Issue Position: Alaska Natives and Rural Areas

Issue Position

Alaska has more indigenous people as a percentage of our state's total population than any other state in the Union. Alaska Native people, descendants of the original Aleut, Eskimo, and Indian peoples that lived in Alaska, live in every community in the state. Alaskans continue to maintain a traditional subsistence way of life in the rural communities across Alaska, also known as "bush Alaska."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs recognizes more than 225 tribes in Alaska. Tribal consortia at the regional and statewide level, as well as the tribes themselves, contract and compact with federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service, to deliver federal Indian programs directly to tribal members. Two such consortia, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the South central Foundation, operate the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.

To preserve the Alaska Native way of life and create economic opportunity, Congress established 13 regional land-based Native Corporations and the over 200 village corporations to implement the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. Congress has recognized these corporations as tribes in various federal Indian laws. These corporations hold nearly all of the 44 million acres of Alaska Native lands conveyed under the settlement and are the largest private land owners in the State and the Nation. The 40th anniversary of the passage of ANCSA will be observed on December 17, 2011. Over these years the Native corporations have emerged as tremendous economic drivers in our state, employing significant numbers of Alaskans, Native and non-Native and funding scholarships for Alaska Native students to obtain undergraduate, graduate, and technical education.

Senator Murkowski is an active member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and served as Vice Chair of the Committee during the 110th Congress. She is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. In addition, Senator Murkowski serves as a member of the Committee on Appropriations and on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In all of these roles she remains committed to increasing the standard of living for rural residents, and supporting the vibrancy of Alaska Native cultures. Senator Murkowski was honored in 2009 with a Congressional Leadership Award by the National Congress of American Indians. She is the first Alaskan to receive the award. In that same year, she received the Jake White Crow lifetime achievement award from the National Indian Health Board. Senator Murkowski was selected to deliver the congressional response to the 2011 State of Indian Nations Address delivered by the Honorable Jefferson Keel, President of the National Congress of American Indians.

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