Aboriginal Title and Rights Claims Information in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, AL

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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