ANCSA - LAND
The land conveyed under ANCSA was 44 million acres, which was a little more than 10 percent of the entire state. It sounds like a tremendous amount of land, especially when compared to treaties the United States made earlier with American Indians. When viewed as what was granted to the people who had a valid claim to the entire state, however, the settlement seems relatively small.
As Trefon Angasan, vice president of Shareholder and Corporate Relations of Bristol Bay Native Corporation, has said: "When the concept of Natives fighting for their land came about - we just assumed that it was our land. Because no one had ever said anything that it wasn't. We looked out into the open space and said, 'Hey, this is Native land. This is our land.' It was always there: that sense of ownership of it was always there. And, then all of a sudden, in the late '60s, they were beginning to draw boundaries around it, and you began to realize that the world was changing."
Of the 44 million acres, 22 million acres of surface estate went to village corporations on a formula based on population - not per capita. This land was generally located around the village itself and consisted of prime subsistence areas. The subsurface estate of this land went to the regional corporations.
Sixteen million acres went to the regional corporations, and that included both the surface and the subsurface estate; and two million acres was conveyed for specific situations, such as cemeteries, historical sites, and villages with fewer than 25 people.
Another four million acres went to former reserves where the villages took land instead of land and money. These former reserves were granted land entitlements ranging from 700,000 to 2 million acres. They included Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Elim, Tetlin, and Venetie and Arctic Village. Klukwan originally opted for this provision, but leaders there later changed their minds. Not affected by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was Metlakatla on Annette Island in Southeast Alaska. Metlakatla was a reservation before ANCSA, and remained one afterwards.
Roy Huhndorf, former CIRI president, discussed ANCSA's structure in a speech May 17, 1991. "ANCSA was a moment of innovation in the architecture of federal/ Indian relationships. The idea of a settlement that ensured creative mechanisms for self-determination was a breakthrough in the sad 200-year saga of settler domination. The final act was a surprising achievement, but it was not without compromises that would need to be addressed in the two decades ahead."
Byron Mallott, who served as CEO of Sealaska Corp., believes that ANCSA is part of a journey: "It was very powerful and timely, but it is only one step if a significant one, in a very long journey. And much of the journey has yet to be taken." Mallott, President & CEO of the First Alaskans Foundation, was in his 20's during the fight for ANCSA. Mallott said that as a young Native fighting for ANCSA in the 1960s he listened to the elders of the time. As he explains, they were saying:
I didn't get an education. You make sure my children are educated. I didn't fit into the society. You figure out how my children and your generation can fit into the society and be proud of who you are.
We didn't have the land, even though we knew it was ours. You get it for us, and you keep it for future generations.
We know who we are as a people, but we're very concerned about our ability to sustain ourselves as a people in the traditional ways. You make that happen for us.
That's what ANCSA was all about. That's what people were saying. That's what they were meaning.
They didn't say go out and make dividends for us. They didn't say go out and become corporate CEO's. They didn't say go out and be a big part of the state's economic future and let us stalk the corridors of power. They didn't say go out and invest in oil wells. They said go out and save who we are.
