Political Quotes

“I join my colleague from Alaska today in honoring Bill Van Ness. Chairman Murkowski has identified some of the significant contributions that Bill made to Alaska and Alaskans. I would like to focus specifically on one of those contributions, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act or ANCSA, and the role that law has played in improving the lives of Alaska's Native people. Through ANCSA, the State of Alaska, the Federal Government, and the Alaska Native community reached a settlement regarding aboriginal claims to lands and resources throughout the State. Alaska Natives set aside those claims in exchange for nearly $1 billion and the right to select approximately 45 million acres of land. Bill's creativity is evident in the manner in which ANCSA addressed the fundamental question of how to ensure that the thousands of individual Alaska Natives received their fair share of the settlement funds and lands. To answer that question, ANCSA authorized the creation of corporations, in which Alaska Natives are the sole shareholders, to receive the funds and hold title to the selected lands. For the most part, this corporate structure has proved to be very beneficial to the Alaska Native shareholders and to the State of Alaska. In this regard, I point to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, ASRC, which is owned by Alaska Native people who have inhabited the North Slope of Alaska for thousands of years.…”