Information
Organization's Own Description:
The Five Chiefs Council was a Tribal Government formed in the 1950s for the purpose of negotiating with the federal government to begin oil exploration drilling in the Yakutat Territory. Lead by one member from each of the five founding clans, the Council has been granted monetary settlement, and the oil drilling commenced in the areas from Icy Bay to Dry Bay.
In 1971, the federal government awarded a monumental lawsuit to all Alaska Natives for the lands taken when Alaska was sold by Russia to the United States. As a result, forty million acres of land and monetary settlement were turned over and entrusted to for-profit regional corporations.
Village corporations were then created under the regional corporations, receiving per capita settlement and approximately 20,000 acres of land surrounding their communities. These lands that were entrusted to regional and village corporations were meant to be used as tools for economic development, and the profits generated from these were to be distributed to the shareholders.
In Yakutat, a scholarship account was set up by the corporation to assist young individuals with their education, but afterwards realized that there were other social service programs they were unable to meet. This prompted the corporation to form a non-profit organization authorized to contract with the federal government under the provisions of Public Law 93-638, otherwise known as the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act, for the services and programs that were administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Thus, the Yakutat Native Association was born.
In the early 1990s, the Yakutat Native Association began to draft a constitution that would allow it to reorganize and become recognized as a tribal government under the authority of the Indian Reorganization Act. On March 24, 2993, the Yakutat Native Association finally earned its federal recognition – bringing forth the emergence of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe.
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