Dividing Alaska, 1867-2000: Changing Land Ownership and Management

Abstract

When the U.S. bought Alaska in 1867, it acquired an area twice the size of the 13 original American colonies and three quarters as big as the Louisiana Purchase. This paper looks broadly at changing land ownership and management in Alaska from 1867 through today. For almost a century, the federal government gave up only a sliver of Alaska’s 375 million acres, mostly through homesteading and other land programs. But when Alaska became a state in 1959, Congress gave the new state rights to about 104 million acres. Then, in 1971, Congress settled Alaska Native land claims with a land grant of 44 million acres and payment of $1 billion. The last major division of Alaska lands came in 1980, when Congress added 104 million acres to national parks, wildlife refuges, and other conservation units.