| Summary: | This commissioned report was prepared at the request of the Hon. Thomas Berger, who led the Alaska Native Review Commission. The Commission was created by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to review the implementation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). ANCSA was created to settle land claims in Alaska in the aftermath of the Alaskan oil pipeline, and it created Native corporate structures for land and regional governance. Given Alaska Native village life this was not a workable framework for many needs of villagers and local governments, especially their diverse use of lands and their need to protect them. My report was on those aspects of the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement which were designed to protect and enhance Cree hunting society and economy. It was presented in a Commission workshop in Anchorage, and it set out some of the alternatives that might be considered in subsequent renegotiations of ANCSA. The Alaska Native Claims Commission’s report, recommending changes, some of which were later put into place via new agreements, was published as: Berger, Thomas R. 1985 (Republished 1995). Village Journey, the Report of the Alaska Native Review Commission. New York: Hill & Wang. During the negotiation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) the protection of the Cree and Inuit hunting economies, lands and societies was viewed as an objective requiring the simultaneous accomplishment of several tasks, most importantly: a) the definition and recognition of rights of Indigenous hunters; b) the specification of the relative standing of those rights vis-a-vis other rights to the wildlife resources and the land; c) the establishment of wildlife management procedures and administrations to coordinate the various groups with rights and roles in the management of the wildlife and land resources; d) the means to protect the wildlife resources from the impacts of industrial developments and competing users; and e) means to assure that Indigenous hunters have the cash ...
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