Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), enacted on December 18, 1971, represents a significant legal framework addressing land claims and rights of Alaska Natives following Alaska's acquisition by the United States in 1867. Prior to ANCSA, Alaska Natives, numbering around eighty thousand, had established claims to approximately 400 million acres of land based on aboriginal title. The discovery of oil in the 1960s and subsequent land use controversies prompted the formation of the Alaska Federation of Natives, which played a crucial role in negotiations with the federal government.
ANCSA resulted in the extinguishment of native title to all but 44 million acres of land in exchange for a monetary settlement of $962.5 million. This act reshaped the governance structure for Alaska Natives, dissolving existing reservations and tribal governments, and mandating the creation of twelve regional and over two hundred village corporations. These corporations were designed to manage land and financial resources, with the expectation of generating profits for their shareholders. Additionally, the act included provisions to protect the land from non-native control and allowed for the issuance of new stock to those born after the law's enactment. The legacy of ANCSA continues to influence the economic and cultural landscape of Alaska Native communities today.
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
Date: December 18, 1971
Tribes affected: Ahtna, Aleut, Alutiiq, Eyak, Haida, Han, Holikachuk, Ingalik, Iñupiat, Kolchan, Koyukon, Kutchin, Tanacross, Tanaina, Tanana, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Yupik
Significance: The establishment of “for profit” native corporations to replace the signing of treaties and creation of reservations set a precedent for subsequent land-claims negotiations and settlements
Although Alaska became part of the United States in 1867, treaties had established only six small reservations in southeastern Alaska. The vast majority of Alaska’s eighty thousand natives continued to claim aboriginal title (and therefore fishing, hunting, and other land rights) to the 400 million acres that make up the state of Alaska. A number of land use and aboriginal rights controversies in the 1960’s led to the creation of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) in October of 1966. The 1967 discovery of oil on Alaska’s North Slope, and the resulting plans to build a trans-Alaska pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, was yet another factor that initiated serious negotiations over land claims between Alaska Natives and the federal government. The AFN carried out most of the formal negotiations and lobbying leading up to the signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) on December 18, 1971.
ANCSA created an entirely new regime by which natives and native institutions related to themselves, the land, and the larger society. ANCSA extinguished native title to all but 44 million acres of land in exchange for $962.5 million. The previously established reservations and the existing tribal governments were dissolved. In their place, ANCSA mandated the creation of twelve regional, and more than two hundred village, corporations.
The twelve regional corporations, corresponding to historical and cultural groupings of Alaska Natives, divided the land and the $962.5 million. A thirteenth corporation, established for natives living outside the state, received cash only. Of the land received, half was to be conveyed to the village corporations within each region. A portion of the cash settlement was also to be shared with the village corporations empowered to develop and operate community businesses. Since the regional corporations were expected to invest in more grandiose enterprises, they were given greater powers to develop land and to tax those operating within their zones. Both regional and village corporations were expected to make a profit for their native shareholders. Some of them, notably Sealaska in southeastern Alaska and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation on the North Slope, have done quite well.
Initially, ANCSA provided for stock ownership only for those natives born prior to the date of enactment. It also established a twenty-year period during which corporate lands and profits could not be taxed and individual stocks could not be sold. This moratorium was set to expire in 1991, creating fears that the corporations—and most important, the lands they held—would become vulnerable to non-native corporate raiders or be sold to satisfy debts. Congress responded to some of these concerns by amending ANCSA in 1988. The amendment provided for the establishment of “settlement trusts” to which corporate lands may be conveyed. The trusts, and therefore the land held by them, cannot be transferred from native control. Congress also permitted the corporations to amend their own articles of incorporation in order to issue new stock to those born after 1971 and to prevent the sale of stock to outsiders.