Are you interested in the Sealaska scholarship? If your answer is yes, then have got the information you will need on this page.
Scholarship Sponsor
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)
On December 18, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) into law, making it the biggest land claims settlement in American history at the time. The ANCSA was designed to address long-standing concerns involving Native American land claims in Alaska and to promote regional economic growth.
By transferring ownership to more than 200 village organizations at the local level and twelve regional Alaska Native corporations, the settlement established Alaska Native claims to the property. Later, for Alaska Natives who no longer lived in Alaska, a thirteenth regional corporation was established. The act is enumerated in 43 U.S.C. 1601 and subsequent.
Section 4 of the Alaska Statehood Act stipulated that any current Alaska Native land claims would be unaffected by statehood and maintained in the status quo when Alaska became a state in 1959.
However, section 6 of the act gave the state government the right to claim properties that were thought to be vacant, although section 4 of the act safeguarded Native land claims until eventual settlement. With the exception of Native American territory, Section 6 gave the state of Alaska the authority to choose which lands were under federal control at the time. As a result, the state would eventually acquire almost 104.5 million acres (423,000 km2) from the public domain. The state government also made an effort to purchase lands under Section 6 of the Statehood Act that was occupied and used by Alaska Natives and was the subject of Native claims under Section 4. Without considering Native claims or contacting the impacted Native organizations, the federal Bureau of Land Management started processing the Alaskan government’s selections.
In accordance with a decision made by the Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska, Natives will get $100 million in funding along with 10% of profits as a royalty.
However, nothing was done with this idea, and a moratorium on land transfers was still in place.
ANCSA’s response was to sign up Alaska Native people as shareholders in corporations that owned title to a section of our historic homeland as reservations in the Lower 48 were primarily seen as an unfavorable solution to Native land claims. It created 12 different geographic regions out of the state.
More than 200 private, for-profit Alaska Native village corporations as well as 12 private, for-profit regional corporations had to be established.
The ANCSA also required that enrolled Alaska Native stockholders own regional and village companies. All Alaska Natives who were alive at the time and had at least one-quarter Alaska Native blood quantum were eligible to enroll.
Settlement of Land
Alaska Native regional and village corporations received 44 million acres of land through ANCSA from the federal government. Sealaska received 365,000 acres of the 44 million acres ceded, or around 1.6% of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples’ ancestral territories in Southeast Alaska.
Apply also; The David Koucerek Scholarship Program
Regional companies hold the land owned by Alaska Native stockholders under ANCSA.
Financial Settlement
The federal government also paid the newly established Alaska Native corporations $962.5 million in total as compensation for the land lost in the settlement agreement with the passage of ANCSA.
About The Scholarship
Every year, Sealaska provides hundreds of full-time and part-time merit-based scholarships to the up-and-coming leaders in our neighborhood. We have given out about 11,000 scholarships so far, worth $20 million.
Eligibility
The following requirements must be satisfied by applicants:
• Native in the sense that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 43 U.S.C. 1602, defines “Native” (b).
• Whether or not the applicant owns Sealaska Corporation shares, they must be enrolled in Sealaska Corporation or be Native lineal descendants of Alaska Natives who are enrolled in Sealaska Corporation.
• Have a 2.0 undergraduate GPA and a 3.0 graduate GPA.
• Accepted and enrolled in a post-secondary institution that is accredited.
Significant Dates (Every Year)
15 December
Application is made accessible
January 1
Deadline for the early bird discount
March 1
Deadline for Scholarship Applications
May 1
Scholarship Winners Announced
Additional Information
No matter if they are shareholders or not, all applicants are required to set up and use their own MySealaska Accounts.
Application Link
Interested persons can now apply here https://www.mysealaska.com/Services/Scholarship