December 18, 1971 – Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Signed Into Law

When the United States acquired the territory of Alaska in 1867, the treaty conveyed title to all public lands not held as “individual property.” The lands used by the “uncivilized” tribes were not regarded as individual property, and the treaty provided that those tribes would be subject to such laws and regulations as the United States might from time to time adopt with respect to aboriginal tribes. As a result, as the American Bar Association noted in “Tribes and Self-Determination in Alaska”:

. . . the result for Alaska Natives was a unique act that (1) extinguished aboriginal title of the tribal villages to some 365 million acres, (2) authorized transfer of some 45 million acres to state-chartered Alaska Native village and regional corporations, and (3) “comp­­ensated” those corporations in the amount of $962.5 million for “extinguishment” of aboriginal title. How­ever, neither the land nor the money went to the tribes.”

In the Organic Act of May 17, 1884, 23 Stat. 24 Congress provided that Natives “should not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or then claimed by them, but that the terms under which such persons could acquire title to such lands were reserved for future legislation by Congress.”

25 Largest Tribal Groupings Among American Indians and Alaska Natives

House Report No. 92-523 (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971) stated:

The Committee found no principle in law or history, or in simple fairness, which provides clear guidance as to where the line should be drawn for the purpose of confirming or denying title to public lands in Alaska to the Alaskan Natives. The lands are public lands of the United States. The Natives have a claim to some of the lands. They ask that their claim be settled by conveying to them title to some of the lands, and by paying them for the extinguishment of their claim to the balance.

As a matter of equity, there are two additional factors that must be considered. When the State of Alaska was admitted into the Union in 1958, the new State was authorized to select and obtain title to more than 103,000,000 acres of the public lands. These lands were regarded as essential to the economic viability of the State. The conflicting interests of the Natives and the State in the selection of these lands need to be reconciled. The discovery of oil on the North Slope intensified this conflict. A second factor is the interest of all of the people of the Nation in the wise use of the public lands. This involves a judgment about how much of the public lands in Alaska should be transferred to private ownership, and how much should be retained in the public domain.”

Prior to the Native Claims Settlement Act, Congress had not acted on titles claimed by Alaskan natives. Moreover, laws enacted regarding Indian lands were at first considered to Alaska Natives. This concept of the Alaska natives’ Federal status was gradually revised, however, so that by 1932 the Interior Department declared the Alaska natives to have the same status as Indians in the rest of the United States. (For further analysis of the status of Alaska natives vis-a-vis Indian tribes, see the Congressional Research Service report, “Supreme Court Holds Alaska Native Corporations Are ‘Indian Tribes’ Entitled to CARES Act Funds,” online here. See also the report of the Congressional Research Service, “Alaska Native Lands and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA): Overview and Selected Issues for Congress,” December 22, 2021, online here.)

The Alaska Statehood Act basically kept the situation regarding aboriginal claims in status quo.

On this day in history, Public Law 92-203, the “Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act,” (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Nixon. The law, the largest land claims settlement in U.S. history, was enacted by Congress to settle the claims of Alaska’s native Indian Aleut and Eskimo population to aboriginal title to the land they occupied for generations. By this act, Alaska Natives gained title to 44 million acres of historically used land in Alaska. The U.S. government paid $962.5 million in “compensation” so that Natives would not claim any title to the remaining land in the state. (Natives would be paid $462,500,000 over an eleven-year period from funds in the United States Treasury, an additional $500,000,000 from mineral revenues received from lands in Alaska, and from the remaining Federal lands in Alaska, other than Naval Petroleum Reserve Numbered 4.) Funds were assigned to 12 Native regional corporations and over 200 local village corporations. A 13th regional corporation headquartered in Seattle was later created for Alaska Natives who no longer resided in Alaska.

Furthermore, the act allowed for reserving easements on lands to be conveyed to Alaska Native Village and Regional Corporations in order to allow public access to public land and water. Federal Regulations, 43 CFR 2650.4-7, provide guidelines to be used in reserving easements in conveyance documents.

As of 2022, some 15.7 of Alaska’s population identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, alone or in combination, the highest share for this racial origin group of any state.

You can read the entire text of the act and legislative history here.