The following are public statements provided at hearings held in Fairbanks and Anchorage the 17th and 18th of October 1969 prior to the passage of ANCSA. They provide the reader with some of the issues and concerns discussed prior to the passage of ANCSA.
STATEMENT OF JOHN SACKETT, ALASKA STATE REPRESENTATIVE, GALENA, ALASKA (spoken)
Mr. Chairman, Congressmen: First of all, I would like to thank you for coming to Alaska. The people here in Alaska really appreciate your coming here to hear the problems and go back to Washington to work on them.
I am John Sackett, a State representative from the interior. In addition I am a student at the University of Alaska, majoring in accounting, with minors in political science and French. I have served for 3 years as the president of the Tanana Chiefs, besides being the vice president 1-year of the Fairbanks Native Association and serving on its board of directors.
In the legislature, I serve on the finance committee. I have been in the legislature for the past 3 years and am going into my fourth year.
At the present time, the different committees that I belong to through the State include the Remote Housing Committee, which is under Senator Bartlett’s bill under remote housing for Alaska. I am on the State association on tuberculosis, on the State advisory board on world education. Besides this, I now live at Galena, which is located approximately 200 miles west of Fairbanks where I own a lodge, a hotel, and a general store.
To begin with, I would like to request, if at all possible, that my prepared statement be included in the record, and I would just like to make a few highlight comments.
Source: Alaska Native Land Claims Part II, "Hearings before the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-first Congress First Session on H.R. 13142, H.R. 10193, and H.R. 14212, Bills to Provide for the Settlement of Certain Land Claims of Alaska Natives, and for Other Purposes. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.