State Land Selection

Between 1959 and 1966, the State of Alaska began to select the 104 million acres granted to it in the Statehood Act. The state wished to select resource-rich lands to stimulate economic development. But Native communities protested many of the selections. Leaders such as Howard Rock and Al Ketzler traveled to Native villages, warning them of the threat of the state selecting lands they considered theirs and urging them to file protest claims.

By 1966, more land was under protest than the total number of acres in the state. This was possible because many Native claims overlapped. When things seemed to be out of control, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, stopped the state land selection process. At that time, the state had received provisional title to about 12 million acres. With the state waiting for the title to 92 million more acres, state officials were anxious to find a settlement on Native land claims.

The unresolved questions about land ownership stymied planning for economic development. New businesses could not invest without a clear title to the land they were interested in. This became a monumental problem when the largest oil field in North America was discovered at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coast. To get the oil to market, a pipeline needed to be built. But the unresolved Native land claims were an obstacle to moving forward with the project. After leaving the issue of Native land unresolved for over a century, events now created the motivation to solve the problem.

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