Tribal Land Quarrels in Alaska Leisnoi strongvstrong. Stratman.pdfVIP

Public Land and Resources Law R eview Volume 20 Tribal Land Quarrels in Alaska: Leisnoi v. Stratman Britt Lindsay Follow th s and additional works at : /plrlr Recommended Citation 20 Pub. Land Resources L. Rev. 169 (1999) Th s Case Notes s brought to you for free and open access by The Scholarly Forum @ Montana Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Public Land and Resources Law R eview by an author zed admin strator of The Scholarly Forum @ Montana Law. Tribal Land Quarrels in Alaska: Leisnoi v. Stratman Britt Lindsay* I. INTRODUCTION Alaska is a region of abundant natural resources and vast lands. Un- fortunately, modem legal disputes continue to originate from historic rival claims to this bounty. Alaskan Natives have long struggled to maintain some semblance of control over their ancient lands in the midst of settle- ment by competing alien cultures. After Alaskan statehood, interest in the region resulted in Congress adopting the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). However, in adopting ANCSA Congress simply added fuel to the fire causing additional problems in the wake of questionable solu- tions to the Native land claims. ANCSA instituted an unfamiliar corporate system on the Alaskan Natives. The creation of village and regional corporations imposed artifi- cial property divisions and adversarial relationships among Native groups. Thus, the opportunity arose for non-natives to exploit tensions between opposing tribal entities. Furthermore, ANCSA fabricated disruption where it did not exist before, namely among competing Native organizations. ANCSA was