Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)

What happened

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) became law on December 18, 1971. Its findings say there was "an immediate need for a fair and just settlement of all claims by Natives and Native groups of Alaska, based on aboriginal land claims." They add that the settlement should come "rapidly, with certainty" and "without litigation," and "without creating a reservation system or lengthy wardship or trusteeship."

Section 4 (43 U.S.C. 1603) is the extinguishment clause: "All aboriginal titles, if any, and claims of aboriginal title in Alaska based on use and occupancy, including submerged land underneath all water areas, both inland and offshore, and including any aboriginal hunting or fishing rights that may exist, are hereby extinguished." It also ends claims based on any statute or treaty relating to Native use and occupancy, including claims pending before courts or the Indian Claims Commission.

In return, the Supreme Court's summary in Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie (1998) says ANCSA revoked the Venetie Reservation and all but one of the other Native reserves, and authorized transferring $962.5 million and about 44 million acres of land to state-chartered private business corporations formed by Alaska Natives. Those corporations received fee simple title, with no federal restrictions on later transfers.

That structure mattered later. In Venetie the Court held that the Tribe's former reservation land, which ANCSA conveyed to its corporations and they then transferred to the Tribe, was not "Indian country," so the Tribe could not tax a non-member contractor.

Good to know. The $962.5 million and 44 million acre figures are as the Supreme Court described the Act.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error