Residents join campaign to amend Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

Native people in Haines have joined a new effort to amend the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

Native Alaskans in five communities—Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee Springs and Wrangell—say they were unfairly excluded from the act. ANCSA gave 44 million acres of land and nearly $1 billion to Native communities statewide, creating 200 village and 12 regional Native corporations. The fight to amend ANCSA has spanned five decades. 

According to Alaska Natives Without Land,…