SJR 13: Encouraging the United States Congress and the President of the United States to pass and sign legislation amending the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to release certain land held in trust back to affected Alaska Native village corporations.
00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 13 01 Encouraging the United States Congress and the President of the United States to pass 02 and sign legislation amending the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to release certain 03 land held in trust back to affected Alaska Native village corporations. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS, in 1971, to resolve land claims of Alaska Native peoples, the United 06 States Congress passed, and President Richard Nixon signed into law, the Alaska Native 07 Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA); and 08 WHEREAS sec. 14(c)(3) of ANCSA required each Alaska Native village corporation 09 to convey a portion of the land it received to the state to be held in trust for a future municipal 10 government; and 11 WHEREAS out of the 101 villages in which Alaska Native village corporation land 12 has been held in trust for a future municipality under ANCSA, only eight villages have 13 incorporated, with the most recently established municipality being incorporated in 1995; and 14 WHEREAS there are 93 villages that have not decided to incorporate, with 15 approximately 11,500 acres of Alaska Native village corporation land currently held in trust
01 by the state; and 02 WHEREAS the requirement under ANCSA that land must be held in trust for a future 03 municipality was drafted over 50 years ago and is now a detriment to enabling Alaska Native 04 village corporations and communities to engage in economic development activities and use 05 the land to its full potential; and 06 WHEREAS amending ANCSA by removing the requirement that each Alaska Native 07 village corporation must have land held in trust for a future municipality will empower the 08 Alaska Native village corporations and communities to decide how to best use the land and 09 resources, leading to greater economic prosperity and self-sufficiency; and 10 WHEREAS Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan introduced in the United 11 States Senate and Representative Mary Peltola introduced in the United States House of 12 Representatives the Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act of 2023, which 13 restores the Alaska Native village corporation land, held in trust for the establishment of 14 future municipalities, to the Alaska Native village corporations; 15 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully urges the United 16 States Congress to pass the Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act of 2023 17 or similar legislation in the 118th United States Congress that restores the land held in trust 18 under sec. 14(c)(3) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to the affected Alaska Native 19 village corporations; and be it 20 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the 21 President of the United States to sign the Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration 22 Act of 2023 or similar legislation into law. 23 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President 24 of the United States; the Honorable Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States and 25 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Mike Johnson, Speaker of the U.S. House of 26 Representatives; the Honorable Charles Schumer, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the 27 Honorable Deb Haaland, United States Secretary of the Interior; and the Honorable Lisa 28 Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Mary Peltola, 29 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.