Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act authorized Alaska Natives to select and receive title to 44 million acres of public land in Alaska, and $962,000,000 in cash as settlement of their aboriginal claim to land in the State. The Act established a system of village and regional Native corporations to manage the lands and cash payments, and made extensive provisions regarding the operations of the 13 regional Native corporations and 220 village corporations. During the time ANCSA was passed nearly 80,000 Alaska Natives were alive on December 18, 1971, who could participate. Most of those affected by the act were in Alaska, but about 20,000 people lived in the Lower 48 and even other parts of the world.