William L. Iggiargruk Hensley was the Manager of Federal Government Relations for AOPL member Alyeska Pipeline Service Company until he retired in 2008 after nearly ten years of service. Alyeska runs the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System, which supplies some 16 percent of the nation’s oil supply and marked its 31st year of operations in summer 2008. Prior to his employment with Alyeska, Hensley was appointed Commissioner of Commerce and Economic Development by Governor Tony Knowles. As Commerce Commissioner, he was responsible for state involvement in tourism and seafood marketing, international trade, insurance, banking and securities as well as occupational licensing. He also served on the Oil and Gas Policy Council, the Board of Directors of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, the Alaska Railroad Corporation and the Alaska Industrial Development Authority. Hensley was a founder of NANA Regional Corporation, one of the thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 and served as a director for 20 years, concluding his career there as President. Hensley’s memoir, Fifty Miles from Tomorrow about growing up in Alaska and his crusade for Native peoples’ rights is now available from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Prologue
On Saturday, December 18, 1971, everything changed. It was warmer than usual in Anchorage at that time of year; it was a bit above freezing. But as always during the long winter months in the Far North, the hours of daylight were excruciatingly short. The sun did not rise until just after nine o’clock in the morning, and it set well before three in the afternoon, hours before the start of the big event. As the sky darkened, people began streaming toward the center of Alaska Methodist University, now known as Alaska Pacific University. There were Ińupiat and Yupiat, Aleut and Athapascan, Tlingit and Haida, students and elders, tribal and village leaders, politicians, businessmen, and ordinary citizens.
They had come to watch history in the making. At last the long, tempestuous process of turning Alaska into a real state was about to be completed. The grand poohbahs of Big Oil were poised to start tapping the 10 billion barrels of petroleum discovered three years earlier at Prudhoe Bay. Big Labor could hardly wait for the construction jobs that would be required to build the $8 billion, 800-mile-long pipeline needed to funnel the black gold to market. And the environmentalists had their sights on the 150 million acres that were promised as protected wilderness areas, parks, and fish and wildlife sanctuaries.
But I think it is fair to say that no group was more anxious that day than Alaska’s Native peoples. There were tensions in that room. After all, a centuries-long saga of warfare, treachery, apartheid, betrayal, and hopelessness was coming to an official end. For more than a hundred years, Native Alaskans had waited for clarification of their rights to ancient homelands. And finally, after considerable disagreement, a settlement was about to be announced. The United States Congress had agreed to set aside 44 million acres and earmark nearly $1 billion for Alaska’s Natives.
The hundreds assembled stood motionless as the evening’s business began. A familiar voice echoed through the room, piped in from Washington, D.C. "I want you to be among the first to know that I have just signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act," said President Richard Milhous Nixon. The new law, he declared, was "a milestone in Alaska’s history and in the way our government deals with Native and Indian peoples."
For more information see Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) Turns 30
