I enjoy Steve Haycox’s articles on Alaska history. However, I felt he failed to describe Sen. Bob Bartlett’s gift to Alaska. Sen. Bartlett correctly assumed Congress would tackle the Alaska Native land claims when resource development forced the issue. Therefore, Native land issues were left out of the Alaska Statehood act. When Arco discovered the Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1968, the need for federal oil leases and pipeline right-of-way pushed Congress to act.
The newly formed Alyeska lobbied hard to exempt lands required for the pipeline and haul road from Native claims. This would never have happened if Bartlett inserted a “provision that disclaimed any right or title to land that might be subject of Native title.” Thus, the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Act had a clause thwarting such assignments within the proposed pipeline right-of-way. This clause removed a major obstacle for the BLM to authorize the right-of-way in 1974 to build the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and supporting haul road.
— Michael D. Travis
Anchorage
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