Sovereignty "for sale" in Exxon spillzone

On December 10th, 1997, the US Supreme Court will hear the 49th's State appeal on whether "Indian Country" still exists in Alaska or ANCSA* extinguished it.

Indian Country continues to exist in Alaska, no matter how the courts rule. The United States Supreme Court is (now) the only body which can uphold Tribal Trust Responsibility with Alaska's Native Nations. Tribal Trust is an obligation to America's tribes to uphold a frame-work of federal promises that guarantees a tribe's ability to continue its inherent way of life. Tribal Trust Responsibility also protects a tribe's right of self- determination and special government- to-government status with Alaska's Native Nations.

As Alaska Native tribes prepare to defend Indian Country before the US Supreme Court next month, in Prince William Sound, Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act (ANCSA, 1971) lands are being purchased in fee simple title by the "Trustees Council", a state and federal government panel charged with overseeing spending of the one billion dollar settlement money from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. See Trustee Council Eyak Rainforest offer.

Without Indian Country recognition, tribal sovereignty could be seen as a revocable privilege that can be purchased outright when one is forced to sell their ancestral land. Actions by the Trustee Council could be considered a breach of Tribal Trust Responsibility and ultimately be fatal to a tribes' ability to pass on inherent rights and ancestral land to their children yet to come. The Trustee Council should respect Indian Country, not ignore it.

Native land acquisitions in Prince William Sound and in the Exxon spill-zone will not only control jurisdiction over ANCSA land, but increase the government land coffers. This will ultimately have an adverse affect on Alaska Native's inherent power to tax. It could be argued that without their land-base tribes unique Native status, tribal economy, right of subsistence, self- determination, culture including heritage is forever jeopardized by these Trustee Council "fee simple title" land acquisitions.

ANCSA should be on trial before the Supreme Court, not Indian Country. The US Congress adopted ANCSA in 1971, creating a social experiment that has succeeded is nothing more than becoming a legalized form of cultural genocide. As long as ANCSA is considered the law of the land and enforceable, government will be able to continue to oppress Native people. What other minority race of people are forced into forming corporations? ANCSA corporations were designed to strip Alaska's Natives of their land, natural resources and inherent rights. Alaska Natives are left to defend themselves against American corporation laws that further disenfranchise and halt their ability to regain control of their own destiny. ANCSA allows irreparable exploitation of remaining Native lands and now these Trustee Council land acquisitions threaten the ability of Alaska's tribes to continue a viable separate existence at a time of great uncertainty and change.

In the meantime, the State of Alaska and Congressional Delegation is busy telling the US Supreme Court and Congress that the Courts are creating a hardship on the State of Alaska's ability to implement ANCSA. While at the same time introducing legislation that further strips subsistence rights, limits sovereignty and blocks efforts of self-determination being asserted by Native tribes. As a tool of reason, the Trust Doctrine must be invoked.

The Trust Doctrine is a common law doctrine, which can be invoked to review federal action (like ANCSA) affecting Native interests. The Trust Doctrine has not yet received adequate attention as a tool in securing the underlying interests of tribes to protect their separate, land based existence within an increasingly intrusive majority society. The Trust Doctrine was meant to be a tool as to protect the Sovereign Trusteeship between States, Nations and Governments.

In the entire Exxon Valdez spillzone, there could be more than 750,000 acres of Rainforest eventually protected from intrusive clearcutting, in turn minimizing further ecosystem impact in an area already hit with the Nations worst oil spill. Truly this is a precedent setting act, but it is still much too high a price to pay for restoration. True Trustees are those who simply help restore the environment without compromising Native's right of sovereignty. If the Trustee Council were to purchase only conservation easements or timber rights, it would be the first time in American history that the government paid America's Indigenous People to simply protect their land. Instead, they continue to pay Indigenous People's to destroy or sell their ancestral land. Your voice can help save the Sound.

Written by Dune Lankard, February 1998

Dune is an Eyak descendant fighting for his ancestral land near Cordova, Alaska.

Update: Over 55,000 of the 75,425 Eyak Corporation Rainforest acres have been sold in fee title to the US government, with a base price of $530 an acre, before taxes.

The US Supreme Court voted 9-0 against Indian Country on February 25, 1998.

* ANCSA - Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Implemented in 1971 during the Nixon administration, this law changed all of the reservations in Alaska to corporations.

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