ifty years ago, Alaska Native people embarked on an unprecedented journey. Our people understood what was at stake when oil was discovered on the North Slope: we needed to stand up for our rights or we could be left out of the prosperity that our lands would generate. Further, Alaska’s Indigenous peoples are not a monolith. The vast size of Alaska meant that the unique needs of the Tlingit and the Yup’ik, or the Athabascan and the Alutiiq, could not all be met by a one-size-fits-all, top-down approach. Our leaders understood that to preserve our self-determination, we would need to exercise self-determination.
With minimal experience in the Western corporate business world, we would undergo a completely new approach to Indigenous self-determination: regional and village corporations, crafted and bound by law to preserve our ancestral lands, provide for our peoples’ needs, and nourish their cultural health. Brave leaders would step forward to helm these new creations, learning and growing with the same resilience and ingenuity that enabled our survival for the past ten thousand years.
In 1971, the trans-Alaska pipeline was still six years from being completed and would ultimately change the state’s economy forever. The challenge of building businesses and negotiating contracts as new entities in this time was immense. Against all odds, these first Alaska Native leaders persevered and successfully brought Alaska Native regional and village corporations into an uncharted future.
Today, Alaska Native Corporations are dynamic, successful enterprises with diversified portfolios and expanded shareholder rolls representing Alaska Native people. Corporate profits return to our communities, funding culture camps, language revitalization programs, Elder benefits, professional development for young shareholders, and more. Alaska Native Corporations are now the backbone of the Alaska economy, providing valuable economic impact as one of the few industries in the state where the money flows in rather than out.
As we face new challenges, from a changing environment to a diversifying economy, Alaska Native Corporations will once again need to adapt, finding new ways to fulfill our unique missions and protect the proud legacy of our ancestors. Fifty years ago, no one could have imagined the success we would find following the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), nor the hard work it would take to obtain. Now, we carry the experience and lessons of those years with us into the future, and we bear the same goal always in mind: providing for our people and lands, as every generation before us.
In the pages that follow you will see examples of ANCSA Regional Association member successes over the past half-century. From economic growth to culture, language, leadership, and ties to our land, we hope you enjoy these stories. The ANSCA Regional Association Board of Directors and I thank you for reading and look forward to partnering with you over the next fifty years.
Executive Director, ANCSA Regional Association