་་

34. See the Arctic Offshore Program (AOP) “A research program focused on the development of the natural resources of the arctic continental shelves," National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, Washington, DC.

35. Exceptions were the Tundra Biome and Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment and more recently, although as yet uncompleted, the PROBES program (Processes and Resources of the Bering Sea Shelf).

36. Abstracts of a paper prepared for the Fifth International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions, (Spitsbergen Seminars), Trondheim, Norway, August 1979.

37. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, "The world oil market in the years ahead," National Foreign Assessment Center, ER 79-10327U, Aug. 1979, p. 2.

38.

Comptroller General of the United States, Oil and natural gas from Alaska, Canada and Mexico-only limited help for U.S., Report to Congress, U.S. General Accounting Office, EMD-80-72, Sept. 11, 1980, p.2.

39. See Environmental Assessment of the Alaska Continental Shelf, Interim Synthesis: Beaufort/Chukchi (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, August 1978) for a discussion of sea ice and other hazards as seen by university, government, and oil industry scientists and engineers (pp. 335-355). Comptroller General of the United States (see note 37).

40. The U.S. government defines strategic and critical metals as those needed for defense for which there are no reliable substitutes and those upon which the United States has more than a 25% net import reliance. Although copper and lead are not listed as critical, their industrial importance is great, and copper especially is critical to the economic importance of several Alaskan deposits.

41. Alaska's foremost geologists believe that this nickel deposit may well be Alaska's most important prospect to allay strategic mineral shortages for the United States. Certainly, straightforward analysis of the value of the development of this prospect against the values of national monument preservation deserves attention.

42. North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, Fishery management plan for groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska (Anchorage, 1979).

43. Reports of the Study Committee and Advocacy Panels, Space Science Board, National Research Council, Space plasma physics: the study of solar system plasmas (Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1978), Vol. I.

44. W.W. Myers, Health research in Alaska, a proposal by WAMI Medical Education Program, Universtiy of Alaska, Fairbanks, unpublished.

STATEMENT OF SAM KITO, JR., ON BEHALF OF ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES, INC., ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ALASKA NATIONAL INTEREST LANDS CONSERVATION ACT, BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS AND NATIONAL PARKS, COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 29, 1982

INTRODUCTION

MR. CHAIRMAN, MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE, MY NAME IS

SAM KITO AND I AM TESTIFYING TODAY ON BEHALF OF THE ALASKA

FEDERATION OF NATIVES

THE STATEWIDE NATIVE ORGANIZATION

WHICH REPRESENTS THE TWELVE LANDOWNING REGIONAL CORPORATIONS ESTABLISHED BY THE ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT AND ELEVEN OF THE TWELVE NATIVE REGIONAL NON-PROFIT ASSOCIATIONS. TOGETHER THOSE ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENT A NEAR TOTALITY OF

THE NATIVE POPULATION OF ALASKA.

ON BEHALF OF THE ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES, I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS OUR APPRECIATION FOR THE INVITATION TO TESTIFY HERE TODAY. AS YOU KNOW, THE ALASKA NATIONAL INTEREST LANDS CONSERVATION ACT (ANILCA) IS THE CULMINATION OF NINE YEARS OF EFFORT WHOSE BEGINNINGS CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE ENACTMENT OF SECTION 17(D)(2) OF THE ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT (ANCSA) IN 1971.

THROUGHOUT THE CONGRESS' FREQUENTLY TURBULENT CONSIDERATION OF THE (D)(2) ISSUE, THE ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES WAS COMMITTED TO THE PASSAGE OF LEGISLATION SENSITIVE TO THE CONCERNS OF THE ALASKA NATIVE PEOPLE.

IN LARGE MEASURE THAT EFFORT WAS A SUCCESS.

THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CONSERVATION SYSTEM UNITS ESTABLISHED BY ANILCA WERE DRAWN BY THE CONGRESS IN CLOSE COOPERATION WITH AFFECTED VILLAGE AND REGIONAL CORPORATIONS.

THE RULES FOR THE

-2

MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC LANDS, AND THE USE OF RENEWABLE
AND NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES ON THOSE LANDS, ALSO REFLECT
THE CONGRESS' SENSITIVITY TO THE NEEDS OF THE ALASKA NATIVE
PEOPLE. AND FINALLY, THE ACT CONTAINS A NUMBER OF TECHNICAL
AMENDMENTS TO THE ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT, AND
LAND EXCHANGES BETWEEN OUR CORPORATIONS AND OTHER LAND OWNERS,
INTENDED TO FACILITATE THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF ANCSA.
THE INCLUSION OF THESE PROVISIONS IN ANILCA WAS NOT
INADVERTENT. RATHER, IN LARGE MEASURE THEY REFLECT THOUSANDS
OF HOURS OF WORK BY MEMBERS OF THE INTERIOR COMMITTEE

AND ITS STAFF TO GATHER INFORMATION ABOUT ALASKA AND ABOUT THE
LIFESTYLE AND ASPIRATIONS OF ITS NATIVE PEOPLE, AND TO DRAFT
LEGISLATION CONSISTENT WITH THE FULFILLMENT OF THOSE ASPIRATIONS.
CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY WHICH PRECEDES LEGISLATIVE ACTION
USUALLY IS CONDUCTED THROUGH HEARINGS HELD HERE IN WASHINGTON,
D.C. AND OTHER LARGE METROPOLITAN CENTERS. HOWEVER, PRIOR TO
BEGINNING ITS WORK ON ANILCA, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1977 A SPECIAL
SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRED BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THIS SUBCOMMITTEE
CONDUCTED EXTENSIVE FIELD HEARINGS AND INFORMAL MEETINGS IN

ALASKA, AND PARTICULARLY IN A NUMBER OF OUR VILLAGES.

WITHOUT QUESTION THE SUBSISTENCE TITLE, AND OTHER IMPORTANT PROVISIONS TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION HERE, MAY WELL HAVE NOT BEEN