Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I introduced a resolution with Senator Murkowski celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act--ANCSA, as we call it back home in Alaska--which was an enormously consequential piece of legislation that, after years and years of debate right in this body, passed the House, then passed the U.S. Senate, and then was signed into law by President Nixon on December 18, 1971, almost exactly 50 years ago to this day. It was a great day for Alaska. I know Senator Murkowski was on the floor earlier talking about ANCSA and why it is so important and why in Alaska, right now, we have been celebrating 50 years of this important piece of legislation. I want to go back in time a little bit to help explain, because part of what Senator Murkowski and I do here is we are constantly talking about and educating our colleagues about this very unique legislation, which happened right here in the U.S. Senate. If you go back in time to 1867, that is when the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. Within the agreement, there was acknowledgement of the Alaska Native people and their lands, but, still, almost 100 years after the purchase from Russia, even following statehood for Alaska, the claims settlement that the Native people had to their own lands was still in limbo.…”