Political Quotes

“As I show you on this map what happened to Alaska in 1980. The ANILCA land law was passed, and our State was, in effect, gerrymandered by Congress. I want you to look at all those stripes across an area that is one-fifth the size of the United States because it is entirely the Tongass--this area in southeastern Alaska where our capital, Juneau, is located--Ketchikan, our fifth largest city; Wrangell; Petersburg; Sitka; Haines; Skagway--this is a national forest. There are 16 million acres in that national forest. The only thing they forgot is people lived in the forest. The communities were there. The assumption was that there would be no real justification for the State selecting land there. It was not even an issue in statehood in 1959. The reason it was not an issue is there was an assumed trust between the people of Alaska and the Congress of this country that those people could live in that forest, they could make a living off the renewability of the resources, the fish and the timber.”