Category: Land Use/Planning
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."
"...In the ten years since President Nixon signed the act into law, less than one half of the land guaranteed to village and regional corporations set up to manage the land and money, has been conveyed...Agency representatives and Native corporation leaders will give their perspectives on the lands aspect of the Land Claims Settlement."¹ Interview segments include perspectives of Native leaders Dennis Tiepelman (Kotzebue; Alaska Federation of Natives Washington Representative), Emil Notti (first President, Alaska Federation of Natives); Nelson Angapak (Vice President, Calista); also comments by Senator Ted Stevens, Judy Brady (Administrative Law Judge of the Alaska Native Claims Appeal Board), and Bob Arnold (Assistant State Director for Conveyance Managment, Bureau of Land Management). Topics include land ownership and traditional views, distribution of land among village and regional corporations, the Bureau of Land Management's role in the land conveyance process, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (also referred to as: d(2); ANILCA; Alaska Lands Bill).
¹ McPherson, Karen Michel, The Corporate Whale, Program 4 of 10, (Fairbanks, AK: Educational Media Services, 1982).

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