Landless Legislation to Receive Senate Hearing in September, Shareholder Support Needed Now
Thursday, September 8, 2022

For 50 years, Sealaska and others have worked tirelessly to correct a major flaw in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). ANCSA created regional and village corporations for communities with historical populations of Alaska Natives, but in Southeast, five communities — Ketchikan, Wrangell, Tenakee, Petersburg and Haines — were inexplicably left out of ANCSA.
Without village corporations representing their communities, Alaska Natives from the five communities have no land ownership of their traditional homelands and have not received village-corporation benefits like dividends, scholarships and support for local priorities.
Previous legislation and lobbying efforts have fallen short due to lack of support in Congress and because of conflict over the specific land selections that would be given to new ANCSA village corporations when they are established.
Today, there is hope.
Senate bill 3269, known as the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act, sponsored by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has gotten further in the legislative process than any other attempt in the last 50 years.
Conversations have turned from private land ownership to focusing on righting an injustice for our Native people. Even conservation groups have turned a corner in their acknowledgment of the land’s original inhabitants. Terms like “Indigenous conservation” have surfaced, paving the way for support from legislators with a wide range of political philosophies.
Although positive momentum is growing, the journey is not over. The Southeast Alaska Landless Coalition needs your help to keep S. 3269 moving forward.
Take action with us! The Sealaska Shareholder newsletter that you will receive in September includes a postage-paid postcard to demonstrate your support to Congress. Please remove it, add a few words of support and send it in!
If you’re signed up for our Go Green initiative and do not receive paper mail from Sealaska, you can show your support by signing the petition online at withoutland.org.
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We are excited to announce that the results of the 2025 Sealaska election have been certified and are ready to share with all of you.
Congratulations to our 2025 winners. At Sealaska, we are deeply grateful for your participation in this year’s election. Selecting exceptional leaders to help guide our shared future is one of the most meaningful ways for shareholders to engage with us. These winners were randomly selected from the pool of early birds by the Inspectors of Election. All payments will be processed this week and delivered via the payment method on file for distributions in MySealaska.com.
We are continuing our search for a dynamic and visionary leader to serve as Sealaska’s president. It is important that we find the right candidate to fill this position, which is why the Sealaska board of directors is being as exacting as possible as we search for a candidate capable of amplifying the impact of our mission and providing benefits that empower our shareholders. To this end, the Sealaska board of directors recently revised the job description for the position of president and sought the assistance of a professional recruiting firm. Our hope is to announce a successful candidate as our new president this coming summer.
After considering the recently announced U.S. Postal Service delays to First-Class Mail in conjunction with a paper proxy error leading shareholders who wish to vote by mail to potentially wait for their regularly scheduled second proxy mailing, we have made the decision to extend the early bird deadline to June 6. We are listening to shareholders and want to give everyone the best chance to qualify as an early bird. Thank you for understanding and thank you for voting.
Shareholders, an error occurred when printing proxy cards regarding the number of shares you own and votes you have in the top right corner of your proxy card. This error does not affect the validity of your paper proxy, nor does it affect voting on MySealaska.com through the Election Connection portal
Early birds, it’s your time to fly! Congratulations to our 2024 winners.
Sealaska shareholders are invited to join us at our upcoming in-person and virtual community meetings to learn more about Sealaska business operations, upcoming opportunities and connect with fellow shareholders and descendants.
Sealaska shareholders are now able to view and download their IRS Form 1099-DIV for 2023. Printed 1099 tax forms will be mailed on or before Jan. 26.
Film is a mirror: Sealaska shareholder descendant Miciana Hutcherson reflects on Black History Month
Sealaska shareholders are now able to view and download their IRS Form 1099-DIV for 2022. Printed 1099 tax forms will be mailed on or before Jan. 27.
What Are Shareholders Saying? How does blood quantum impact your life?We asked this simple question and more than 600 shareholders answered, so far. Below are a few of the perspectives we shared via our social channels. Some of these posts you will love. Some you may not. Sealaska has not taking a position, we are …