PHASE I REPORT of the TECH'\J'ical Al\TD ECONOMIC

$PHASE I REPORT of the TECH'\J'ical Al\TD ECONOMIC$

PHASE I

REPORT OF THE TECH'\J'ICAL Al\TD ECONOMIC FEASP3ILITY OF ESTABLISHING A SAWMILL OPERATIO~T AT THE NATIVE VILLAGE OF MINTO, ALASKA

Institute of Business, Economic and Government Research University of Alaska College, Alaska February 11, 1965

Prepared by: Dr. Frank W. Kearns Associate Research' Professor of Forest Management Table of Contents

Page I Introduction 1

II Timber Resources Adjacent to Minto 1

Ill Type of Operation 3

IV Location of the Mill 3

V Markets for Lumber 4

VI Price 6

VII Transportation 7

VIII General Logging and Sawmill Operations 8

A. Logging 8 B. Sawmilling 11

IX Estimated Costs 12 A. Capital costs 12 B. Operating costs 13 (1) Logging 14 a. Labor b. Fuel c. Maintenance and Insurance

(2) Sawmilling 14 a. Labor b. Fuel c. Maintenance and Insurance

C. Transportation Costs 14 D. Fixed Costs 15 (1) Stumpage 16 (2) Overhead 16 {3) Depreciation 16 (4) Interest on borrowed capital 16 E. Total Costs 16 x Zstimated Returns 17

XI Conclusions and Recommendations 17 Table of Contents (continued)

XII Appendix Page

A. Minto Forest Survey 19 B. Proposed dry kiln - planning mill to be constructed in Fairbanks 24 C. Letter sent to Vlilliam Zllis, Fairbanks, in support 28 of the planing operation List oi Figures

Figure 1 - Timber Survey Map, Minto, P laska

Figure 2 - First Proposed Mill Settine Show Skid Road System 10 ABSTRACT

Report on the Technical and Economic Feasibility of Establishing a Sawmill Operation at the Native Village of Minto, Alaska

A research team from the Institute of Business, Economic ancl Governm.ent

R Univer o:f Alaska, conducted a feasibility stucly for the establishing of a sawmill operation in the area of Minto, Alaska in the summer ancl fall of 1964.

They found that there are adequate stands of white spruce timber adjacent to the Tanana River in the Minto area to support a sawmill operation with an annual cut of 500 MBF for several years. The timber stands are of commercial density and a high quality rough green lumber could be produced from these logs.

An estimated total of nine new jobs for the village of Minto could be created on a part-time basis if the sawmill operation was undertaken. The logging would be done during the freeze-up period, with the logs being cold decked in preparations for the spring then after which the sawing operation would begin.

Rough green lumber would be produced anc shipped at the rate of 6 MBF per day by barge Fairbanks, A proposed new log kiln- planklg operation in that town would be the primary market outlet for the Minto production, although a sizeable amount might be shipped down the Tanana and lower Yukon rivers to the native villagers located there.

The economic feasibility of the operation depends upon two major special considerations, (1) the native workers of Minto would have to be willing to work for $2, 00 hour to begin with and (2) the back haul rate for shipping the lumber to

Fairbanks would have to be reduced to $30 MBF instead of the $60 MBF presently published in the current tariff. The villagers of :Minto have indicated their willingness to work for the

$2. 00/hr. figure and Inland Riverways, Inc. have agreed to cut their tariff to

$30 MBF. On this basis the operation should be a profitable one for the people of Minto.

A cost-return analysis indicates the following:

COSTS

Capital costs 28,200 Working capital 9,600 Total borrowed capital needs $37,800

Operating Costs Logging $15. 26/MBF Sawmilling 20. 30/MBF Total $35. 56/MBF

Transportation Costs $30. 00/MBF

Fixed Costs Stumpage $3. 00/MBF Overhead 5. 00/MBF Depreciation 4. 00/MBF Interest on borrowed capital 4. 25/MBF Total $16. 25/MBF

Total Costs $81. 71/MBF

RETURNS

Based on a firm $90. 00 MBF delivered in Fairbanks, the net returns would be $90. 00-$81. 71 = $8. 29 MBF. On a total production of 500 MBF, total

net returns would be 8. 29 x 500 = $4, 145

It is suggested that these returns be redistributed to the workers in the form of a bonus at the end of the season. REPORT OF THE TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A SAWMILL OPERATION AT THE NATIVE VILLAGE OF MINTO, ALASKA

INTRODUCTION

For many years, the people of the native village of Minto have felt that the abundant stands of white spruce timber adjacent to their village should be more intensively utilized and should bring them greater returns than they had been up to the present. In June, 1964, the Bureau of Indian Affairs contracted with the Institute of Business, Economic and Government Research, University of Alaska, for the preparation of a report which would specifically examine the feasibility of the establishing of a wood using operation in the vicinity of Minto and tailored to fit the needs of that village in providing increased employment

opportunities and improving their standard of living.

This contract has necessitated a detailed study of the village of Minto

and its inhabitants and has resulted in the preparation of two separate reports,

(1) A Community Development Survey of the Native Village of Minto, Alaska

which explores in considerable detail the resource, needs and problems of the

village, and (2) this report which deals specifically with the technical and econ-

omic feasibility of a sawmill operation near Minto.

Timber Resources Adjacent to Minto

This study was conducted with the assumption that the Minto Flats area

contained sufficient merchantable sawtimber to sustain a small sawmill opera-

tion. The State Division of Lands, Forestry Branch conducted a reconnaisance -2- type survey of the area in 1962 and delineated on quadrangle maps some 1250 acres of white spruce (Picea glauca) timber stands classified as merchantable

(1011, DB H and above) located within a five mile radius of Minto. Another 4, 000

11 11 acres of pole size timber (5 - 10 DBH) was located within the same radius.

The State survey estimated an average volume 5 000 bd ft/ re the rne chantable stands which would indicate about that there was about 6 million bd ft. of merchantable white spruce ready to be cut in the close vicinity of Minto.

Check spot surveys made by the staff of the University confirmed the minimum figure. Indications are, that this figure is undoubtedly conservative. For instance, yield sample plots were taken in a stand which was labeled pole sized timber by the State survey yet the samples indicated that the stand ave rage 1211 DBH with volume running to 20, 000 bd ft. /acre!

Undoubtedly, t.1:-ie white spruce stands around Minto could support a sawmill cutting 500 MBF a year for a period of 15 to 20 years, and if the radius was extended to 12 miles from the village, such a scaled operation could oper ate on a sustained yield basis. The timber lands at present have been selected by the State Division of Lands as state forests, but title has not passed into their hands yet from the Bureau of Land Management, since the native people of Minto have pro- tested the land selection. The villagers feel that the land belongs rightfully to them from the past usage they have made of it as a means of their livelihood.

Their appeal for the lands is still pending decision by the Secretary of Interior.

Until the protest is settled, timber sales from the Bureau of Land Management would have to be negotiated on a year to year basis. The quality of the merchantable white spruce timber in the Minto area is excellent. The stems are relatively free from limbs and are straight with taper at a minimum. Samples of lumber cut from the stands indicated that high quality lumber would be produced from the logs.

No grade recovery studies have been made for white spruce in Alaska.

However, the results frorn a s similar cates that one could expect about an 84 percent recovery in Standard and

Better rough green lumber from the logs manufactured. This high recovery is certainly important if the lumber is to be further processed since it is necessary to have at least an 80 percent recovery in the higher grades of lumber to make possible a profitable dry kiln and planing operation•.

Type of Operation

The timber resources of the Minto area could be best utilized at pre sent by the operation of a semi-portable circle-sawmill producing rough green white spruce construction grade lumber.

Location of the Mill

The determination for a portable sawmill setting is relatively simple.

The mill should be located as near to the timber supply as possible so as to keep down the cost of skidding logs to the mill< but should also be strategically located for ease in transporting the sawn lumber products to market. The

Minto area provides an ideal setting for the operation of a portable sawmill.

The timber is located principally along the Tanana River and its adjacent sloughs, and the river itself will serve as the means of transporting the lumber to market.,

Several potential mill settings were identified in the area, but the one with the most promise in giving initial success to a sawmill operation is a site -4-

along the Tanana River some 1 l/Z miles upstream from the village of Minto and on the opposite shore. (See Figure 1)

This is called the Sawmill Slough area. The river bank is quite high at this point (some 12 - 15 feet at low water, and 4 - 5 feet at high water.)

According to the local residents, this high area is seldom subject to flooding.

There appears sufficient timber in the Sawmill Slough area to support a sawmill operation of 500 MBF for at least 5 years so moving costs could be kept at a minimum by starting in this location. Also, the water depth near the bank is sufficient to allow loading of the lumber onto a barge and in addition,

the proposed beginning mill site is quite close to the village of Minto and is

easily and quickly accessible from the village by boat in the summer and by

dogsled in winter.

Markets for Lumber

There is no question but that white spruce lumber has a ready market

when properly prepared for use. It has long been extensively used over the wide area which it occupies in the United States and Canada. However, since

at present there are no dry kilns or planing mills in use in Interior Alaska, locally produced white spruce lumber has been marketed only as a rough green product. This ·market is relatively small in the Fairbanks marketing area.

According to our survey of local mills, only about 1l/Z1MBF of white

spruce rough green lumber was produced and sold in the Fairbanks area last year. CJ > CJ () 0 './ () ------6-

The lumber from the sawmill at Minto would have to compete in this relatively small rough green lumber market in Fairbanks or be shipped directly to other villages down river on the Tanana and Yukon Rivers, unless a drying and planing operation was established to further manufacture the rough green locally produced lumber.

It appears that such an operation is about to be established in Fair banks. The proposal has the support of the Fairbanks Economic Development

Corporation; application is now being made to finance the project through the

Small Business Association ancl its Community Developrnent Loan Program.

This proposed operation would serve as a concentration yard for the further drying, planing, grading and marketing of the outputs of several rough green

lumber producers scattered along the Tanana River and its drainages.

This operation would certainly improve the market picture for the production from a sawmill ope ration at Minto, since the total output could be under contract even before production began.

Price

In 1964 the retail price for white spruce rough green lumber in the

Fairbanks area averaged about $100 MBF mill run. If there was any sorting

of lengths and dimensions, the prices for the longer, larger dimension material went up to about $120 MBF. However, the smaller material would bring only about $80 MBF, maintaining the $100 average figure. There was not enough production in rough green lumber to determine a wholesale price, but it would be somewhat below $100 MBF. - 7 -

The wholesale price of surfaced green white spruce lumber is pretty well

set by the price of the Canadian imports which wholesale at $115 MBF mill run.

Any competition offering locally manufactured spruce lumber would have

to at least meet that figure in order to capture any markets. On this basis, the estimated contract price for rough green white spruce lumber delivered to

Fairbanks for the proposed planing mill would be $90 MBF. This is the firm

contract offer which would be made for the total 500 MBF output of the Minto mill by the dry kiln-planer operation proposed for Fairbanks.

Transportation

The lumber produced at the sawmill along the Tanana River would be

shipped to market by commercial barge lines which operate on the river. One barge line, the Yutana Barge Lines, Inc., operates out of Nenana, and another

Inland Waterways, Inc., operates out of Fairbanks. Both were contacted in trying to work out a back haul arrangement which would be mutually beneficial to both the producer and the shipper since the regularly published tariff for shipping lumber (about $60 MBF including wharfage and unloading costs) is far too high to allow for any profitable shipment of rough green lumber between Minto and

Fairbanks. Both barge lines indicated a willingness to give special consideration for back haul rates in order to help get a profitable sawmill operation started in the Minto area.

Of the two offers, the one made by the Inland Waterways, Inc. , looks to be the most attractive. They agreed to stop at the millsite and load the -8- lumber on their barge and haul it to Fairbanks and unload it on the dock for about $20 a ton or approximately $30 MBF. They would pick up the lumber when ever there was enough cut for a load and where it would conveniently fit their scheduled back hauL

This operation would necessitate only one handling of the lumber.

Using Yutana Barge Company would necessitate transferring the lumber from barge to rail at Nenana involving another handling charge as well as increasing the damage losses from the additional handling.

General Logging and Sawmill Operation

Logging

Since the river terrain near Minto is quite flat and the trees quite close together, the logging should be relatively simple. It should be done be tween the months of November through April when the ground is frozen because of the many wet areas which would make skidding a problem during the summer.

Another advantage of winter time logging is that the logs are kept much cleaner when skidding over ice and snow than in the muck. As a result, there would be less dulling and damage to saw blades when milling the logs. Also, winter time is the off season for most other work of the Minto villagers and would provide a job during the the time when income is at its lowest. However, it must be kept in mind that in severe cold work would have to be curtailed. About the coldest temperature in which logging would continue is about -200 F. -9-

The labor requirements for the logging of 500 MBF in an approxi- mate 85 day period during the freeze up should amount to about four men.

They should include the following skills:

1 faller 1 trimrr1er 1 cat skinner 1 choker setter

These four men should have an average production of 6 MBF of logs per day, cut, trimed, skidded to the mill site and cold decked for future sawing operations.

Falling of the timber should be done with light one man power saws and the trimming done with either a small saw or axe. Skid trails, both main and secondary, should be construced in the initial saw mill layout, and the falling of the timber should be oblique to these trails (See Figure 2) to facilitate the skidding operation. The logs should be left in full tree length and skidded to the mill and cold decked in that fashion. The trimming should only be of the larger limbs as the skidding of the full tree length serves to knock off most of the smaller limbs.

A crawler type tractor of D-4 Caterpillar size equipped with a winch is the recommended skidding equipment for the operation. It should be equipped with a bulldozer blade for skid road construction work, and also should be fitted with a fork attachment so that the same piece of equipment could be used in the mill yard for log moving and lumber stacking as well as for a skidder in the logging operation. F 11· \ S' ·r PR O P 0 .S 1·: 0 i\I ILL SE Y -~- l l'J G S H o \V l N G S I'\ 1 0 F<. 0 h D S Y S f E M

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Sawmill

The sawmill should have a circular type blade fitted with inserted

11 11 teeth for easy and rapid sharpening. A 54 - 60 diameter blade would easily handle the majority of the timber which will be sawn in this proposed operation.

The power source should be a diesel engine of 100-150 hp rating. This same

source could be rigged up to run both the sawmill and the edger. The mill

should be portable or at least semi-portable, that is capable of being dismounted, moved and reset up in about a days time. The set works and feed works

should be accurate so that the lumber produced will be as homogeneous as possible. The flow arrangement from the infeed to the outflow of the mill

should allow an output of at least 6 - 10 MBF /day. The labor requirement for

the sawmill should be handled by the following six skilled men:

1 cut off man 1 sawyer 1 cant turner 1 off bearer and edgerman 1 lmnber stacker 1 yard man {cat skinner who would move logs and stack lumber)

With a mill that is in good working order, this crew of six should easily average 6 MBF production per day. The lumber should be stacked,

strapped and stored in bundles along side the river bank so that the strapped lumber would be convenient for loading onto the barges.

The slabs and edgings could be a valuable byproduct as fuel wood for

the villagers and arrangements should be made to cut and stack them so they could be hauled to Minto whenever it was convenient for the workers to do so. -12-

Costs

A discussion of the costs involved falls into three major classifica tions: (1) capital costs, (2) operating costs and (3) fixed costs. A great many choices and alternatives face a manager in deciding the magnitude of the costs to incur in getting a j debt to incur'? How many men to employ? All these are questions on which decisions have to be made by the entrepreneur.

1 have made my estimates of cost, for the establishing and operat ing a semi-portable sawmill to be purchased and set up in the Minto area and which would process 500 MBF in approximately an 85 day period. My estimates are based upon the opinions of experienced sawmill men who have operated in the Fairbanks area, and upon rn.y own judgrnent.

Capital costs

Plant site - There should be no cost for plant site since the State

Division of Lands would grant a permit to erect a mill at no cost for the land involved. The costs incurred in clearing a 1 - 2 acre site for the setting of the portable sawmill and yard for log and lumber storage would be included in operation costs.

Sawmill - A semi-portable sawmill with a capacity of turning out

6 - 10 MBF of rough green lumber would cost new about $5, 000 plus freight to Alaska. 1 would recommend that good used equipment be found when possi ble instead of buying all new equipment. The cost can be cut almost in hal £ this way. There are several mills located in the Fairbanks area which would -13- be suitable and which could be purchased at a reasonable price, say in the

$2, 500 - $3, 500 range. These would have to be evaluated as to which was the best buy. A conservative estimate of costs for a sawmill and its related equipment set up in Minto is as follows:

$ '000 00 Power Source (150 hp industrial engine) 3,500.00 Edger 1, 500.00 Skidway winch and dragsaw 1,000.00

Total $ 10,000.00 Logging equipment

Crawler type tractor for skidding - equip ped with winch, bulldozer blade and fork lift attachment $12, 000. 00

Power saws 700. 00 12, 700.00

Tools and miscellaneous equiprnent

2 Welders - arc and acetylene $ 1,000.00 Extra saw blades 500. 00 Mill light tools and servicing equipment 500.00 Miscellaneous equipment and supplies 1,000.00 3,000.00

Allowance for co~tingenci~s 2, 500.00

Total $ 28, 200. 00

Operating costs - These can best be shown on a MBF production basis. The wage scale used is $2. 00 per hour and the daily production used is 6/MBF. -14-

Logging and Skidding

Labor: 4 men@ $2. 00 :: $8. 00 per day 15% insurance, compensation and taxes Total labor $9. 20 per day

daily cost of labor 8 hr. day - 8 x $9. 20 .: $73. 60 . 26/MBF 6 Fuel: 3 gal. hr. x 8 .:. 24 gal. (f . 50 .: $12. 00 :. $12. 00 ~ $2. 00/MBF 6 Maintenance and insurance: $1. 00/MBF

Total logging costs ::: $15. 26/MBF

Sawmill

Labor: 5 men Cf; $2. 00 ..: $10. 00/hr. 15% insurance compensation and taxes $1. 50 Total labor - $ll. 50/hr.

$92.00 daily cost of labor 8 hr/day:: 8 x $11. 50 :c $92. 00 - == $15. 30/MBF 6 $24.00 Fuel: 6 gal/hr. :. 48 gal. f.' . 50 .. : $24. 00 ·" : $4. 00/MBF 6

Maintenance and insurance $1. 00 / MBF

Total sawrnilling costs ::: $20. 30/MBF

Total Operating Costs - Logging $15. 26/MBF - Sawmilling 20.30/MBF

Total $35. 56/MBF

Transportation

Cost of transporting the lumber from the mill site to Fairbanks including loading and unloading: $30. 00/MBF. -15-

Fixed Costs: These iten1s are not dependent upon production but occur because the investment has been made. However, it is convenient to express them on a MBF basis for ease in calculating costs and returns.

Fixed costs for this operation include (1) stumpage, (2) overhead,

(3) depreciation, (4) interest on borrowed capital.

Stumpage is the fee paid to the land owner for standing timber. The average stumpage price for the timber in the Minto area is about $3 /MBF.

Overhead is the charge made for management of the operation. I

strongly recommend that a manager be hired by the Minto villagers to run the

sawmill operation since there is no one in the village at present who has the necessary skill and experience. The manager in this instance should be a person who has considerable experience around sawmills and who could serve as a millwright in keeping the mill and other equipment in repair. Such a person should at lea;st be paid $30. 00 a day which is $5/MBF.

Depreciation allowance is necessary if a business is to prevent using up their capital. A straight line allowance for $25, 000 worth of capital items to be depreciated over a 10 year period is $2, 083. 00 per year. Based on an

85 day operating season, this amounts to about $24/day or $4/MBF.

Total capital needs for this enterprise is $28, 200. 00 plus the neces sary operating capital to get the flow of income started so that expenditures can be met. Since the logging is to be done during the freeze up and the sawing done after the spring thaw, the total costs of the logging operation would have to be met (that is 500 MBF x logging costs of $15. 26 : $7, 630. 00). In addition -16- at least 100 MBF of lumber· would have to be cut before a load could be marketed (100 x sawmilling costs of $20. 30 ::: $2, 030. 00) This amounts to

$9, 660. 00 of operating capital needed.

The interest payments on borrowed capital could then be calcula- ted as $28, 200 (f 5% c: $1, 410 per year and $9, 660 (: 8% ::: $772. Total interest equals $2, 182 per year. Based on an 85 clay operating period this amounts to

$25. 60/day or $4. 25/MBF.

Total costs of the operation then become:

Capital costs $28, 200 Working capital 9, 600 Total borrowed capital needs $ 37,800

Operating costs . /" Logging $ 15. 26/MBF l 1 Sawmilling 20. 30/MBF Total $ 35. 56 /MBF

Transportation costs $ 30. 00/MBF

Fixed Costs Stumpage $ 3. 00/MBF Overhead 5. 00/MBF Depreciation 4. 00/MBF Interest on borrowed capital 4. 25/MBF Total $ 16. 25/MBF

Total Costs $ 81. 71 / MBF -17-

Returns

Since the firms price for the rough green lumber delivered in Fair- banks was ;$90/MBF, the net returns becorne $90.00 or $8. 29 /MBF. ·-81. 71 8. 29

Total returns on the production of 500 MBF is $8. 29 x 500 = $4, 145.

A gain, this figure is based upon a low wage rate to the laborers and an average output of 6 MBF per day. If the $4, 145 was distributed back to the nine men working, they would each receive a $460 bonus at the end of the season.

Obviously, if the daily production could be increased, operating costs would drop and net profits would be increased. For instance, an increase to 8 MBF daily would raise the annual bonus for each worker from $460. 00 to $922. 00, about twice as much.

Conclusions and RecommeEdations

It is difficult to subject this proposed sawmill operation to the types of financial analysis normally made on other business enterprises. In the first place the goal is the betterment 0£ a community and the up grading of their standard of living instead of deriving pure profits to an entrepreneur.

The net returns on invested capital is less i1nportant than the number of jobs afforded the villagers of Minto.

Obviously, based on the going wage scales in the Fairbanks area and on the published tariff rates for barging lumber up the Tanana River, this -18- operation would not be economically feasible. However, special concessions have been made on the transportation rates and the people of Minto have indicated a willingness to work for less than the going wage rate in order to give themselves a rnore stable source of em.ployment than they have at present.

1 ope p ing rough green white spruce lumber in the Minto area is both technically and economically feasible.

The establishment of such an operation would mean about nine new jobs for the villagers. Four would be needed to work in the woods during the freeze up and five would work in the sawmill during the early spring and sum-

1ner months. There are at least twenty rnen in 1v1into now unemployed who show an interest in working in a sawmill operation. Most of then1 are not trained in the skills needed and will need to be trained on the job. The State

Department of Labor should be able to assist in such a training program through the MDT.A or ARA job training program now available. 19 Appendix A

MINTO FOREST SURVEY

The following is a reconnaisance type survey of the forest potential in the

Minto Working Circle. This unit is an area comprising approximately 746, 700 acres, bounded on the north by the line between townships 5 and 6 north, on the east by the eastern edge of Minto Flats and the Alaska Railroad from D,mbar to Nenana, on the south by the Tanana River, and on the west by the divide between the drainages flowing into Minto Flats and those drainages flowing into the Manley Hot Springs area.

Forest typing was accomplished with the aid of Air Force photos taken in 1949 at a scale of 1 : 40, 000. Because of the scale and quality of the photos, typing was restricted to S-2(white spruce poletimber 5 11 to 10 11 D. B. N.) and S-3

(white spruce saw timber 10 11 D. B. H. ). It was unfeasible to attempt typing size classes or species of hardwoods (birch, aspen, and cottonwood) as they are included as a group under "Productive and Merchantable Forest" cate- gory.

To correlate somewhat with our forest inventory program, the forest types have been subdivided into three smaller categories:

River Lands - These lands near or contiguous to the major rivers

(Tanana, Nenana, and Kantishna), these lands are well drained, high sited, but subjected to periodic flooding.

Lowlands - Those lands in the flats and along small drainages that have a low enough water table to support merchantable timber. 20

Uplands - Those lands on the slopes and ridges being well drained and not affected by flooding or high water.

Acreages were obtained by the use of a modified acreage grid (64 dots per inch). All timber types are platted on U.S. G. S. 1 : 63, 360 series quadrangle maps. After checking the maps with the photos, it was determined that the green shaded areas on the maps are sufficient for obtaining acreages of pro ductive forest lands. Listed below are the results of this typing project:

Total Land Acreage 746, 700

Productive and Merchantable Forest Lands

% of Type % of Total Acreages

River Lands 11 4.8 35,900

Lowlands 28 12. 1 90, 100

Uplands 61 26.9 200,500

43.8 326,500

Merchantable Forest:

River Lands (35, 900 acres)

S-2 37.2 13,360

S-3 9.2 3,320

46.4 16, 680

Lowlands (90, 100 acres)

S-2 13. 7 12, 34 0

S-3 . 2 200

13.9 12,540 21 Uplands (200, 500 acres)

S-2 1. 1 2, 190

S-3 • 1 360

1. 2 2,550

Total

S-2 27,890

S-3 3,880

31,770

From the above figures, it is obvious that the river lands constitute the older stands of spruce. This is true because there has been very little fire damage to the timber along the rivers. Using a conservative estimate of 5, 000 board feet per acre as the volume of a stand of white spruce sawtimber, we find that we have approximately 16 million feet of merchantable spruce ready to be cut.

(3, 320 acres x 5, 000 board feet per acre = 16, 600, 000 board feet.)

By placing the river lands on a sustained yield basis, we can safely estimate that 7 5% of the area is stocked with spruce, producing at the rate of 60 board feet per care per year thus giving us an annual yield of 1, 615, 500 board feet.

35, 900 acres x . 75 = 26, 925

26, 925 x 60 = l, 615, 500 board feet per year

With this annual yield, we can support a sawmill cutting one million feet of timber per year and still allow for a less due to fire, insects, diseases, wind, etc.

The upland acreage (200, 500 acres) is our largest block. It contains very little white spruce sawtimber due to repeated fires. There is evidence from 22 photos and ground observation that the area is well stocked with sapling and pole size birch and aspen with an understory of white spruce. If efforts are successful in protecting the block from fire, we should have a sizable contribution to the annual increment of the Minto Working Circle. The uplands are especially valuable for summer logging because the area will remain dry during the summer operating season.

If a milling operation were to be established in the Minto Area, it would, in all possibility, be located along the Tanana River. Logging would, for the most part, be restricted to the freeze up period because of the many wet areas and sloughs along the river. The mill should be portable so that the log hauling distance is held to a minimum.

The most logical market for the lumber would be .located down river to villages along the Tanana and Yukon Rivers.

SUMMARY

There is evidence that sufficient merchantable timber is located along the

Tanana River to support a small sawmill operation on a sustained basis. I would suggest that a portable mill be considered because of the scattered conditions of the stands. Because of the operating season being short (100) days, and the possible use of a portable mill, I believe that 50'.:>, 000 board feet per year would be a realistic production figure.

s Is William A. Sache ck

Area Forester Fairbanks Area 23

EMPLOYMENT STUDY - MINTO PROJECT

The following is a brief rundown on a proposed sawmill and logging operation for the Minto Project. I have attempted to show how many man days of work this sawmill operation will provide. The first year figures are based on a training period and the second year figures assume that full production has been reached. I am also basing these figures on a yearly production of 500, 000 feet e mill with a daily capacity of approximately 5, 000 board feet.

First Year Training Period - Inexperienced crew.

Logging Operation ·· Inexperienced crew. 100 operating days equal 300, 000 board feet, Production per man per 8 hour day equal 800 board feet. 3, DOO man hours or 3 7 5 man days to produce 300, 000 board feet.

Sawmill Production - 3'J0, OvO board feet during the first year of operation. 100 operating days equal 300, 000 board feet. Produc tion per man per 8 hour day equal 500 board feet. 4, 800 man hours or 600 man days to produce 300, 000 board feet. The end value of the lumber produced would be $30, 000 based on a figure of $100 per thousand.

Second Year of Operation_ - Full production. 100 operating days equal 500, 000 board feet. Crews fully trained.

Logging Operation - 100 operating days. Production per man per 8 hour day equal 1, 000 board feet. 4, 000 man hours or 500 man days to produce 500, 000 board feet.

Sawmill Production - Production per man per 8 hour day equals 800 board feet. 5, 000 man hours or 625 man days to produce 500, 000 board feet. The end value of the lumber produced would be $50, 000 based on a figure of $100 per thousand.

SUMMARY

The first year of operation would provide 975 man days of work at full produc tion. The second year would provide 1. 125 man days of work based on a 100 day period of operation. The end value of the lumber produced during the first two years of operation would be $80, 000,

F, R. JOHNSON Forest Products Officer Forestry, Parks & Recreation Appendix B 24

PLANING AND KILN DRYING COSTS

Planing Plant

1. LABOR:

3 men at $5. OJ per hour = $15. 00 per hour

and taxes 2.25

Total Labor $17.25

$17.25 per hour at 2600 BF per hour= labor cost per MBF = $6. 90 (note: planer capacity is 6000 to 9000 BF per hour)

2. POWER:

138 1/2 H.P. x . 75 KW /H.P. x . 03 per KHW = $3. lJ $3.10 per hour at 3750 BF per hour = power cost per MBF . 82

3. DEPRECIATION, Maintenance and Insurance per MBF 2.00

TOTAL, per MBF $9.72

Dry Kiln

1. LABOR:

1 man at $5. ')O per hour $ 5.00 15o/o Insurance, Compensation and taxes .75

Total Labor $ 5, 75 per hour

$5. 75 per hour for 40 hours to dry 100 MBF = cost per MBF $2.30

2. FUEL:

8 gal. per hour at $. 27 per gal. = 2.16 per hour 1. 96 per hour dries 2. 5 MBF per hour = drying cost per MBF $ .78 25 3. POWER:

30 H.P. x . 75 KW /H.P. x . 03 per KWH = • 68 per hour . 68 per hour, 2. 5 MBF per hour = power cost per MBF = $ .28

4. DEPRECIATION, maintenance and Insurance per MBF 1. 25

TOTAL $4. 61

Overhead

Office expense, etc. , per MBF $5.00

SUMMATION OF COSTS

Cost of Rough Lumber $ 90.00

Cost of Planing 9. 72

Cost of Kiln Drying 4. 61

Overhead 5.00

Total cost manufactured lumber $109.33

NOTE: For comparison we refer to figures used by the Forest Products Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, which indicate Kiln Drying costs to be about $2. 00 per MBF plus the generally accepted 50% override for Alaska which results in a cost of $3. 00 per MBF, compared to our pro jected cost of $4. 61 per MBF. The planing and kiln drying operations are are both predicated on a rate of 2500 BF per hour, whereas the planing capacity is from 6000 to 9000 BF per hour and the kiln capacity is approxi mately 60 MBF per day. Raising production from our 2500 BF per hour will result in a lower operating cost per thousand board feet.

Building to house planing operation and for dry storage of lumber - estimate 10, 000 sq. ft. at $6. 00 = $60,000.00

Purchase of fork lift 8,550.00

Exigencies 10,000.00

$78,550.00 26 Total Cost - Planer Operation $42,416.90

Total Cost - Kiln Operation 38,252.50

Total Cost - Building & Miscellaneous Equipment 78,550.00

TOTAL $159,219.40 27 Our projected planing and kiln-drying operation is engineered for operation in our climate to produce high quality lumber. Designed to work four men its output can be maintained at 40, 000 board feet per day. It has the built in safety factor of being all-electric, thus doing away with all lines, shafts and belts. In case of an emergency, a switch controlling the troubled operation can be pulled by any one man at his own station.

Fdlowing is a breakdown of the Planer and Kiln Equipment we propose to install, with a cost breakdown. Costs of equipment are based on firm bids.

PLANER EQUIPMENT

1 Newman M-68 Planer-Matcher 16,882.00 1 Set Tongue & Groove Heads 397. 50 1 Set Side Heads 1-3/411 329.50 1 Set Shiplap Heads 312.50 1 Set Side Heads 1-7 /8 11 351. 00 1 Set V Paneling Heads 480.00 1 Set Eased Edge Heads 404.00 1 G-71 Newman Head Grinder 657.00 1 K-20 Newman Double End Trimmer 2, 189. 00 1 G-132 Newman Knife Grinder 1,040.00 2 Starters for Trim Saws 150.00 1 Exhaust System for M-68 Planer 2, 231. 00 2 Extra 22 11 80 Tooth Saws 170.00 1 Set Infeed Chains, 3 strand 14 feet between shaft centers including motors and starters 950.00 1 Set Outfeed Chains, 3 strand 14 feet between haft centers including motor and starter 953.00

27,493.50 Freight 3, 980. 00 Installation 40% cost of machinery 10,997.40

COST OF PLANER EQUIPMENT TOTAL $42,416. 90

KILN EQUIPMENT

1 45 MBF capacity Dry Kiln complete with all machinery and insulated prefab building 25, 102. 00

Erection Labor on building 3,000.00 Installation of Kiln Equipment 2,500.00 Concrete foundations, floor, machinery basis, etc. 1,500.00 100 Kiln Trucks 600.00 1, 000 feet of 30 lb. rail 1,000.00 33,702.50 Freight 56, 785 lbs. 4,550.00 $38,252.50 28 Appendix C

December 17, 1964

Mr. Bill Ellis Independent Lumber Company Fairbanks, Alaska

To Whom it IVlay Concern.

The Institute of Business, Economics and Government Research has recently conducted a feasibility analysis for the establishment of a saw milling operation in the Minto Flats area. The final report has not been published but tentative recommendations would suggest that such a saw mill could be a profitable enterprise for the village of Minto.

A preliminary inventory of the timber resources of the area was made by the State Division of Lands, Forestry Branch in 1963 and their estimates indicated that an annual cut of 500, 000 board feet of white spruce could be made in the area on a sustained yield basis. Our findings concur with that estimate.

The question of markets for the production of rough green spruce lumber is one of greatest concern for the success of this operation. Rough green lumber has a limited demand in the Fairbanks trading area. Probably not more than 1 1/2 million board feet of this product is marketed annually in the area. However, this demand could be increased several fold if the lumber was adequately manufactured and graded, dried and surfaced be fore being sold. If a concentration yard was set up in the Fairbanks area to profitably perform these processes of grading, drying and planing the rough green lumber, the success of the Minto project and other similar projects employing native workers would be almost assured.

I would heartily endorse the creation of such an operation. It is estimated that the Minto sawmi.11 would provide practically full-time employment for at least ten men, and in addition the slabs produced in the milling process could be utilized for firewood for the village. There is no question that such a project would go far in contributing to the upgrading of the standards of living for the Minto Villagers and be a stabilizing influence of their economy.

Respectfully submitted,

Frank W. Kearns Associate Professor of Forest Management FWK:ha/j PHASE II

A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SURVEY

NATIVE VILLAGE OF MINTO, ALASKA

Institute of Business, Economic and Government Research

University of Alaska

College, Alaska

Prepared by: Professor Lado A, Kozely January 15, 1965 i TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

I. GENERAL DATA ABOUT MINTO

Location Area Description

A Few Historical Notes on Minto Village Organization

II. HUMAN AND OTHER RESOURCES OF MINTO

Population Employment Physical Resources Fish and Wildlife Timber

III. OTHER DA TA ON THE ECONOMY AND LIFE OF THE NATIVE VILLAGE OF MINTO

The Village Economy Productive Economic Activities Transfer Payments Disposable Personal Income Housing Public Utilities Transportation and Communications Land Ownership Possessory Rights Townsite Native Allotments Timber Sales Education

IV. MINTO~ FELT NEEDS, PROBLEMS

A Village Economy in Transition The Land Problem The Problem of Land Resources Fish Resources Wild Game Animals ii

Table of Contents (continued) Page

Waterfowl Soil Timber Recreation The.Proposed Lumber Industry Location of Merchantable Timber

Saw-mill Site Power Supply Transportation Facilities Markets for White Spruce Lumber Distribution Facilities Laws and Regulations Organization of the Business Enterprise Financing

V. MINTO' S COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM

Manufacture of Round House Logs Lumber Industry Electricity Power Plant Farming Quick-freezing and Cold-storage Plant Dog-food Manufacture Cottage Industries Tourist Catering Businesses Other Plans Incorporation of Fourth Class City Standard-type Housing Streets and Roads

VI. CONCLUSION iii

TABLES

Page

Population Growth

Native Population of Minto Per Sex and Age

Number of Dependent Children Per Families

Active Population - Employable and Unemployable Persons

Wildlife Harvest and Revenue from Trapping

Fish Catches in 1963

Transfer Payments to Minto Village

Trappers of Fur-bearing Animals in Minto

Airport Facilities Record

High School Students and Graduates SUMWJ.ARY RECOMMENDATIONS

On the basis of the inventory of the Minto resources, its needs, problems, and action proposed by the people of Minto, to which ref erences are made in this report, on the page or pages indicated on the right hand margin, here, we recommend that:

THE U.S. BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS:

- Authorize and instruct its Area Field Representative in Fair

banks to assist in every possible way the Native Village of

lvlinto in its present endeavor to establish a cooperative cor

poration with the objective of commercial timber utilization

and production of lumber, and to submit to the Office of

Economic Opportunity a Community Action Program;

- Give the Village direct assistance in the preparation of

articles and bylaws for the proposed cooperative corporation;

- Decide whether the existing I. R. A. corporation in Minto

or the Fairbanks.Economic Development Corporation shall

act as the local economic development company, to secure

the SBA financing; 10

- Contract with the University of Alaska a study to determine

the feasibility of other business and community improvement

projects proposed by the Minto people themselves;

- Take the necessary steps to ensure the solution of the Native land

claimE) along the lines of the legislative proposal submitted

by the B. l. A. in 1952; 2

- Submit to the U. S. Secretary of the Interior a recommenda-

tion for an early decision on the "Minto Protest. 11

THE STATE OF ALASKA

- Have studies made on the estimated future population of

fur-bearing animals in the Minto Flats, and of edible fish

and of fish suitable for dog food manufacture in the streams

and lakes around Minto;

- Instruct the Rural Development Administration Board to

coordinate its future community development programs with

the Minto Community Action Program as adopted at the

Village meeting of October 23, 1964.

THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMI:NISTRATION

- Grant the Minto Village Development Company, or any other

organization selected, a loan for the purchase of the machinery

and equipment required for production of lumber, on the

basis of the ascertained commercial quantity of white spruce

saw timber in and around Minto, of the availability and will-

ingness of the people of Minto to work in the proposed lum-

ber industry enterprise, and of the markets for white spruce

lumber in Fairbanks and other places in the Interior of

Alaska.

FARMERS HOME p. DMINISTRA TION

- In case that financial assistance under Title III of the E. O. A. of 1964

can be extended to the Minto cooporative association, the Minto

Village Council be assisted by the FHA in the preparation of the re quired loan application. 3

THE NATIVE VILLAGE OF MINTO

- Designate at once the persons to stand ready to undergo the

necessary training in logging, grading, and sawmilling, as

well as cat operation and maintenance.

application notwithstanding the earlier filing of 11 The Minto Protest, 11

but ?:..~~h the stipulation that such application shall not be interpreted

as inferring that the people of Minto change in any way their views

and claims as expressed in the said protest document. I

GZNERAL DATA ABOUT MINTO

Location

The Athapascan village of Minto is located on the right

(northern) bank of the river Tanana, in Interior Alaska, at the point where the Tanana, after a swift run north past the town of Nenana, turns toward the west.

It is about 20 miles north of Nenana and 45 air miles west of Fairbanks, from which cities it can be reached only by plane or by river boat in the summer, or by dog sled from Nenana in the winter.

Its latitude is 64° 54 1 North, longitude 149° 10 1 West (Town ship I North Range 8 Vlest of the Fairbanks Meridian, Bureau of

Land Management rnaps).

Area Description

To the west of the Tanana Hills marking the base of the White

Mountains, which separate the valleys of the Yukon and Tanana, there is a wide, flat country known as the Minto Flats. The Tanana flows here rather fast because of a sizable difference in elevation between

Nenana (lat. 64 ° 33 1 N. , long. 149° 05 1 V'f., elevation 356 feet above the mean sealevel) and Manley Hot Springs, on the western edge of the Flats (lat. 64° 59 1 N., long. 150° 40 1\V., elevation 265 feet). A boat would drift downstream at a speed of four miles per hour. But 5 the gradients of the innumerable creeks and small rivers coming down into the Flats from the slopes of the Tanana Hills are small, and the streams meander like lazy snakes toward the Tanana.

When the snows thaw in the spring, these streams - the large st of which are Tolovana, Tatalina, Chatanika and Goldstream - swell in their beds, fill the lakes, ponds, and potholes along their course, and transform the whole area into a vast water expanse from which only low knolls and old built-up river dikes protrude.

After the waters gradually run off in the summer, much water remains on the Flats, and wide spots among the lakes and ponds stav rnarshv and snonl!v throul!h the late fall when the ice and snow " " .... u~ \.-' level off the plain.

These lower-lying spots are covered with swampland grasses, sedges, horsetails and willow brush. But, wherever the terrain is well drained, there are small patches of woods. These forests are made of occasional stands of tall white spruce (Picea glauca.), quaking aspen (Populµs tremuloides ), black spruce (Picea mariana), paper birch (Betula resinifera), alder (.Alnus sp. ), balsam poplar

(Populus tacamahaca ), willows (Salix sp.) and muskeg.

White spruce trees prevail. In the high sited, well drained lands near or contiguous to the river streams, acres of land are covered with white spruce timber 10 11 D. B. H., reaching occasionally a height of up to 100 feet and a diameter at the stump of up to 36 inches. 6

In the vicinity of Minto alone, there are at least 1, 250 acres of older

stands of white spruce. On the basis of an estimated 5, 000 board feet per acre, there are at least 6 1/4 million feet of merchantable

spruce ready to be cut.

Climatic Conditions

The climate at Minto is "semiarctic with cool summers and very cold winters with heavy snowfall but much sunshine" (BIA 1 s

Station Information).

If temperatures, precipitations, and similar data were regularly collected at Minto, the figures for Minto would probably read somewhere inbetween those which we find for the .not too distant stations of Nenana and Manley Hot Springs, shown in the U.S.

Weather Bureau 1 s excellent publications 11 Climatography of the

United States!! No. s ll-43 and 60-t19) and "Climatological Data -

Alaska11 (Annual Summary, 1961 Vol. 47, No. 13). These data are reproduced in Tables 1 and 2.

The Minto Flats is located almost at the center of the In- terior Basin, whose climate is typically continental because, as the above mentioned publications state, of this area 1 s remoteness frorn the open ocean areas and because of the surrounding topographic barriers which prevent marine factors influencing the inland move - TABLZ 1

TOTAL PRECIPITATION NENANA - WlANLEY HOT SPRINGS 1930-19.32 Averag~s

Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Yearly Total Nenana . 90 . 45 . 37 . 28 . 64 1. 25 1. 82 2.47 1. 25 . 57 . 52 . 43 10.95 lvianley Hot Springs 1. 06 . 68 . 51 . 39 . 77 1. 54 2.30 3.68 1. 62 l. 21 . 76 .67 15. 19

Snowfall Nenana 1. 9 6.8 6.0 2. 8 .4 -- - .6 6.9 8.0 6.6 50.0 Manley Hot Springs -r13. 3 8.4 6.6 3.0 .7 -- - . 2 9.5 10. 5 9.0 61. 2 Mean Temperature Nenana -8.2 -1. 0 8.5 27.6 46.0 57. 7 60.2 55.2 43.9 27.2 5. 5 - 7. 1 26.3 Manley Hot Springs 9. 7 -3. 3 7.4 27.3 44.8 57.5 59.2 53. 2 43.2 26.9 4.0 -9.6 25. 1 Mean Maximum Temperature Nenana 1. 1 9.3 20.8 38.3 57.8 70.3 72. 1 66.0 53.8 35.6 14.0 2.2 36.8 Manley Hot Springs . 8 8.5 20. 7 39.7 58.2 72.0 72. 7 65.3 53.9 35.4 13. 3 -0. 1 36.7 Mean JVIinimum Temperature Nenana -17. 5 -11. 2 -3.8 16.8 34.6 45. 4 48. 3 44.4 34.0 18.9 -1. 9 -16.3 16.0 JVianley Hot Springs -20.8 -15.2 -6.0 15. 1 31.6 42.7 45.741.1 32.5 18.4 -5. 3 -19. 1 13.4 Lowest Nenana -66 -63 -51 -29 -2 28 29 23 10 -28 -46 -63 -66 Manley Hot Springs -70 -64 -55 -33 -11 22 29 19 6 -30 -52 -63 -70

-..]

I Number of days First Fall Minimum of I between dates 1~~------~---.--~---~------~1~------~-~~1 l I i ! i3:ol ~10~ loi3: o~ 32° or I 28° or 24° or l 20° or 18° or .-1..00.l I ~ I .-1 .-1 .-1 1 1---b_e_lo_w___ , below below J below below ..o ~ O.l (J)

(J) P.. 'iP.. In.I 17 IP.. ~:00~1,~ ~ ~ ·~ ~ : ·~ ; ~ ~ : g :. ·~ I ~ I *,,! ~ ~ ~ I ~ l9'i Cl E-t ! Q\ E-t Cl i [-I I Cl E-t: Cl .t-i ...... N ,... N 1------~---1----1---~.i----11~--1--~,1----11·~-----'-----~·--~·--l--l'N (") 8/2 '/ 32 -i 9;1 i 21 1 912 23 i' 9;29 18' 9/30 I14 162 1s3; 121 111 j s1 1 I I ! . I 1 8/27 32 9 I 1 1 26 J 9/30 27 '10/.8 16 10/8 I 16 170. 163 141 i 104 90 i· ' I J l I I I I I 10 ment of air. The continental characteristics of Minto and Manley Hot

Springs are more pronounced, probably on account of the Flats 1 level topography and the lack of obstruction to halt the flow of air currents.

Thus, the mean minimum temperatures recorded at Nenana

down to ,~17 5, in whereas they drop to -20 8 at Manley

Hot Springs. Yet the lowest temperatures recorded at Nenana, in

December 1928, were -69° whereas only -64° in Manley Hot Springs in 1929.

The mean maximum temperatures, in turn, are 72. 7° at

Manley Hot Springs, in July, with the highest of 83° recorded in

July 1961, as against 72. 1° at Nenana, with the highest temperature not exceeding 81°.

As we read in the publications cited, 11 the extremely low temperatures of the Interior Basin usually occur during periods of extremely light winds or calm, and result from prolonged heat radi ation during the long hours of winter darkness. 11 Similarly, "during the period from early June to late July, the prolonged hours of day light and possible sunshine are a major contributing factor in main taining temperatures at fairly high levels. 11

11 The pronounced extremes of temperatures, with the changes of seasons, naturally result in a pronounced rise of tempera tures in the spring and a sharp decline in the fall, and these rapid changes tend to establish the growing season within fairly dependable 11

0 terminal dates. 11 Last spring, minimum temperatures of 32 or below occur at the middle of May (a few days earlier at Nenana than at Manley

Hot Springs), and the first fall minimum temperatures of 32° or below became fixed around late August, thus giving the Minto Flats about

90 freeze free days.

However, despite the balmy temperature and the prolonged hours of daylight and possible sunshine during the freeze free season, in the months of June, July, and August; and the good soil productivity in the Flats, typical of most river bottom lands, which contribute to rapid marsh and aquatic plant communities development, the agricultural possibilities in and around Minto are rather limited. The soil in the Minto Flats is underlain by permafrost.

11 In spite of relatively warm summertime temperatures, ground temperatures (which is most important for the normal growth of cultivated crops) tend to remain rather cool except for a relatively shallow surface layer; the gradual thawing of the top layer of permafrost beneath the surface layer provides a source of practically ice- cold water to permeate the soil layers immediately above. And the cooling effect extends, in some measure: to even the relatively shallow topsoil layer utilized in vegetable production. 11

Another factor hindering a profitable crop production in the Minto Flats is the lack of sufficient precipitation during the growing season, and even occasional brief periods of drought. The monthly 12 precipitation totals average from 1. 25 inches in June (as recorded at

Nenana) to 3. 68 inches in August (as recorded at Manley Hot Springs).

During these summer months, there is no snowfall at Minto.

"There are two major considerations which make even

d al:

(1) When the supply of moisture becomes inadequate to provide sustained, rapid growth, successful maturity of many crops will not be realized before the growing sea son comes to an abrupt end,

(2) The prolonged hours of daylight and correspondingly longer days of actual sunshine (there are only about two hours of night in the summer) require a considerable greater amount of moisture for daily transpiration, and the shortage of moisture can reach critical propor tions more rapidly than in more southerly latitude having similar sum1nertime temperatures. 11

''Precipitation over the Interior Basin during the growing

season is predominantly of the shower type. Most of the showers

originate. with heating of atmospheric layers near the surface, result-

ing in thermal convection which carries the moisture aloft to cool

and condense. The localized showers may becon1e rather intense

at times, and hailstorms occasionally occur. 11

Nonetheless, the people of Minto are confident that the

climatic conditions as described above will not seriously hamper them

in expanding their economic activities to include farming and garden-

ing, and logging (see the attached "Community Fact Survey" sheet

dated January 22, 1963, signed by the Minto Village Council Chief). 13

A Few Historical Notes on Minto

No mention of Minto was made in the books of early explorers of Alaska or in publications listed in George Peter Murdock's

11 Ethnographic Bibliography of North America11 (3rd ed., 1961).

The los st embla:nce to the name of Minto was found in the 1912. publication of the Bureau of American Ethnology (''Bulletin No. 30;

October 1912, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. ), where a village by name of Mentotak is listed: 11 a Koyukukhotana village on the left bank of the Yukon, 20 miles above the mouth of Melozi River. 11

Two years later, a team of investigators was dispatched to Alaska by the American Indian Rights Association, and the two men visited all

Indian villages on the bank of Tanana, on which they traveled in a boat; had Minto been then at the present location, they could not have missed it. So Matthew K. Sniffen1 s report, 11 The Indians of the

Yukon and Tanana Valleys" (1914) makes no mention of Minto. Where were the Minto people living at that time? Who are they ethnically?

The 11th Census report, published in 1892, on page 126:

11 The people inhabiting the banks of the Tanana River have been variously named the Tennan Khotanas, Tananatena, and Tennan Kutchin, the latter being probably the best known and most significant. They live in small bands, with settlements generally away from the main river; in scattered portions, and are distinguished only by the name of the chief of each band. 11

However, the above mentioned Bulletin ff30 (entitled

11 "Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico ) in describing the 14

Tenankutchin (Tena means mountain, and kutchin means people in

Athapascan), states that they are ''an Athapascan tribe in Alaska which hunts throughout the basin of Tanana River, but has its v1·11 ages a 1ong th e upper s t-ream in· 1a t . 63°, long. 142°. 11 Th1"s places the habitat of th12 Tenankutchin in the c far away from Minto.

When we asked Mr. Peter John, the present Minto

Village chief, about the origin of his people, he was emphatic in say- ing that they were not Kutchin but rather Teyokhotana. In the same ethnological bulletin cited above, we read that 11 Khotana 11 is "a name applied to several Athapascan tribes of lower Yukon River and

Koyukuk River, Alaska, as the Kaiyuhkhotana (the westernmost

Athapascan tribe of Alaska living on the banks of the Yukon River between Anvik and Koyukuk Rivers), Unakhotana (an Athapascan tribe living along the Yukon from Tanana River down to the Koyukuk and on the latter stream) and Koyukukhotana ( a division of the

Unakhotana with inhabiting; the bas.in of"Koyukuk River).''. :Kaiyuk ·is the name of a river and a mountain group on the left bank of the Yukon, west of lon. 156°. We were unable to locate any geographical name resembling Teyo or anything siinilar; was 11 Teyo11 the name of an ancient Khotana chief?

Chief John told us that his people came to the present location on the banks of the Tanana from a place near the Minto Lakes.

The above cited "Community Fact Survey" states that "the present location of Minto Village started in 1916. The village was relocated 15 at this spot because it was closer to fishing and hunting sites which are in the Minto Flats north of the village. 11

On the spot where the present village of Minto is located there was earlier only a telegraph station bearing this name. Report- ing on his trip along the Tanana,

Fairbanks, Hudson Stuck, in his 11 Voyages on the Yukon and its tribu taries11 (1917) tells us that 11 this stretch of the river is the stretch least occupied by any sort of settlement, and it passes with extensive bed, and wide expanses of drift covered sand bars, through forested

I sic!/ flats with in salient landmarks.

The abandoned telegraph station of Minto was built (like others on the Tanana River) in the absolute wilderness, because it was supposed to be electrically necessary to have stations exactly

40 miles apart. This station of Minto lasted for several winters in spite of being in the coldest spot of all Interior Alaska--until a traveler provided with standard registered thermometer happened to compare instruments and discovered that the one employed at this place read about 10° too low. 11

Should we conclude that the Minto people are relatively newcomers in the Minto Flats and doubt that they were living there prior to 1916, in fact, since time immemorial? Not at all! In the first place, we talked to a few older persons in Minto who related to us facts about their childhood in a village near the Minto Lakes. They 16 had simply never been visited before by any white explorer.

In 1870, Dall reported in his 11 Alaska and its Resources":

''The Tanana River is entirely unexplored. No white man has dipped his paddle into its waters and we only know of its lengthiest character from Indian reports. 11

of his reconnaissance on the Yukon, "Along Alaska 1 s Great River, 11 mentions the Tanana as 11 the largest unexplored river of the western continent. 11 And he lets us guess why nobody ventured into the country away from its banks" The Tanana Indians, although in general a very friendly tribe to encounter away from home, are always opposed to any exploration of their country. 11

11 Miner Bruce ("Alaska - Its History and Resources , 1899) confirms the Schwatka 1 s report:

"The Tanana River has been very slightly explored, and little is known of it or of the natives who inhabit its banks. They are, however, reported by the few venturesome prospectors who have made their way into the section, to be rather ill-disposed towards the whites invading their territory. 11 (p. 162)

The present generation of Indians of Minto 11 are friendly and cooperative 11 (BIA 1 s Station Report), "industrious and progressive 11

("Indian Affairs" - Newsletter of the Association on American Indian

Affairs, Inc., No. 53, December, 1963). But, they are not less attached to their land than their ancestors were. 17

June 18, 1934 (Public Law No. 383) later extended to Alaska on

May 1, 1936, providing in its section 5 that "the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to acquire ... any interest

existing reservations ... for the purpose of providing land for Indians, 11 and again, in section 7, that "the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to proclaim new Indian reservations on lands acquired ... for the exclusive use of Indians entitled by enrollment or by tribal membership to residence at such reservations," the people of Minto were asked if they wanted a reservation.

"Tundra Times, 11 a newspaper published semi-monthly in

Fairbanks, wrote in its February 18, 1963 edition that the village voted against the reservation because, in the words of its Chief, 11 we did not know very much about reservations. 11 But, the Chief said,

"on February 13, 1938, his father, Justin Frank, made a map for the

Native Service of the area claimed by Minto. 11

On what law, if any, is based the Minto claim of lands?

Section 8 of the Act of May 17, 1884, provided in part:

r'That the Indians ... shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or now claimed by them ... , 11

"However, 11 states Elmer F. Bennett, Solicitor, in r'Federal Indian Law" (a study prepared by the Office of the Solicitor, 18

U. S. Department of the Interior, in 1958), "the recognition and pro- tection thus accorded these rights of occupancy have been construed as not constituting necessarily a recognition of title 11 (p. 951).

According to the above-mentioned newspaper, still quot- ing Chief Richard Frank, 11 in late 1961, with the Nenana oil activity the State applied for the area which the Minto people have always used.

We put in a protest and Peter John duplicated the map made by my father. 11

This protest is actually a protest against the State of

Alaska 1 s selection of the public lands within the Minto Flats, in accordance with Section 6 of the Act of July 7, 1958 (Public Law 85-508), under which:

"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 ... from ... public lands of the United States in Alaska which are vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved at the time of their selection .... 11

Since, under this law, the Secretary of the Interior is called upon to give his approval to any State of Alaska land selection outside national forests in Alaska, and since the people of Minto claim that the said selection would disturb their full use and enjoyment of the land which they had occupied 11 for centuries, 11 the socalled

Minto Protest is at the time of this writing under the advice of the

Secretary of the Interior.

Note: An Act of May 1, 1936 to extend certain provisions of the Act 19 approved June 18, 1934, to the Territory of Alaska (49 Stat. 1250),

known as the Alaska Act of May 11 1936, provided in its section 2:

"That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to designate as an Indian reservation any area of land which has been reserved for the use and occupancy of Indians or Eskimos by section 8 of the Act of 1884 (23 Stat. 26) or by section 14 or section 15 of the Act of March ( heretofore reserved under any executive order and placed under jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior or any bureau thereof, together with addi tional public lands adjacent thereto, within the Territory of Alaskai or any other public lands which are actually occupied by Indians or Eskimos within said Territory .... 11

Village Organization

11 \ilfhile the native organizations and associations in Alaska do not have the character or status of tribes, they may equally be considered instrumentalities of the United States where they are operating under a loan agreement from the United States or are organized and chartered as Federal Corporations under the Indian Reorganiza tion Act (Memo. Sol. I. D., June 10, 1940). 11 (Federal Indian Law, p. 961, Note 9)

On December 30, 1939, the people of Minto 11 duly ratified by a vote of 60 for and 0 against in an election in which over 30 percent of those entitled to vote cast their ballots 11 (Certificate of Adop- tion) a constitution and by-laws which they had earlier made for themselves 11 by authority of the act of Congress of June 18, 1934 as amended by the acts of June 15, 1935 and May l, 193611 (Preamble,

Constitution of the Native Village of Minto). Said constitution and by-laws had been earlier, on May 23, 1939, approved by the Assistant 20

Secretary of the Interior. By these two actions a federal corporation came into being; it is called 11 The Native Village of Minto. 11

The act of May 1, 1936, known as the Alaska Act (25 United

States Code 473a), provided in section 1 that:

11 groups of Indians in .Alaska not heretofore recognized as bands or tribes, but having a common bond of occupation, or association, or residence within a well defined neighborhood, community, or rural district, may organize to adopt constitutions and by-laws and to receive charters of incorporation and Federal loans under sections 16, 17, and 10 of the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984). 11

Municipal and public activities which the governing body of the IRA Corporation is by constitution authorized to engage in, are broadly defined as follows:

11 To do all things for the common good which it has done or has had the right to do in the past and which are not against Federal law and such Terri torial law as may apply.

To deal with the Federal and Territorial Governments on matters which interest the Village, to stop any giving or taking away of Village lands or other property without its consent, and to get legal aid, as set forth in the ac:t of June 18, 1934.

To control the use by members or non-members of any reserve set aside by the Federal Government for the Village and to keep order in the reserve.

To guard and to foster native life, arts and posses- sions, and native customs not against law. 11 (Sec. 1, art. IV)

11 The governing body of the Native Village of Minto is a council of six members elected by the adult membership of the village, 11 21 states the House Report No. 2503, p. 1401 (1953).

At the time of this writing, the Village Council was consti- tuted of the following members of the village:

Peter Johµ, President Wilson Titus, Vice-president Lawrence Titus, Secretary Berkrnan Silas, Councilman Floyd Alexander, Councilman

The powers of this Village Council are largely academic, insofar as the provisions contained in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the

Sec. 1, Art. IV, of the village constitution are concerned; the Village owns :;1olands, and no reservation has been set apart in Minto.

"Instructions for Reorganization in Alaska under the

Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934 and the Alaska Act of May 1,

1936, and the Amendments thereto, 11 approved by the Secretary of the Interior on December 22, 1937, provided that:

" ... The municipal and public activities which may be carried on by a native village are those which the village has been accusto1ned to carry on under exist ing law and may include such public enterprises as providing for streets, lights, sanitation, charitable and social benefits, etc. The power to prescribe ordinances for civil govern ment, relating particularly to law and order, may extend only to such lands as may be held as an Indian reservation for the use of the community."

"If an Indian reservation has been designated and approved as aforesaid, and if the group of Indians for whom the reservation has been designated are organi zing as an entire community uncle r Part I (a) or (b) of these Instructions, they may include in their 22

constitution appropriate powers for the civil government of the area reserved, including police power over their own members and, under the supervision of the Department, the power to tax, license or exclude non-1nembers. If the constitution has been adopted before the reservation became effective, such powers may be added by amendment. If at the time the con stitution is being drafted, the designation and app. :>val of a reservation for such com1nunity. 11

Consequently, any rules or ordinances which the Village

Council has enacted or would enact in the future, in compliance with section 4, Art. IV, of the village constitution, "to carry out the words of this Constitution, 11 are binding solely on the members of the Native Village of Minto corporation. The Village Council has no governm.ental powers over any other person living in Minto.

Besides the political administrative organization described on the preceding pages, the people of Minto have created a number of other organizations, of which only the first enumerated below is legally incorporated:

Native Village of Minto Business Corporation Dog Mushers Club 4-H Club Womens Club Church Auxiliary Boy Scouts Carnival Committee

The Native Village of Minto Business Corporation was chartered as a Federal Corporation on December 30, 1939, under the authority of the Alaska Act of May 1, 1936, which provided, in part, that: 23

1 'Be enacted by the State and House of Representa tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Sections 1, 5, 7, 8, 15, 17 and 19 of the Act entitled 1An Act to conserve and develop Indian lands and resources; to extend to Indians the right to form business and other organizations; to establish a credit system for Indians; to grant certain rights of home rule to Indians; to provide for vocational education for Indians; and for other purposes, 1 approved June Stat. shall hereafter apply to the Territory of Alaska: PROVIDED, That groups of Indians in Alaska not heretofore recognized as bands of tribes, but having a common bond of occupation, or association, or residence, within a well-defined neighborhood, community, or rural district, may organize to adopt constitutions and by-laws and to receive charters of incorporation and Federal loans under sections 16, 17, and 10 of the Act of June 18, 1934 (Stat. 984)."

The heretofore quoted Instructions for Organization in

Alaska, dated December 22, 1937, provided that "the Charter shall be of no force and effect, even if ratified, unless the Constitution and By-laws have been ratified." Since the latter have been duly ratified by the people of Minto, the business corporation was properly established.

Section 17 of the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984) stipulated that:

11 ••• such charter may convey to the incorporated tribe the power to purchase, take by gift, or be quest, or otherwise, own, hold, manage, operate, and dispose of property of every description, real and personal, including the power to purchase res tricted Indian lands and to issue in exchange therefor interests in corporate property, and such further 24 powers as may be incidental to the conduct of cor porate business, not inconsistent with law, but no authority shall be granted to sell, mortgage, or lease for a period exceeding ten years any of the land included in the limits of the reservation. 11 II

HUMAN AND OTHER RESOURCES OF MINTO

Population

The Constitution of the Native Village of Minto states that

"all persons whose names are on the list of native residents, made according to the Instructions of the Secretary of the Interior for or ganization in Alaska, shall be members of the Village, 11 as well as

"all children of any members shall be members of the Village;" how ever, any member who "moves away from the Village, intending not to return," "shall lose his membership" (Sections 1, 2 and 3, Art. III).

According to Section 2, "any person who has lost his mem bership, and any other native person may be made a member if he sets up a home in the Village." Neither the constitution, nor the by-laws specify the procedure as to how a person "may be made a member." However, this may be of little significance, since the

Section 3 stipulates that "the Village may make rules to govern membership, either for the purpose of carrying out this Article or covering membership matters not taken care of in this Article."

In spite of the above clear definition of who shall be mem bers of the Village, it is not easy to ascertain the exact number of population of Minto at different dates in the past. House Report No.

2503 (1953) states that "since 1910 no thorough census has been made of native Alaskan tribes, bands, villages, or other groups." 26

Sic years later, in 1959, a similar statement was printed in the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs Print No, 38

(p. 165): "The Alaska Native Service has no official register of native people by any jurisdictional area. 11

Official population figures for Minto are available in the

U. S. Bureau of the Census population reports of 1939, 1950, and

1960. None for earlier years. (>:<)

But, we must take into account rules under which the popu

lation count is made by the U. S. Bureau of the Census. A person

is enumerated at his 11 usual place of abode 11 which is, for the students,

for instance, the place where they live while attending a school, or

for other persons, the place where they spend most of their time.

Thus, a person who is under the village constitution a member of the

Village, and stays on to be accounted as such even if he moves away, provided that he expresses his intention to return to the village, will

nevertheless be counted by the U. S. Bureau of the Census at the place where he actually resides at the time of the census. On the other hand, the official census statistics show the total number of all per

sons whose usual place of abode is at the time of the population count

in the village, Natives and non-native persons alike. 27

Population Statistics

Census Total Over 21 .

u. s .• 1939 135 60 U.S., 1950 152 B.l./.., 1952 157 81

U.S., 1960 161 1 October 23, 1964 l 22 7>!C 89

>:c Includes non-natives

Native Population Per Age and Sex (October 23, 1964)

I Born in years Males Females Total 1960 - 1964 20 18 38 1955 - 1959 9 18 27 1950 - 1954 16 19 35 1945 - 1949 14 9 23 Sub-totals: 59 64 123 1940 - 1944 8 10 18 1935 - 1939 9 2 11 1930 - 1934 5 3 8 1925 - 1929 2 5 7 Sub-totals: 24 20 44 Totals: 83 84 167 1920 - 1924 5 4 9 1915 - 1919 6 5 11 1910 - 1914 6 5 11 1905 - 1909 5 2 7 Sub-totals: 22 16 38 Totals: 105 100 205 1900 - 1904 4 - 4 1899 -or earlier 4 7 11 Sub-totals: J 8 7 15 T 0 T !' LS: ! 113 107 220 28

The population count on which the preceding table is based was made by a University of Alaska faculty member on October 23,

1964~~~)It includes not only those persons who were found living at the time of the count in Minto, but also those who, though at that time living at some other place, yet were described by the Village Council as intending to return to the village, like students, persons in the

Armed Forces, and seasonal workers and their families. The Village of Minto considers them as members of the Village.

(~:t) NOTE: House Committee Print No. 38 (1959) states, on p. 158: 11 ••• the report from Juneau, Alaska, states that statistics on population, age, voting, etc., are not available. Some recommendations and data were included in the Juneau data which establish a possible basis for estimates, but it is felt that the results would be so tenuous that inclu sion in a smnrnary would do more .harm than good. 11

An original copy of tho 1964 populo.tion crnsus in ~ iinto, i11L.d0 by cconor:dc r('S.'< rch prof. 1. A. Lozcly, thr cuthor of this pt1.p0r end a f orrncr stc~ff m:--mbcr of thr: U. S. Burr'-. u of thr Crnsus, is k·-pt in the files of the Inatitutc of B. JE.G. R·-sr.:.-.rch, U. of A. 29

Population Per Age and Sex

Male Female 1800 or earlier 111-1 1900 1904

1905 - 1909 I 1910 - 1914 f- 1915 - 1919

1920 - 19,24

1925 - 1929

1930 - 1934 ~--7 I I ' 1935 - 1939 I I ~-- I 1940 - 1944 "' ' I . 1945 - 1949 I I~ '-i 1950 - 1954 I I 1955 - 1959 I

1960 - 1964 - 30

Married Couples and Number of Children Per Family

Number of children 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total in the family '

Number of families 3 4 5 6 1 3 2 2 - 1 2 29 I

It is apparent from the preceding table that there are only three families in Minto having only one child each, four families with two children each, and five families with three children each.

The great majority of the Minto families have four or more children each. This fact alone promises a future population expansion. It points also to increasing need for more cash income, to more class - room space, and to the want for rnore housing.

A Few More Statistical Data Concerning the Minto Population:

- 67 male persons and 74 female persons, or a total of 141 persons, were born in 1940 or later; this means that nearly 65% of Minto population are 25 years of age or younger.

- Males in the youngest age brackets outnumber females: 94 males as against 93 females of 50 years or younger; 81 males of 35 years of age as against 79 females in the same age group. However, the disparity between sexes is only slight.

- Of the 36 women of the child-bearing age (birth years between 1921 and 1950). 19 are married and 17 are single.

- Of the 38 men born between 1915 and 1946, 18 are married and 20 are single. 31

How fast will the population of Minto grow, and what will be its number ten years from now?

On June 25, 1952, the Alaska Area Medical Officer reported

(see House Print No. 2503, p. 1543), as follows:

"The Ala Native Service has no data on deaths among natives other than those secured from the records of the department of health ... A breakdown by villages would be impossible. 11

It would be equally difficult to secure the statistics concerning the births, without a considerable effort on the part of the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Judging merely from the net increases of population in the recent few years, and from the large number of young people who will probably get married within the coming decade, we may safely predict a population of at least 250 in 1975.

Employment

People in the Labor Force. In a village economy pas sing through the transitional stage between a traditional subsistence sys - tern and the modern exchange, market economy, it is no easy task to classify people into different categories that would help us to analyze its employment conditions. At this point, we shall try to bring forward a number of facts which might be relevant to possible small-business development in Minto. 32

The following table shows the number of men in different age groups between ages of 14 and 65. This will give us an idea of the size of the socalled ''active population," or, more exactly, active male population, in Minto. It shows further how many of these men are unemployable, at least at the present time, for different reasons, such as physical unfitness for manual work, either because of their health condition or their state of mind. Others could not be reckoned with as potential labor force at this time, because they are away from the village, because they are either serving their term in the Armed

Forces or studying or simply looking for occasional work elsewhere, in larger population settlements in Alaska or even in the lower States.

The column "Employable" shows the number of men in different age groups, who are either unemployed at the present but who could be employed if an employment opportunity presented itself in the village, or who are less or more permanently employed, full-time or part-time.

As mentioned above, the Minto economy is still prevalently a subsistence economy. Its populations needs for food are still satis - fied to a large extent through hunting, trapping, and fishing, and their shelters are built of logs made of locally available timber. Many garments are still homemade hide and fur garments. Yet, an ever in creasing portion of the necessities of life consumed in the village are items purchased in the local store or elsewhere. How are they to come by the cash required for such purchases? Total active Unemployable Employable Approx. population I Study- Self- I Employed 'Y Unem- Birth years ages in this age Away ing Unfit Em- others ployed group ployed Full Part

1945 - 1949 I 15-20 14 11 - 3 : 1940 - 1944 20-25 8 3 2 2

11935 - 1939 25-30 9 2 2 2 3 1930 - 1934 30-35 5 2 2 l

1925 - 1929 35-40 2 1 1 I 1920 - 1924 40-45 :J 2 3

1915 - 1919 45-50 6 2 1 1 2 ' - 1910 - 1914 50-55 6 1 1 1 3

1905 - 1909 l 55-60 5 1 1 3

1900 - 1904 60-65 4 - 4

TOTALS 64 4 13 I 6 3 7 7 I 24 ' ; ! I

VJ VJ 34

With very few exceptions, the people of Minto are trying hard to earn that cash by producing goods for sale to the markets. Some men seem to stick stubbornly to the old, established ways of earning the necessary cash in a quantity strictly limited to their foreseeable needs for market goods; would they accept an offer of employment for wages pinning them down to a work place and time schedule? They are not self-employed persons in the sense of being in business to produce

a tangible product or service for sale, although what they occasionally do is precisely produce an article for sale, like a skin, from an ani mal trapped or hunted for only this purpose. v1Te classified this type

of trapper, hunter or fisherman as 11 unemployed." \Vhether they will want to become err1ployed as workers in a sawmill, for instance, de pends much on their state of rnind, however; at least when interviewed, they did not speak out against a change as a small number of others

did, whom we therefore listed in the column 11 Unemployable - Unfit."

'Ne listed as 11 Unemployed" also a nun1ber of other men who, while busily trapping, hunting or fishing, depending on the season

of the year, they would readily accept a wage employment if it were

offered to them, however, on certain conditions only. For instance, the employment would not have to take them outside the village would 1

not have to prevent them from going hunting when they please or from

spending three days in the row potlatching. All this would not really interfere with their job of logging, they stated, and so we listed them as "employable. 11 35

The above statistical table speaks out for itself: there

would be enough sturdy and willing men of all ages to supply a village -

operated sawmill with all the logs the mill could handle! And, because

rn.ore men are availabe in the village for logging than the lumber enter-

prise could employ on a sustained basis, the life in the village may still

go on pretty much as it has been in the past with that difference, maybe

that the trappers would not need to beat the trails under just any weather

condition or depend on the fish diet as much as in the past.

How many women would potentially constitute a 1-c::bor mar-

ket pool in Minto?

Unemployable at this time because Employ !Approx. Total Study-1• Responsible for the upbringing able Birth years ages active ing of the following number of child. pop. . 1 '2. 3 4 . 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 T 1945 - 1949 15-2.0 9 9 I 1940 - 1944 2.0-2.5 10 2 1 1 1 3 2

1935 - 1939 2.5-30 3 2. 1

1930 - 1934 30-35 3 1 1 1

192.5 - 192.9 35-40 5 1 2. 1 1

1920 - 192.4 40 -45 4 1 1 1 1

1915 - 1919 45-50 5 i ! i i 1 1

1910 - 1914 50-55 5 1 2. 2. 36

Physical Resources

Manmade resources that could be used to produce cash income are almost non-existent in Minto. There is no road link between Minto and the outside world. In view of the possible tourist development, the local art could

Natural resources of Minto include timber, fish, and wildlife (fur-bearing animals and waterfowl}. No specific data are available on the potential utilization of the soil.

Testimony on the availability of fish and wildlife was given m several published reports on Minto Flats and on Minto itself.

An unsigned report entitled 11 Present and Proposed Uses of Minto Flats, 11 which was reportedly written by Dr. Robert B. Weeden, biologist, Alaska State Fish and Game Department, contains several references on this subject.

11 The Flats has the good productivity typical of most river bottom lands, the richness being funneled through marsh and acquatic plant communi ties to a few animals that can best use them: pike, muskrats, mink and waterfowl. 11

11 The wet land is suited neither to agriculture. nor building. 11

11 Most villagers depend on fish, moose, bear, muskrats, ducks, rabbits and other game they get from Minto Flats • , •. 11

11 Minto Flats offer some of the best waterfowl hunting in Central Alaska, fine pike fishing, and endless miles of beautiful waterways for boating, picnicing and photography. 11 37

11 From 50, 000 to 200, 000 ducks leave the breading marshes of Minto each year. An unknown but very large number of ducks migrate through in spring and fall. In spring the Flats play host to about 20, 000 snow geese, and 15 to 20 thousand Canada and white -fronted geese accept the proferred har - vest of the marsh at both ends of summer. 11

"The supply of 'the quar:cy· ·· moose, bear, ducks, geese, pike_, flowers, waterways, etc., -·probably will remain ahead of the demand for many years. 11

"Indian Affairs, 11 a newsletter published by the Associa- tion on American Indian Affairs, Inc., wrote in its December 1963 copy:

"Dotted with lakes and laced by streams and sloughs, with forests of white spruce and birch, the lands around Minto teem with wildlife ... At their summer fish camps Minto families take salmon by fishwheel and salt or smoke it for the long winter. When the waters freeze over, pike are caught through the ice. Wild blueberries are gathered in July and cran berries in September. 11

The BIA bulletin mentioned on p. 3, above, states:

"There are potatoes, turnips, carrots, beans, let tuce and beets grown in the village. 11

The heretofore -mentioned "Community Fact Survey" submitted on January 22, 1963, by the Minto Village Council to the

Bureau of Indian Affairs brings us a confirmation of the above listed facts by the Minto people themselves:

11 ':Te have lots of forests, and our agricultural resources are good.. ·we have fish and the wild life. Materials for arts and crafts are available. 11

By questioning individual hunters and trappers in Minto, we concluded that in recent years the following average quantities of fur-bearing animals have been harvested: 38

Yearly Total village Number of Name of average Average price revenue from persons Remarks animal harvest paid for skin sale of skins interviewed Bear No market Beaver 200 $ 18. 00 $ 3,600 Fox Limited to Wolf serve needs Wolverine of local crafts man only La Otte 18 00 720 Lynx 50 16.00 800 Marten 5 9.00 45 Mink 200 17.00 3,400 Sold mostly Muskrat 1200 . 50 600 to Seattle Fur Weasel 60 . 30 18 Exchange, through village store

TOTALS 9, 183 28 Average yearly income per trapper: ' $327.00

Alaska State Fish and Game Department in Fairbanks gave us the following figures on fish catches in Minto:

Salmon Pike, Grayling, Bur- Vlhite Fish Sheefish King Silver Dog Pink bot, Arctic Char

325 1, 466 ll, 062 - 1,579 106 194

Number of fishing families: 18 (with ll2 people in these families)

Number of fishwheels: 12

In view of the potential future development of Minto Flats as a tourist recreation area, particularly for sportsmen residing in

Fairbanks, we should mention here the wealth in a newly discovered fish delicacy present in the waters of Minto ·--the Alaska's great nor- 39 thern pike. With the permission of the author, Dr. Charles J, Keim,

Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, University of Alaska, we quote a few passages from the magazine THE ALASKA SPORTSMAN, May,

1959 and January 1960:

"Until 1957 when ESOX LUCIUS, the long cavernous mouthed great northern pike was declared a game fish, few sportsmen even thought of trying to catch him on conventional tackle. They were too busy concentrating upon the rainbow, steelhead, cutthroat, Dolly Varden and mackinaw trout, the grayling and the salmon, all abundant in their Alaskan ranges. The inevitable result was that in waters easily accessible from cities and highways, these aristocratic species beca1ne somewhat less abundant."

11 We 1d fished the Minto Lakes successfully before, but this time we decided that, as pike prefer sloughs and backwaters, we'd try the confluence of silt-laden Goldstream Creek and a clear-water outlet from one of the larger lakes. Our landmark was a cluster of old caches where the Indians occasionally stretch their nets to catch pike. 11

The northern pike caught in the Minto Lakes area are quite large:

"The present record for pike is 46 pounds and 2 ounces. But according to Dr. Otto William Geist, paleontolo gist with the University of Alaska, far bigger ones have been caught by men interested in food, not records. 11 40

Timber Stands

White spruce (Picea glauca) forms almost the entire forest growth along the Tanana River. At least 1, 250 acres of this river land, which is well drained but subjected to periodic flooding, are covered with merchantable timber of at least 10'' D. B. H. However, white spruce is found in many patches along small drainages north of Minto having ''a low enough water table to support merchantable timber" (see

Vlilliam A. Sacheck, Area Forester's report, enclosed herewith} and on the slopes and ridges not affected by flooding or high water; however, only about 560 acres of these latter lands contain 10" D. B. H. white spruce saw timber, Most of the forested acreage in these lands is covered with spruce 5 11 to 10" D. B. H. It is comforting, however, to read in the report listed heretofore that over 20, 000 acres of produc tive forest lands could be ascertained in the Flats, outside of the

Tanana River banks, and there is no doubt that they contain commercial quantities of spruce saw timber.

Next to the Tanana River lands, within the Minto Protest

Area, we have to turn to the ridges of the Tanana Hills, on the west border of the Minto Flats, yet still well within the said area, to find extensive acreages of forest with 10" D. B. H. white spruce. A map prepared by the Area Forester shows in this section of the Minto Pro test Area several patches of such forests covering over 8, 200 acres.

They lie along the sled road leading from the Coldstream Creek to 41

Chatanika River, east and southeast of the Minto Lakes.

There are no compact stands of balsam poplar, of northern canoe or paper birch, of aspen, or of tamarack. However, occasionally patches of these trees are growing amidst the white spruce. III

OTHER DATA ON THE ECONOMY AND LIFE

OF THE NATIVE VILLAGE OF MINTO

The Village Economy

In keeping with the commonly-accepted definition stating that a village economy is the total arrangement made by the people of a village for supplying themselves with the goods and services which they need, we rnay describe the economy of the native Village of Minto as a predominantly hunting and forest-gathering economy.

The hunting industries in which the villagers are engaging are hunting and trapping of wild game; their forest-gathering indus - tries consist at the present of wood-cutting and bark and fruit collec - ti on (berry picking).

Since most products required for living, in particular those necessities of life which are indispensable to maintain a bare livelihood, originate from industries of the people of Minto, we may describe their economy as a predominantly subsistence economy.

Yet, the following statement made in regard to the Fort

Yukon region in Alaska stands true for Minto also:

''Today, the Fort Yukon region typifies significantly the general problem of Arctic North America, that is the increasing conflict between an archaic economic foundation capable only of the marginal subsistence of a tiny population, and between sharp increases in consur.nption demand arising from population growth 43

furthered by better medicine and other social welfare methods, and from an increasing desire to achieve reasonable standards of living. 11 Dr. Demitri B. Shimkin, 11 Fort Yukon, Alaska - An Essay in Human 11 Ecology, I , p. 8 (reporduced by Alaska Develop ment Board, Juneau, Alaska, March 1951).

Of what practical relevance to Minto is this statement? The answer to our question was aptly provided us by lvir. Robert L. Bennett,

Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, in a speech delivered to the

Socio-Economic Conference in Fairbanks, in February 1963. It can also be found in the following ..:iuotations from a dissertation written by Dr. David E. Clarke, Professor of Political Science at the Univer- sity of Alaska (Stanford University, June 1964):

11 Left to then1selves, two systems whose attitudes conflict will fight, that is, each will attempt to des - troy the other. But the larger system of which they form parts will prevent this, if it can, in the interests of its own survival. 11

What can the lesser system do?

11 Two courses are possible. Either the system can in fact become involved in overt conflict, or it can develop ways within itself of resolving the latent inner conflict, thus opening up avenues of development hitherto blocked. 11

Not even one hundred years have passed since Ivan Petro£ wrote a study for the U. S. Census Office 1 s Tenth Census ("Alaska:

Its Populations, Industries, and Resources", V!ashington, 1884, re-

1 printed in U.S. Co.ngress, Senate/ Compilation of Narratives of Explor- ations in Alaska!' April 18, 1900, reported from the Committee on Mili- tary Affairs), in which he stated: 44

11\Nhile the Eskimo tribes of Alaska, especially those living southward of Bering Strait, have the facility of assimilating with races of a higher type, the Athabascans of the far north have thus far displayed no traits which would warrant us to hope for their speedy civiliza tion. With the exception of the Tinnats or Kenai people on Cook Inlet they have not been in direct contact with Caucasians until lately and with the one exception before mentioned have not taken to the invaders of their vast domain. 11

Dr. Robert B. Weeden, op. cit., has skillfully described the change

that has taken place in Minto in the last eight decades:

11 Before the first exploratory fingers of what we call 'modern civilization' reached Interior Alaska, native people used Minto Flats as a place to get food, clothing and articles of trade. There may never have been very many at one tim.e, and not all parts of the Flats were equally productive or accessible. But the use was consistent enough to become traditional, and the tradition has been inherited by the present generation ... 11

11 Vlhite settlement by-passed Minto Flats .... But the growth of white population had, and still has, a great effect on the kind and degree of use of the Flats by the people of Minto. 11

Although much of the contact of the people of Minto with

the outside world is still maintained by means of a dogsled,-there is

a winter trail between Minto and Nenana, and another between the

village and Dunbar on the Alaska Railroad,-and though the moving of the village from the Minto Lakes to the banks of the Tanana settled

the people of Minto permanently on the river which is navigable during

a few summer months only, the Native Village of Minto is being in-

creasingly exposed to the influences from the 11 outside 11 (this word

means in the language of Minto people everything outside of Minto). 45

In the first place, there has been a Bureau of Indian Affairs

"Day School" ever since 1936 (H. R. No. 2503, p. 1577). 122 of the per sons at present living in Minto have spent a lesser or greater amount of years in that school learning, among other things, how the people in other parts of the world go about satisfying their needs for basic necessities of life and other goods that make the life more enjoyable and pleasant. With the acquired knowledge of reading and understand ing, more and more people in Minto could read for themselves about articles which are able to satisfy the need for a given food, clothing or shelter more amply than those produced traditionally in the village.

From their schooI - children, even many adult persons who never had any forn1al education, learned to read and write, and one can see books in pratically every home in 1v1into. Many people in

Minto daily read the newspapers, chiefly The Tundra Times and the

Fairbanks Daily News Miner. And almost every family in the village possesses a radio.

But even before the coming of formal education and the radio,Minto people learned about the ways of life of other people through their personal contacts with white settle rs in Alaska. Early explorers of the Tanana Valley reported about the native people they were meeting on their travels through the Minto Flats, and about the friendly exchanges of imported merchandise against fish harvested in the Tanana by the Indians on the banks, apparently not living in per manent settlements along the river but coming there in summer only to fish. 46

The barter was soon replaced by selling of native -produced goods for money. Commercial exploitation of natural resources of

Minto Flats was born. In exchange for money, people of Minto started to supplement their traditional food, consisting mainly· of fish and wild game meat Vii.th imported foods; their p;arments rnade of skins and feathers, with factory made clothing. Food and clothing merchandise was soon joined by items with which one can make a home a more com- fortable place to live, and the houses of Minto, still built of hand-hewn logs, had their hides in the window frames replaced with glass, and the home furnishings made by hand from native materials substituted with trade items. But, most important, the tools made by the nafr~e man almost entirely gave way to those produced "outside." Arcs and arrows of the hunters were substituted with m.odern weapons, skin-boats and wooden rafts and willow-nets of the fishermen were substituted with plywood and aluminum boats driven by gasoline powered engines, and nets made of nylon.

But, cash has been always hard to come by in Minto.

"For years the people had wanted to start a coop erative, but lacked the capital to make the initial investment. Finally, in 19.-1:4, it received a rare offer to buy fire wood to fuel riverboats. The en tire village worked for three months cutting 1, 060 cords of wood and put the proceeds from the sale into the store." ''Indian Affairs" (seep. 6, above).

Most cash has been made traditionally by selling the skins of the wild game hunted and trapped in the Minto Flats. But, this 47 natural resource is a precarious one. In recent years, fish has been

sold by the Minto people, but the quantity of fish is also limited in

quantity and besides, the rnarket demand for it fluctuates even more than that for skins.

Twenty-eight trappers and all rnernbe the 18 families whose main occupation is fishing {see State Fish and

Game Report cit. above) account for a good portion of the cash-income

of Minto. Other earned cash-income comes from home industries producing sleds, diamond willow ornaments, and fur garments and

souvenirs, like baskets made of birch bark, bracelets made of impor ted pearls, and horns of wild animals.

Seve1·al men and women of Minto found it preferable to hard life and dependence on fish and wild game, to engage in salaried

occupations. But only very few selected this way of life as a perman ent one because it would take them out of the village, away from.their home. In the village itself, there are very rare opportunities for

salaried employment. The school needs a janitor, the village owned and operated water supply plant employs a custodian and the local airstrip requires occasional maintenance work. There is also a post

office in the village, but it is staffed with a non-native {although several persons in the village declared they would feel qualified to do the work}.

The State of Alaska, through its Rural Administration De partment, in recent years rather consistently brought cash incomes 48 into the village, in the form. of wages for village improvement ·works financed by the said agency. In 1962, $2, 500 and a similar amount in

1964, were spent in the village for construction of pathways, bridges, and ditches with materials provided by the village itself.

Public Welfare and other "transfer payn1ents 11 funds, dis- bursed in the village by the State of Alaska 1 s Department of Health and

Welfare, and by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Social Services branch, account for another portion of the village cash inflow.

Transfer Payments to the People of lvlinto made by the State of Alaska

Number of Cases Payments Totals - Old Age . Aid to Aid to Year Ins. Blind Families OAA AB AFDC Cases Amounts w/ depend children

1959 12 3 3 879 242 357 18 $ l, 478

1960 12 3 6 875 231 603 21 1, 709

1961 10 3 6 790 276 540 19 1. 606

1962 10 3 4 825 276 560 17 1, 661

1963 11 2 6 873 175 957 19 2,005 I TOTAL 4242 1200 3017 $ 8,459 ' 49

Transfer Payments Made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Year Number of Cases Number of Persons Payments Benefiting

1962 10 27 $ 2,554

1963 17 76 5,270

1964 13 39 4,560

Totals $ 12,384

No data is available on the amounts of unemployment insurance payments.

In 1962, there were 200 people living in Minto (1 1Indian

Affairs, 11 cit.). Adding the RAA ($2, 500), State VTelfare ($1, 661), and the BIA relief ($2, 554), for a total of $6, 715, the cash income from the above listed sources was per capita $33. 5 or, assuming there were

33 families, $203 per family. Presuming that the total cash income from trapping and hunting was in that year $9, 000 and that there were

33 families living at that time in the village, then the cash income from these ascertained sources was $479 per family.

The assumption of 33 families was made to account for the families of those members of the Native Village of Minto who had earned income from wages. To the amount of $479 is to be added an unknown amount of proceeds from the sale of fish and of handicraft items. 50

It is estimated that the total disposable personal income per family averages around $800 per year, including both the earned in come and the transfer payments. This would make less than $2. 00 per family per day, which helps us understand why the economy of Minto is still predominantly a subsistence economy. The people of Minto depend for their bare livelihood to a large extent on the output from their hunting and trapping and fishing activities.

Meat from fish and wild game constitutes a sizeable por tion of the Minto people 1 s everyday diet, and it is also an indispensable capital good: it serves to feed the dogs. Sled dogs are used to haul fire wood and to take the trappers along their trap lines which may be several miles long. There is only one snow-go tractor in the village, and this serves to haul the baggage of visitors to and from the local air strip.

The Native Village of Minto owns and operates a general store which is a member of the ANICA. The publication "Present Rela tions of the Federal Government to the American Indian" (85th Congress,

2nd Session, 1959) reports that at that time ''Minto had assets and liabili ties in connection with the village store. Village equity or net worth amounts to $13, 074. 19. 11 Its turnover was, according to the store's present manager, between $45, 000 - $50, 000 in 1963. Its present in debtedness amounts to $25, 000 from two separate loans from the Indian

Revolving Fund of $11, 000 and $20, 000 within the last eight years. 51

LIST OF THE PERSONS WHO DECLARED TRAPPING

AS BEING THEIR MAIN OCCUPATION

Reg. No. * Name Birth Date :Family First

9 Alexander James 10/12/14 13 Alexander Floyd 3/25/37 18 Charlie Cerosky 9/29/14 28 Charlie Christoper 2/01/09 42 Charlie Timothy 9 /15 /16 44 Charlie Fabian 11/08/45 45 Charlie Clarence 9/22/37 55 Charlie Lige (Elya) 9/01/21 80 Edwin Isacc 8/28/12 81 Frank Alfred 8/14/15 82 Frank Arthur 5/05/17 110 Jimmie Lind reel 5/17/38 114 Jimmie Peter 12/18/06 11 7 Jimmie Steven l/16/f6, 119 Jimmie Eldrane 1/20/36 120 Jimmie Charles 8/15/41 128 Peter Solomon 1/22/22 131 Riley Harry 10/10/03 145 Silas Berkman 12/23/22 164 Titus Charlie 8/18/23 174 Titus George 9/07/07 177 Titus Ivan Gareth 11/05/43 178 Titus Leo 3/04/11 184 Titus Matthew 11/17/02 186 Titus Lawrence 12/24/32 189 Titus Robert 8/30/04 204 Titus Eclmund 10/07/33 208 Titus Wilson 11/27/17

*This No. rolntos to tho Populo.ti0n Census Report of 10/23/64, tho original copy of which is kopt in tho files of tho Institute of B.E. and G. Rosourch. U. of .A. 52

Housing Conditions

The area covered by the village housing forms a triangle, the largest side of which stretches for about 2, 500 feet along the

River Tanana, which flows by the village in NvV -SE direction. The

of the meet on the northern end at a 90° angle, about 1, 500 feet east from the northernrnost point on the river. Immedi ately south of this northern boundary is the BIA Day School property, whereas the village airstrip is situated to the northeast of the latter.

A straight and well cared for road leads from the airstrip to the school grounds. There are two more village roads, running roughly in the north-south direction, parallel with the eastern boundary of the village.

The village consists of 41 native home residences. In addition, there is a community center which the villagers built them selves by hand, using hand cut timbers for walls, ceiling, and floor.

Other village property includes two water well buildings and a store building with a sizeable warehouse and cache.

Non-native housing is limited to a principal teacher's residence building, housing also a classroom, a church and a two story mission house of the St. Barnabas Episcopal parish, and four buildings belonging to the Assembly of God Church whose minister is the local postmaster using one of the mission's buildins as the post office. 53

Native homes are built of two-sided logs. The interior walls are in most instances insulated with cardboard paper. No house has a brick or stone chimney as the heating is provided by means of a wooden

stove, supplemented occasionally by the heat from a gas fed kitchen stove. s fe t and up to 20 feet large, with a low gable. Only half a dozen homes have more than one room.

The house furnishings are generally very poor by modern standards, consisting generally of a table, a chair, a bench, and one to three beds.

All homes have electricity, which is supplied by a privately

owned and operated power plant at a flat monthly payment of $8. 00.

The power plant has a 7 1/2. kw generator.

Nine out of ten homes are exceedingly well taken care of; floors are white -washed, bedding neatly lain away, clothing hung on the walls or on partitions. Taking into account that there are at least

15 families with four or more small children, it is a wonder how so much cleanliness and order can be maintained in these small friendly homes where no time is wasted by the housewives for home manu facture of mittens, baskets, stockings, etc.

Public Utilities

The only public utility at the present time in Minto is a water supply system consisting of two wells from which the water is pumped into water tanks. The village has no sewerage system; however, 54

\'I;\ f.' \\\'

\\\

~~ ··.~~·

11!· ~\\ \i ~~· ,\\: ~I,\,

\\\

\\~\f~ \\\\ o\' ~· '"" I~ ,~\ \\Ii

~~ *''

,~, 55 unlike some other villages in Alaska, where waste water can be seen

(and smelled) in the open, between houses, Minto solved this problem in quite a satisfactory way, by the Alaskan standards. Yet when we think of the extremely low winter temperatures and the cold winds blow-

lf is it to use privies built at a distance of 100 feet from the dwelling.

Transportation and Communications

Between the end of May and the 15th of September, depending on the ice condition on the Tanana, Minto is linked with the larger population centers rn Interior Alaska by boat. Shipping on the Tanana

1s handled by the following river transportation companies:

Inland Riverways, Inc., Fairbanks Yutana Barge Company, Nenana Peterson Navigation Company, Fairbanks

The Tanana is a swift river. Its bottom is not two years alike, and the vessels must do a lot of sounding on each trip, especially when crossing the sand bars and generally when the water level

1s low. When this latter occurs, the water level drops on many spots to 3 1/2 feet only. Therefore, and because of the many turns and meandering of the river, a tugboat which could make 15 miles per hour downstream must slow down, and going upstream it will not be able to make more than 5 miles per hour. Thus, a barge loaded with lumber for example, would need 10 to 12 hours for a trip from Minto to

Nenana, and another 18 hours from there to Fairbanks. 56

Both the Inland Vlaterways and the Yutana Barge Lines make

several trips downstream through Minto, hauling petroleum products and dry goods to the villages along the lower Tanana, Yukon and the latter's tributaries; they usually return empty barges to their home ports. Any of these c s could on uc

Minto, have the villagers load a barge with sawn timber, and then push that barge by tugboat up the river. A 125-ton barge could take about

75, 000 board feet of lumber.

Peterson Navigation Company is engaged mainly in bring ing to Fairbanks frozen fish from the Lower Yukon Villages; its barges are especially built for this purpose.

The Tanana River tugboats no longer use wood to power their engines, and with the switch over to diesel oil, the Minto people lost an opportunity to earn cash through the sale of fire wood. But,

several of them find at least seasonal, and two or three n1en even

steady, employment with the river transportation companies.

From the fall freeze -up until the end of May, the only transportation from and to Minto is by airplane. The village airstrip is 2000 feet long and 100 feet wide, but not lighted at night.

Minto is not accessible by road. A dogsled winter trail leads from the village to Dunbar, a railroad station located at the spot where the Alaska Railroad line crosses from the right bank to the left bank of the Goldstream Creek, about 12 1/2 air miles southeast of Minto. 57

If a road were to be built to Minto, this trail might be followed. It would take another stretch of the road to connect Dunbar with the existing Fairbanks -Nenana Road.

According to "Indian Affairs," the newsletter cited heretofore, "in spring 1963 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game dis - closed plans to convert Minto Lakes into a summertime recreation area, with a road from Fairbanks... The village (of Minto) was not

consulted once. It learned of the project by rumor only a year ago, after the State had already appropriated $25, 000 in Federal-State matching funds for the construction of the road. Villagers wonder why the State did not plan to extend the road a few miles farther to

Minto itself where it might be of some benefit to them. 11

As for the communications, Minto can be reached by radio.

Several villagers possess receiver sets. The Fairbanks' KFAR station (The Midnight Sun Network) has a daily scheduled broadcast to

Native villages in Interior Alaska at 9:20 p. m. A two-way radio com- munication is maintained between the Fairbanks 1 Bureau of Indian

Affairs office and the Day School Principal in Minto.

Land Ownership

The Organic Act of May 17, 1884 ("An Act Providing a Civil

Government for Alaska") in its Section 8 stipulated as follows:

"That the said district of Alaska is hereby created a land district ... and the laws of the United States relating to mining claims, and the rights incident 58

____, ,_c-~~-----'. '·-;-·---.. , ______: ~c~(-~c.cc """::.:.=___ - ·- thereto, shall, from and after the passage of this act, be in full force and effect in said district ... PROVIDED, that the Indians or other persons in said district shall not be disturbed in the posses - sion of any lands actually in their use or occupa tion or now claTmed by them but the terms under which such persons may acquire title to such lands is reserved for future legislation by Congress ... "

In her book ·Alaska, Jeannette Paddock Nichols (The

Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland, 1924) states:

11 The problem of land ownership has been a persis - tent annoyance throughout Alaska 1 s history and was the first question to gain serious recognition from a congressional committee. 11

In the "Compilation of Material Relating to the Indians of the United States and the Territory of Alaska, including Certain Laws and Treaties Affecting such Indians, 11 prepared by Dr. William H.

Gilbert of the Legislative Reference Service, U. S. Library of Con- gress (See: H. R. No. 2503, pp. 133 ff.), we read:

11 The recent proposals of the Acting Commissioner of the B. I. A. were aimed at solutions of a few of these problems by legislation which would enable the incorporation of the tribe as a governing group to take over the administration of its landed asset, guided by only a small committee or board which would advise the corporation officials and make periodic reports to Congress. 11 (Page 184)

In the text of 11 Bureau ·Report to the Subcommittee" (same publication) it is stated on page 31:

"Settlement of Land Claims of Alaska Natives. Legislation is required to enable the settlement of the complex land problems of Alaska natives which seriously impede .their economic progress. 60

The substance of such legislation should provide means of resolving, by due process of law, all outstanding native claims of possessory rights to public lands in Alaska. (Italics supplied) H. R. 4388 which was submitted for the consideration of Congress but not enacted is designed to provide the necessary enabl ing authority. "

The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs concluded its report (Report No. 2503) with the following recommendation:

"The proposed legislation regarding the Alaska native claims matter resulted from hearings by a special Indian Affairs Subcommittee in Alaska and numerous conferences between the committee, its staff, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Department of Jus - tice. It is urged that consideration be given to this legislation by the next Congress." (Page 125) (Italics supplied)

Tl-.e ''possessory rights 11 mentioned above are thus defined in the "Legislative Proposal Relating to Alaska Native Claims Matter11

(Report No. 2503, page 130):

11 The term 1possessory rights' means all rights, if any should exist, which are based upon aboriginal occupancy or title, or upon Section 8 of the Act of May 17, 1884 (23 Stat. 24), Section 14 of the Act of March 3, 1891 (25 Stat. 1095), or Section 27 of the Act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat. 321; 48 U.S. C., Sec. 36), and which have not been confirmed by patent, court de - cision, or other valid legal action. 11

Section 3(d) of the same Proposal further defines the term

"lands":

"The term 'lands 1 means any lands, water, minerals, fisheries, or other natural resources, and any interest therein or improvements thereon, which are claimed under possessory rights or which are otherwise subject to disposition by the United States. 11 61

Section 6(a) of the Proposal reads as follows:

"Jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims to hear and to determine, in accordance with law and equity, any claim of possessory rights to lands in Alaska presented to it by any communHy of natives ... 11

The Native Village of Minto claims baving possessory rights to the lands within the so-called "Minto Protest Area" (see this report,

Page 18).

It is mainly for this reason that the Minto corporation has not applied to this date for a townsite, under the provisions of the Act of May 25, 1926, and of the Act of March 3, 1891 ( U.S. C. para. 355 ff.,

Title 48}.

48 U.S. C. 355: 11 Tov1nsite entries. Until otherwise ordered by Congress lands in Alaska may be entered for town-site purposes, for the several use and benefit of the occupants of such town sites, by such trustee or trustees as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior for that purpose-- such entries to be made under the provisions of Section 718 of Title 43 as near as may be; and when such entries shall have been made, the Secretary of the Interior shall provide by regulation for the proper execution of the trust in favor of the inhabitants of the town site, including the survey of the land into lots -- -PROVIDED, that no more than 640 acres shall be embraced in one town-site entry. (March 3, 1891, Ch. 561, para. ll, 26 Stat. 1099). 11

48 U.S. C. 355a: "Indian or Eskimo lands set aside on survey of town site. 1.'lhere, upon the survey of a town site pursuant to Sec. 355 of this title, and the regulations of the Department of the Interior under said section, a tract claimed and occupied by an Indian or Eskimo or full or mixed blood, native of Alaska, has been or may be set apart to such Indian or Eskimo, the townsite trus - tee is authorized to is sue him a deed therefore which shall provide that the title conveyed is inalienable except upon approval of the Secretary of the Interior ... 11 (May 25, 1926, (Ch. 3 79, para. 1, 44 Stat. 629) 62

48 U.S. C. 355c: 11 Whenever he shall find non-mineral public lands in Alaska to be claimed and occupied by Indians or Zskimos or full or mixed blood, natives of Alaska, as a town or village, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to have such lands surveyed into lots, blocks, streets, and alleys, and to issue a patent therefor to a trustee who shall convey to the individual Indian or Eskimo the land so claimed and occupied, d 0 s 11 (May 25, 1926, Ch. 379, para. 3, 44 Stat. 630)

The above quoted statutes also provide that an Indian to whom the townsite trustee has conveyed a deed for a tract claimed

( >!~) and occupied by him shall pay no taxes, unless he will petition for, and receive, unrestricted deed. The Act of February 26, 1948 (Ch. 72,

62 Stat. 35; 48 U.S. C. 355e) provided that 11 thereafter all restrictions as to sale, encumbrance, or taxation of said lands shall be re1noved. 11

Members of the Native Village of Minto have been encouraged to avail themselves of the provisions of the Acts of May 17, 1906

(Ch. 2469, 34 Stat. 197) and of August 2, 1956 (Ch. 891, para. l(a)-(d),

70 Stat. 954; U.S. C. Title 48, Sec. 357) under which the Secretary

of the Interior:

11 ••• is authorized and empowered, in his discretion and under such rules as he may prescribe, to allot not to exceed 160 acres of vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved non-mineral land in Alaska, or, subject to the provisions of sections 376 and 377 of this title, vacant unappropriated, and unreserved land in Alaska that may be valuable for coal, oil, or gas deposits, to any Indian, Aleut, or Eskimo or full or mixed blood who resides in and is a native of Alaska, and who is the head of a family, or is 21 years of age; and the land so alloted shall be deemed the homestead of the allottee and his heirs in perpetuity, and shall be inalienable and non-taxable until otherwise provided by Congress ... Any person qualified for an allotment

* = real estate taxes. 63

as aforesaid shall have the preference right to secure by allotment the non-mineral land occupied by him not exceeding 160 acres."

The above quoted acts further provide that:

"No allotment shall be made to any person under sec tions 357-357b of this title until said person has made proof satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior of

for a period of 5 years" 948 U.S. C. 357b).

As of this date, ''the allotment right is limited to a single

entry and may not include incontiguous tracts of public land'! (Federal

Indian Law," op. cit., p. 957). However, according to an article in

the "Tundra Times, 11 January 18, 1965, this particular regulation

is going to be modified within the near future.

The Bureau of Land Management Office in Fairbanks in-

formed us that so far 32 of the members of the native village of Minto

have applied for a native allotment and that 4 of these applications

have been rejected, thus leaving 28 pending.

None of the applicants received to this date a final 11 certi-

ficate of allotment" which may be obtained, according to Sec. 2.212.. 9-2

of the 43 CFR, after "the showing of 5 years 1 use and occupancy ...

at any time after the filing of the application." The required proof

of 5 years use and occupancy could be, among others, the showing

by the applicant that he has put the land involved to use for fishing

or trapping.

Finally, the Federal statute relating to the sale of timber will be of interest to us. 48 U.S. C. 421 prescribes as follows: 64

11 The Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, may cause to be appraised the timber or any part thereof upon public lands in Alaska, and m.ay from time to time sell so much thereof as he may deem proper for not less than the appraised value thereof, in such quantities to each purchaser as he shall prescribe, to be used in Alaska as aforesaid, but not for export. .. 11

Education

Since the B. I. A. Day School in Minto was opened only in

1936 (seep. 43) and before that date few, if any, of the Minto villagers attended elementary school classes elsewhere, we may correctly assume that none of the persons (members of the Native Village of

Minto} born in 1929 or earlier had any formal elementary school education.

Referring to the table on page 27 of this report, we would deduce that 30 men and 28 women of the present living native residents of Minto, are illiterate. However, this is not so. Several persons in the village who had never attended any school can fluently read and write, and there are only a few older people with whom we could n•t converse in English.

Of the 220 members of the Native Village of Minto, included in the above mentioned table, 21 boys and 20 girls (18. 6% of the total population} are at this time six years of age or younger. Twenty boys and 33 girls were born between 1951 and 1958 inclusive, but the Minto

Day School enrollment on October 23, 1964 was only 49. The difference 65 may be accounted for partically by the fact that not all of the families included in the tribal roll actually reside in Minto.

According to the B. I. A. 1 s ''Station Information, 11 "there are 2 classrooms in separate buildings. One classroom is new, built

A one frame hu.ilding houses one class room and quarters .... "

If no deaths occur in the youngest age groups and no inter- nal migration changes the age composition of the Minto population, there will be an estimated 54 children asking for school registration in five years from now.

Secondary education institutions are at the present attended by 14 boys and 12 girls, as follows:

Attending Known to have gradu- School ated in the past M F M F

Chen1awa 3 2 Mt. Edge cum be 7 8 3 Wrangell 2 1 Other 2 1

TOTALS 14 12 3 IV

MINTO: FELT NEEDS, PROBLEMS

A Village Economy In Transition

11 The lack of knowledge that I found true of the Upper Tanana ... has been partly responsible for the failure of the Government to deal with the natives problems. 11 {House Report No, 2503/15

At least 25% of all present cash inflow in Minto consists of the transfer payments of all kinds made to the members of the Native

Village of Minto (see page 48). Permanent full-time employment in the village itself is limited to two: a school janitor, and a native store manager. Regular seasonal employment is meager: the Yutana

Barge Lines, Inc., in Nenana, employs less than half a dozen men from the village. Maintenance of the Alaska Railroad gives occasional work to a few common laborers. All these contractual (wage) employ- ments would leave three -quarters of the Minto families starving, were it not for the Mother Nature gifts. Fish and wild game not only supply the population of Minto with food but also with a limited opportunity for self-employment; if self-employment could properly be called the production, that is, harvesting of fish for sale to the markets; trapping of fur-bearing animals and the sale of their skins; and the home manufacture of various traditional handicrafts and souvenir items.

There is only one private business enterprise in the village: a power plant supplying the village homes with electricity; it is barely operating at the break even point, charging an $8. 00 flat monthly rate 67 to each of the 40 homes served.

A population of 220, one -half of which are children, can barely subsist on such an ecnomic base. Conveniences and luxuries are categories of economic goods unknown to the people of Minto.

There is not even e sh fo life. 11 People born into this world are being kept alive and this is good but this also poses a tremendous problem right now and for the future particularly, 11 said Dr. George W. Rogers, Research Professor of

Economics, at the Socio-Economic Conference in Fairbanks, in

February, 1963.

11 We have a lot of hungry children and it's the future of the

Minto Indians we are thinking of. Trapping, hunting, and fishing, that is the way my people make their livelihood, 11 stated the former

11 11 village chief Richard Frank (see Tundra Times , February 18, 1963, page 6). 11 We use the Minto Flats area for livelihood! 11 he added.

Are the wild game and fish available in sufficient quanti ties in the Minto Flats, to be considered for potential commercial exploitation? How much longer will these natural resources be able to maintain the bare livelihood of the growing population of Minto?

Should trapping and hunting in the Minto Flats area be closed to all but permanent residents? Would the enactment of the legislative pro posal concerning land-ownership (see page 59) help solve the problem of growing need for cash incomes? How would the State of Alaska 68 selection of lands in the Minto Flats if approved by the Secretary of the Interior, affect the life of the people of Minto? To what specific uses could be put other natural resources available in the area, such as the soil and tin1ber?

The Land Problem

It appears that to most Native people of Minto all the problems indicated on the preceding page could be reduced to just this one: the problem of land.

When we started our field investigation in Minto, for the purpose of this report last Fall, we found that the membership of the

Native Village of Minto were divided into two factions: one in favor of the traditional way of living, and the other for a radical change in the economic base of the village economy.

The spokesmen for the first group pointed out the state - ments which the earlier village chief Frank made at a meeting of

11 the Alaska Conservation Society, in 1963 (see "Tundra Times article:

11 Minto Opposes Road, 11 February 18, 1963):

11 I don1 t worry so much about the old people be cause the U.S. Government makes sure they get their monthly check, but the young people; they don't know a trade, the only thing they know is to fish an:

"We don't work year around. Just a very few of the boys work four or five months out of the year and they don't make much, about $600 to $1, 000. As fall 69

comes, they start thinking about that fall fish run and find a way to quit their jobs or get tired, so they come back and get enough fish for the winter. 11

11 In 1938 we didn't know anything about reservations, and we voted against it, but if that is the only way we can get the land, then we would be for it. 11

These people expressed the belief that the only solution to the problem of their survival ( 11 A village is at stake!", op. cit. above} lies in the exclusive land-ownership by the Native Village of Minto of the entire Minto Protest Area: 11 Vlhen you see these people go out for moose,

I don't think 800 square miles is too big an area ... just about the size needed for the animals there 11 (op. cit.)

11 For the people of Minto to continue living off the land, as they do live now, the Federal Government should give us the title to the lands which we actually use for our livelihood, 11 such were the

statements we heard in the beginning, especially from the older people.

Members from the other group agreed wholly with the first ones insofar as the land-ownership is concerned. But, they showed more realism in their viewing of the changes going on in their world.

They admit the precarious basis of life clinging on the diminishing wildlife population; the lakes and streams in the Flats are gradually losing fish, in particular pike and white fish used for feeding dogs, and without dogs there could be no effective trapping; the fur-bearing animals are getting scarcer and scarcer. So, Minto should turn to 70

more profitable activities to produce the cash income needed to back

the increasing demand for imported goods. vVhat activities?

If there are commercial quantities of white spruce and

ready markets for it, let 1 s start a saw mill! Through the sale of lum-

ber, the village would get enough of cash incorne not

quately every member of the community but also to improve their

standard of living, we were told.

But, the spokesmen for this second group also insisted on

their alleged right to ownership of the lands known as the Minto Pro -

test Area. In the first place, they maintained, any change that will

take place in the village will take time to pull with all members of

the community, and some will want to continue living off the land.

However, a title to the land would also help to put into effect the idea

of a lumber industry and other business enterprises in which they

hope to engage in the future; should the title in the lands claimed by

the Native Village of Minto be recognized, the corporation would

benefit in several ways: no stumpage fee would have to be paid to

the government for cutting the timber, and if the Federal Government would thereupon want to approve the State selection, the claim judgment

money would help to finance the business enterprises of such a scale that the people of Minto could forget about hunting and fishing and

trapping as their main economic activities.

Thus, the Native Village of Minto is unanimous in the re -

quest for a settlement of their claims of possessory rights to lands 71 in the Minto Flats area.

Vlfe tend to agree with the following statement made by

Dr. William H. Gilbert (op. cit., see page 57):

"While dealing with resources mention must be made of the developmental problem of these resources. The of the land not ~ it is only through effective use that livelihood and stan dards of living are provided and improved. 11

In coping with the developmental problem of timber resources in the Minto Flats, the Native Village of Minto intends to act as a corporation. However, the corporation is already deep in the red--the

Native store of Minto owes over $20, 000 to the Indian Revolving Fund. vVhere are they to get the money to finance the industrial enterprise?

Unless and until the land problems are solved, there will certainly be no money forthcorning from the private financial institutions which require a pledge of the borrower's property--nobody in

Minto owns any real estate property, neither by a restricted deed nor by an unrestricted deed. The townsite proceedings have never even been started, and even if they were initiated outright it would take years before the survey would be made and the patents issued to individual claimants. In regard to the 3 2 allotment applications, the final certificates have not yet been issued although the applicants claim that they have used the lands involved not only during the five years prior to the filing of their applications but since time immemorial. 72

The idea of a reservation has no longer any partisans in Minto. So,

the nearest solution, in time, in the hopes of the people of Minto, is a

legislative action on the proposal for a settlement of their possessory

rights as recognized by the Organic Act of 1884.

The Problem of Land Resources

We have already touched upon this subject while discussing

the land problem. No abrupt change of the present way of life can be

expected in Minto, even if the corporation (The Native Village of Minto)

succeeds to put a lumber industry into operation. This ineans that the

people of Minto will, for at least a certain time in the future, continue

to depend on the fish and wildlife resources. Vle shall also examine the timber, soil and the area as such as potential resources.

Fish Resources. The people of Minto depend upon fish:

(1) for human consumption

(2) for feeding the working sled dogs; and

(3) for production of cash income,

Since this report is concerned primarily with the economic development potentialities of Minto, that is, with the ways in which

the natural and other resources could be put to use to produce salea ble market products, thus, cash revenue, we attempted to answer the following questions:

a. What species of fish are in the area waters? 73

b. In which strearns and lakes? c. In what quantities per species? d. If in commercial quantities, that is, sufficient to produce a surplus for sale, to what best uses could it be put?

We could not find any ready answers to the above questions; we understand that a rnnnber of studies are being conducted to determine, by counting the fish, the quantities of king salmon, of silver salmon, of dog salmon, etc., migrating up the Tanana and its tributaries to their spawning grounds. Statistics of the past catches are studied to determine the potential catches of the future. But, if salmon studies progressed since the Statehood, how n1uch inore do we know about the white fish, the pike, the steel trout, etc., in the Minto Lakes and streams in the Minto Flats?

Is the present method of drying fish for winter dog feeding the most economical? ·would it not be more profitable to produce dog food consisting of a mixture of whole fish not normally used for human consumption, of fish waste, of wild game waste, and of vegetables and to preserve the product for winter use in cans or in cello- phane wrapped packages stored in refrigerators or a cold storage plant?

Wild game animals. Independently of the question as to whether or not the Minto people will set up a lumber industry, the problem of wild game will remain with them for a foreseeable future .

Wild game means meat for humans and for dogs, means garments made at home, and means cash income from the sale of skins. 74

Would cutting of the timber stands in the Minto Flats vitally affect the wild game population, its numbers, its future growth? A consensus a1nong the local residents and the research people was that logging matched to the physical and human potentials of Minto could not cause any damaging effects upon the wild game population. First, the logging would be made on a selective cutting basis, with the new growth and underbrush little disturbed or not at all. Secondly, the logging operations would move from one location to another, following the same principle as applied by the Minto trappers in regard to beavers (Chief Frank said, 11 In beaver season we try to catch one or two beavers out of each house because if we take more than that we are cutting out our own bank account. 11 Tundra Times, February 18,

1963}. And, the Minto Flats is a big area ... ( 11 \Ve hunt one day here, the next day there, 11 Ibid.}

Of more significance seems to be the question of what would happen to the wild game if the State selection is approved. The people of Minto expressed the fear that the State would then sooner or later open up the Minto Flats as a sportsman recreation area ( 11 VTe don't mind Fairbanks hunters coming down and getting moose. But if a whole bunch of people move in, what will happen to my people?

They will be out and I do mean out. 11 Chief Frank, 11 Tundra Tim.es, 11

February 18, 1963). 75

No, said in essence Mr. Roscoe E. Bell, director of the

State Division of Lands (see "Tundra Times, March 4, 1963, p. 8):

11 ••• The State, for example, could withdraw the whole area and make it into a recreation area. Everyone would have free use of it, but the State could give the Minto people assurance there would be no road put in or no private claims by sportsmen frorn Fairbanks as has been the case under the domain. 11

The people of Minto remain skeptical. Vvhether or not the

Rampart Dam will be built, they say, a road will sooner or later span the existing road network along the Tanana with the Yukon Valley, and the most economical way of getting the finished product of a local lumber industry out to the n1arkets in Fairbanks would be a road from

Dunbar to Minto. So, regardless of an assurance of the kind mentioned, the Minto Flats will become open to the outside world.

Consequently, what really matters might be the question as to what quantity of wild game truly is there and what are the pros - pects in that regard? Dr. Shimkin (op. cit., page 38) wrote on this subject, and what he said could be applied to the Minto Flats as well:

11 The sustained productive capacity of the Fort Yukon trapping area in fur-bearers and food animals is not known. To gain the necessary knowledge not only of game populations, their ecology and their diseases, but also of the optimal trapline operating techniques, I believe that the establishment of and experimental trapping area on a long-term basis is essential. 11 (':~)

(':~) See also: Calvin J. Lenskin's "An Investigation of the Marten in Interior Alaska, 11 University of Alaska, 1953, p. 78 (re: Management of Traplines), and \Vilbur L. Libby's "A Basis for Beaver Management in Alaska" (University of Alaska, }..fay, 1954; pp. 70-71). 76

Waterfowl. On this subject, an excellent study was made by

David C. Hooper (".Waterfowl Investigations at Minto Lakes, Alaska, 11

University of Alaska, 1952). Mr. Hooper concluded his writing with the following statement:

"Minto Lakes is an important nesting ground when compared to other areas in the interior of Alaska. It is important feeding and resting area for thousands of locally produced and migratory waterfowl which pass through the area in the fall. It is expected that Minto Lakes will remain a favorable area to waterfowl be - cause of the periodic fluctuations in water levels and the deposits of silt. 11 (p. 61)

It is believed that any logging operations in the Minto Flats would be less darn.aging to the area waterfowl than are, at the present,

11 the nest hunting human interference" (p. 26). White spruce stands occupy less of the marsh areas where the waterfowl nest and breed than "the well-drained knolls and old, built-up river dikes 11 (p. 9, op. cit.).

Soil . There is an agricultural experiment station at

Fairbanks, east of Minto, and another one has been in operation at

Rampart, northwest of Minto. In both these locations, good successes have been achieved with planting of potatoes and other root crops, such as carrots, radishes, turnips, and rutabagas, of green vegetables, like cabbage, string beans, peas, broccoli, rhubarb, and onions. ( ':~)

('!~) See Fred W. Fickett' s study on farming potentials in the Tanana Valley, op. cit. page 44). 77

In spite of the occasional drought, in the short sumrner, the people of Minto believe the farming would present no special problem insofa:r as the local clirnatic conditions are concerned. The most important problem to overcon1e is of an economic nature. As experi ence has taught elsewhere, sufficient moisture can be secured for the domestic plants growth through proper irrigation and fall plowing

(and the turning over of green manure). But to achieve this, the people would need at least a few essential farrn implements (machinery and tools) and vocational training in soil cultivation, seeding, supervision of plant growth, harvesting, and food preservation.

In view of the relative vicinity of Fairbanks (1/2 hour by bush plane, at a cost of $20 for a round-trip) and the availability of technical experts in this city, Minto would be an ideal site for a vo - cation.al farming training camp. The population of Fairbanks consumes tons of imported produce and would be a ready market for Minto farm products. The Native villages along the Yukon and its tributaries, which are experiencing econornic problems of a similar nature as Minto, could benefit from the Minto experiment.

Timber. It has been stated already in this report that com mercial quantities of white spruce exist in the river lands along the

Tanana River, in the immediate vicinity of Minto. A map prepared by the State Area Forester 1 s Office in Fairbanks, and several on-the-spot surveys made by Dr. Frank Kearns, an expert in forest economics, 78 and a number of local lumber producers, conclusively show vast stands of tall and at least 10 11 D. B. H. white spruce trees within a radius of 5 miles from the village.

Two miles east southeast from Minto, on the relatively high grounds over which winds the winter sled road, begin patches of such stands covering a total of 253 acres ending at a distance of 5 miles from Minto, south of the Big Lake. South of the Twenty-four Mile

Slough, and again within a distance of 5 m.iles from Into, on the right bank of the Tanana, are three patches of fine, tall stands covering a total of 335 acres. Right across from Minto, on the left bank of the

Tanana, on a island between the said river and the Sawmill Slough are 495 acres 0£ white spruce saw timber. This means that l, 083 acres of ready-to-cut white spruce lie almost within walking distance from the village. This acreage does not include several big patches of white spruce which are designated on the map mentioned above as

11 white spruce pole timber 5 11 to 10 11 D. B. H. 11 areas but where a sus - tained production of lumber could be made on a selective cutting basis; we shall list just a few of the vast areas.

On the Sawmill Island, in a rectangle 2 miles south and

3 miles east from Minto, lies al, 820 acreage. On, and between the

Crescent Island (5 miles west from the Village) and Minto are 2, 560 acres of pole tirnber stands. .At a distance of 5 rniles from Minto, south of the village, on the left bank of the Tanana, there is a vast complex of 2, 290 acres. 79

All these enumerated area are, according to a State Area

Forester 1 s report (1 1 Minto Forestry Survey"), "well-drained, high sited, but subjected to periodic flooding. 11

On the basis of an estimated 5, 000 board feet per acre,

5, 415, 000 of white spruce saw timber, and 12, 800, 000 board feet of white spruce pole timber, a total of at least 18, 215, 000 board feet of merchantable spruce ready to be cut, lie within a one hour dog sled ride fro:h.1 the village, however 11 subjected to periodic flooding. 11

How serious a menace to a projected sawmill industry in

Minto could such periodic flooding become? This question poses a problem which must not be lightly dismissed on account of the danger to both life and property.

According to an economic analysis prepared by the Golden

Valley Electric Association, Inc., Fairbanks, in 1958 (in "Economic

Analysis of Fairbanks and Contiguous Area", January, 1959), there is a "Paucity of hydrologic data in the Study Area." The following paragraphs will relate the data contained in the said writing.

The Tanana River drops from an elevation of 440 feet at

Fairbanks to an elevation of 320 feet at Minto, and "to around 200 feet at the confluence of the Tanana and Yukon. 11 In periods of high flows, it transports sediments ranging from glacial flour to gravel and boulders.

High flows occur during summer months, from parts of May through

September. Minimum flows take place during the winter months fro1n 80

November through April. Then, the river is covered with ice ranging from 3 to 6 feet thick. Flows decrease to their lowest in March or

April. Thereafter, due to rising tern.peratures, snow thaw and rain- fall run-off begins and raises the time when the snow-melt water re- leases fill the river beds. The peak flows occur usually in July and

August. A table made by the U. S. Corps of Engineers tells us that from November to the end of April, the Tanana River at Nenana flows at 25% of its average annual capacity, this means no flooding at Minto between November and May. By the middle of June, the average annual flow reaches 225%, and toward the second part of July, its peak of 2 75%.

It decreases then rapidly, dropping to 175% by the end of August, and returns to its normal annual average toward the end of September.

Consequently, if any flooding would occur, it will probably take place between mid-June and the end of August.

It seems that the problem of flooding could be easily over - come if the logging is made between September and the beginning of

June, and if the logs are then removed before any danger of flooding occurs, that is, before the mid-June, to a selected hir;h-site location known locally never to have been flooded.

The geographical area as an outdoor recreation storehouse.

Dr. Vveeden states in his report quoted earlier, as follows:

"The marsh itself is a vast resource, offerinr:; free of charge a storehouse of outdoor recreation oppor - tunity. Alaskans and visitors in ever-increasing num- 81

bers will want to take advantage of the quiet waters, scenery, plants and animals available in the Minto Flats. 11

While we agree with the above quoted author in his expressed wish that Alaska may sell some day its "quiet waters, scenery" etc.,

left to the permanent residents of the Minto Flats to assure the maintenance of their bare livelihood until (a) they are helped to set up

businesses that will carry them from the present hunting and nature's fruits gathering economy into a higher level economy; and (b) until the biologists determine whether there are enough wildlife and fish

in the Flats to provide for a surplus over and above the needs of the

local Natives.

Besides, what good is the most beautiful scenery if there

is not a single overnight accom.modating facility or even a snack bar?

Furthermore, it is useless to talk about the Minto Flats as an out-

door recreation area before there is a highway from Fairbanks to

Minto.

The Proposed Lumber Industry

We shall briefly evaluate the following major industrial

location factors and list the problems encountered:

1. Location of merchantable spruce 2. Availability of local labor 3. Sawmill site 4. Power supply 82

5. Transportation facilities 6. Markets 7. Distribution facilities 8. Laws and regulations 9. Organization 10. Financing

1. Location of me

In the river lands, within a 5 mile radius of Minto, there is a sufficient quantity of white spruce saw timber to sustain a ten year production at an annual rate of 1, 000, 000 board feet of lumber, based on 200 operating days.

After that, the ope ration could be moved to a location at the foothills of the Tanana Hills, east of the big Minto Lake, where there will be probably by that time a highway built to connect Nenana with Rampart, and where there are ascertained patches of white spruce saw timber covering about 3, 855 acres. This means about

19 1/4 million board feet of lumber, on the basis of estimates described on page 78. This area is 12 miles east from Minto, within the Minto

Protest Area, and is subjected to no flooding whatsoever.

2. Availability of local labor

In order to produce 1, 000, 000 bf of lumber per year, the labor force required for logging operations would have to amount to

6 men, each man producing 100 bf per hour, which is 800 bf per day, and 160, 000 bf per year, consisting of 200 operating days. A crew of 83 six men could easily divide among themselves the tasks, including all operations from falling the trees to piling of the clean logs at the saw mill site.

There are at least 20 men among the permanent residents

ically fit to do logging and who ex pressed their willingness to actively participate in the venture as loggers.

Arn.ong these rn.en, sufficient number of loggers could be trained to work continuously on a sustained production basis. If some of them should want or need to go hunting, trapping or fishing, other men could replace them during their absence fron• the work.

To keep up with the logging operation, the sawmill would not need to be in production on the same amount of days; with adequate equipment, 10, 000 board feet of spruce could be cut in a working day, which means that 100 operating days yearly could take care of the pro jected ope ration.

It is estimated that 5 to 6 men could take complete charge of the sawmill operation: a head-sawyer, a tail-sawyer (edgerman), a drag-saw man, a kant-turner, and a lumber piler.

Nobody in the village has at this time any experience in either logging or sawmill operation. On-the -job training would be indispensable. 84

3. Sawmill site

A portable sawmill would be preferrable to a permanent plant installation, for the following reasons:

a. to avoid any interference with the sawmill operation

if there would be periodic flooding

b. to avoid the necessity of long hauling of

logs from the logging sites to the plant site

c. to facilitate a selective cutting of trees.

However, even the plant locations for such a type of installation will have to be wisely determined, before any logging starts.

4. Power supply

We have examined two sawmill installations in the Fairbanks area which correspond pretty closely to the specifications of the pro posed sawmill in Minto. The two are portable. One utilizes a 471 GM unit, 100 HP, to power the whole mill; the other has two units: one, an Allis_Chambers gas engine, 2.8 HP, to power the drag saw, and a

Caterpillar diesel engine, 150 HP, to power all the remaining installa tions. Both lumber producers agreed that 10 to 12. gallons of diesel fuel per ope rating day of 8 to 10 hours would be all the fuel required.

5. Transportation facilities.

A. Transportation of logs from the logging site to the plant location.

Two alternative solutions were considered. In the first alternative, a main skidding trail would be made from the logging 85

site to the mill, and the logs would be winched from where they had

been fallen to the trail, and from there on carried on the forks or

pulled to the mill. In the second alternative, a srnall tractor would

bring the logs to the trail and the remaining operation would be as des

cribed heretofore.

If the first proposed solution were adopted, a smaller capi

tal investment would be required: A D-4 or D-6 Cat, plus the extra

equipment (forks, winch-lines, etc.). And instead of have two cat

drivers employed, one D-4 or D-6 driver and one or rn.ore choker

setters would do the job.

If this solution were selected, maybe a larger fixed capi

tal outlay could be made to purchase a more powerful and better

equipped tractor which could then be used not only for making the

trails but also to plow ditches and turn over the green manure should

the people of Minto decide to go into a farming business.

B. Transportation of finished lumber product.

Since there are no roads out of Minto, the lumber would

have to be brought to the lumber yards in Fairbanks or to potential

buyers downstream along the Tanana and Yukon, by barges. This

would require the service of a loader and possibly of a truck.

Barges could either bring the lun1ber to Nenana where it would be transferred to the railroad, or they would better haul it

straight to Fairbanks, Detail cost estimates will have to take into 86 account either of these two possibilities, and this will also entail the choice between the services of either the Yutana Barge Lines, Inc., or the Inland Riverways, Inc. The former operates out of Nenana, and the latter out of Fairbanks, Both are willing to consider putting

ge them e1npty to their home base; a stopover at Minto of a few hours, enough time to load the barge, or leaving the barge there for several days, to have it loaded and then take it on the next trip upstream, these are the two solutions available. Availability of loading equipment and of men to do the job will decide the choice. It seems apparent that if feasible, technically, the first solution would be less expen sive: lumber could be shipped to Fairbanks directly and more fre quently and the cost of the stopover may be less than the costs of having a barge put out of work for an extended period of time and of all the costs involved in unloading the lumber from the barge at

Nenana, hauling it to the railroad station, and then loaded on the railroad cars.

A loader would find a general use in the village. It could be used for logging, for loading of the finished lumber on the barge, for bringing the lumber into the village, for home construction, and also in farming if initiated.

6. Markets for white spruce lumber

A study made by Dr. Richard A. Cooley ("Fairbanks, Alaska 87

A Survey of Progress'' published by Alaska Development Board, Juneau,

July, 1954) states, on page 53:

"Vlhite spruce has a fine, moderately uneven texture, can be machined and worked easily. The wood is moder ately light, easy to kiln dry, low in nail holding ability and is relatively free from decay. It has long been it northeastern United States and eastern Canana. It has contributed to the economic development of Interior Alaska to date and will continue to do so in the future. The chief Alaska uses include rough con struction lurnber, house or cabin logs, fuelwood, mine props, lagging, piling and poles. Select, seasoned spruce provides good inside finish lumber with either clear or painted finish ... 11

In the same study, the housing needs of Fairbanks are discussed:

11 Co1npletely unprepared for the influx of new people, Fairbanks was staggered with the sudden problem of providing housing- -any kind of housing- -for the hun dreds of new families who carne to the interior. Construction has gone ahead rapidly in the last few years, but the needs have not been met and there continues to be an urgent den1and for the replacement of substandard housing. 11 (Page 35)

Even with all housing units constructed in Fairbanks since

1954, the demand for housing continues to exist.

"How many additional housing and rental units will be required to solve the Greater Fairbanks housing prob lem? There is still a tremendous backlog of housing needed for the hundreds of people who are now living in substandard quarters. 11 (Page 36)

Mr. Elmer E. Gagnon, who had been working with the

Urban Renewal Project in Fairbanks for several years and was later 88

Redevelopment Supervisor of the Alaska State Housing Authority, stated at a Housing and Development Conference, in Fairbanks, five years ago, that the experts in economic development who had gathered information on Fairbanks predicted a normal growth of Fairbanks between 6 and 8%

13, 311, but with

Graehl-Hamilton Acres-Derby Project; Island Homes, Lemeta-Johnson;

Aurora; College -Totem Park, the population was 19, 407. If Mr. Gagnon was correctly estimating the growth rate, the Greater Fairbanks has at this time at least 25, 000 people, not including Fort \Vainwright,

Eielson Air Force Base, North Pole, and son1e smaller settlements in the outskirts of the City.

In the words of Mr. Gagnon, there were some 4, 200 living units in Fairbanks in 1960, to accommodate the Study Area population of 31, 643. At this rate, there would have been 3, 333 living units in the above described area for which we gave the figure of 25, 000 as its present population (to eliminate from our estimate as much as possible the military personnel and their dependents}. Thus, regard less of the military housing needs and growth, the population of the said area will be about 31, 000 requiring some 4, 200 housing (i.e. living} units.

In addition, the Centennial of Alaska celebration in Fair- banks in 1967 will require some extra housing construction. 89

But like Minto itself, all of the Athapascan Indian and

Eskimo villages down the Tanana and Yukon badly need new housing, both to take care of the large annual increases in population and to stimulate economic development by substituting the present substandard homes with s app

"acculturation'' of the Alaskan Native people is being sought. Thus, ample markets for the Minto lumber would be right in the villages along the rivers mentioned (see our report on the Kuskokwin-Lower Yukon area, submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1964).

To match the expected future demand for lumber with adequate supplies of the same, several persons in Fairbanks are in the process of developing plans that would rn.ake possible a more ample use of the locally-available white spruce. Due to the low moisture content of the latter, and because of the relatively dry climate pre - vailing in the area, dry kiln process is really not indispensable to make the white spruce lumber fit for construction uses as described on the preceding page; such was the statement made by one of the lumber producers -distributors in Fairbanks whom we interviewed on this subject. 90

But, one further process beyond sawmilling is unavoidable if the white spruce lumber is to be used more extensively in the local housing construction--the planing. This is what the local businessmen are at present working on. For an economical planing operation,

quired. To insure its supply, Minto is assured of having a ready mar ket waiting for their lumbe.r output.

7. Distribution facilities

Since the establishment of a planer dry kiln operation in

Fairbanks is a 11 conditio sine qua non" for a boost to the housing construction industry in this area, by procuring it with good, less ex pensive lumber than the irn.ported one, and since for this reason seri ous efforts are being made by certain Fairbanks businessmen to bring such operation into life, there is no problem of distribution facilities for the Minto' s finished product. The river barges will deliver all of the Minto's output right into the backyard of the planer dry kiln plant in Fairbanks, and the owners of the latter will take upon themselves the function of distribution to the wholesalers, retail establishments, and private or other users of the planed, dry kilned lumber.

Just as the operation of a planer dry kiln establishment de pends upon a secure, sustained supply of green lumber, so does the proposed Minto enterprise depend on a secure taker of its output. The

Minto enterprise could request a firm commitment to this effect from 91 one of the planer dry kiln businesses which are being promoted at this time in Fairbanks.

8. Laws and regulations

Of laws and regulations that would have to be considered in

the onduct of business by the federal corporations chartered under the Indian Reorganization Act, as amended, are the most important. They will be discussecl- further in the subse- quent section. Let us say at this point that it will be shown there why the Minto lumber enterprise should be owned, in our opinion, by a cooperative corporation rather than directly by the Native Village of

Minto.

A. State taxes

The "Federal Indian Law, 11 a commentary on the legal provisions relative to the Indians of America prepared by the Office of the

Solicitor, U. S. Department of the Interior, and published by the

U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1958, states on page 864:

''Wherever personal property is acquired by or for tribal Indians for use on Indian reservation lands in connection or in furtherance of the policy adopted by the Government in encouraging the Indians to cultivate the soil and to establish perrnanent homes and families, or otherwise aid in their economic rehabilitation, such property may not be taxed by the State. 11 ... The reason behind this doctrine of immunity is that the State has no powers, by taxation, or otherwise, to retard, impede, or control the operations or instrumentalities en1ployed by the Federal Govern ment in carrying into execution the powers law- fully vested in it. 11 92

In the same publication, we find reproduced the following opinion of the Solicitor of the Interior Department (57 I. D. 124, 127). page 865:

11 ••• The purchase of property by the Indians themselves in accordance with an economic plan worked out with the Governrnent is supplanting, as a rnethod of a su ~ ing the possession by Indians of productive property, the old method of the Government's issuing such prop erty to the Indians. From a legal point of view the purpose and concern of the Government are identical whether the plow or the cattle are bought by the Indian with individual Indian moneys ... or bought by the Indians with Revolving Fund loan funds... The important factor is the acquisition and use of the property in execution of a government plan for the Indians. 11

"Federal Indian Law 11 {op. cit. p. 866) further states:

"On the other hand, personalty issued to an Indian by the Federal Government and used by him outside the reservation is taxable by the State. 11

By application of the Solicitor's conclusions quoted above re the mode of acquisition of personal property by Indians, it makes no difference whether such property has been issued to an Indian by the Federal Government or an Indian bought it with individual Indian moneys or otherwise; if he does not live on a reservation, such property

11 is taxable by the State. 11

Consequently, a sawmill and other equipment purchased by the Indians of Minto for use by a lumber producing enterprise would be taxable by the State, since there is no reservation. 93

To this date, the North Star Borough within the boundary of which Minto is located, has prescribed no personal property tax.

On the other hand, Indians are subject to other State taxes just as any other citizen is.

Specifically, a lumber industry enterprise, if such would become created in Minto, would have to pay the initial license fee of

$25. 00 as a condition of doing business (43 Alaska Statutes Ch. 70,

Sec. 43. 70. 010 (9) (c); but it would not have to pay any tax on gross receipts, since gross receipts of such an enterprise could be derived only "from the sale of his product n1anufactured or processed in the

State" (Sec. 43. 70. 010 (7). It would also be liable under the Alaska

Net Income Tax Act.

No other taxes would burden a business firm as such.(~!<)

B. Federal taxes

General income tax laws apply. See "Federal Indian Law"

(op. cit. page 882).

Minto business would also be liable under the general

Social Security legal provisions and other laws enacted for the protec - tion of workers 1 life and health.

(~~) Individual persons deriving a gain from a business as proposed in Minto, in the form of wazes, participation in the net profits, or similarly, would be of course bound to pay a school tax of $10 a year, if 19 years of age or older (see Alaska Statutes, Sec. 43. 45. 010). They would also be subject to the State Income Tax under the Alaska Net Income Act {see Alaska Statutes, Sec. 43. 20. 050). 94

9. Organization

If the proposed 1\1into lumber enterprise were to be owned by the Native Village of Minto (as defined on page 19) this would result in the following implications:

The corporation has at this time an outstanding debt obliga tion of $25, 000 owed to the Indian Revolving Fund. An existing in debtedness of such extent would make it hard to obtain any additional

loan grant, since the business does not own any property except the

current assets, chiefly its inventory, and two buildings of insignifi-·

cant market value.

B. Sharing in the net profits

Article V, Section 3, of the Village Constitution provides

that "Members of the Village shall have equal chance to share in the

benefits of the Village." This constitutional provision does not stipu

late, of course, that every mernber of the Village shall have an equal

share in the net profits of any business enterprise owned and operated

by the Village, but rather 11 an equal chance 11 in sharing in the same.

If the foregoing stipulation is interpreted to mean that each

member of the Village will have an equal right to apply for employ-

inent with a business as described above, it seems to be clear that

the sharing in any net profits realized by said business would be

limited to those directly employed, either as loggers, as sawmill 95 operators, or otherwise. It would appear that the Village should pass an ordinance clarifying this point, if it is decided that the business be owned directly by the existing corporation.

C. Renumeration of the direct labor contribution

If the osed enterprise is to be owned by the existing corporation, that is, by the Native Village of Minto, then this corpora tion would be liable to pay wages to those mernbers, and non-members of the Village, who will be employed in the operation of the lumber enterprise. But, could its assets and liabilities be legally separate from its other assets and obligations? In other words, would the corpora tion be free to pay any wages out of the net sales proceeds, from the sale of lumber, before honoring its debt obligation to the Indian

Revolving Fund? Presumably yes, since at present the Native Village

Store manager 1 s wages are currently and regularly paid out of the gross receipts of the store, before the amount of the net profits is arrived at. But, this point seems to require an authoritative decision by the Bureau of Indian Affairs branch exercising the supervision over the store 1 s business operation.

The next point to consider is the business firms liability for Federal and State income taxes. Supposing that the operating costs of the firm, including its direct labor expenditures, will be kept at a minimum to ensure the realization of a net incon1e after taxes, the following questions Inight arise: 96

a. V!ill any attempt in economizing with the wages

payable to workers, undertaken for the purpose of

making a final net income for the owners, stimulate

the workers 1 incentive to produce efficiently and to

strive to create a high quality product?

b. Will the workers who will have consented to work

for relatively low wages - -rather than the top wages

paid in the industry--with the sole aim of making the

business a profitable venture, feel happy seeing their

net operating income reduced by an extra amount of

business incorne tax?

vVe are again referring to the "Federal Indian Law 11 (op. cit. on page 91) which, in commenting upon the Interior Departments

11 lnstructions on Organization in Alaska" (see page 21) states:

11 In the case of such organizations, cooperative and democratic features in the method of organization are encouraged and as wide a base among the natives is sought as is possible in the circumstances of the case. 11 (op. cit. , page 962.)

The Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, when testifying before the House Con1mittee on Interior and Insular

Affairs, classified the Indian groups into the following categories, depending on their 11 degree of acculturation" and certain other factors: 97

l. Acculturation 11 includes such factors as the adrnix ture of white blood, the percentage of illiteracy, the business ability of the tribe, their acceptance of white institutions ... "

2. 11 The second factor is the economic condition of the tribe, principally the availability of resources to enable either the tribe or the individuals, out of their tribal resources or individual assets, to r.oake a reasonable decent living. 11

3. ''The third factor is the willingness of the tribe and its members to dispense with Federal aid. 11

4. "The last criterion is the willingness and ability of the State in which the tribe is located to assmne the responsibilities. 11 (House Report No. 2503, p. 163).

But, just as the individual Indian groups differ from each other, so the mer.obers within a given group differ from each other, and the same criteria as above listed can be applied for such differentia- tion. Can then each individual member of a Native com1nunity be expected to take upon himself, for his own sake and for the benefit of the whole group, an equal amount of responsibilities in a business enterprise initiated in the community--this regardless of his physical abilities? Will those who accepted to work- -while others in the same community who preferred to continue to live their traditional way of life without being harnessed in the strict regulation of their working hours and personal efficiency on the job, remained on the side--want to exert themselves to the best of their ability even if the benefits accru- ing from their toil are then distributed among all members of the community equally? 98

For all the above reasons, a serious consideration might be given to a proposal voiced by some members of the Native Village of Minto, that the proposed lumber enterprise in Minto be owned not by the existing IRA Federal Corporation, but rather by those members of the Village only, who stand ready to and actually do, agree to contribute their labor to the enterprise. Such direct contribution could consist either in logging, sawmilling, transportation of logs or of the finished product, loading, office work, management, or related work, such as clearing the skid trails, preparing the barge docking facilities, etc.

Payment for the contribution of labor would be in such case apportioned directly in relation to the amount of the specific output or of the work done. For instance, the loggers would receive their proportionate share in the proceeds from the sale of lumber on the basis of the amount of logs made ready for being skidded to the sawmill site; the sawmill operators contribution will be rewarded on the basis of the board feet of lumber produced, etc.

Since the Village corporation's assets could not be pledged against a loan to cover the aggregate cost of the installation (there aren't any; see page 94) and the debt service would burden entirely and solely the enterprise itself, which alone would be economically able to assume this responsibility, it seems only just that the net proceeds from the operation of the enterprise should belong in entirety to those who directly assured its commercial success. 99

This would not mean that the existing Village corporation, that is, the "Native Village of Minto, 11 would have to be excluded from sharing in the benefits of the enterprise. Under the prevailing statute, it could be made a member of the business organization which will own and operate the lumber business, and the Articles of the business organi zation could clearly spell out its share in the net profits, which would then be used as the I. R. A. Corporation decides to use them.

The most appropriate form of business organization for the proposed lumber producing enterprise in Minto would thus appear to be the one provided for in the 11 Alaska Cooperative Corporation Act11

(see Statutes of Alaska, Title 10, Chapter 15, Sections 10. 15. 005 and following).

Sec. 10. 15. 335 of this Act stipulates that:

11 Three or more natural persons at least 19 years of age may act as incorporators of a cooperative by signing, verifying and delivering articles for the coopera tive in duplicate to the Commissioner of Commerce. 11

Sec. 10. 15. 020 of the Act regulates the membership in the cooperative:

11 Membership in a cooperative is conditioned on owner ship of a share of membership stock or payment of a men:ibership fee... However, the bylaws of a coopera tive may authorize membership conditioned upon pay ment of part of the membership fee or payment for part of the membership stock subscribed for and compliance with an agreement to pay the balance. 11 100

Sec. 10. 15. 050 prescribes that:

11 The Articles may require that members own one or more shares of men1bership stock, and may provide limitations on the issuance and transferability of the stock. 11

In order to defray the cost of living of those members of the cooperative who will contribute their own labor and time to the operation of the lumber enterprise, the cooperative 1 s bylaws may provide that these members be paid at stated periodical dates--for instance, at the end of each week--an advance on the net proceeds of the cooperative. The bylaws would then prescribe when the members would be entitled to receive the balance of their share. The above quoted Act, in its Sec. 10. 15. 275, provides that:

11 ••• net proceeds or savings on patronai:se of the cooperative by its members shall be apportioned and distributed arnong these inembers in accor dance with the ratio which each member's patronage during the period involved bears to total patronage by all members during that period."

Advice and assistance of a legal expert will be required to help the Native Village of Minto set up the cooperative and prepare its articles and bylaws. 101 1 O. Financing of the proposed lumber enterprise in Minto

The resources of the Native Village of Minto and of its individual members have been fully described in this report. It .appears that it will be impossible for the Village itself, or for its members individually, to raise anything more than a limited amount of the capital

stock uncle & l l

045).

Consequently, the proposed enterprise faces a serious problem of securing the required financing not only for the purchase of the necessary equipment and other materials but also for the initial operating expenditures.

If the provisions of the Sec. 303, of the Economic Opportunity

Act of 1964 (78 Stat. 508) are liberally interpreted, it appears that financing could be made available to the Minto cooperative association by the Farmers Home Administration, which will process loan applications under Title III of the said Act. Such interpretation would be facilitated by limiting the production to essential processing of timber, that is, sawing of the raw lumber.

Financial assistance under the Sec. 402, of the heretofore mentioned act, would be insufficient to cover the estimated aggregate cost of initial installation of the proposed business (projected to exceed

$30, 000) because it is limited to $25~ 000 "to a single borrower. 11

Thus~ other possible avenues that seem to be open to assist the Native Village of Minto in getting into a lumber business are a loan under the Sec, Z05ss of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 .. 102 providing for financial assistance for conduct and administration of community action programs, or an SBA development loan under Section

502 of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958.

Local bankers in Fairbanks expressed their willingness to

which \vould be found acceptable by the Small Business Administration.

A portion of the operating cost might become covered in the following way: if the Minto I. R. A. Corporation were able to secure financing, amounting to $5, 000 for the purchase of a lathe machine for the manufacture of round house logs, they could produce for sale to the local Fairbanks markets within a short time, a sufficient quan tity of white spruce round logs, for which there is a great demand in

Greater Fairbanks. Such operation could start right away, since it

requires but little training, whereas the natural resources and labor

required are there ready to be used.

It will be a technical matter to decide, once the financing arrangements go under way, as to whether the Fairbanks Economic

Development Corporation or the I. R. A. Corporation known as "The

Native Village of Minto'' should serve as the local development company

required under Section 502 of the SBIA of 1958. (See Small Business

Administration's brochure entitled 11 Loands to State and Local Develop ment Companies, 11 Washington, May 1963). v

MINTO'S COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM

The Native Village of Minta's action program was developed and submitted by the membership of the Village at their meeting on

October 23, 1964, and is intended to gradually mobilize all available physical and human resources of Minto to provide services and other activities of sufficient scope and size to give promise of progress toward elimination of poverty and of the causes of poverty of the people of Minto.

The program is taking into account the present and future needs and desires of the Native residents of Minto. The order of priorities has been established in the light of the villagers ability and willingness to produce the revenue with which to provide the facilities and services desired.

1. Manufacture of house round logs

This is the only project of the program that hinges on the availability of outside funds to purchase the required equipment, and thus is made dependent directly upon outside help.

The following three considerations decided the people of

Minto to include it into their community action program and to give it the top priority:

A. Need for cash to cover the operating expenses of

the proposed lumber industry, in particular the 104

advances on the cooperatives patrons shares in the

receipts from the sale of lumber, to enable the

latter to devote their full time and effort to the

proposed enterprise.

B. Ascertained availability of commercial quantities

of merchantable white spruce timber within a radius

of 12 miles around Minto, and of the sufficient

number of physically able bodied and willing men

who expressed their readiness to engage on a sus

tained production basis in logging, sawmilling

and auxillary operations.

C. The desire to clearly put into evidence their

claim to the lands which they affirm having used

and occupied in a manner consistent with their tra-

ditional way of living.

The timber which would be utilized for the production of round house logs stands in the higher ground sites located 12 air miles east from l\1into, on the western most slopes of the rolling

Tanana Hills, along the trail leading from the Little Goldstream to

Dunbar. This land is within the so-called "Minto Protest Area"

(see page 19).

The markets for round house logs of sufficient scope and size to sustain the Minto operation exist in Fairbanks. They are sought 105 by those small businessmen and permanent families in the area who are determined to put up their buildings with their own hands, if necessary, and yet provide for a construction that is at the same time pleasant to the eye, useful and economical insofar as living space, heating, and maintenance are concerned, and also within the financial means of a small man. The finished product is a perfectly round log, between 7 11 and 9 11 in diameter, up to 12 feet long, with horizontal groove to prevent check ing during the process of drying, and with vertical holes for wooden pegs that will hold them together. The log can easily be fine polished with a sander, and covered with a wood preservative or varnish giving it a nice yellowish-brown color. Such logs are at present sold in Fairbanks at 70~ a linear foot. A man alone can put up the rough structure of the size not smaller than the majority of the present Minto homes in three days work.

The finsihed product could be transported without too much difficulty from the plant site to Dunbar, and the re loaded on the rail cars for shipment to Fairbanks. It is expected that there will be a size - able demand for such logs also in the villages along the Yukon and its tributaries, especially if they will be priced right, such demand could be met by shipping the finished product to Nenana, where it would be loaded on barges.

A Californian firm which is specializing in selling lathe machines discarded by the metalworking factories, yet perfectly suited 106

for wood manufacturing, sells them at $5, 000 f. a. s. Nenana. Extra

equipment re,1uired would include a 7. 5 kw generator and a 11 chipper11

manufactured by a metalworking shop in Palmer, Alaska, and selling

at $500 each. Thus, an investment of $6, 000 would put the Minto people

into the business. They would cover the stumpage fee out of their dis

posable personal income.

Such a lathe machine is normally producing 5 logs in an hour,

however, its capacity could be increased by mechanical improvement

of its method of operation. Even at its present capacity, 50 twelve foot

logs could be produced in a 10 hour day during the summer months

abundant vvith light and sunshine (up to 22 hours of sunshine). In a six

day operating week, an output of 300 logs would be made ready for

sale, representing gross receipts of $2, 100 based on the current price

for such logs in the Fairbanks area.

2. Lumber industry

The sawmill feasibility report indicates that a net income of $4, 000 annually should be realized from a village sawmill over and above the advances which will be paid periodically to the workers to enable them to keep up with their current living expenses.

If it is decided that ''The Native Village of Minto" will be used as the vehicle under the Section 502 SBA loan provisions, this corporations share in the proposed co-op will have to be limited to 25% 107 participation. However, when the individual members of the Village are assured of a sustained cash incorne, the Village's share will con stitute just the basic part of the investment capital for other business undertakings; the mernbers of the community will be economically able to participate and raise that basic part to the required level.

3. Electricity power plant

The 40 existing hornes in Minto are at present sustaining the electricity production in the village by paying a flat $8. 00 per month to the private plant owner. Thus, the community's yearly expenditure for electricity is estimated at $3, 840. Yet, the 7. 5 kw generator now used cannot produce all the electricity required, not even for the regular household needs, the less for operating electric appliances that are normal furnishings of American standard homes like refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleanrers, TV sets, etc. It is out of the question that the present plant could supply the necessary power for any machine equipped shop like a cabinet making or sled or boat manufacturing enterprise.

At the present rate of net population increases, at least two homes will have to be added yearly to the present Minto housing. The possibility of relocation of the villagers from the Yukon Flats area in

1V1into, if the Rampart Dam. construction is decided upon, is not even taken into consideration, but it still is there. 108

A Caterpillar D320 Diesel Electric set can be had at the present for $6, 800 £. o. b. Fairbanks. Add a switch gear, priced at $700, a 2400 volts transformer would cost $2, 000, and about the same would be the cost of 4 5, 000 circuit feet of wire (together with insulators).

Some 2,5 wooden poles or so, could be produced at no cost by the vil lagers themselves. Thus, for $12, 500, the village would be in the busi ness of producing an adequate quantity of power to make the life more pleasant and enjoyable, and to ensure the economic feasibility of other enterprises depending on a reliable supply of electricity, like cold storage and quick-free zinr:; plant.

The Village is confident that this project will be a reality before long, especially if the B. I. A. Day School becomes a community power plant custorn~er.

4. Farming enterprise

The Village plans to get into the farming business not only to secure a less expensive supply of food for humans and the working dogs, but also to produce root crops and green vegetables for sale to the Fairbanks markets. 109

5. ('uick-freeze and cold-storage

Depending on whether the studies now being conducted will determine commercial quantities of fish in the streams and lakes of the area, a fish meat canning enterprise is contemplated for Minto. In rush

wildlife re could not be done; it "Vvould interfere with the basic procurement activity.

6. Dog food manufacture

The previous two enterprises would render it possible to undertake in Minto an enterprise, similar to that which successfully passed its experimental stage in the Canadian northwestern Eskimo country, that would substitute the expensive imported dog food and ease the strain upon the fish catches of local fishern1en. Its product would find customers whenever there are working sled dogs in the Interior

Alaska, and they will be there for a long time to come, at the present rate of highway building in this section of the country.

7. Home Cottage industries

Fur garments and wood products, like sleds, boatx, home furnishings, cannot be economically, efficiently produced unless assistance is given the man by rnachine. More than production prob lems are involved: design to suit the tastes of the markets, learned techniques to avoid waste in time and materials, knowledge of market ing. Studies will be also required to determine the future population potentials of wild game (fur-bearing animals, in particular}. But, with 110 the rising standard of living in the village, all these problems are hoped to be overcome in time.

8. Tourist catering businesses

A tourist lodge, with restaurant, to accommodate v1s1- tors to Minto is the first on the list.

Minto is only 45 air miles out of Fairbanks, in the middle of a beautiful sportsman's paradise (see Dr. Vleeden report cit. page ). It offers many opportunities to be developed as a tourist center. Many visitors already come to Minto without a place to stay overnight or to order a lunch.

9. Other plans

As soon as the Village gains a sufficient economic base to finance on its own the village government, it plans to apply for incorporation under the Alaska Village incorporation statute of 1959.

However, the people do not intend to wait until then to improve their housing, by using their own produced lumber, and to build better streets and sidewalks in the village.