On Tuesday, Alaska House Republicans denounce the Biden Administration order that revokes land allotments to Alaska.
The Biden Administration’s Department of the Interior suspended land transfers to Alaska, which include land transfers promised to Alaska Native veterans of the Vietnam War. That’s under their Order No. 3395, which temporarily suspends authority to issue, revise, or amend resource management plans under Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The act includes granting rights of way, easements, or any conveyances of property or interests in property, including land sales or exchanges, or any notices to proceed under previous surface use authorizations. Among the other delegations that will be suspended under that order include line item G, which suspends issuing any onshore or offshore fossil fuel authorization.
Rep. Cathy Tilton, representing House District 12, shared a document to her Facebook Page showing frustration over the order. Similarly, Rep. David Nelson of Anchorage expressed concern that the new administration is delaying in keeping its promises to some who honorably served. He calls them out saying, “If the new administration can drag its feet on its promises to veterans, it can do the same to our current servicemen and servicewomen.”
The Bureau of Land Management states that the Alaska Native Vietnam era veterans land allotment section of the John D. Dingell, Jr., Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 was enacted into public law. According to their website, it allows any Alaska Native Vietnam veteran who served during the period of August 5, 1964 through December 31, 1971, and didn’t previously receive a Native allotment, to apply for up to 160 acres of federal land. The heirs of deceased eligible Alaska Native also can apply.
What the House Republicans are referring to is the Alaska Native Allotment Act of 1906, which according to the Bureau of Land Management, says that the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to convey up to 160 acres of ‘vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved non-mineral’ land to individual Alaska Natives who could continuously use and occupy that land for a period of five years.
More than 10,000 Alaska Natives have filed allotment applications before 1971.
