Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-543_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 6

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

attempt  in  Alaska  to  isolate  Indians  on  reservations,”  as
there had been in the lower 48 States.  Metlakatla Indian 
Community, 369 U. S., at 51.  As a consequence, the claims
of Alaska Natives to Alaskan land remained largely unset-
tled even following Alaska’s admission to the Union as our 
49th State in 1959.1  See Alaska Statehood Act, §4, 72 Stat. 
339; Sturgeon, 577 U. S., at 429. 

That changed in 1971 with the Alaska Native Claims Set-
tlement  Act  (ANCSA).   85  Stat.  688,  43  U. S. C.  §1601 
et seq.  ANCSA officially dispensed with the idea of recreat-
ing in Alaska the system of reservations that prevailed in 
the lower 48 States.  It extinguished Alaska Natives’ claims 
to  land  and  hunting  rights  and  revoked  all  but  one  of 
Alaska’s existing reservations.  §1610.  In exchange, “Con-
gress authorized the transfer of $962.5 million in state and 
federal funds and approximately 44 million acres of Alaska 
land to state-chartered private business corporations that 
were to be formed pursuant to” ANCSA.  Native Village of 
Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U. S., at 524.  These corpo-
rations are called ANCs. 

Relevant  here,  ANCs  come  in  two  varieties:  regional 
ANCs and village ANCs.  To form the regional ANCs, the
Act directed the Secretary of the Interior to divide Alaska
into 12 geographic regions.  §1606(a).  Within each region, 

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1 There were some exceptions.  Congress created by statute two Alaska 
Native  reservations:  the  Annette  Islands  Reserve  in  1891  and  the 
Klukwan Reserve in 1957.  See Act of Mar. 3, 1891, §15, 26 Stat. 1101; 
Act  of  Sept.  2,  1957,  Pub.  L.  85–271,  71  Stat.  596.    Under  the  1936 
Amendment to the Indian Reorganization Act, ch. 254, 49 Stat. 1250, six
further reservations were formed.  See Letter from T. Sansonetti, Solici-
tor of the U. S. Dept. of Interior, to M. Lujan, Jr., Secretary of Interior 33
(Jan. 11, 1993).  Alaska also saw the creation of certain “executive order 
reserves,”  which  were  more  limited  in  purpose  and  scope  and,  like  all
reserves in Alaska besides the Annette Islands Reserve, were ultimately
revoked by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).  See gen-
erally D. Case & D. Voluck, Alaska Natives and Americans Laws 85–112 
(3d ed. 2012).