Revisiting ANCSA: Mike Gravel: former Alaskan statesman reminisces.

AuthorAnjum, Shehla
PositionSPECIAL SECTION: Alaska Native Business

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In a memorable photograph from the 1970s, Mike Gravel sits astride the trans-Alaska oil pipeline looking proud and confident about Alaska's coming oil bonanza and the economic security that would accrue to the state. Gravel, a Democrat, was in the United States Senate at the time. He served two terms from 1969 until 1981, along with Ted Stevens, a Republican. It is fair to say that more Alaskans know about Stevens, who died in a plane crash in 2010. But Gravel's service is also important and it came at a crucial juncture in the state's history. He recently came back to Alaska to speak about his leadership in securing Congressional authorization to build the oil pipeline. While here, Gravel met former staff and old friends. He also spoke to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company employees about the pipe, line that they oversee.

Gravel, now eighty-six, harbors no resentment that most Alaskans do not know how the pipeline came about. He knows that Alaskans understand that the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is the state's most important asset. He wants to set the record straight about what he did to help make it happen. "I am proud of my role in bringing about the pipeline, and I want that history to be accurately understood," he says. "For a period of time I was the only one kept alive the hope of getting it authorized through Congress and which from my point of view seemed simple," although others disagreed, sharply, at that time.

That was in 1973, when the construction of the pipeline was mired in lawsuits. Gravel felt that Congress, bogged down in politics, was not moving to take care of the problem.

Looking for Success

Like others before him, Gravel came to Alaska to find success. He arrived in August 1956, shortly after obtaining a BS in economics from Columbia University in New York City. Gravel had previously served in the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps and as Adjutant for the Communications Intelligence Service.

While attending Columbia part-time, Gravel worked full-time on Wall Street and later drove a taxi in Manhattan. He researched locations to launch a political career. "I was ambitious and decided to go to Alaska and stay there until I succeeded."

Gravel endured an arduous journey up the Alaska Highway, which was no more than a dirt road in those days. But he didn't mind. "I felt the travail was no big deal because I had a strong sense of awareness and awe that I was on my way 'home'--even though it was a home that I had never seen before. I never had a change of heart from that first experience." He still considers Alaska his real home.

It took him only a day after arriving in Anchorage to land a job selling real estate at Northern Realty, a local firm. Anchorage was still a small town with only two paved streets--Fourth and Fifth Avenues. But Gravel felt at home, settled down, and started planning his next steps.

He sold real estate for a couple of months, but when winter set in the real estate commissions dried up. "I had made some good sales but I wasn't provident in saving money. So I got a job as a brakeman with the Alaska Railroad. I had an edge in...

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