Native Land and Government

Up until the 1930s, the primary goal of federal policy toward Alaskan Natives was to assimilate them into white American culture. However, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, this started to change. In 1936, the Indian Reorganization Act created local political status for Alaskan Natives. Under this law, Native villages could adopt constitutions for self-government. From the 1930s to the 1950s, about 70 villages set up Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) constitutions and village governments.

During this time, questions of what land belonged to Alaskan Natives intensified. In decisions dating back to the early 1800s, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the idea of "aboriginal title" to lands. The Organic Act of 1884 stated that Alaskan Natives "shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually occupied, used or claimed by them." 

But what land actually belonged to Alaskan Natives was never defined. No treaties had been made with Alaska Natives. The only reservation in Alaska was one created at Metlakatla in 1891 to allow a group of Tsimshiam from Canada to settle on Annette Island. It remains the only Native reservation in Alaska today.

The Secretary of the Interior under Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, was impressed with the Metlakatla reservation and wanted to establish more in Alaska.  His goal was to preserve the traditional land and economic rights of Alaskan Native communities. The pro-reservation stand by Ickes led to much political conflict among Natives, as well as in the political bodies in Alaska and Washington, D.C. Many years of bureaucratic fighting and court suits followed as the debates raised issues of aboriginal land rights. There was also a controversy about whether as much as one-third to one-half of Alaskan land would become "off-limits" to white settlers and to economic development in the 100 reservations that were proposed. The fishing industry opposed reservations, as did Gov. Ernest Gruening and the territory's businesses. In the end, the proposed reservation policy did not succeed, and none were created.

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