ANCSA at 30

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is milestone legislation that affects all Alaska Natives and all Alaskans. ANCSA at 30 contains edited excerpts of interviews and events featuring original participants reflecting upon the 30 years since the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.. LitSite Alaska would like to express gratitude to the Alaska Humanities Forum, the University of Alaska Anchorage, UAA Department of Alaska Native Studies, and UAA Native Student Services for providing necessary funding to produce the tapes and transcripts.

Special thanks also to Chancellor E. Lee Gorsuch, Alaska Native Studies Professors Dr. Jeanne Eder, Irene Rowan, and Edgar Blatchford, UAA Native Student Services Director Willy Templeton, Tom Richards, and UAA Alaska Native Studies Administrative Assistant Penny Golden.

Below find links to transcripts of interviews, events, and lectures commemorating 30 years since the passage of ANCSA.

Interviews

Interviews were conducted by Sharon McConnell, executive director of Blueberry Productions, Inc., and Ronald Spatz, project director of LitSite Alaska.
    • Nels Anderson, Jr.  Former deputy director, RurALCAP; former CEO, Bristol Bay Native Corporation
      Borbridge

      John Borbridge
      Hensley

      Willie Hensley
    • John Borbridge  Former president, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska; Former vice president, AFN; former president and chairman of the Board, Sealaska Corporation
    • Margie Brown  Former senior vice president; CIRI Land Exchange, Inc.; former director, The CIRI Foundation
    • Mike Gravel  Former United States senator representing Alaska
    • John Havelock  Former attorney general, State of Alaska
    • Willie Hensley  Author of “What Rights to Land Have the Alaska Natives"; founder, NANA Regional Corporation; founder, Maniilaq; former president of AFN
    • Walter Hickel  Secretary of the Interior for President Nixon, former governor of Alaska
    • Sam Kito  Former chairman, AFN; former president, Fairbanks Native Association; former vice president, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc.; former vice president, Doyon, Inc.
    • Albert Kookesh  Current member, Alaska Legislature
    • Janie Leask  Former president, AFN
    • Byron Mallott  Original participant, president and CEO, First Alaskans Foundation
    • Guy Martin  Former CEO, Sealaska; former congressional aide
    • Emil Notti  Former president, AFN; former commissioner, Alaska Department of Community and Rural Affairs
      Petrivelli

      Alice Petrivelli
    • Alice Petrivelli  Former president and current chair, The Aleut Corporation
    • John Shively  Former vice president, AFN; former chief operating officer, NANA Development Corporation
    • Joseph Upicksoun  Former president, Arctic Slope Native Association; board member, AFN
    • William Van Ness, Jr.  Former chief counsel to the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee under Senator Henry Jackson
    • Esther Wunnicke  Contributor to the Federal Field Committee’s “Alaska Natives and the Land”
    • C. Robert Zelnick  Former reporter for Anchorage Daily News, former national correspondent for ABC News.

    Interviews were conducted by Willy Templeton, director of Native Student Services, University of Alaska Anchorage.
    • Marlene Johnson Former member of the Tlingit-Haida executive committee for the Tlingit-Haida Centra Council; one of incorporators of Sealaska and former chairman of the Sealaska board.
    • Nettie Peratrovich Involved in Fairbanks Native Association and then, in Washington, D.C., with Alaskans on the Potomac and the Johnson O'Malley program.
    • Irene Rowan Former president of Klukwan, Inc. and member of Alaskans on the Potomac, which provided volunteer services to Alaska Natives traveling to Washington to work on ANCSA.
    • Robert Rude Past president and executive director of the Cook Inlet Native Association and founder of the Cook Inlet Housing Authority.
    • Tom Richards, Jr. Past president of Alaskans on the Potomac, former Tundra Times editor and a staff officer in the 1970s and '80s for tribal organizations in the Alaska Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Celebration Events

Notti

Emil Notti

    Hosted by Alaska Pacific University

Emcees: Edgar Blatchford, Irene Rowan

Speakers: Dr. Douglas North, Byron Mallott, Albert Kookesh, Jim LaBelle, Willie Hensley, Julie Kitka, Emil Notti, Walter Hickel

    Hosted by the Alaska Native Heritage Center

Emcees: Jack Zayan, Gloria O’Neil

Speakers: Willie Hensley, Adam Kroto, Julie Kitka, Barbara Donatelli, Marie Nash, E. Lee Gorsuch

    Hosted by Commonwealth North

Moderator: E. Lee Gorsuch

Speakers: Byron Mallott, Julie Kitka, Matthew Nicolai, Willie Hensley

Lecture Series

    Lecture One

Moderator: Tom Richards

Panelists: Nels Anderson, Jr., Mike Gravel, Joe Upicksoun, C. Robert Zelnick

    

Leask

Janie Leask

    Lecture Two

Moderator: Tom Richards

Panelists: John Borbridge, Esther Wunnicke, John Havelock, Emil Notti

    Lecture Three

Moderator: Tom Richards

Panelists: Sam Kito, Janie Leask, John Shively, Guy Martin

    Lecture Four

Moderator: Tom Richards

Panelists: Willie Hensley, Mary Kapsner, E. Lee Gorsuch, William Van Ness