Southeast Alaska’s regional Native corporation will distribute close to $11 million to its shareholders Nov. 17.
Juneau-headquartered Sealaska announced the distribution Oct. 27.
Payments will range from $596 to $186 for those with 100 shares. The amount depends on the class of shareholder and other factors.
Sealaska has 22,950 shareholders living in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.
Operational income will make up $1 per share of the payments. That includes revenues from recently purchased fish processing plants, as well as timber and gravel operations, plus government contracting.
Officials said the amount demonstrates progress in developing its corporate businesses.
“We expect the operations dividend payment to nearly double due to continued growth in net income and cash flow. This will be the first increase in an operations dividend over the last five years,” board Chairman Joe Nelson said in a press release.
Sealaska’s Permanent Fund investment account makes up 86 cents per share.
The largest source, at $4.10 per share, is a pool of natural resource earnings from all 12 regional Native corporations.
Shareholders who are also members of an urban Native corporation, such as Juneau’s Goldbelt, will get the full dividend of $596 for those with 100 shares. That includes the resource pool earnings.
Those who are also members of village Native corporations, such as Kake Tribal, receive $133 for those with 100 shares. They do not include the resource pool earnings. Those go to the village corporation.
Recently enrolled shareholders’ dependents also receive the smaller payments.
Ed Schoenfeld is Regional News Director for CoastAlaska, a consortium of public radio stations in Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg and Wrangell.
He primarily covers Southeast Alaska regional topics, including the state ferry system, transboundary mining, the Tongass National Forest and Native corporations and issues.
He has also worked as a manager, editor and reporter for the Juneau Empire newspaper and Juneau public radio station KTOO. He’s also reported for commercial station KINY in Juneau and public stations KPFA in Berkley, WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and WUHY in Philadelphia. He’s lived in Alaska since 1979 and is a contributor to Alaska Public Radio Network newscasts, the Northwest (Public Radio) News Network and National Native News. He is a board member of the Alaska Press Club. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he lives in Douglas.
