Sealaska Corporation is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Headquartered in Juneau, Alaska, Sealaska is a for-profit corporation with more than 23,000 Alaska Native shareholders[1] primarily of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian descent.[2]
Sealaska was incorporated in Alaska on June 16, 1972.[3] In 1981, Sealaska Corporation sponsored the creation of the non-profit Sealaska Heritage Foundation, now the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which manages its cultural and educational programs.[4]
Sealaska’s primary economic drivers are natural resources, land management, environmental services and seafood.[5]
From ANCSA section 14, Sealaska owns approximately 290,000 acres (1,170 km2) of surface estate and 560,000 acres (2,270 km2) of subsurface estate in Southeast Alaska. Despite having the most shareholders of any regional corporation, it received the least amount of land in the 44 million-acre settlement. Sealaska received a second conveyance of land, approximately 65,000 acres, due to advocacy in Congress. Sealaska's current land holdings in Southeast Alaska are roughly 1.6 percent of the traditional homelands that the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people inhabited for over 10,000 years. Five traditional communities were left out of the original ANCSA conveyance. Sealaska is working to get these communities the land due to them.[citation needed]
Sealaska’s primary economic drivers are natural resources, land management, environmental services and seafood.[6]
The Sealaska Heritage Institute is a nonprofit organization established in 1980 by Sealaska, following its conception by clan leaders, traditional scholars, and elders during the inaugural Sealaska Elders Conference. It was founded to preserve and enrich the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska through various programs and services: language revitalization, the archival of ethnographic materials, early childhood literacy, art classes, subsistence living classes, and conducted research in the areas of Alaska Native history and culture. [7]
In June 2022 during the biennial Celebration festival in Juneau, Alaska, the Sealaska Heritage Institute unveiled the first 360-degree totem pole in Alaska: the 6.7-metre-tall (22 ft) Sealaska Cultural Values Totem Pole.[8][9] The structure, carved out of a 600-year-old cedar tree, "represents all three tribes of Southeast Alaska — Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian."[10]
The Baby Raven Reads program was initiated by the Sealaska Heritage Institute in 2017 as a pilot project.[11] Subsequently, it secured funding to extend the program for multiple additional years and broaden its reach to encompass nine communities throughout Southeast Alaska. The program was established to enhance early literacy skills by leveraging cultural strengths to promote home literacy practices.
In 2017, the Baby Raven Reads program received recognition from the Library of Congress, being honored as a recipient of the 2017 Best Practice Honoree award. [11][12]