Recognition and Compensation for Southeast Alaska Native Communities
This act aims to rectify the historical omission of five Southeast Alaska Native communities, allowing them to form urban corporations and receive land. This will grant community members land rights and corporate shares, potentially impacting their finances and local development. These lands will remain accessible for public recreational use, subject to certain restrictions.
Key points
Five Southeast Alaska Native communities (Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, Wrangell) will gain the right to form their own urban corporations.
Each corporation will receive approximately 23,040 acres of federal land as compensation for their previous exclusion from a settlement program.
Community members who become shareholders in these corporations will receive 100 shares and retain eligibility for distributions from regional corporations.
The conveyed lands will remain open for public recreational uses, such as hunting and fishing, subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by the corporations.
The act also provides for the establishment of settlement trusts to promote the health, education, and welfare of beneficiaries, and to preserve Native heritage and culture.
Expired
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