ANCSA SPECIAL SECTION
Calista Corporation
Culture. Business.
By Robert Beans and Andrew Guy
A

s the people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, we practice subsistence by following qanruyutet (gan-ya-wu-DET), or words of wisdom, from our Elders. They tell us food creates family bonds and that Elders wish good fortune upon those who help them. We may have harvested the seal, but if we do not share the bounty from the sea, we are not following qanruyutet.

The Calista region is home to fifty-six villages spread out along the Bering Sea coast and two of Alaska’s mightiest rivers—the Yukon and Kuskokwim—and it encompasses 57,000 square miles. Calista Corporation’s land entitlement in the region is 6.5 million acres, less than 20 percent of the region.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), Calista Corporation is reflecting on what it means to be a successful business and promote our cultural values and traditional way of life.

Over the past fifty years, we explored business opportunities to provide jobs and benefits for our shareholders while protecting and developing our resources on the lands our ancestors settled and depended on for thousands of years.

Calista’s business resilience is intrinsically linked to our values rooted in our Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Athabascan cultures in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Most residents in the region still speak their traditional languages. Data from the 2010 US Census showed Yup’ik as the second most common Native language spoken in the entire country.

Living a life in line with the words of wisdom from our Elders is reflected by a willingness to share the bounty of the hunt. This spring Calista announced $8.1 million in distributions to shareholders—our largest distribution to date.

Since inception, Calista has declared more than $94 million in distributions to shareholders—more than half of which was distributed in the past five years. This is one way we fulfill Calista’s core value of service to shareholders, customers, and the public.

Our corporate core value of teamwork and meeting our commitments to one another aligns with our traditional value of working together as a village to harvest what we need each season.

This teamwork helps all of us during hard times. For example, our early leaders recognized that some regions are richer in natural resources and therefore have more potential for economic development. The resulting provision of ANCSA—sharing revenue from natural resources—helped Calista and other Native corporations during our early financial hardships.

Calista Corporation’s incorporators met in Washington, D.C. at the Department of the Interior for ceremonies to approve the creation of Calista, NANA, and CIRI on June 1, 1972. From left to right: Assistant Secretary of the Interior Harrison Loesch; Senator Ted Stevens; Elizabeth Beans; Paul Dixon (behind); William Tyson; Fred Notti; Robert Nick; and Phillip Guy.

Department of Interior | Ted Stevens Foundation

Calista Corporation’s incorporators met in Washington, D.C.
Calista Corporation’s incorporators met in Washington, D.C. at the Department of the Interior for ceremonies to approve the creation of Calista, NANA, and CIRI on June 1, 1972. From left to right: Assistant Secretary of the Interior Harrison Loesch; Senator Ted Stevens; Elizabeth Beans; Paul Dixon (behind); William Tyson; Fred Notti; Robert Nick; and Phillip Guy.

Department of Interior | Ted Stevens Foundation

As required by ANCSA, Native corporations continue to distribute 70 percent of income from natural resource development with the other regional corporations, which in turn distribute 50 percent of their share to village corporations in their regions. We work together to help each other.

This revenue sharing helped Calista make the investments that led to today’s business successes. Our Yulista holding line generated a record $400 million in revenue last year. Overall, Calista produced record revenues, net income, and shareholders’ equity in 2020.

Continuous learning and development in all we do is a corporate core value that aligns with the belief that we’ve been given ayuqucirtuutet (ah-yuu-go-JIHH-doo-det)—or instructions—since we were children. These instructions tell us how to live proper lives and succeed in our ventures.

As our business flourished, in 2007 our shareholders voted to begin annual Elder benefit payments to our shareholders. In 2015, shareholders again voted to extend the benefits they receive from Calista with our descendants by allowing them to enroll and receive stock shares.

As a result of that second vote, Calista now has more than 34,500 shareholders, more than any other Alaska Native corporation.

Due to open enrollment, shareholders like Will and Gregoria can enroll their children.

Russ Slaten | Calista Corporation

The late Nancy Edwards (left) and Bertha Andrew of Mekoryuk braiding herring.

Sue Gamache | Calista Corporation.

Due to open enrollment, shareholders like Will and Gregoria can enroll their children
Due to open enrollment, shareholders like Will and Gregoria can enroll their children.

Russ Slaten | Calista Corporation

The late Nancy Edwards (left) and Bertha Andrew of Mekoryuk braiding herring
The late Nancy Edwards (left) and Bertha Andrew of Mekoryuk braiding herring.

Sue Gamache | Calista Corporation.

Over the past year and a half, we have faced the worst pandemic in generations and hardships in many of our rural communities. This time of crisis calls us to hold fast to our core value of dedication and loyalty to our people and customers. It is vitally important to support our descendants and protect our Elders—our cultural bearers—so we can continue to look to them to guide the future of our business through the lens of tradition and culture.

To all who have advised, assisted, and supported Calista throughout our first fifty years, Quyana.

Andrew Guy is the president and CEO of Calista Corporation. He was born and raised in Napaskiak and grew up speaking Yup’ik.

Robert Beans is the Calista Corporation board chair, originally from Mountain Village. He is a veteran of the Alaska Army National Guard and serves as a member of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative board of directors.