Category: General ANCSA
The title and content of the series provide an analogy between the role of the whale in certain Alaska Native subsistence lifestyles, and the roles and responsibilities of the corporations created under ANCSA. Each tape in the ten part series begins with the following prayer by the Reverend Merculieff from St. George Island: "This land of Alaska, which thou gave to our ancestors who had come and gone before us, is now being handed to us a second time by the act of the United States Congress and our untiring efforts. A second chance is given to us by thee to be the new custodians and caretakers."
"That second chance began on December 18, 1971 when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act, ANCSA, a bill granting Alaska Natives 965.2 million dollars and nearly 44 million acres of land in exchange for extinguishing aboriginal claims to that land; an exchange that took years of difficult negotiations to get through Congress, and that is now taking years of difficult negotiations to implement. Imperfect as ANCSA may be, leaders involved in the fight for a settlement, generally agree that given the times, the bill is as good a solution to the land claims problem as could be negotiated."¹ Program 2 summarizes ANCSA provisions pertaining to land, corporations, and individuals, with interview segments featuring Morris Thompson (former BIA Commissioner); Willie Hensley (President of NANA Development Corporation; Chairman, United Bank Alaska); John Sackett (State Senator; Chairman of the Board, Doyon, Limited); and Lee Gorsuch (economic planner; Executive Director, University of Alaska Institute of Social & Economic Research). Topics include enrollment of corporate shareholders by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the difficulties involved in explaining and understanding the Act and the corporate structure in general, and how monies were distributed among villages and regions.
¹ McPherson, Karen Michel, The Corporate Whale, Program 2 of 10, (Fairbanks, AK: Educational Media Services, 1982).

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