Chronology of Dates Relevant to Alaska Native Response to Alaska Statehood Movement-March 2010

For Tlingit Readers Inc. Alaska Statehood Experience Grant from Alaska Humanities Forum/Rasmuson

The Sword and the Shield
Excerpt: "The successful defense of aboriginal claims by the ANB and its allies deflected, delayed, and in some cases, defeated adverse legislation, holding the line until the national political climate became more favorable to Native Americans. As a result, Congress accepted a disclaimer section to the Alaska Statehood Act of 1958 that served to maintain rather than circumscribe aboriginal claims."

11,000 to 6,000 years ago-Humans inhabit southeastern, Aleutian, Interior and northwest Arctic Alaska. Sealevels formerly lowered by maximum glaciation rise with the melting of the glaciers.
6,000 years ago-Most recent migration from Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge, as evidenced by microblades and cores found at campsites along migration routes. (Earlier migrations believed to have taken place up to 20,000 or more years ago.)
5,000 to 3,000-Humans inhabit the Bering Sea coast. The development of new technology is shown by polished stone and bone tools.
3,000-Specialized subsistence camps marked by fish weirs and large deposits of shell refuse.
1725 Peter the Great sends Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific
1728 Vitus Bering sails through Bering Strait
1733 Berings’s second expedition, with naturalist George Wilhelm Stellar aboard
1741 Bering and accompanying vessel captained by Alexei Chirikof, leave Petropavlovsk Harbor (Avacha Bay) in Kamchatka Peninsula; Bering lands on Kayak Island near Yakutat; Cherikov approaches land near Surge Bay on Outer Yakobi, loses two boatloads of men, returns to Avacha Bay. Bering dies on Commodorski Island; his men return to Avacha Bay the following year.
1743 Russian begin concentrated hunting of sea otter
1772 A permanent Russian settlement is established at Unalaska
1776 Captain James Cook expedition to search for “Northwest Passage”

1787 The Northwest Ordinance states: “The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians: their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.”
1789 United States Constitution grants Congress the authority to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes.

1790 Aleksandr Baranov becomes director of the Russian settlement in Alaska.
1791 1791 George Vancouver leaves England to explore the North Pacific; Alejandro Malaspina explores Northwest coast for Spain.
1792 Catherine II of Russia grants monopoly of fur in Alaska to Grigorii Shelikov

1796 U.S. fur traders in Southeast Alaska trade arms to Tlingit and Haida, supporting Tlingit and Haida opposition to Russian settlement and expansion.
1799 Czar Paul claims Alaska as a Russian possession. Baranov named first Russian Governor of Alaska.
--- Alexander Baranov sails to Sitka and establishes Russian post known today as Old Sitka; trade charter grants exclusive trading rights to the Russian American Company
1802 Baranov moves his headquarters to Sitka. Tlingits destroy Russian fort at Old Sitka

1804 Russians return to Sitka, and with support from Lisianski, on his circumnavigation, attack Kiksadi fort on Indian River. Kiksadi Tlingits evacuate.
1805 Lisianski sails to Canton with first Russian cargo of furs sent directly to China
1806 Russian Navy announces it will assume authority in Alaska.
---(?)Russian Navy announces it will block all foreign ships from Alaskan waters.

1819 Congress passes first appropriation for American Indians-- $10,000 to “civilize” them
1821 Russian Trading Charter is renewed, extending Russian jurisdiction to the 51st parallel. During this period, the Hudson's Bay Company, chartered by Britain, contracted with the Russians to lease the mainland south of Cape Spencer for 10 years at an annual payment of 2,000 land otter skins. The British established a fort in Taku Harbor (approx. 1830 to 1840) and were a presence in Alaska for the next 30 years.
1823 December 2-- President James Monroe, seeking to exclude European intervention in the New World, issues the Monroe Doctrine.
1824 Russia and USA sign a treaty accepting 54 degrees, 4 minutes latitude as the southern boundary of Russian America.
1830 Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, directing all Indians to move west of the Mississippi
1831 United States Supreme Court rules in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia that Indian tribes are domestic dependent national and not foreign nations.

1832 United States Supreme Court rules in Worcester v. Georgia that a federal Indian treaty overrides inconsistent state legislation. Also that Indians have sovereign immunity from state laws on their own reservations.

1840 Russian Orthodox Diocese formed; Bishop Innokenty Veniaminov given permission to use Native languages in liturgy
1841 Edward de Stoeckl assigned to the secretariat of the Russian delegation to the U.S.
1835 United States and England obtain trading privileges in Russian Alaska.
1859 De Stoeckl returns to U.S. from St. Petersburg with authority to negotiate the sale of Alaska
1861 Gold discovered on Sitkine River near Telegraph Creek
1865 Last shot of Civil War fired in Alaskan waters, as Confederate raider burned and sank Yankee whaling vessels.
1865-67 Surveyors' map route for overland telegraph line through Alaska to Siberia
1867 --Treaty of Cession of Alaska between Russia and the United States. Secretary of State William H. Seward arranges for payment of $7.2 million to Russia. The treaty transferred to the United States whatever Russia purported to “own” of Russian-America. http://explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/bl-Alaska1867.htm
1869 (check date) Chief Johnson takes Tlingit delegation to Washington D.C. to challenge transfer of land rights from Russia to America.

1868 to 1877 Alaska territory under rule of U.S. Army, Brevet Major General Jeff C. Davis
1868 First appropriation from Congress for education in the Territory. The funds were never put into use as no agency was found to administer them.
1869 The Sitka Times, first newspaper in Alaska is published
1871 Congress enacts a law that ends the negotiation of treaties between the United States and Indian tribes.
1872 --- Mining Act of 1872.

--- Gold discovered near Sitka and in British Columbia (Cassiar)

1874 First School in Alaska established by the Russians at Three Saints Bay-Kodiak Island
1876 Gold discovered south of Juneau at Windham Bay
1877 U. S. Army Troops withdrawn from Alaska; territory turned over to U.S. Navy
1878 --Salmon-canning industry started, at Klawock and Sitka

-- school opens at Sitka, to become Sheldon Jackson College

1880 News of gold discovery near Juneau.
1882 In the Tlingit Indian village of Angoon on Kootznahoo Inlet, a shaman working for a whaling company was accidentally killed in the explosion of a whaling gun. A white hostage was taken and indemnity of 200 blankets demanded. Capt. Merriman of the Revenue Cutter Corwin steamed in from Sitka, shelled the town and demanded a counter-indemnity of 400 blankets, then bombed and burned the village of Angoon.

--- first commercial herring fishing begins at Kilisnoo near Angoon;
--- first two central salmon canneries built

1884 ---Congress enacts the first Organic Act for Alaska, creating a “District of Alaska” and setting up a code of laws. The act extends the mining laws to Alaska, and makes Alaska a civil and judicial district, providing the territory with marshals, clerks and judges. It provides: “That the Indians or other persons in said district shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or now claimed by them but the terms under which such persons may acquire title to such lands is reserved for future legislation by Congress.”
------Funds for education in Alaska appropriated to be distributed among the existing mission schools.

1885 --Dr. Sheldon Jackson, founder of the Presbyterian Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, was appointed as general agent for education in Alaska.

--- Alfred P Swineford begins four-year term as second District Governor of Alaska

1887 September 21-- Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs sets policy of English-only in all schools, and announces plans to enforce.
-----The General Allotment or Dawes Severalty Act makes the allotment of land to individual Indians and the breaking up of tribal landholdings in the coterminous states the official policy of the United States. (Bob Price) The stated goal was to divide reservations and encourage Indians to assimilate. The allotments were 160 acres.
---Bureau of Fisheries assertion of federal right to regulate salmon fisheries
--- Father William Duncan and Tsimshina followers found Metlakatla on Annette Island
1888 Boundary survey started by Dr. W. H. Dall of the U.S. and Dr. George Dawson of Canada.
1890 In the last battle between federal forces and Indians, approximately 300 Lakota Sioux are killed at Wounded Knee. (Dakota)
--- Dr. Sheldon Jackson explores Arctic Coast, brings reindeer husbandry to Alaska
1891 Congress establishes the Annette Islands Reserve for the Metlatkatla Indian Community.
1896 outlawing of in-stream traditional harvest techniques and harvest within 500 yards of stream mouth
1897 --Tlingit and Haida clan leaders protest destruction of salmon resources to federal fisheries agent Jefferson Moser

--Klondike gold rush brings national attention to Alaska’s natural resources, and brings an influx of prospectors.

1898 Richardson Trail blazed from Valdez to Canadian border.
1899 Local communities authorized to set up school boards.
1900 --Stampede of gold-seekers to Nome. Railroad from Skagway to White Horse completed.

-- James Wickersham became District Court Judge, served for seven years.

1902 President Theodore Roosevelt establishes Tongass National Forest. No mention of indigenous land rights.
1904 “Canoe Rocks” speech at “final” potlatch (so designated by Territorial Gov. John G. Brady) in Sitka
---- submarine cables laid from Seattle to Sitka, and from Sitka to Valdez
1905 The Nelson Act provided for establishment of schools for white children outside of the incorporated towns.

---- telegraph links Fairbanks and Valdez

1906 Congress enacts Alaska Native Allotment Act, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to allot homesteads to the natives of Alaska.
-- Alaska Syndicate established by J.P. Morgan and Simon Guggenheim
-- An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities was passed by the U. S. Congress on June 8, 1906. (34 STAT.L.225) It provides penalties for the removal, defacement, etc. of antiquities on ground controlled by the Federal Government such as the National Parks, Monuments and Forests of Alaska. Fines of $500 and/or 6 months imprisonment are provided. (AFTC)
1909-Wickersham begins service as Alaska’s delegate in Congress (extending to 1921). Helped push through the Second Organic Act (1912)
1911 The Alaska School Service developed a tentative course of study for the schools of Alaska.
1912 Alaska Native Brotherhood founded. Natives were not citizens. Unequal treatment existed in segregated schools. Voting was denied to Native people. The right to land ownership, licenses, mine claims etc denied to Native people.
-- Congress enacts the Second Organic Act for Alaska, conferring official territorial status, extending the federal laws and constitution to Alaska, and providing for a system of government (an elected Territorial Legislature with limited powers and a delegate without vote to Congress).
1913 First Territorial Legislature convenes in Elks Hall in Juneau.
-- Alaska Territorial Legislature grants non-indigenous women territorial voting rights.
1915 Territorial Legislature allows Natives to acquire citizenship if they sever tribal relations, adopt habits of civilization, pass exam by town teachers, secure endorsements of five white residents, and satisfy the district judge. (Worl p 10)
-- Feb. 14 Arizona admitted to Union. (last state before Alaska.)
-- Congress appropriated funds that allowed the Bureau of Education to build a 25-bed hospital for Alaska Natives at Juneau
--- Alaska Native Sisterhood holds first convention in Sitka
1916 James Wickersham introduced first Statehood bill in U.S. Congress
-- Alaskans vote in favor of prohibition of alcohol by two to one margin
1917 Treadwell Mine complex in Juneau caves in
1920 Jones Act passes, requires all merchandise going to or from Alaska to be transported by vessels with American-made bottoms. (or American-flagged vessels? check this.)
1922 Chief Shakes of Wrangell (Charlie Jones) arrested and charged with a felony for voting “at time and place where not entitled to vote.” (Worl pg 10) Mrs. Tillie Paul Tamree, mother of William Paul, arrested for aiding and abetting.
1923 In referendum in Southeast, Panhandle voters (Natives not permitted to vote) overwhelmingly supported seceeding to create the Territory of South Alaska. Proposal rejected by U.S. Congress.

--- President Warren E. Harding comes to Alaska to drive the last spike in the AlaskaRailroad

1924 Congress extends citizenship to all Indians in the United States. The Indian Citizenship Act extends citizenship to Native Americans, including Alaska Natives, without terminating tribal rights and property. (Was voting right specified?)
---- White Act passed, giving preference to Washington-owned fish traps.
-------Alaska Native William Paul Sr. elected to Territorial House of Representatives
-- Alaska Voters' Literacy Act of 1925
1926 Village Townsite Act-establishment of restricted deed Indian-title lots in villages
1927 Thirteen-year-old Benny Benson wins a contest to design the Alaska flag. His entry reads: “The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-knot. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear-symbolizing strength.”
1928 Court case resolves right of Native children to attend public schools
1929 ANB Grand Camp convention in Haines formalized bill that became known as the Jurisdictional Act of June 15, 1935 (right to bring suit for claims against the U.S. in the Court of Claims) (Langdon says check “Then fight for It” here.)
-- ANB initiated boycotts against businesses that discriminated.
-- Tlingit Haida Central Council established to permit suit in Court of Claims
1930 Federal Bureau of Education field administrative headquarters moved from Seattle, Wash. to Juneau, Alaska.
1931 --Control of education among the Natives of Alaska was transferred to the Office of Indian Affairs, which became known as the Alaska Indian Service.

--Wickersham serves again as Alaska’s delegate in Congress (1931-33)

1932 Wrangell Institute Boarding School opened - Alaska Indian Service School.
--- Radio telephone communications established in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Nome
1933 Tony Dimond begins service as Alaska’s Delegate in Congress (until 1945).
1934 Indian Reorganization Act officially reverses the trends to break up tribal governments and landholdings by providing for tribal self-government and an Indian credit program. Was this a reversal of the 1887 Dawes Act allotting 160 acres?)
1935 Congress enacts a jurisdictional statute which permits the Tlingit and Haida Indians to file suit in the Court of Claims for loss of land in southeastern Alaska.
---- 900 miners at Alaska-JuneauGoldMine go on a strike that lasts 40 days and ends in violence.
1936 Congress enacts amendments to the Indian Reorganization Act extending all of its major provision to Alaska.
1936 Fourteen persons were killed in a slide down the slopes of Mt. Roberts near the Juneau Cold Storage on Sunday, November 22, 1936 at 7:30 p.m. Up until the slide occurred, the month of November had seen 20.31 inches of rain. Between 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 p.m. Sunday, the day of the slide, 3.89 inches had fallen. (AFTC)
1938 Momument erected on the Douglas Highway in Juneau by the Civilian Conservation Corps June 1st, in honor of Chief Anatlahash , a Taku Tlingit Chief of the Raven moiety who moved to Douglas Island when mining commenced there in the 1880’s and died there on October 8, 1918. The monument was a yellow cedar shaft in a concrete base.
1939 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appoints Ernest Gruening Territorial Governor of Alaska. (serves until 1953.)
1942 Japanese bomb Dutch Harbor (June 3rd) and invade Kiska and Attu Islands of the Aleutians. Alaska Natives served with distinction, disproportionately to their numbers in the general population.
-- Dec. 1, Alaska Military Highway completed.
1943 November. Wickersham in a national radio address argued that the territory’s service to the nation in time of war demonstrated readiness for Statehood. Statehood bill introduced and ignored.

1944 --E.L. “Bob” Bartlett elected as Alaska’s Territorial Delegate to Congress. (serves until 1959.)
-- Roy Peratrovich and ANB offer to settle aboriginal lands through cash payment for lost lands
-- Sept. Richard Hanna holds hearings in Hydaburg
--- Alaska-Juneau Gold Mine shuts down
1945 Alaska Territorial Legislature passes Anti-Discrimination Act. Signed by Governor Gruening. Elizabeth Peratrovich, a leading proponent of the Act, is later honored by the State of Alaska in “Elizabeth Peratrovich Day” every February.
-- Alaska Indian Service changed to Alaska Native Service.
--Judge Hanna identifies unextinguished aboriginal rights of Kake, Hydaburg and Klawock claimants
1946 Congress enacts the Indian Claims Comission Act, which allows Indian groups to sue in the Court of Claims for claims against the United States arising before 1946.
-- January, President Truman first president to recommend Alaska Statehood, as soon as the residents of the territory demonstrated that support.
-- Territorial citizens vote to apply for Statehood: October territory-wide referendum on statehood passes 9,630 to 6,822.
-- Bartlett introduces Statehood Bill in Congress; it fails.
--- Boarding school for Native high school students opens at Mt. Edgecumbe
1947 Tlingit and Haida “Land Claims” law suit filed by James Curry in the U.S. Court of Claims. (First decision 1959; amount to be compensated decided 1968.)
--Congressional Joint Resolution authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to sell timber in the Tongass National Forest notwithstanding any claims of possessory right by Alaska Natives.
-- Mt. Edgecumbe, a former military installation is opened as a boarding school for Alaska Natives, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1948 Curry brokers the land claims case to “Lefty” Weissbrodt and David Cobb
-- April. Bartlett introduces Statehood Bill. (Rules Sen. Hugh Butler of Nebraska is strong opponent.)
-- Hybaburg reservation formed. Kake and Klawock turn down offer
-- state-wide vote against fish traps 19,712 to 2,624
1949 Territorial Legislature creates Statehood Commission. (Committee?)
-- Eleanor Roosevelt, James Cagney and Pearl S. Buck are among 100 prominent Americans who stand in support of Alaska Statehood.
-- Another Alaska Statehood bill is introduced in Congress.
1950 Statehood bill passes U.S. House 186-146, but is killed in Senate. (Korean war 1950 to 1952.)
-- ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Craig. Gruening and Curry attend.
Unanimous resolution adopted that the ANB 1)“favors the immediate designation of land reservations under the Indian Re-organization Act for all those Native communities that desire the same;” 2) “favors such legislation as may be necessary to authorize the negotiated sale of Alaska Native lands to the United States by the communities desiring thus to dispose of their property…:” and 3) opposes any legislation which limits the authority of federal officials to confirm Native land title “as said Natives desire.” (Source: Oct. 13, 1951 ANB resolution on H.R. 4388, reviewing history of 1950 convention action. )
-- Johnson O'Malley Act provides for the transfer of schools in Alaska to the administrative control of the Territory.
1951 March --Territorial Legislature complains to Congress that Statehood progress is hampered by uncertainty of Indian or aboriginal title controversy. (Mitchell Sold America p. 398-349 paperback) House Joint Memorial No. 11, 20th Alaska Territorial Legislature.
-- June 11th –Bartlett introduces HR 4388 in 82nd Congress, 1st Session , after repudiation of HR 7002 (Mitchell SA p. 398 says for Natives 4388 was worse than 7002 since it required an assertion of land claims within two years. William Paul to Felix Cohen: “What good to Natives who cannot read or write?” Id. 399.)(paperback p 350)
-- August 27 – Bartlett asks Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of House Committee of the Interior to hold hearings on 4388. (SA fn. #179 p. 350)
-- Nov. 5 to 10 Field hearings on 4388. (Mitchell writes that hearings demonstrated that Bartlett’s constituency was fractured along racial lines.)
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Ketchikan. William Paul elected to first term as ANB Grand Secretary since 1938. (SA paperback 352)
1952 Feb 11th, , 13th and 18th Senate Interior Committee hearings in Washington D.C. Testimony by Ernest Gruening, and James Curry. Gruening testified that at the ANB Convention in Craig the previous year, he had recommended against reservations, and also reported that Curry had told the convention that “This land is all yours” and that “The white man is a trespasser here.” Gruening also says Curry had recommended a reservation policy at the Craig convention.
--February 27 , Senate on one vote margin (45-44) kills statehood bill for another year. Southern Democrats had threatened a filibuster to delay consideration.
-- May-H.R. 4388 dies.
-- June Alaskans became subject to new rules under Immigration and Naturalization Act, requiring Alaskans to go through Customs and Immigration when traveling to the lower 48
-- Walter Hickel travels to Washington D.C. to meet with Congressional leaders about terms for Alaska Statehood.
-- Federal court overturns Hydaburg reservation
-- November –Dwight Eisenhower elected President, and Republicans swept in by Eisenhower victory regain both Houses of Congress
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Hoonah
1953 Congress enacts Public Law 280, which extends state legal jurisdiction in certain states over Indian country.
-- Congress passes House Concurrent Resolution 108, which calls for termination of special services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to specified tribes and in particular states “at the earliest possible time.”
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in
-- Sen. Hugh Butler, chair of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, visits Alaska. Butler had deprecated the “little men” of Alaska, and his visit prompted demonstrations of the “Little Men of Alaska” in support of statehood.
1954 In State of the Union address, Eisenhower refers to Statehood for Hawaii (then a Republican state) but not Alaska (then a Democratic state).
---March Frustrated by Eisenhower refusal to support statehood for Alaska, a Senate coalition led by Democrats ties the fate of Alaska and Hawaii Statehood together as one package. The parliamentary move is backed by some Southern Democrats, concerned about the addition of new votes in the civil rights for blacks movement, in the hope of defeating both measures.
-- April--Court of Claims issues decision in Tee Hit-Ton Indians v. Unites States. Court reasons that neither the 1867 Treaty of Purchase/Cession, the 1884 Organic Act, nor any other federal statute had ‘recognized’ Alaska Native aboriginal title, and that therefore the Tee-Hit-Tons were not entitled to recompense for the taking of land. Significantly, the court also recognized that aboriginal possessory rights existed and had not been extinguished. See 1955 for Tee-Hit-Ton decision of U.S. Supreme Court.
--- First plywood operations begin at Juneau; first big Alaskan pulp mill opens at
Ketchikan
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Angoon
1955 February United States Supreme Court affirms the 1954 Court of Claims decision in Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States that the United States has no legal obligation under the Fifth Amendment to compensate the Indian tribe for taking lands to which there is aboriginal title. However, the court also implicitly recognized that aboriginal title existed and had not been extinguished, a concept that proved important to future litigation and legislation. http://supreme.justia.com/us/348/272/case.html
-- May U.S. House sends Hawaii-Alaska Statehood bill back to committee, blocking its passage for yet another year
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Petersburg
--- Alaskans elect delegates to the Constitutional Convention
-- November 8th--Alaska’s Constitutional Convention begins at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Fifth-five delegates, including only one Native person, Frank Peratrovich, of Klawock, meet for more than two months. Gruening gives speech "Let Us End American Colonialism".
1956 February 5th-- Alaska Constitutional Convention adopts constitution for eventual State of Alaska. It includes a disclaimer of property interest in Alaska Native Lands. Disclaimer
-- April--Alaskans vote in a statewide referendum to approve the Constitution and eliminate fish traps. Statewide vote is affirmative.
-- Under the “Alaska-Tennesee Plan” (in which representatives are elected to serve in the eventual State), two senators (Ernest Gruening and William Egan) and one representative (Ralph Rivers) are elected.
-- November Eisenhower swept back into Presidency by “landslide”.
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Hoonah
1957 November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Kake
1958 Congress extends Public Law 280 to Alaska.
-- Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, previously an opponent of Alaska Statehood, changes his mind. President Eisenhower fully endorses Alaska Statehood for the first time. A new Statehood bill passes the U.S. House May 28th, and the Senate (64-20) June 30th. The bill includes a disclaimer of property interest in Alaska Native lands. Eisenhower signs the bill July 7th.
-- November ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Sitka
1959 Jan. 3 -Alaska becomes a State as President Eisenhower signs the official
declaration.
-- fish traps abolished.
--- Sitka pulp mill opens
-- October Court of Claims in Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska v. United States holds that Tlingit and Haida tribes occupied much of southeastern Alaska under aboriginal title at time of Treaty of Cession. The Tlingit and Haida "as a tribe, had established aboriginal Indian title...by their exclusive use and occupancy of that territory from time immemorial." 177 F. Supp. 452, 147 Ct. Cl. 315 (1959). See 1968 for the decision, nine years later, establishing the damages for the taking of the land.
1960 The 1960 Census of Alaska showed a total population of Alaska, the largest state geographically, but with the smallest population: 226,167. This was slightly above the wartime high of 225,986 in 1943, which included armed forces then stationed throughout the Territory. The 1950 census gave 128,643 as the civilian population compared with 193,475 in 1960. The 1960 census breaks down is as follows: Total Population: 226,167 Civilian Population: 193,475; Caucasian: 141,854; Eskimo-Aleut: 28,637; Indian: 14,444; Negro: 6,771; Japanese: 818; Filipino: 814; Chinese: 137 (AFTC)
1962 United States Supreme Court holds that State of Alaska may regulate fish traps of the Native villages of Kake and Angoon, but not those of the Metlakatla Indian Community within the Annette Islands Reserve.
-- The Tundra Times established, the first state wide newspaper devoted to representing the views and issues of Alaska Natives.
1964 Good Friday Earthquake
1966 Eskimo land claims filed on North Slope. Interior Secretary Morris Udall imposes a “land freeze” to protect Native use and occupancy of Alaska lands.
-- Alaska Federation of Natives formed in Anchorage, Alaska.
1967 Informal land freeze of State of Alaska land selections under the Statehood Act begun by Secretary of Interior.
-- Fairbanks flood
1968 January Court of Claims, nine years after decision that the Tlingit and Haida people had established aboriginal title to much of Southeast Alaska, awards $7.5 million as compensation for extinguishing of that title. Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska v. United States 389 F. 2d 778 (Ct. Claims 1968) http://openjurist.org/389/f2d/778
---Governor Wally Hickel establishes task force that recommends 40 million acres of land of Natives
1969 Formal land freeze initiated by Secretary of Interior by withdrawing all public lands in Alaska from appropriation under the public land laws, including State selections.
---- Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holds in State of Alaska v. Udall that Secretary of Interior must first determine extent of Alaska Native possessory rights before approving state selections.
---- North Slope Oil lease brings $900 million
1971 Congress enacts the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
1972 The Marine Mammal Protection Act becomes law with the important provision that Alaska Native would be able to continue traditional use of marine mammals.
1974 Alaska adopts limited entry for fisheries
1973 Salmon fisheries statewide limited entry program becomes law
1975 --Congress enacts the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. It requires that the federal government contract with tribes for services that benefit their citizens. -----State begins limited entry program for fishing permits
1976 The so-called "Molly Hootch" (Tobeluk vs. Lind) case is settled with the commitment by the state to provide local schools for Alaska Native communities as it had in predominately white communities in the state
1977 Trans Alaska Pipeline completed from Valdez to Prudhoe Bay
1978-State passes law designation “subsistence” as priority use of state fish and game resources
1980 Congress enacts the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. It provides for various national parks and wildlife refuges in Alaska (80 million acres), and for subsistence rights on federal lands by rural Alaska residents, most of whom are Alaska Natives.
1982 First Permanent Funds dividends distributed
1991 Amendments to ANCSA take effect
1995 Federal limited entry program for halibut and sablefish quotas

SOURCES INCLUDE:
Price, Bob “Native Rights: A Report for the Alaska Statehood Commission”
Mitchell, Donald Craig Sold American: The Story of Alaska Natives and Their Land, 1867-1959 (Dartmouth College, 1997)
Paul, Fred Then Fight For It (Trafford 2003)
Naske, Claus-M An Interpretive History of Alaskan Statehood (Alaska Northwest Publishing Company 1973)
Gruening, Ernest The State of Alaska: A Definitive History of American’s Northernmost Frontier (Random House 1968)
Goldschmidt, Walter R. and Theodore H. Haas Haa Aani, Our Land: Tlingit and Haida Land Rights and Use (University of Washington Press and Sealaska Heritage Foundation 1998)
Also Steve Landgon, personal electronic communication 3/27/09
Thomas, Ed Power point presentation to Clan Conference March 25, 2009 Juneau

This Chronology was developed by Kathy Kolkhorst Ruddy under the Alaska Statehood Experience grant to Tlingit Readers Inc. For comments or corrections please e mail ruddys99801@yahoo.com.

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