Murkowski’s Geese House Legislation Advances from Committee

Murkowski's Geese House Legislation Advances from Committee

Washington, DC-Earlier today, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee favorably reported S. 4399, Senator Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) legislation to convey the Geese House site from the National Park Service to Doyon, Limited. The bill would transfer ownership to Doyon to ensure that the culturally significant site is managed by and for the Athabascan people of the region. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is cosponsoring the legislation and Congressman Nick Begich (R-AK) has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

Click here to watch Senator Murkowski's remarks in committee today

TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Chairman, thank you, and the rest of the committee here, for advancing my bill S. 4399. This is the Geese House Site Conveyance Act.

I'm pleased that we've been able to move it out of committee this morning, but I do find it somewhat disheartening to see that what should be a non-controversial measure received a wholly partisan vote. From what I hear from the Ranking Member in your initial comments, the concern is not so much on the substance of the matter, but that we have not paired taking lands out of the federal estate with other conservation matters.

I understand the Chairman's challenges in trying to try to advance bills through this committee with a little bit of parity. I get that, and yet sometimes, as he has indicated, there are matters that are so very local, so very parochial, and maybe there's just more that accumulate on our side than on the other side. That's obviously a discussion that the Chairman and the Ranking Member have as you set agendas.

But I would like to just share with colleagues who may feel that they have concerns based on substance as opposed to the construct of the measures that we worked to advance this morning.

This is not something that is new. Once again, we're seeking to address failures within the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that was passed back in 1971 to address aspects of that settlement that have not yet been fulfilled. So, we are building this legislation on decades of work by Doyon to fulfill their land entitlement. The Geese House site is a sacred site for the Athabascan people who have called this land home for millennia.

After the passage of ANCSA, the Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, Doyon initiated a pretty aggressive effort to help identify the significant sites and ensure conveyance of lands with historic and cultural importance. And it was through this process that the Geese House site was identified, and then Doyon formally filed its selection in 1978. So, we're going back a long way, folks. But then in 1980, what happens? We have ANILCA, which is the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, that was passed by Congress. And that Act established the boundaries of the Denali National Park and Preserve.

So, you have Doyon that is acting to complete their selection of sacred and historic sites. ANILCA comes in, overlays on top of that, and so there has been, again, a decades-long effort by Doyon to secure the Geese House site. And then in the Biden administration, the National Park Service determined that the conveyance was going to require an act of Congress. Up to that point in time, there had been efforts to try to advance it through the administrative process. (National) Park Service comes back and says, "You've got to legislate."

So here we are, nearly 50 years after the site was selected. The conveyance remains unfulfilled. To the merits of the selection itself, this bill would facilitate the transfer in the form of a parcel. It's as the Ranking Member has noted. It's a little shy of 22,000 acres. It's 21,750 acres, but it fulfills the commitments that were established under ANCSA to provide for the conveyance of culturally significant and historic lands.

And it wasn't that Doyon just kind of "willy-nilly" said "we want this section." They worked with the Park Service, they got feedback from the Park Service. It allows for clear and manageable boundaries for the Park Service to continue the administration of the lands across the whole preserve, but it also establishes protection for cultural sites and ensures that Doyon can secure reasonable access to the site.

We did this in consultation with the local Tribes, with the communities, many of which have provided resolutions in support for the conveyance. And we have had opportunities within this committee over the years to talk about the significance of what it means within these Native lands to ensure that we are protecting sacred sites and culturally historic sites. And we certainly saw that with the Ranking Member's passion when it came to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. There was at that time, working with the last administration, a public land order, withdrawing more than 336,000 acres surrounding Chaco Cultural National Historic Park. And so that was an effort where, again, I certainly respected the Ranking Member's desire and what he sought to do with those protections for the cultural sites.

Some have suggested that 21,000 acres (for Geese House) is too large, and we need to narrow it down. But again, I'm looking back to Chaco, that was a 336,000-acre buffer for an area (Chaco Culture National Historic Park) that's only about 34,000 acres. So, the concern that we are hearing is that this is too much. And again, as I related in the last committee markup, when we were moving the Landless bill, part of the challenge that we have in Alaska is that so much of our lands are held in the federal state, roughly 223 million acres of federal lands. And so, when we need to try to make reasonable adjustments, we've got to come to Congress to do so.

So, when you when you put the Geese House conveyance into perspective, Denali National Park and Preserve spans more than six million acres, and the land that we're talking about conveying is less than one half of 1%. It's 0.36% be exact. We also strictly limit the conveyance by prohibiting mining. We protect the site's cultural significance, and we bar transfer of it to anyone other than the United States.

So, what we're trying to do here is again ensure the land that was faithfully stewarded by the area's Native people for thousands of years can again be managed by and for them. We would maintain that this conveyance is not excessive, and it's deliberately sized to avoid revealing the exact sacred site in a public manner.

So, I am again pleased that we've been able to move it out of committee. But I would hope that, given the protections that we establish in this legislation, and the work carried out to develop the selections in coordination with the Park Service, and with good support from the communities in the region, that we will be able to work together in a reasonable manner and find full agreement to return the Geese House site to the Athabascan people before the end of this Congress.

So, I'm happy, Mr. Chairman, to work with anyone on this committee, obviously on both sides of the aisle, to give further clarification, answer any questions or concerns. But I am pleased that we were able to advance it this morning.

Background:

Following the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), Doyon, Limited worked with Alaska Native Elders to identify culturally significant sites eligible for conveyance under the Act. One such site is Geese House, a place of longstanding importance in the oral traditions of Northern Athabascan peoples. Doyon formally selected the site for conveyance in 1978; however, the conveyance was never completed. In 1980, the site was incorporated into the Denali National Park and Preserve through the enactment of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) which established the national park.

In recent years, Doyon sought to complete the conveyance of the Geese House site through an administrative conveyance process with the National Park Service (NPS). However, the NPS determined that existing law does not provide sufficient authority to transfer the site administratively and that legislation is required. This bill would accomplish the conveyance of the Geese House site to Doyon and ensure its stewardship and access for generations to come.

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