Press Release on Tribal Sovereignty Issue

******* For Immediate Release *******

TO: FRONTIERSMAN

FROM: REP. SCOTT OGAN

DATE: JAN. 10, 1997

RE: SOVEREIGNTY ISSUE

A recent ruling by the California based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has forced Alaska to face what at least one legislator is calling the most serious social crisis in the state’s history. " The governor, the legislature, and the congressional delegation must decide whether we will remain a state of one people, under one set of laws, or be divided into a state of many nations, " said Rep. Scott Ogan (R), Palmer.

With the Ninth Circuit ruling in favor of several native groups seeking to break away from the state under the guise of Indian Country, Ogan is extremely concerned. " Such deep divisions along racial lines will not only fracture our state socially, but economically as well. What we are facing here if our leaders continue to fail to act is complete elimination of state and federal constitutional protection for trade and commerce as well as individual rights in areas designated as Indian Country ." Ogan is quick to point out that these issues were all confirmed by Governor Knowles’s Attorney General at joint House / Senate hearings in the last (19th) legislature. " They (the Knowles administration) were warned where this was heading. They have failed miserably in handling the issue," said Ogan.

He is not alone in his assessment. In a recent public column Don Mitchell, former vice president and lead attorney for the state’s largest native organization, AFN had even stronger critisism of the Knowles administration. Mitchell who has a long and well known reputation for championing a closed class of subsistence use, chided Knowles Attorney General for what he calls "Dereliction" in the discharge of the state’s legal duties. He (Mitchell) further points out how the governor’s people have been "deftly manipulated" by sovereignty activists and native attorneys. Ogan says, " I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Mitchell. Under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act it is clear Alaskans are not to be segregated into tribal and non-tribal nations like the lower forty eight. Anyone who thinks that system has worked well better take another look." The federal law which resolved disputed lands along the Alaska Pipeline corridor contains language which explicitly states that all aboriginal claims to lands and waters in Alaska were extinguished. In the 1971 landmark agreement natives received 44 million acres of land and subsurface resources plus nearly a billion dollars. " That’s why it’s called a settlement, " said Ogan. " People did not want a reservation system in Alaska."

Senator Ted Stevens in a recent public announcement has pledged to address the matter in Congress if the Knowles administration can not achieve a solution through the United States Supreme Court. In the meantime Ogan feels the public must be thoroughly informed. " We have seen what happens when this issue is swept under the political rug. Alaskans need to be brought up to speed very quickly on this issue." Ogan has pledged to furnish a column to the Frontiersman detailing more of the practical as well political problems fostered by the "Indian Country" movement in Alaska."