[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8640-8641]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-5008]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Minerals Management Service
Aboriginal Title and Rights Claims Information in Cook Inlet and
Prince William Sound, AL
AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Department of the Interior.
ACTION: Request for information regarding claims of aboriginal title
and rights in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound of southern Alaska.
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SUMMARY: This notice solicits factual data relevant to claims of
aboriginal title and rights to unspecified portions of the Alaska
Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) included in the areas proposed
for lease in OCS Lease Sales 149 (Cook Inlet) and 158 (Gulf of Alaska/
Yakutat).
In a separate Federal Register notice, the Department of the
Interior announced receipt of, and requested comments on, a petition
for rulemaking on issues regarding claimed aboriginal title and
aboriginal hunting and fishing rights of federally recognized tribes in
Alaska exercisable on the OCS.
DATES: Comments on this request for information are requested through
April 4, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be directed to: Paul Stang, Chief, Branch of
Leasing Coordination, Office of Program Development and Coordination,
(MS-4410) Minerals Management Service, 381 Elden Street, Herndon,
Virginia 20270-4817. Please indicate that your comment is in response
to the request for factual data regarding aboriginal title and rights
on the Alaska OCS.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
William Quinn at (703) 787-1191.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Minerals Management Service (MMS)
exercises the delegated duties of the Secretary of the Interior under
the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq. for
management of the resources of the OCS, the seabed seaward of three
miles from the coastline (except in the case of Texas and Florida).
Pursuant to the current 1992-1977 5-Year OCS Leasing Program, announced
July 1, 1992, MMS has advanced to the final planning stages for the
scheduled 1996 offering of natural gas and oil leases on the federal
OCS in Cook Inlet, Sale 149. This is the fourth federal OCS lease sale
in Cook Inlet. The State of Alaska has included portions of Cook Inlet
in 28 of its offshore lease sales.
The Native Villages of Eyak, Tatilek, Chenega, Port Graham, and
Nanwalek have, through correspondence, petition and litigation, advised
MMS of their claims of aboriginal title and aboriginal hunting and
fishing rights to unspecified portions of the sale area. The Villages
are located in the Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound area of southern
Alaska. The Villages have submitted a petition for rulemaking
requesting the promulgation of regulations that recognize and protect
such Villages' ``exclusive fishing rights'' on the Alaska OCS.
Petitioners claim that there is legal support for the existence and
recognition of such rights under the doctrine of aboriginal title and
that such Villages have ``exclusively used and occupied'' the OCS for
``subsistence purposes'' since `'time immemorial''. The Villages assert
that Sale 149 would interfere with the existence of their rights and
deprive them of mineral income rightfully theirs. This information will
also be considered in making final decisions on Sale 149, Cook Inlet
and Sale 158, Gulf of Alaska, Yakutat.
The Government has consistently taken the position that no person
or entity has title to, or hunting and fishing rights on, the Alaska
OCS, which is
[[Page 8641]]
subject to the paramount authority of the Federal Government exercised
pursuant to the above cited statute. In fairness to the Villages,
however, the MMS is carefully pursuing a factual inquiry into the
potential nature and extent of such Native claims. MMS requests that
any knowledgeable party submit any information pertinent to the
Villages' claims regarding the federal OCS, whether such information
supports or disputes the claims.
The MMS has received a report on claimed aboriginal use of the OCS
from Kayak Island to the Lower Cook Inlet. That report suggests that
even if aboriginal claims could exist on the OCS, the factual predicate
for a claim by the Native Villages of Eyak, Tatilek, Chenega, Port
Graham, and Nanwalek, is not present. The MMS invites comments on that
report which can be obtained by contacting Paul Stag or William Quinn
at the addresses shown above.
MMS also invites knowledgeable parties to provide factual responses
to any of the following questions and to supply any other relevant
information:
1. What is the physical/territorial location of the ``ancestral
fishing areas'' on the federal OCS of each of the five Native Villages?
Please cite known anthropological data regarding historical use
indicating that the use occurred more than three miles from the
coastline on the federal OCS.
2. What is the size of each Village's historical fishing areas on
the federal OCS? Do any of them overlap? Have the dimensions and
geographic descriptions of such areas remained constant over time? If
not, please describe how they have changed.
3. How long has each Village used such areas on the federal OCS?
During this period has such historical use been continuous and
exclusive of others?
4. For what type of subsistence uses have such areas on the federal
OCS been historically used?
a. To what extent, if any, have they been exclusively and
continually used in this manner? If so for how long? What distance from
the coast have these activities occurred?
b. If such use was ever interrupted, for what reason and for how
long?
c. What species of fish, invertebrates, birds, and/or marine
mammals were hunted over the federal OCS?
(i) During what time of year was each species hunted?
(ii) At what depth?
(iii) What kinds of equipment were historically used to harvest
such resources? Are newer or different methods and equipment used now?
If so, when did such changes occur?
5. What was the impact of Russian or American expansion into the
region on such uses?
6. Has the possession and use of such areas been exclusive of other
Alaska Native entities?
If not, is there any evidence of ``joint'' or ``concurrent'' use by
other Villages? If so, what is the basis and nature of such joint usage
and when did such usage begin?
7. When was the first use of the seabed and its resources and by
whom? Its mineral resources (including geological and geophysical work
preparatory to such exploitation)?
MMS will consider all such information (along with responses to the
other request mentioned above) in making final decisions on Sale 149
and Sale 158.
Dated: February 26, 1996.
Cynthia Quarterman,
Director, Minerals Management Service.
[FR Doc. 96-5008 Filed 3-4-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-M
