One Land. One Voice. One People.
Fifty years ago, five Southeast Alaska Native communities were excluded from the largest land claims settlement in U.S. history. We advocate for the restoration of ancestral homelands and work to reunite Southeast Alaska Native people with lands they have stewarded since time immemorial.
A generation is long enough.
ANCSA & Its Impact
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 was a pivotal piece of national legislation that redefined economic sovereignty and community resilience for Alaska Natives by returning land to Indigenous stewardship. Our goal is to amend ANCSA to ensure recognition of five Southeast Alaska Native communities that were excluded from the land settlement, providing the opportunity for them to grow and thrive like their neighbors.
“The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act will remain unfinished until the five landless communities are recognized.”
Why were they excluded?
In 1993, the U.S. Congress requested an in-depth study of why these communities were left out of the 1971 ANCSA settlement, and it was concluded that there was no legitimate reason why Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee or Wrangell were excluded.
Each landless community has demonstrated the required longstanding history of occupation, much like their neighboring relatives.
What do these communities have in common with other Alaska Native villages in Southeast that were approved?
