ifty years ago, as the Watergate scandal swirled around then-President Richard Nixon, he signed into law the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). It was the largest land claims settlement in the nation’s history and a stark departure from agreements forced on Tribes in the Lower 48.

“While each region is different, each region can point to their own localized successes. In a general sense, ANCSA stitched together the Alaska Native communities and created a shared identity that has afforded our peoples a mechanism to come together to utilize and protect our collective land and other assets for the benefit of future generations,” says Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) President and CEO Rex A. Rock Sr.

The discovery of significant oil resources in Prudhoe Bay and the desire to bring the newly found wealth to market via what would eventually be the Trans Alaska Pipeline System created an urgency at the federal level to resolve unsettled Native claims and secure land for the project. The origins of these claims dated back to the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, despite Alaska Natives’ protests that it wasn’t Russia’s land to sell.

“It would never happen if we had the ability to build that pipeline without their [Alaska Natives’] okay. That was a driving force,” says Congressman Don Young, who was sworn in two years after the passage of the legislation.

“I think it’s one of the better pieces of legislation that ever came out of Congress. I call it breakthrough legislation: instead of a reservation, it was an onset of a profit corporation. And, I think, it’s one of the greatest success stories.”

“Looking back, it is incredible to realize the effort that it took to pass such a massive piece of legislation. In a time before internet, cell phones, accessible mass transportation, and communication—and in the partisan framework we are working within today—such an accomplishment might not have happened,” Murkowski says.

ANCSA did not follow the reservation system generally applied in the Lower 48, in which Native American nations were given limited Tribal sovereignty while the land they were often forced to relocate to was held in trust by the Department of Interior.

Instead, ANCSA created twelve geographical regions in Alaska and mandated the creation of twelve corresponding for-profit Alaska Native corporations (ANCs). Additionally, the legislation created more than 200 for-profit Alaska Native village corporations. All corporations were privately owned and have remained separate from publicly traded companies.

The shareholders of these corporations were required to be Alaska Natives who met a one-quarter blood quorum or fall under an exception. They were added to a corporation’s roll, which was then submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“The historical intent of ANCSA was to move away from unsuccessful Lower 48 federal Indian policies and structures. ANCSA diverged from the Lower 48 governance triangle model that afforded Tribes economic, social, and sovereign accountability and authority over their financial strength, lands, and members under a federal trustee model,” Rock says.

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

The purpose of the Act was the conveyance of land for social and economic well-being, explains Young. ANCs selected more than 44 million acres of land and received about $1 billion in compensation for lost lands.

“Maybe the biggest thing that the land claims in Alaska represents is the deviation from the United States norm in how they treat indigenous ownerships,” says internationally renowned Alaska Native artist Perry Eaton, who was the founding president and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, served on the Koniag board for more than fifteen years, and spent seventeen years as the CEO of Alaska Village Initiatives, among other endeavors.

It makes ANCSA one of the largest social experiments in the 20th century, Eaton says. The Act ended up forwarding the concept of economic integration instead of the social integration placed on Tribes in the Lower 48.

“The different model was not only built on a westernized corporate front, but it was also built on the ownership of ancestral and indigenous lands,” Bristol Bay Native Corporation President and CEO Jason Metrokin says.

Ahtna, Incorporated Chairman Ken Johns, who was a senior in high school at the time ANCSA was passed, says the lands selection process for Ahtna—which ended up being more than 1 million acres of surface and subsurface rights—was a vital step in ensuring the economic and cultural wellbeing of the newly formed corporation’s shareholders.

“We haven’t received all our entitlement yet. That’s been a very slow process,” Johns says.

About 36 million of the promised 44 million acres have been conveyed. Ahtna alone is waiting on about 180,000 acres of land to be transferred over. Other corporations unknowingly selected federal lands that were contaminated, which further delayed conveyance.

“Some of the land they chose, because it was in the proximity of their selection, was actually ex-military sites,” Young says. “And I’ve been fighting the battle ever since: either we clean it up, or we transfer it to the corporations without any liability.”

A 2016 Bureau of Land Management report identified 920 contaminated sites conveyed to ANCSA landowners, based on data collected by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and several federal agencies.

“It’s important to recognize the work of Senator Ted Stevens and Congressman Young at the time when ANCs were first established. They were our seat at the table. They were advocating on behalf of Alaska Native people, and our rights, and our land base, alongside those early leaders,” Metrokin says. “They were our champions while we were developing our own champions.”

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

“ANCSA was my baptism of fire as a Senator from Alaska… With my experience working in the Department of the Interior and with the Statehood Act, and my faith in the determination and unity of purpose of Alaska’s Native people, I believed from the beginning that a settlement could be achieved… My memories of the Congressional action as ANCSA took shape aren’t of a battle as much as they are of long hours of tough, hard negotiating, often two steps forward and one step back.”

In the fifty years since the passing of ANCSA, ANC voices have grown stronger.

“We’ve come into our own after fifty years. We have the ability to create a seat at the table, whether it’s in Washington D.C. or down in Juneau,” Metrokin says, adding that he is still appreciative of the work Alaska’s delegation does in the interest of Alaska Natives.

Current leadership at many ANCs are quick to pass credit back to those early leaders who laid the foundations they now stand on.

Rock says that the same cultural qualities that sustained Alaska Native people for thousands of years have allowed them to succeed in a corporate setting.

“Our eternal drive to serve, provide opportunities, protect our families and communities—as well as the wisdom to acquire expertise and the determination to forge new boundaries—drove our success,” Rock says.

“Hindsight is always 20/20. There have been a number of amendments to ANCSA over the past fifty years that have improved the Act,” Murkowski says.

She also points out that there are many more amendments that still need to be made.

“As we approach the fifty-year anniversary of the Act, this is a discussion I would like to help facilitate with leaders and stakeholders in Alaska to help improve the Act for the next fifty years,” Murkowski says.

Rock explains that the “beauty of ANCSA” is that it continues to evolve.

“Initially, ANCSA failed to adequately address the relationships amongst and between ANCs and Tribes regarding the US Federal Government. The separation of economic accountability and land title from inherently governmental functions and sovereignty caused a rift between Alaska Native corporations and Alaska Native Tribes for decades. Only now are we seeing an effort to minimize discord and focus on a more united Alaska Native community,” Rock says.

Some of the most significant amendments to ANCSA came in 1988, though they didn’t take effect until 1991, leading to them commonly being called the 1991 Amendments. These changes, among other things, afforded ANCs the ability to expand shareholder eligibility through a process known as open enrollment.

The amendment was necessary for the “preservation and perpetuation of birth-right assets, cultural identity, and the sheer opportunity to survive as Alaska Native peoples,” Rock says.

“Consistent with our Iñupiaq values, ASRC was the first corporation to exercise its option to enroll those born after December 18, 1971 and provide those enrollees with the same rights and benefits as the original enrollees,” Rock says.

“Without these amendments, there would be generations of Alaska Natives disenfranchised from their region, assets, and the contemporary bond shareholder status provides Alaska Natives. Although not all the regions have exercised this option, that is one more upside to ANCSA’s potential: self-determination.”

Karen Fredrick

While 1991 marked significant amendments taking effect, smaller changes to the legislation have happened somewhat regularly.

“It was a negotiation made between Alaska Native leaders and the federal government fifty years ago,” Metrokin says. “There’s potential that future amendments can be made.”

One issue that Ahtna’s Johns is fighting to address is that Alaska Natives don’t have sovereignty over their subsistence lifestyle on their lands.

“We weren’t given the authority to manage our own lands in regard to hunting and fishing,” John says, noting that the original Ahtna board had selected lands based on their people’s subsistence needs. “That’s one of the high priorities for Ahtna.”

“This was a contentious issue at the time that could not be adequately resolved prior to passage. It was meant to be resolved after passage, but fifty years later Alaska Native people are still fighting for the right to practice their traditional subsistence ways of life,” Murkowski says.

Ahtna, Incorporated

“The passage of ANCSA enabled the State of Alaska to move forward with its development of the oil and gas resources within Prudhoe Bay and ancillary fields. ANCSA single-handedly allowed for significant economic growth in the State of Alaska,” Rock says.

“Absent a land claims settlement, the State of Alaska would not have the infrastructure, skilled labor force, or economic foundation it has today. ANCSA meant security and certainty for the State of Alaska and the United States of America.”

The establishment of a revenue sharing system between the regional and village corporations that was built into the original Act contributed to how the success of ANCs has “spread the wealth” throughout the state.

Young explains that he is working on pushing back at federal regulations that limit or hamper the development of natural resources on ANC lands that were provided to the corporations for the social and economic benefit of their shareholders.

“We have such a huge piece of the land, and it is resource rich land, if particular corporations chose to go in that direction and develop those, the sky’s the limit,” says Gana-A’Yoo CEO Dena Sommer-Pedebone. “The greatest success of the Act, I feel, is the economic sustainability that it provides to Alaska Native people.”

Metrokin points out that ANCs, which represent the largest private landowners in Alaska, are also an industry in and of themselves.

“We employ over 1,000 Alaskans and many more outside of Alaska. We provide opportunities for our shareholders, whether it’s employment-based, educational-based, or other services,” Metrokin says. “We are an economic driver.”

Alaska Business’ Top 10 49ers list in 2020, in which Alaskan-owned companies are ranked by revenue, was dominated by regional and village ANCs. ASRC was at the top, followed closely by Bristol Bay Native Corporation and NANA Regional Corporation. Transportation and shipping company Lynden was the only non-ANC to make the Top 5 short list.

“This is time for us, regional corporations, to tell our history,” Johns says. “It’s not the explorers. It’s not the miners. It’s not the Russians. That’s not our history. Our history extends back to a very proud nation that provided for ourselves and provided for humanity.”

He says that without knowing the history and the battles that Alaska Natives fought, it’s hard for the next generation of leaders to know what to fight for.

“I think the elders instilled in our mind that the land was the most precious gems out of this, you can lose the money, but don’t lose the land,” Johns advises.

Eaton points out that the lands conveyed to ANCs are what are known as “fee simple titled,” which in American culture serves the goal of commerce.

“Everybody knows that land values, over time, only go up,” Eaton says. “So here we are in Alaska, where that model of land movement is controlled by corporations that have a tremendous ethnic, cultural value system in place today.”

An increased pressure to monetize ANC lands, perhaps at the cost of subsistence opportunities, could be one of several points of conflict for shareholders, Eaton explains.

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

Department of the Interior | Ted Stevens Foundation

Reinhard Mueller, an executive with Gana-A’Yoo, points out that Sommer-Pedebone is part of a new generation of ANC leaders who were born after ANCSA came into effect and have the advantage of growing up in a world where the responsibilities and functionality of ANCs was established.

These are “leaders that could go toe-to-toe with any of her peers in any US business,” Mueller says.

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

Ahtna, Incorporated

“We set our annual plans and our long-term plans, but we’re really thinking generations down the road. We want to be around in perpetuity,” Metrokin says.

For Bristol Bay Native Corporation—and others—2020 was one of the most challenging years they’d faced due to the widespread impacts of the pandemic.

“But it’s also been the most exciting. The world is changing at a very rapid pace, whether it’s technology or social issues, investment opportunities, or access to capital,” Metrokin says. “And we have enough of a track record of success behind us that people want to do business with us.”

While many ANCs have created strong reputations for themselves in the business world with their robust Alaska foundation and a presence outside of the state, ANCSA is still relatively young legislation.

“Along the timeline of Alaska Native history, fifty years is a short timeframe upon which to judge success. I believe we have yet to see the true potential of ANCSA realized because it is a living law that is constantly evolving,” Rock says.

“ANCSA was an experiment whose results are not fully realized to date.”