The ANCSA Amendments of 1987 and land management in Alaska

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Flanders, Nicholas E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1989
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Polar Record; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400019501; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400019501

Abstract The original Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, passed in 1971, gave Alaska Native corporations fee simple title to 18 million hectares of Alaskan land. Within a few years of its passage, however, Alaska Natives grew concerned that this land would be lost through mismanagement of the corporations or forced into development by property taxation. Because large numbers of Alaska Natives depend upon subsistence hunting and fishing, the loss of the land, or its use for activities incompatible with subsistence, could have been devastating. Amendments of 1987 (PL 100–241) protect Native corporation land by placing all undeveloped land in a land bank and allowing for the formation of ‘Settlement Trusts“. More importantly, Congress recognized that the Native subsistence economy and culture are significant factors in the management of Native lands.