Sharing Value: The rich past and uncertain future of 7(i) and 7(j) revenue.

• Author: Brehmer, Elwood

A brief but powerful provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) has led to the dispersal of billions of dollars across the state for the betterment of Alaska Native communities, but uncertainty regarding future revenue has led some to question the long-term viability of the program.

It starts at the fundamental level of the land and what it provides.

ANCSA, the landmark legislation passed by Congress in 1971 that called for the establishment of the 12 operating Alaska Native regional corporations and more than 200 village corporations, also mandated that Alaska Native corporations (ANCs) could collectively select roughly 44 million acres of land. Those lands have been selected and mostly conveyed over decades to serve as an economic engine for the ANCs and their shareholders. Revenue generated from the use and careful development of ANC lands across Alaska--whether for tourism, mining, oil and gas, or timber operations--not only improves a corporation's bottom line but supports an array of shareholder benefits rarely found anywhere else in the business world.

ANC leaders say the situation speaks to the unique bond the corporations have with their shareholders. ANC shares cannot be bought or sold, and everything the corporations do is intended to be for the social, cultural, and economic benefit of their shareholders. That's where the deeply rooted Alaska Native cultural value of sharing the harvest comes in, according to ANCSA Regional Association President Kim Reitmeier.

Section 7(1) of ANCSA directs the regional corporations to share most of the income they receive from resource projects on their lands with all the other regional corporations. It simply stated that "70 percent of all revenues received by each Regional Corporation from the timber resources and subsurface estate patented to it pursuant to this Act shall be divided annually among all twelve Regional Corporations" when it was passed in 1971.

"It is more than the money you see; it's the cultural aspect of making sure that we are taking care of one another," Reitmeier says.

More recent amendments have clarified the legislation, such as specifying that it is net income that is shared, notes Nathan McCowan, who is president and CEO of St. George Tanaq Corporation and chair of the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association.

"Congress wanted to ensure that ail Alaska Natives had something approaching a fair and equitable distribution of benefits coming from our...