§1629g Open Season for Certain Alaska Native Veterans for Allotments

Summary

Allows certain Alaska Native veterans to get up to two federal land parcels that together are no more than 160 acres. The offer is open for 18 months after the Interior Department issues rules. Only lands that were empty and not claimed when the person first used them can be chosen. People who already got, or already applied for, an allotment under the May 17, 1906 law cannot apply here. The Secretary cannot give lands that have someone’s campsite (unless it is the applicant’s own), lands picked but not transferred to the State, Village, or Regional Corporations, wilderness or acquired federal lands, lands with buildings or other developments owned by the U.S. or others, lands set aside for national defense (except the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska), National Forest lands, or lands claimed under other public land laws. To be eligible, a person must meet the old 1906 Act rules and be a veteran who served between January 1, 1969 and December 31, 1971 and either served at least 6 months in that time or was drafted/enlisted after June 2, 1971 but before December 3, 1971. A personal representative in an Alaska probate case may pick an allotment for heirs if the decedent served in Southeast Asia between August 5, 1964 and December 31, 1971 and was killed in action, later died from wounds, or died as a prisoner of war. If the Interior Secretary asks, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs must say within 60 days whether VA records support a death-from-wounds finding, or say more investigation is needed; if more work is required, VA must finish within 1 year. If chosen lands are blocked, the applicant can pick alternate lands inside the same Regional Corporation from certain withdrawn, adjacent, or other vacant lands, and the Secretary may swap in equal-acre lands inside a Conservation System Unit after consultation if needed. All transfers keep any existing rights and save the United States’ rights to oil, gas, and coal (and to develop them) on lands the Secretary finds may be valuable. The Interior Secretary had to study other Vietnam-era veterans who were eligible under the old law but did not apply and send a report within one year of October 21, 1998 to the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committees on Appropriations and Resources. The words “veteran” and “Vietnam era” mean what 38 U.S.C. 101 paragraphs (2) and (29) say. The Interior Department had to write the implementing rules within 18 months after October 21, 1998, after talking with Alaska Native groups.