Editing Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (section)

===Oil===
[[File:Cliff Groh.jpg|thumb|160px|Cliff Groh was one of a number of non-Native lawyers who assisted various Native organizations and AFN's president Emil Notti in achieving passage of ANCSA.]]
In 1968, the [[ARCO|Atlantic-Richfield Company]] discovered oil at [[Prudhoe Bay Oil Field|Prudhoe Bay]] on the [[Arctic Ocean|Arctic]] coast, catapulting the issue of [[land ownership]] into headlines.<ref>{{cite news|last=Coile |first=Zachery |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/29/MNGLGEEKSF1.DTL |title=Arctic Oil: Oil is the lifeblood of Alaska, with residents ready to drill |date=August 9, 2005 |access-date=2005-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051003231635/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2005%2F08%2F29%2FMNGLGEEKSF1.DTL |archive-date=3 October 2005 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=banet>{{cite journal|last1=Banet (Jr.) |first1=Arthur C. |title=Oil and Gas Development on Alaska's North Slope: Past Results and Future Prospects |journal=Open File Reports: Bureau of Land Management |date=March 1991 |pages=6, 22 |url=http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ak/aktest/ofr.Par.49987.File.dat/OFR_34.pdf |access-date=30 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923231432/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ak/aktest/ofr.Par.49987.File.dat/OFR_34.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015 }}</ref> In order to lessen the difficulty of drilling at such a remote location and transporting the oil to the [[lower 48 states]], the oil companies proposed building a pipeline to carry the oil across Alaska to the port of [[Valdez, Alaska|Valdez]].<ref name=banet/><ref name=naske2>{{cite book|last1=Naske|first1=Claus-M.|title=Alaska: A History of the 49th State|date=1994|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=080612573X|pages=241–269|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xhQl1WDWa0C&q=Hickel+worked+with+the+AFN,+negotiating+between+Natives+and+Alaska|access-date=30 November 2014}}</ref> At Valdez, the oil would be loaded onto tankers and shipped to the contiguous states.<ref name=naske2/>

The plan had been approved<!-- by whom? EIS dones? -->, but a permit to construct the pipeline, which would cross lands involved in the land claims dispute, could not be granted until the Native claims were settled.<ref name=naske2/> Hearings were held for the first time before the [[United States House]]'s Subcommittee on Indian Affairs in July 1968. Among those who attended the hearings were officials and legislators, as well as [[Laura Bergt]], Roger Connor, Thoda Forslund, Cliff Groh, Barry Jackson, Flore Lekanof, Notti, and Morris Thompson.<ref>{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''Fairbanks Daily News-Miner''|1968}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Native Land Claims Hearing |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-jul-17-1968-3493383/ |access-date=October 4, 2022 |work=[[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]] |date=July 17, 1968 |location=Fairbanks, Alaska |page=20 |via=[[Newspaperarchive.com]]}}</ref>