Alaska Natives Without Land begin organizing volunteer efforts

Back at the end of August of this year, Alaska Natives Without Land visited Wrangell to hold a presentation on their organization and mission. The group represents five Alaska Native communities in Wrangell, Petersburg, Haines, Ketchikan, and Tenakee Springs. According to their website, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed in 1971. This returned 44 million acres of land and $963 million to 13 newly organized native corporations. However, for no discernible reason according to a 1993 study by Congress and the University of Alaska, these five native communities were left out of the ANCSA. Alaska Natives Without Land is working to get these landless communities recognized and some of their traditional homeland restored to them. One such way they are doing so is by working to introduce a bill in Congress to amend the ANCSA.

"As you know things on capitol hill are a little hectic right now," said Campaign and Volunteer Coordinator Todd Antioqiua. "We had hoped that we would have had our legislation introduced by now, but there's been some distractions. Nothing in relation to our legislation, but we're still very hopeful. The delegation continues to assure us they will introduce sometime soon, I'm hoping maybe January."

Antioquia iterated several times throughout the meeting that this was only a rough schedule, they were not certain when the Alaska delegation would introduce the bill. Ahead of introducing this legislation, Alaska Natives Without Land has been working to demonstrate how much support they have across the five communities they represent. They have been doing so by hosting meetings, getting letters of support signed, and growing their online following. They are now also working on coordinating grassroots volunteers to go to solicit support from local businesses.

Among the packets Alaska Natives Without Land plans to send to volunteers is a FAQ sheet about their mission and goals, a letter of support for local businesses to sign, and other items. According to a Google Drive document Antioqiua shared during the meeting, they identified about 110 Wrangell businesses the volunteers could talk about supporting. He added that the volunteers would know Wrangell better than they do, so the list might hold inaccurate information or businesses that no longer exist. The rest of the meeting was spent discussing which businesses were native-owned, and how best to divide them amongst the volunteers present.

To learn more about Alaska Natives Without Land, visit http://www.withoutland.org. Antioqiua can be reached at todd@withoutland.org.