By AJ McClanahn, CIRI Historian   The health of Alaska Natives in the late 1960s was deplorable to the point of being stunning. A landmark report that served as part of the basis for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act noted that, in 1966, the average age of death among Alaska Natives was 34.5 years, about half that of other Americans for that year.   "And by any other measure, the health status of Natives is inferior to that of other Alaskans," stated the report, "Alaska Natives and the Land." The 565-page document was prepared by the Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska and was dated October 1, 1968.   It noted that the three principle causes of death in the Native population in 1966 were:   * Accidents ­ three times the rate of Alaska non-Natives. * Influenza and pneumonia ­ 10 times the rate of Alaska non-Natives. * Diseases of early infancy ­ ranging from slightly greater than the non-Native population to 12 times that of non-Natives, depending on the age of the infant.   Many of those kinds of statistics have improved greatly through the years, but there is still a discrepancy between the health of Alaska Natives and non-Natives.   In 1997, the average age of all Alaska residents dying was 59.7 years, according to Stephanie L. Walden, research analyst at the Department of Health and Social

Services Bureau of Vital Statistics in Juneau. She said the average age of death for Natives was 55.1 years, and non-Natives 61.2 years.   According to Bonnie Boedeker, Director of the Division of Planning, Evaluation and Health Statistics of the Alaska Area Native Health Service, the life expectancy at birth for Alaska Natives in 1950 was 46.4 years. For the United States in general, it was 68.2 years. By 1997, the Alaska Native life expectancy at birth had increased to 69 years, but that figure was still behind the national average of 76.5 years.   The leading causes of Alaska Native deaths in 1950 were similar to the causes in 1968, except that, in 1950, the leading cause of death was tuberculosis. By 1990, according to Boedeker, the leading causes of death for Alaska Natives were heart disease, malignant neoplasms (cancer) and accidents.   The 1968 report stressed that "the poor physical health of Alaska Natives is principally the result of environmental conditions in villages ­ housing that is overcrowded and insufficiently ventilated, water supplies that are impure and inadequate waste disposal systems."   But, in a foreshadowing of the focus for the future, the report noted that immunization and preventive medical measures only went so far: "Significant reduction in the incidence of many of Alaska's remaining health problems must be sought in improvement of the socio-economic conditions under which Alaska Natives live."