But in a recent lecture in Juneau, Sealaska director and former CEO Byron Mallott says the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is a work in progress.
Mallott kicked off Sealaska Heritage Institute’s annual Native American History Month lecture series last week, by calling the landmark piece of federal legislation “unfinished business.”
Sealaska is one of 12 regional Native corporations created by ANCSA in 1971. Each received land to settle the various aboriginal claims of Alaska Native people. The settlement also included compensation of nearly a billion dollars that was split between the companies. A thirteenth corporation was later formed for so-called “landless Natives.”
Mallott hopes ANCSA will be amended in the future to allow land swaps between Native corporations, tribes, and the federal government.
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Casey Kelly is a reporter at KTOO in Juneau.
