Appointment of a four member Ad Hoc Hearings and Appeals Board to decide appeals as to qualifications of Village Corporations and other matters under appeals as to qualifications of Village Corporations and other matters under Interior Rogers C. B. Morton.
Chairman of the Board, which will be headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, will be Judith M. Brady, 32, of Anchorage; Alaska. Mrs. Brady has been editor of the Alaska Native Management Report published by the Alaska Native Foundation.
Other members of the Board are: Albert P. Adams, 32, of Anchorage, director of rural development assistance for the State of Alaska; District Judge John Waller of Kodiak, Alaska; and Abigail Dunning an attorney with the Army Corps of Engineers at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska.
"The ad hoc Board which I am appointing has the vital function of reviewing and settling disputes concerning village eligibility for making land selections under the Alaska Native Claims Act," Secretary Morton said. "I am pleased that most of its members have direct familiarity with Native village life and all are well qualified to handle the Board's functions fairly and to make key decisions equitably for all concerned."
The Alaska Native Claims Act provides for the selection of lands under the Act by eligible village corporations. The Director of the Juneau Area Office of the Bureau of Indians Affairs is empowered under the Act to make final decisions on the eligibility of villages unless appeals of its decisions are made to the ad hoc Board established by the Secretary.
Creation of the Board was requested by representatives of the Native villages in meetings held with Assistant Secretary Laurence E. Lynn Jr. and members of his staff in May 1973. The Board was authorized by regulations governing Alaska Native land selections published in the Federal Register by the Bureau of Land Management of the Department May 30, 1973, which became effective July 2, 1973.
