Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

Anniversary marks 40 years of progress

This map shows the 12 Alaska Native regional corporations created by ANCSA and the Alaska Native cultural boundaries they mirrored. Click to enlarge.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) turns 40 on Dec. 18, 2011. It is the largest land claims settlement in United States history. It settled Alaska Native aboriginal land claims in exchange for title to about 44 million acres of land, a $963 million cash payment from the federal treasury and additional oil revenue sharing. The Act enabled statewide economic development, including construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline that delivers oil from Alaska's North Slope to the port of Valdez, Alaska, for export to other states.

Click to enlarge.

ANCSA created 12 Alaska Native regional corporations and more than 200 village corporations based upon cultural and geographic heritage. Approximately 80,000 Alaska Natives were in Alaska when the Act was signed and enrolled as shareholders. The corporations use capitalism and the corporate business model to compensate and economically empower generations of Alaska Native people without sustained government oversight, intervention or spending.

 

40 years of ANCSA - ANCSA today