Political Quotes

“Mr. Hensley was born, in Kotzebue, AK, a small village about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle. He and his family lived in the Noatak River delta where they lived by subsistence hunting, fishing and trapping. While home schooled through the Harrison Chilbowee Academy, he studied for 2 years at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks before receiving his B.A. degree in political science with a minor in economics in 1966 from George Washington University. He then conducted postgraduate studies in law at the University of New Mexico. It was in 1966 that he wrote a paper in a constitutional law course entitled, ``What Rights to Land Have the Alaska Natives: The Primary Issue.'' The paper covered the background of public land issues in Alaska and forcefully made the case for Alaska Native claims to aboriginal lands, that coming 7 years after Alaska had won statehood. The paper, which laid out steps Alaska Natives should take to win their land claims, became an important underpinning of the Alaska Native rights movement that culminated in passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971.”