Senator Murkowski Asks BLM to Speed Kaktovik Native Allotments

SENATOR MURKOWSKI ASKS BLM TO SPEED KAKTOVIK NATIVE ALLOTMENTS

Senator Lisa Murkowski today urged the federal Bureau of Land Management to speed up the conveyance of Native allotment land grants to Native villagers who qualify.

"Last month, when I took a group of senators and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to Kaktovik, we heard clearly that villagers believe they have waited far too long for their conveyances to be approved and even longer for lands to actually be transferred," Murkowski said.

"Clearly some of these cases are complex. Federal employees have worked hard to complete land transfers, given the lack of resources the government has traditionally devoted to land conveyances over the years. But villagers deserve to have the federal government live up to the promises made to them in 1906."

Following an ANWR town meeting in Kaktovik, Murkowski asked the Bureau of Land Management to research the status of Native allotment applications in the coastal plain and eastern Arctic, including Kaktovik. According to the BLM, the agency conveyed nine parcels to Native allottees in 1994 and 1996, and conveyed three additional parcels this month. There are approximately 27 pending allotment applications remaining in the eastern Arctic, each of which seeks up to 160 acres of land.

The agency has approved 15 of the 27 pending applications, but must survey the lands in order to complete the conveyance process. BLM will survey at least 24 of the pending parcels this summer. After the surveys, final conveyances may still be slowed by the need for the federal government to reacquire clear title for lands previously conveyed to Native corporations.

Over the years, BLM has rejected applications for 54 Native allotment parcels in the eastern Arctic. Thirty-six of the 54 parcels were rejected even after the applicants appealed to the Interior Board of Land Appeals, federal District Court or to the Ninth Circuit. In general, the applications were rejected because the applicants did not claim that they began using the land they applied for as independent adults before the lands were withdrawn. Lands in the eastern Arctic were withdrawn from possible selection under a World War II public land order (Land Order 82) issued by the Interior Department in February 1943. Later withdrawals occurred when more lands were protected as part of the Arctic National Wildlife Range in 1960.

Murkowski encouraged the BLM to expedite the conveyance process. "The villagers of Kaktovik have hunted on the lands outside of the village for millennia. They know the sites that are best for subsistence purposes. It is only right that their preexisting valid claims to the lands be settled. As private land owners, most potential inholders of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they should have the ability to decide the future of the lands of their ancestry," said Murkowski.

Under the allotment act, the federal government will continue to hold the rights to the subsurface estate for all Native allotment conveyances, but Native owners will control the surface uses of the land. The Senator noted that less than 4,000 acres are at issue, if all pending applications are conveyed, out of the area's nearly 20 million acres, so the conveyances would have little impact on the environment or wildlife.

"But for Alaska Natives whose parents and grandparents have lived and hunted in the area, the lands are an important part of their heritage. I hope that more can be done quickly to help settle these claims," Murkowski said.

http://murkowski.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=236120