The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

In 1971, the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law, promising 44 million acres of land, a little more than 10% of the entire State, and nearly $1 billion, in exchange for extinguishing aboriginal claims.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) has been called one of the boldest experiments in social and economic public policy, and relations between the federal government and indigenous peoples.

A Bold Experiment

Congress conceived ANCSA in an attempt to avoid the mistakes of the reservation system established for Native Americans in the Lower 48 during the 19th Century, which had the effects of disenfranchising whole cultures, hindering their integration with the rest of the country, and limiting their economic growth. With ANCSA, Congress was attempting to empower Alaska's Native peoples by giving them control over their own corporations and large tracts of land. These corporations were created as private entities, free to make decisions without government oversight, and subject only to the same federal and state laws that govern all other private corporations.

It must be noted that Congress was motivated to settle Native land claims so that it could clear title for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Regardless of the government's motivation, the result was an unprecedented settlement for Alaska's Native peoples that starkly contrasted the country's treatment of American Indians.

How ANCSA Works

The 12 Alaska-based regional corporations and the village corporations each own land in different ways. ANCSA allowed both types of corporations to select federal lands within their traditional boundaries.

Village corporations selected lands near their villages in most cases. Subsurface mineral rights to all lands went to the regional corporation. Village corporations owned surface lands.

Under ANCSA both regional and village corporations must share 70 percent of their natural resource revenues. This protects and provides for those corporations that do not have significant natural resources. For example, all Native corporations benefit when a mine is developed or oil is discovered or timber is logged on one corporation’s land. Alaska's system starkly contrasts the reservation system in the Lower 48 in which tribes who, due to fortunate location, are able to own and operate successful businesses, such as casinos, are not required to share revenues with tribes who cannot.

There are a few exceptions to the structure of Alaska's regional and village corporations. ANCSA allowed communities located on previously established reservations the option to own their reservation lands, both surface and mineral title, and not participate in the cash settlement. All villages on reservations chose this option; for example, Venetie in the northern interior and St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea.