seen some failures ASRC and its 

 shareholders — working with the 

 State, RDC, Arctic Power and our 

 Congressional Delegation, have 

 tried very hard since 1987 to open 

 the small, oil rich Coastal Plain 

 area of ANWR to oil and gas 

 leasing We own 92,160 acres of 

 Coastal Plain land in the huge 19 

 million acre Arctic National Wildlife 

 Refuge But we are denied the 

 benefits of our resources We are 

 prohibited by federal law from 

 producing and using oil or natural 

 gas on our privately-owned lands 

 in ANWR at the village of Kaktovik. 

 Instead, the federal government's 

 action means that we must import 

 fuel oil to heat village homes and 

 generate electricity Yet, Kaktovik 

 sits on the nation's best prospect 

 for major new oil and gas 

 reserves We have been fighting 

 this issue for nine years We may 

 have to fight for nine or ten more. 

 Lifting the Alaska oil export ban 

 took 22 years We will continue to 

 push to open the Coastal Plain 

 because it is the nght thing to do. 

 Alaskans are the best stewards of 

 our land, our environment and our 

 fish and wildlife resources We 

 should be major participants in 

 discussions about our future We 

 do not need the failed landlords of 

 Washington to dictate their policies 

 of failure to us and our children. 

 My people have seen ups and we 

 have seen downs But we do not 

 dwell on short-term reverses or 

 disappointments In the long run, 

 rational thought and the laws of 

 economics will prevail The 

 fundamental changes taking place 

 in Russia, our neighbors to the 

 west, were not conceivable ten 

 years ago. Alaskans need to have 

 staying power We are in this for 

 the long run 



Jacob Adams is the President of 

 the Arctic Slope Regional 

 Corporation, a member of the 

 North Slope Borough Assembly 

 and a whaling captain in Barrow 

 Jake also serves on the Board of 

 Directors for RDC 



