96 

 Senator Wirth. Mr. Atkinson. 



STATEMENT OF HARRIS L. ATKINSON, MAYOR, METLAKATLA 



INDIAN COMMUNITY 



Mr. Atkinson. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, my 

 name is Harris L. Atkinson. I am Mayor of the Metlakatla Indian 

 Community. I am here to state the Community's opposition to 

 Senate Bill 346 and support of Senate Bill 247. 



The Metlakatla Indian Community is a federally recognized 

 Indian Tribe, organized under the Wheeler-Howard Act of June 18, 

 1934. The town of Metlakatla lies 17 miles southeast of Ketchikan. 

 Approximately 1,200 of our 2,000 members live there and most of 

 the lands adjacent to our reserve are part of the Tongass National 

 Forest. 



Our people are primarily fishermen. We have operated our own 

 cannery for 75 years. The fishing industry can only provide season- 

 al employment; the only full-time jobs for our people are other gov- 

 ernment jobs associated with the timber industry. 



Our community owns a sawmill which it leases to Ketchikan 

 Pulp Company. The mill processes approximately 100 million board 

 feet of timber annually. Nearly 100 full-time, year-round jobs are 

 available at the mill for our community and with an estimated 

 annual payroll of four million dollars, the lease payments to the 

 community make up 10 percent of our revenues. The mill makes 

 purchases in our community which total well over a million dollars 

 a year. Our unemployment rate is approximately 35 percent. Jobs 

 offered at the mill represent fully 20 percent of the full-time equiv- 

 alent jobs in our community. The loss of lease revenues would crip- 

 ple our municipal budget. 



S.346 conflicts with national Indian policy. During the last ad- 

 ministration, former President Reagan called upon tribes to reduce 

 their dependence on subsidies and assume greater independence on 

 local economies, placing our mill in jeopardy. It was not inconsist- 

 ent with his policies. 



Some Indians in the community have lived here for centuries 

 and our communities have survived attacks on our sovereignty, 

 power struggles with an aggressive new state government and the 

 constant shifts in federal and state policies. Only recently have we 

 been subjected to efforts to lock up our resources, often by people 

 without direct ties to our state and community. In plain fact 

 Senate Bill S.346 is a wilderness bill and its consequences might be 

 pleasing to some environmentalists and well-intentioned politicians 

 but it is wrong; it is wrong in its approach and wrong in result. 



We ask that you make the corrections necessary to restore sound 

 fiscal management to the Tongass National Forest and allow Alas- 

 kans to establish harmony that is necessary for us to live, prosper 

 and perpetuate our ways of life. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Atkinson follows:] 



