Bill would let five Southeast Alaska Native communities form corporations and receive federal land

Native residents of the Native Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell may organize as Urban Corporations under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The bill says its purpose is to make up for leaving these five communities out of eligibility under that Act. It does not affect land entitlements of any Native corporation set up earlier.

The Secretary must enroll Natives previously enrolled to those villages in the new corporations. Each who was a Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska shareholder gets 100 shares of Settlement Common Stock. A Native who inherited Regional Corporation shares from a relative who was not a village or urban shareholder gets the same number of shares in the matching new corporation. They keep their right to at-large distributions from the Regional Corporation, and revenue-sharing ratios among Native corporations do not change.

The Secretary shall convey the surface estate of about 23,040 acres of federal land to each of the five new corporations, and the subsurface estate to the Regional Corporation for Southeast Alaska. The land is in Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell selection areas shown on maps dated June 27, 2025. Until conveyed, the land is withdrawn from entry, mining, and mineral leasing. The conveyances fully satisfy these communities' entitlement. Part of the Haines land at Slate Creek is conveyed in two phases, and phase 2 waits for mining claims to be relinquished or abandoned, or for the mining company's consent. Congress intends the conveyance within 2 years of incorporation, which may be extended up to 1 year per parcel for pending easement appeals.

Land conveyed must stay open to subsistence uses and noncommercial recreation, hunting, and fishing by the public, with reasonable restrictions the corporation may set for safety, cultural resources, research, or environmental protection. Existing guiding and outfitting permits continue for the rest of their terms plus one 10-year renewal. Public easements are reserved, and State of Alaska rights-of-way are kept. The Forest Service must seek a binding mutual road use agreement, intended within 1 year of incorporation.

Each new corporation may set up a settlement trust to promote the health, education, and welfare of its beneficiaries and preserve Native heritage and culture. Trust income goes first to support elders and minor children among enrollees and their descendants, then to other enrollees.