475 



required to prevent conflict between the purposes for which lands 

 are granted by this Act and the purposes for which these National 

 Forests were established. 



2 . Why should Con g ress dea l with this matter in the Tongass 



T imbe r Refo rni Act '? 



The timber problem which Congress is addressing now in The 

 Tongass Timber Reform Act began with a Congressional resolution 

 in 1947 which authorized the sale of timber from the Tongass 

 Forest to the pulp industry despite the objection of Tlingit and 

 Haida under the leadership of the Alaska Native Brotherhood. The 

 Tee-Hit-Ton, a Tlingit clan from the Wrangell area represented by 

 the Tlingit attorney, William Paul, Sr.. sued the United States 

 for the confiscation of clan property. In one of the most 

 unfortunate decisions of American Indian law, the U.S. Supreme 

 Court held in Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United State s, 358 U.S. 272 

 (1955) that there was no Fifth Amendment taking of Indian 

 property because Congress had plenary authority to take any 

 action it deemed appropriate because it had not recognized Indian 

 title in this case. It was on account of the T ee- Hit-Ton case 

 that Congress was free to take any action it wished in the ANCSA 

 settlement. It is certainly ironic that the Tee-Hit-Ton received 

 no land under the ANCSA settlement because they were enrolled at 

 Wrangell. 



It is not too late in the day for Congress to deal with the 

 problem of the five Native communities. In ANCSA, Congress 

 indicated that it expected to resolve whatever problems developed 

 under ANCSA until 1991. last year. Congress passed the so-called 

 "1991" amendments, but that did not prevent Congress from passing 

 another amendment to ANCSA several months later to resolve 

 certain problems relating to submerged lands. There have been at 

 least twelve amendments to ANCSA to date. The five communities 

 are bringing this matter to the attention of Congress at this 

 time because it has taken that long for the communities to 

 appreciate the significance of the loss of all of their 

 traditional lands. 



3 . What does the coalition want from C ongres s ? 



The coalition intends to present to the appropriate 

 committees in Congress as soon as practicable a draft amendment 

 to ANCSA which will set out the language necessary to convey a 

 land base to the five communities. Counsel has only recently 

 presented to us various options, and it is necessary for the 

 coalition to select that option which we believe will be 

 satisfactory not only to us but also other interested parties. 



The reason for the testimony today is to give you notice 

 that representatives of the coalition will be contacting you in 

 the very near future with suggested amendments to ANCSA. 



