402 



TESTIMONY OF BRUCE COOK, JR. 

 PRESIDENT, HAIDA CORPORATION 



on S.237 and S.346 



Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands 



Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 



Unites States Senate 



February 28, 1989 



I respectfully offer the following testimony on S.237 and 

 S.346 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 the Haida could be jeopardized by pending legislation 

 affecting the Tongass National Forest. 



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

 rectify its inequitable 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.Rpt. 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Lands withdrawn pursuant to this subsection shall be, to the 

 maximiim 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 maximiam 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. 



