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The Wilderness Society, a conservation group, has made a significant shift in its position and now supports a bill that would create five new Alaska Native corporations in Southeast Alaska. The society historically opposed the creation of these new corporations, but now backs Senate Bill 1889 and House Bill 4748, known as the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act.
The purpose of these bills is to rectify the omission of five Native communities from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which transferred funds and land to Native corporations. The Wilderness Society’s senior regional director for Alaska, Karlin Itchoak, stated that this shift in position is long overdue and a significant step toward correcting injustices against Alaska Native communities in the region.
The society’s senior specialist for Alaska, Meda DeWitt, emphasized the importance of amending the act and reuniting these communities with their ancestral lands for cultural survival and prosperity. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who sponsored the bill, expressed her pleasure at the Wilderness Society’s reversal of opposition and commended them for their apology to the affected communities.
The society’s new position has also garnered support from Richard Tashee Rinehart Jr., a Tlingit advocate for the bill, and has received neutral stances from other environmental organizations such as the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Sierra Club, and EarthJustice.
The reasons for these communities being left out of the 1971 settlement act remain unclear, but the Wilderness Society has issued an apology for its past opposition and is now advocating for the funding of the newly formed corporations to avoid reliance on extractive industries. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Natural Resources Committee for further consideration.
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