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“HONORING WILLIE HENSLEY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S441-S442 on Jan. 29, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HONORING WILLIE HENSLEY
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to join in a colloquy with fellow Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to honor a giant of the Alaska Native rights and Native corporation movement, and an individual who has served his State and Nation for decades with great distinction, Mr. Willie ``Iggiagruk'' Hensley.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I too rise to join Senator Murkowski in honoring a personal friend and long-time political colleague, Willie Hensley. He soon will be retiring after spending the last 10 years representing the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in Washington, DC, the pipeline that brings Alaska's North Slope oil to the rest of the Nation. Immediately prior to that job, he was Alaska's Commissioner of Commerce and Economic Development, under the administration of former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles. He also has served on important State commissions under both Democratic and Republican governors.
Besides leading Alaska's State department responsible for tourism and seafood marketing, international trade, insurance, banking and securities, and occupational licensing, he also was a director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, the Alaska Railroad Corporation, and the Alaska Industrial Development Authority under Democratic Governors, and chairman of the Capitol Site Selection Committee and the chairman of the Land Claims Task Force under Republican Governors Jay Hammond and Walter Hickel.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. And before then, as Senator Stevens well knows, since he too served in the Alaska State Legislature at that time, Mr. Hensley served as both a State Representative in Alaska for 4 years, as House majority leader, and as a State senator, for 4 years from 1971-75 and again for a term starting in 1987, representing his home region of northwest Alaska. Mr. Hensley was born, in Kotzebue, AK, a small village about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle. He and his family lived in the Noatak River delta where they lived by subsistence hunting, fishing and trapping. While home schooled through the Harrison Chilbowee Academy, he studied for 2 years at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks before receiving his B.A. degree in political science with a minor in economics in 1966 from George Washington University. He then conducted postgraduate studies in law at the University of New Mexico.
It was in 1966 that he wrote a paper in a constitutional law course entitled, ``What Rights to Land Have the Alaska Natives: The Primary Issue.'' The paper covered the background of public land issues in Alaska and forcefully made the case for Alaska Native claims to aboriginal lands, that coming 7 years after Alaska had won statehood. The paper, which laid out steps Alaska Natives should take to win their land claims, became an important underpinning of the Alaska Native rights movement that culminated in passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. The Act provided Alaska Natives with 44 million acres of Alaska and nearly $1 billion in funds and cemented Mr. Hensley's reputation as one of the most capable young Native leaders of Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. As Senator Murkowski knows, while Mr. Hensley entered the Alaska Legislature in 1967, he also was a founder of the NANA Regional Corporation, one of the 13 Alaska Native regional corporations formed by the 1971 Native Claims Act. He served as a director of the corporation for the first 20 years during its formative period, and ended his career at NANA as president. While at NANA, he directed its involvement in the oilfield service industry, most notably in environmental services and drilling ventures. He also was a guiding force in NANA's development of the Red Dog lead and zinc mine--the world's largest lead and zinc mine. While at NANA he also was a founder of the nonprofit Manillaq Corp., the regional nonprofit corporation that represented the tribes in northwest Alaska and that has been the leader in improving health care and social services for 11 villages in an area nearly the size of the State of West Virginia.
While at NANA, Mr. Hensley also served in the formation of the Alaska Federation of Natives, the umbrella organization that represents the hopes and aspirations of all Native Alaskans, and served as the AFN's executive director, president and cochairman. In 1979, partially for his pioneering work in Native rights, he was named as one of the young leaders of America by Time Magazine in a cover story ``50 Faces for America's Future,'' He was honored along with then Arkansas Governor and later President Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Congressman and later Federal Budget Director David Stockman and Ted Turner.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. I understand that Mr. Hensley has recently completed his first book, a memoir entitled, ``50 Miles from tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People,'' which will be published later this year.
Mr. Hensley, who joined Alyeska Pipeline Corp. years after Alaska's Prince William Sound oil spill, has worked tirelessly for the past decade to guarantee that Alaska's oil has flowed south without serious incident and without environmental damage or harm to the wildlife that is so important to Alaskans' way of life. He has worked tirelessly for the benefit of Alaska and all Alaskans. While he clearly has earned his retirement, Alaskans know that Willie will stay involved in issues that are vital for the economic betterment of his native State. I and I am sure Senator Stevens can't thank him enough for all of his efforts, his wisdom and wise counsel and his dedication to making Alaska a better place.
Mr. STEVENS. I too wish him well and know that all Members of the Senate join us and all Alaskans in wishing him the very best in all his future endeavors.
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