Washington : Government Printing Office
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| Public Law 85-508 | Alaska, statehood. |
| Sec. 2 | Territory. |
| Sec. 3 | Constitution. |
| Sec. 4 | Compact with U.S. |
| Sec. 5 | 340 Title to property. |
| Sec. 6 | Selection from public lands. |
| Sec. 6 | Fish and wildlife resources. |
| Sec. 6 | 341 |
| Sec. 6 | 55 Stat. 632. |
| Sec. 6 | 64 Stat. 434. |
| Sec. 6 | Public school support. |
| Sec. 6 | 342 |
| Sec. 6 | Mineral leases, permits, etc. |
| Sec. 6 | 48 U.S.C. 432, passim. |
| Sec. 6 | Mineral land grants. |
| Sec. 6 | Schools and colleges. |
| Sec. 6 | 343 |
| Sec. 6 | Confirmation of grants. |
| Sec. 6 | Repeals. |
| Sec. 6 | Internal improvements. |
| Sec. 6 | Submerged lands. 43 USC 1301 note. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, subject to the provisions of this Act, and upon issuance of the proclamation required by section 8 (c) of this Act, the State of Alaska is hereby declared to be a State of the United States of America, is declared admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the other States in all respects whatever, and the constitution formed pursuant to the provisions of the Act of the Territorial Legislature of Alaska entitled, "An Act to provide for the holding of a constitutional convention to prepare a constitution for the State of Alaska; to submit the constitution to the people for adoption or rejection; to prepare for the admission of Alaska as a State; to make an appropriation; and setting an effective date", approved March 19, 1955 (Chapter 46, Session Laws of Alaska, 1955), and adopted by a vote of the people of Alaska in the election held on April 24, 1956, is hereby found to be republican in form and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and is hereby accepted, ratified, and confirmed.
The State of Alaska shall consist of all the territory, together with the territorial waters appurtenant thereto, now included in the Territory of Alaska.
The constitution of the State of Alaska shall always be republican in form and shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
As a compact with the United States said State and its people do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to any lands or other property not granted or confirmed to the State or its political subdivisions by or under the authority of this Act,
the right or title to which is held by the United States or is subject to disposition by the United States, and to any lands or other property (including fishing rights), the right or title to which may be held by any Indians, Eskimos, or Aleuts (hereinafter called natives) or is held by the United States in trust for said natives; that all such lands or other property, belonging to the United States or which may belong to said natives, shall be and remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the United States until disposed of under its authority, except to such extent as the Congress has prescribed or may hereafter prescribe, and except when held by individual natives in fee without restrictions on alienation: Provided, That nothing contained in this Act shall recognize, deny, enlarge, impair, or otherwise affect any claim against the United States, and any such claim shall be governed by the laws of the United States applicable thereto; and nothing in this Act is intended or shall be construed as a finding, interpretation, or construction by the Congress that any law applicable thereto authorizes, establishes, recognizes, or confirms the validity or invalidity of any such claim, and the determination of the applicability or effect of any law to any such claim shall be unaffected by anything in this Act: And provided further, That no taxes shall be imposed by said State upon any lands or other property now owned or hereafter acquired by the United States or which, as hereinabove set forth, may belong to said natives, except to such extent as the Congress has prescribed or may hereafter prescribe, and except when held by individual natives in fee without restrictions on alienation.
The State of Alaska and its political subdivisions, respectively, shall have and retain title to all property, real and personal, title to which is in the Territory of Alaska or any of the subdivisions. Except as provided in section 6 hereof, the United States shall retain title to all property, real and personal, to which it has title, including public lands.
(a) For the purposes of furthering the development of and expansion of communities, the State of Alaska is hereby granted and shall be entitled to select, within twenty-five years after the date of the admission of the State of Alaska into the Union, from lands within national forests in Alaska which are vacant and unappropriated at the time of their selection not to exceed four hundred thousand acres of land, and from the other public lands of the United States in Alaska which are vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved at the time of their selection not to exceed another four hundred thousand acres of land, all of which shall be adjacent to established communities or suitable for prospective community centers and recreational areas. Such lands shall be selected by the State of Alaska with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture as to national forest lands and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior as to other public lands: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall affect any valid existing claim, location, or entry under the laws of the United States, whether for homestead, mineral, right-of-way, or other purpose whatsoever, or shall affect the rights of any such owner, claimant, locator, or entryman to the full use and enjoyment of the land so occupied.
(b) The State of Alaska, in addition to any other grants made in this section, is hereby granted and shall be entitled to select, within twenty-five years after the admission of Alaska into the Union, not to exceed one hundred and two million five hundred and fifty thousand acres from the public lands of the United States in Alaska which are vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved at the time of their selection: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall affect any valid existing claim, location, or entry under the laws of the United States, whether for homestead, mineral, right-of-way, or other purpose whatsoever, or shall affect the rights of any such owner, claimant, locator, or entryman to the full use and enjoyment of the lands so occupied: And
provided further, That no selection hereunder shall be made in the area north and west of the line described in section 10 without approval of the President or his designated representative.
(c) Block 32, and the structures and improvements thereon, in the city of Juneau are granted to the State of Alaska for any or all of the following purposes or a combination thereof: A residence for the Governor, a State museum, or park and recreational use.
(d) Block 19, and the structures and improvements thereon, and the interests of the United States in blocks C and 7, and the structures and improvements thereon, in the city of Juneau, are hereby granted to the State of Alaska.
(e) All real and personal property of the United States situated in the Territory of Alaska which is specifically used for the sole purpose of conservation and protection of the fisheries and wildlife of Alaska, under the provisions of the Alaska game law of July 1, 1943 (57 Stat. 301; 48 U. S. C., secs. 192-211), as amended, and under the provisions of the Alaska commercial fisheries laws of June 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 478; U. S. C., secs. 230-239 and 241-242), and June 6, 1924 (43 Stat. 465; 48 U. S. C., secs. 221-228), as supplemented and amended, shall be transferred and conveyed to the State of Alaska by the appropriate Federal agency: Provided, That the administration and management of the fish and wildlife resources of Alaska shall be retained by the Federal Government under existing laws until the first day of the first calendar year following the expiration of ninety legislative days after the Secretary of the Interior certifies to the Congress that the Alaska State Legislature has made adequate provision for the administration, management, and conservation of said resources in the broad national interest: Provided, That such transfer shall not include lands withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife nor facilities utilized in connection therewith, or in connection with general research activities relating to fisheries or wildlife. Sums of money that are available for apportionment or which the Secretary of the Interior shall have apportioned, as of the date the State of Alaska shall be deemed to be admitted into the Union, for wildlife restoration in the Territory of Alaska; pursuant to section 8(a) of the Act of September 2, 1937, as amended (16 U. S. C., sec. 669g-1), and for fish restoration and management in the Territory of Alaska, pursuant to section 12 of the Act of August 9, 1950 (16 U. S. C., sec. 777k), shall continue to be available for the period, and under the terms and conditions in effect at the time, the apportionments are made. Commencing with the year during which Alaska is admitted into the Union, the Secretary of the Treasury, at the close of each fiscal year, shall pay to the State of Alaska 70 per centum of the net proceeds, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior, derived during such fiscal year from all sales of sealskins or sea-otter skins made in accordance with the provisions of the Act of February 26, 1944 (58 Stat. 100; 16 U. S. C., secs. 63la-631q), as supplemented and amended. In arriving at the net proceeds, there shall be deducted from the receipts from all sales all costs to the United States in carrying out the provisions of the Act of February 26, 1944, as supplemented and amended, including, but not limited to, the costs of handling and dressing the skins, the costs of making the sales, and all expenses incurred in the administration of the Pribilof Islands. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as affecting the rights of the United States under the provisions of the Act of February 26, 1944, as supplemented and amended, and the Act of June 18, 1937 (50 Stat. 325), as amended (16 U. S. C., sec. 772 et seq.).
(f) Five per centum of the proceeds of sale of public lands lying within said State which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union, after deducting all the
expenses incident to such sales, shall be paid to said State to be used for the support of the public schools within said State.
(g) Except as provided in subsection (a), all lands granted in quantity to and authorized to be selected by the State of Alaska by this Act shall be selected in such manner as the laws of the State may provide, and in conformity with such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. All selections shall be made in reasonably compact tracts, taking into account the situation and potential uses of the lands involved, and each tract selected shall contain at least five thousand seven hundred and sixty acres unless isolated from other tracts open to selection. The authority to make selections shall never be alienated or bargained away, in whole or in part, by the State. Upon the revocation of any order of withdrawal in Alaska, the order of revocation shall provide for a period of not less than ninety days before the date on which it otherwise becomes effective, if subsequent to the admission of Alaska into the Union, during which period the State of Alaska shall have a preferred right of selection, subject to the requirements of this Act, except as against prior existing valid rights or as against equitable claims subject to allowance and confirmation. Such preferred right of selection shall have precedence over the preferred right of application created by section 4 of the Act of September 27, 1944 (58 Stat. 748; 43 U. S. C., sec. 282), as now or hereafter amended, but not over other preference rights now conferred by law. Where any lands desired by the State are unsurveyed at the time of their selection, the Secretary of the Interior shall survey the exterior boundaries of the area requested without any interior subdivision thereof and shall issue a patent for such selected area in terms of the exterior boundary survey; where any lands desired by the State are surveyed at the time of their selection, the boundaries of the area requested shall conform to the public land subdivisions established by the approval of the survey. All lands duly selected by the State of Alaska pursuant to this Act shall be patented to the State by the Secretary of the Interior. Following the selection of lands by the State and the tentative approval of such selection by the Secretary of the Interior or his designee, but prior to the issuance of final patent, the State is hereby authorized to execute conditional leases and to make conditional sales of such selected lands. As used in this subsection, the words "equitable claims subject to allowance and confirmation" include, without limitation, claims of holders of permits issued by the Department of Agriculture on lands eliminated from national forests, whose permits have been terminated only because of such elimination and who own valuable improvements on such lands.
(h) Any lease, permit, license, or contract issued under the Mineral Leasing Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437; 30 U. S. C., sec. 181 and following), as amended, or under the Alaska Coal Leasing Act of October 20, 1914 (35 Stat. 741; 30 U. S. C., sec. 432 and following), as amended, shall have the effect of withdrawing the lands subject thereto from selection by the State of Alaska under this Act, unless such lease, permit, license, or contract is in effect on the date of approval of this Act, and unless an application to select such lands is filed with the Secretary of the Interior within a period of five years after the date of the admission of Alaska into the Union. Such selections shall be made only from lands that are otherwise open to selection under this Act, and shall include the entire area that is subject to each lease, permit, license, or contract involved in the selections. Any patent for lands so selected shall vest in the State of Alaska all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to any such lease, permit, license, or contract that remains outstanding on the effective date of the patent, including the right to all rentals, royalties, and other payments accruing after that date under such lease, permit, license, or contract, and including any authority that
may have been retained by the States to modify the terms and conditions of such lease, permit, license, or contract: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall affect the continued validity of any such lease, permit, license, or contract or any rights arising thereunder.
(i) All grants made or confirmed under this Act shall include mineral deposits. The grants of mineral lands to the State of Alaska under subsections (a) and (b) of this section are made upon the express condition that all sales, grants, deeds, or patents for any of the mineral lands so granted shall be subject to and contain a reservation to the State of all of the minerals in the lands so sold, granted, deeded, or patented, together with the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same. Mineral deposits in such lands shall be subject to lease by the State as the State legislature may direct: Provided, That any lands or minerals hereafter disposed of contrary to the provisions of this section shall be forfeited to the United States by appropriate proceedings instituted by the Attorney General for that purpose in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska.
(j) The schools and colleges provided for in this Act shall forever remain under the exclusive control of the State, or its governmental subdivisions, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands granted herein for educational purposes shall be used for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, college, or university.
(k) Grants previously made to the Territory of Alaska are hereby confirmed and transferred to the State of Alaska upon its admission. Effective upon the admission of the State of Alaska into the Union, section 1 of the Act of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1214; 48 U. S. C., sec. 353), as amended, and the last sentence of section 35 of the Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 450; 30 U. S. C., sec. 191), as amended, are repealed and all lands therein reserved under the provisions of section 1 as of the date of this Act shall, upon the admission of said State into the Union, be granted to said State for the purposes for which they were reserved; but such repeal shall not affect any outstanding lease, permit, license, or contract issued under said section 1, as amended, or any rights or powers with respect to such lease, permit, license, or contract, and shall not affect the disposition of the proceeds or income derived prior to such repeal from any lands reserved under said section 1, as amended, or derived thereafter from any disposition of the reserved lands or an interest therein made prior to such repeal.
(l) The grants provided for in this Act shall be in lieu of the grant of land for purposes of internal improvements made to new States by section 8 of the Act of September 4, 1841 (5 Stat. 455), and sections 2378 and 2379 of the Revised Statutes (43 U. S. C., sec. 857), and in lieu of the swampland grant made by the Act of September 28, 1850 (9 Stat. 520), and section 2479 of the Revised Statutes (43 U. S. C., sec. 982), and in lieu of the grant of thirty thousand acres for each Senator and Representative in Congress made by the Act of July 2, 1862, as amended (12 Stat. 503; 7 U. S. C., secs. 301-308), which grants are hereby declared not to extend to the State of Alaska.
(m) The Submerged Lands Act of 1953 (Public Law 31, Eighty-third Congress, first session; 67 Stat. 29) shall be applicable to the State of Alaska and the said State shall have the same rights as do existing States thereunder.
Approved, July 7, 1958.
