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human inhabitants of the Tongass: the Native people of Southeast 

 Alaska. Our shareholders are part and parcel with the Tongass. 



The Alaska Native Community is a vital and interrelated 

 component of the society and economy of the region. Sealaska 

 Corporation and the numerous Village Corporations are Alaska 

 based and Native owned. The employment created by Native 

 Corporations is employment for Southeast residents. The revenue 

 from our fishing, timber and mining activities stays in the 

 region and stimulates the regional economy. Our shareholders, 

 the Native Alaskans, have been here since before recorded history 

 and they will continue to be here after the debate on the Tongass 

 has subsided. 



A. ECONOMIC DIVERSITY 



I would like to focus your attention today on some of the 

 points we consider critical to the Tongass debate. You have an 

 opportunity to convert the Tongass reform legislation into a far- 

 sighted economic development bill. You can help set us on a path 

 toward economic diversification that will provide us, and our 

 children, with a reliable and sustainable economic future. 



First, we believe that Tongass Forest management must strive 

 to accomplish multiple-use objectives. In 705(a) of ANILCA, 

 Congress directed a great deal of money toward protecting the 

 "dependent timber industry" in Alaska to protect the jobs in that 

 industry. Congress provided little money to tourism, commercial 

 fishing, or mining. Despite eight years of this one-directional 

 subsidy, employment in the timber industry is down, not including 



