Chilkoot Indian Association’s tribal administrator said she was encouraged by recent hearings in Washington, D.C. regarding a bill to grant corporate status and thousands of acres of land to the tribe.
“I was surprised at how well the bill was received,” said CIA tribal administrator Harriet Brouillette. “No one spoke in opposition.”
The bill, H.R. 4748, aims to amend the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to correct what supporters call a historic oversight. The current text of ANCSA omitted five Southeast Alaska Native communities, including Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Tenakee from getting corporate status and land rights to 23,000 acres apiece. Klukwan, located 21 miles up the Haines Highway, was included in the act.
The bill is currently in the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs. Brouillette said she hoped for a full hearing and vote on it on Dec. 13 or 14.
Brouillette has been working on amending the bill for decades.
“It’s been a crazy experience. I’ve been working on this since my mid-20s and here I am a grandmother still working on it,” she said.
During her recent weeklong trip to the capital, Brouillette and Sealaska board member Richard Rinehardt coordinated with attorneys in Washington, D.C. to set up meetings with senators and representatives to talk about the bill.
The idea of amending ANCSA to include the five “Landless Native” communities has a complicated history. Early efforts to grant federal land in the Tongass National Forest were opposed by the timber industry who feared granting land to Native groups would lock it up from development.
When the industry withered in the 1980s, a new opponent arose in the environmental movement, which feared development by Native groups.
Opposition from environmental groups has shifted in recent years, with major groups no longer opposing the idea.
About a half dozen other attempts have been made by previous congressional delegations, including by longtime U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died in 2022. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat and Alaska Native who won an election for Young’s seat, has taken up the bill, and garnered a Republican cosponsor, Pete Stauber of Minnesota. During her most recent visit, Brouillette said that a representative from the territory of Guam committed to cosponsor the bill.
“More people are jumping on as cosponsors,” Brouillette said. “It’s pretty exciting. We don’t have to ask people, they just offer it.”
Still, the idea faces skepticism from powerful congresspeople, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Brouillette said the delegation met with Manchin’s office twice over her last two trips to D.C.
She said she believed she could overcome Manchin’s opposition by teaching him more about ANCSA.
“My opinion is he doesn’t know enough about the history of land claims in Alaska,” she said. “It’s difficult to reach people who don’t have an understanding of what ANCSA is and what it means to Alaska Natives.”
Despite Manchin’s opposition – and a crowded schedule for congressional action – Brouillette was optimistic that this session could finally see the passage of the legislation.
“More than likely what I’m hoping is my next trip to D.C. is for the signing of the legislation,” she said.