Revisiting the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)

Land claims at the grass roots: 1966 letters and village newsletters from Willie Hensley's private collection

ANCSA Curricula - Teaching about the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

Alaska Native Land Claims - book edited by Robert D. Arnold with various Alaskans. Posted with permission of the Alaska Native Foundation.

"What Rights To Land Have the Alaska Natives?: The Primary Issue" (in 8 parts) By William L. Hensley, May 1966 -- With a new May 2001 introduction by the author.

"What Rights To Land Have the Alaska Natives?: The Primary Issue" (in one html file) By William L. Hensley, May 1966 -- With a new May 2001 introduction by the author.

"What Rights To Land Have the Alaska Natives?: The Primary Issue" (in one 2MB pdf file) By William L. Hensley, May 1966 -- With a new May 2001 introduction by the author.

Why ANCSA for Elementary Students? Educational Curriculum

Alaskool's Native Governments Section

Northwest Arctic Borough School District's ANCSA Pages

"The Alaska Claims Settlement" - Comments by Janie Leask - From a panel discussion "The Objectives of Land Claims Settlements" during the International Conference "Towards Native Self-Reliance Renewal and Development" held in Vancouver, August 19-24, 1984. A biography of Ms. Leask is also available. Alaskool note: At the time these comments were delivered, Janie Leask was President of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

Indian Country: The Supreme Court Venetie Decision -- February 25, 1998

Opinion of the Court
Syllabus

ANCSA

United States Code ,TITLE 43 - PUBLIC LANDS, CHAPTER 33 - ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT

Testimony

"The testimony recorded here are about the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act given prior to the passage of the legislation. This is historically important testimony. It provides the reader with a sense of what issues, concerns and hopes participants were aware of prior to the enactment of this legislation. The list of people giving testimony is a Who's Who of important Alaska Natives concerning ANCSA at the time." ...Paul Ongtooguk, Jan. 2000

Statements from: Alaska Native Land Claims Part II, "Hearings before the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-first Congress First Session on H.R. 13142, H.R. 10193, and H.R. 14212, Bills to Provide for the Settlement of Certain Land Claims of Alaska Natives, and for Other Purposes.

Newspaper Articles

• Anchorage Daily News
• Anchorage Daily Times
• Daily Alaska Empire/Southeast Alaska Empire
• Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
• The Tundra Times

Articles and Editorials

• How can AFN be the voice of Natives when its officers are not elected?
  A brief summary of an important set of issues concerning ANCSA corporations, the structure of the Alaska Federation of Natives and Alaska Natives born after the 18 Dec 1971 - the last date a person could be born and still be an original shareholder.
  Anchorage Daily News - December 2004
• A SENSE OF RIGHTNESS, Kitka marks 10 years atop AFN, but she's still an enigma to many, Anchorage Daily News, Page A1, Sunday, October 17, 1999
• Two Views of the “New Harpoon”: Economic Perspectives on Alaska’s Native Regional Corporations, Steve Colt (sgcolt@aol.com), PhD Student, MIT Department of Economics, and Research Economist, Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, February 3, 1998
• Between Worlds: A Juneau Empire Special Report (ANCSA)
• ANCSA and Rural Alaska: An Economic Reality Check, Remarks presented to Commonwealth North, April 6, 1993, by Steve Colt, Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage
• 1991: Group Rights Versus Individual Rights, Alaska Native News, Rosita Worl, Publisher, v.3, April 1985, p.2
• Loss of Native Lands, By Rosita Worl, Publisher, Alaska Native News, v.3 (July 1985), p. 2
• Native Claims in Alaska: A Twenty-year Review, Steven McNabb, Etudes/Inuit/Studies, 1992
• A Scrapbook History: Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Tundra Times, 1991
• Group Wants Only ‘Genuine’ Natives, Paul Ongtooguk, Tundra Times (1990). Comments on a slide show and presentation on ANWR - the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska and oil development, environmental concerns, the view of Alaska Natives.
• Alaska Federation of Natives Newsletter, Volume VI, Number Two, April 20, 1987 - Coverage of the progress of the 1991 ANCSA amendments through Congress and discussions of implications of passing these amendments.
• 1991: Making It Work, A Guide to Public Law 100-24, 1987 Amendments to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Alaska Federation of Natives (Part 1 and Part 8 are included in this web site)
• 1991 Balancing Individual and Group Rights after ANCSA by Bart K. Garber, published in Alaska Native News/January 1985
• Native Claims and Political Development: A Comparative Analysis, Thomas A. Morehouse, Institute of Social And Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, February 19, 1987.
• The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act: Conflict and Controversy, Monica E. Thomas, Polar Record, 23(142): 27-36 (1986)
• The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act: An Update, Monica E. Thomas, Polar Record, 24(151): 328-329 (1988)

• Chapter 7: Incompatible Goals in Unconventional Organizations: The Politics of Alaska Native Corporations, Gary C. Anders, Associate Professor, University of Alaska, Juneau and Kathleen Anders, Visiting Instructor, University of Alaska, Juneau, excerpted from Developing America's Northern Frontier, Theodore Lane, ed., University Press of America, 1987

• Background of ANCSA: Bristol Bay's Land And Money, "Bristol Bay Native Corporation Newsletter, December/January, 1985.
• "Unfinished Business, The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act", by Byron I. Mallott President & CEO First Alaskans Foundation
• "One Day in the Life of a Native Corporate Leader," Part I, by Byron I. Mallott Alaska Native News (September 1985)
• "One Day in the Life of a Native Chief Executive," Part II, by Byron I. Mallott, Alaska Native News (October 1985) v.2, p. 22.
• "Why the Arctic Slope Inupiat Said NO to ANCSA," letter to the President of the United States, December 18, 1971 from Joseph Upicksoun, President, Arctic Slope Native Association and Charles Edwardsen, Jr., Executive Director, Arctic Slope Native Association, Alaska Native News (September 1984) v.2, p. 16.
• "The International Legal Status of Native Alaska," by Russel Lawrence Barsh, published in Alaska Native News (July 1984), 4. 2, p. 35.
• Changes in the Well-Being of Alaska Natives Since ANCSA, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Institute of Social and Economic Research, November 1984 (.pdf file, 1.04 megabytes-This1.04 megabyte file may take a while to download, depending on the speed of your internet connection.)
• Excerpts from "History of Events Leading to the Passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act," Kornelia Grabinska, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc., January 1983
• "ANCSA-RELATED SIDE EFFECTS," Kornelia Grabinska, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc., March 1983, From Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc., Interior Region Post ANCSA, Impact Analysis.
• ANCSA's Confused Settlement for Native Groups, "The Council," June 1983, v. 8, p.8.
• "Alaska's natives are bringing off the biggest corporate takeover," Michael Parfit, Smithsonian (August 1981), pp. 30-39.
• ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1971, (PUBLIC LAW 92-203): HISTORY AND ANALYSIS TOGETHER WITH SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS, Richard S. Jones, Analyst in American National Government
  Government Division, Report No. 81-127 GOV, June 1, 1981
• The Emergence of Native Alaskan Political Capacity, 1959-1971, Alexander M. Ervin, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Article published in Musk Ox Journal, 19, 1976
• WE OWN THE LAND, Statement By William L. Paul, Sr., to the AFN Board of Directors Alaska Federation of Natives' Convention Fairbanks, Alaska, October, 1971

• ALASKA: POLITICIANS AND NATIVES, MONEY AND OIL, Once upon a time there was a frontier, Lewis Lapham, Published in Harper's Magazine, May 1970

• "Alaska: Share the Oil," Daniel Henninger, New Republic, June 28, 1969, Vol. 160, pp. 15-17. Last year a lone Atlantic Richfield oil rig drilled into a sea of oil beneath Alaska's Arctic ice. The find is worth billions and has the oil industry aflutter. Humble Oil announced it would spend $39 million to open the legendary Northwest Passage linking Alaska to the East Coast; British Petroleum, with holdings on Alaska's North Slope...

• "Divvying Up Alaska: Native Claims Bill," Stephen Brent, New Republic, December 13, 1969, Vol. 161, No. 24, pp. 11-13. Anchorage. Anchorage was still waiting for its first real snow November 25, though the thermometer never climbed higher than five above zero. Inside a hotel conference room, about 20 Alaska business leaders—clearly frustrated and almost scared—huddled together, away from the cold and the 3 p.m. gloom.
  The source of frustration was 4500 miles east by southeast, in Washington, D.C., where the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs committee was working to keep a pledge to Alaska's 55,000 Eskimo, Indian, and Aleut citizens...
• How to Exploit and Destroy a People: The Case of the Alaskan Native, Civil Rights Digest, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission Civil Rights, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer 1969), pp. 6-13.
• The Tyonek Story, Robert G. Knox, Alaska Construction and Oil Report, Vol. 9, No. 7, July 1968. The Board of Governors Room of the New York Stock Exchange is the epitome of Money spelled with a capital M. Located on one of the upper floors of the exchange building far, far away from the noise and confusion of the exchange floor, the room is large and spacious with extremely high ceilings. It is decorated tastefully in the colors you might expect—green and gold. There is a good deal of highly polished mahogany scattered about and your feet sink into deep, soft carpeting.....
• NATIVE LAND CLAIMS, ALASKA REVIEW OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, Vol. IV, No. 6, November 1967, Published by the Institute of Social, Economic and Government Research University of Alaska
• The Eskimo and the Land: Ownership and Utilization, Dorothy Jean Ray, paper presented at the Thirteenth Alaskan Science Conference, August 25, 1962, Juneau, Alaska.

Historic References

• Village Journey: The Report of the Alaska Native Review Commission by Thomas R. Berger, 1985, Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

• Letters to Howard (An Interpretation of the Alaska Native Land Claims) by Fred Bigjim and James Ito-Adler, c. 1974 - at Alaska Native Knowledge Network's website
• The Politics of Passage booklets on ANCSA, A series of scroll down for a list of others - at Alaska Native Knowledge Network's website
• Eben Hopson Memorial Archives
• Alaska Natives and the Land Claims Settlement Act of 1971, Norman Chance: (a history of events leading up to ANCSA) On the Arctic Circle website
• Point Elliot Treaty, Treaty with the Dwamish, Suquamish, Etc., 1855.

 

Archival Materials

ANCSA files compiled by Vic Fisher in 1970's are located in Archives at UAA, Consortium Library

GNOSIS search of UA library system

Gnosis search: video

Gnosis search: tape collection

Internet Resources

Alaska Native Knowledge Network--Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act "This site contains background information related to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as well as resources for incorporating ANCSA in the school curriculum. Anyone wishing to contribute to this site is encouraged to contact the coordinator of the Alaska Native Knowledge Network at (907) 474-5086, or send an e-mail message to fyankn@aurora.alaska.edu."