Proclamation 4611

by Jimmy Carter

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Admiralty Island is outstanding for its superlative combination of scientific and historic objects. Admiralty Island contains unique resources of scientific interest which need protection to assure continued opportunities for study.

Admiralty Island has been continuously inhabited by Tlingit Indians for approximately 10,000 years. Archeological sites and objects are plentiful in the areas of Angoon, Chalk Bay, Whitewater Bay and other bays and inlets on the island. These resources provide historical documentation of continuing value for study. The continued presence of these natives on the island add to the scientific and historical value of the area.

The cultural history of the Tlingit Indians is rich in ceremony and creative arts and complex in its social, legal and political systems. Admiralty provides a unique combination of archeological and historical resources in a relatively unspoiled natural ecosystem that enhances their value for scientific study.

Subsequent to exploration and mapping by Captain George Vancouver at the end of the 18th century, Russian fur traders, Yankee whalers, and miners and prospectors have left objects and sites on Admiralty which provide valuable historical documentation of white settlement and exploitation of the island and its resources. Admiralty Island is rich in historic structures and sites, including whaling stations, canneries, old mining structures and old village sites, for example, Killisnoo Village where a whaling and herring saltery station were established in 1880.

Unusual aspects of the island ecology include its exceptional distribution of animal species, including dense populations of brown bears and eagles, but excluding entirely-because of the island's separation from the mainland-a large number of species indigenous to the general area. This peculiar distribution enhances the island's value for scientific study.

The unique island ecology includes the highest known density of nesting bald eagles (more than are found in all the other States combined); large numbers of Alaska brown bear; and the largest unspoiled coastal island ecosystem in North America. Admiralty Island was added to the Tongass National Forest in 1909, and specific portions of the island have been designated as bear and eagle management areas and numerous scientific studies of the bear and eagle habitat have been conducted by scientists from around the world. The island is an outdoor living laboratory for the study of the bald eagle and Alaska brown bear.

Protection of the entire island, exclusive of the Mansfield Peninsula, is necessary to preserve intact the unique scientific and historic objects and sites located there. Designation of a smaller area would not serve the scientific purpose of preserving intact this unique coastal island ecosystem.

Hunting and fishing shall continue to be regulated, permitted and controlled in accord with the statutory authorities applicable to the Monument area.

Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the government of the United States to be National Monuments, and to reserve as part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.

Now, THEREFORE, I, JIMMY CARTER, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are hereby set apart and reserved as the Admiralty Island National Monument all lands, including submerged lands, and waters owned or controlled by the United States within the boundaries of the area described on the document entitled "Admiralty Island National Monument (Copper River Meridian)", attached to and forming a part of this Proclamation. The area reserved consists of approximately 1,100,000 acres, and is the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected. Lands, including submerged lands, and waters within these boundaries not owned by the United States shall be reserved as a part of the Monument upon acquisition of title thereto by the United States.

All lands, including submerged lands, and all waters within the boundaries of this Monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from entry, location, selection, sale or other disposition under the public land laws, other than exchange. There is also reserved all water necessary to the proper care and management of those objects protected by this Monument and for the proper administration of the Monument in accordance with applicable laws.

The establishment of this Monument is subject to valid existing rights, including, but not limited to, valid selections under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as amended (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and under or confirmed in the Alaska Statehood Act (4.8 U.S.C. Note preceding Section 21 ).

Nothing in this Proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing withdrawal, reservation or appropriation, including any withdrawal under section 17 (d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1616(d) (1)); however, the National Monument shall be the dominant reservation. Nothing in this Proclamation is intended to modify or revoke the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding dated September 1, 1972, entered into between the State of Alaska and the United States as part of the negotiated settlement of Alaska v. Morton, Civil No. A-48-72 (D. Alaska, Complaint filed April 10, 1972).

Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy or remove any feature of this Monument and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:53 p.m., December 1, 1978]