Day 30

Unalaska, AK
53 53′20″ N, 166 31′38″ W

Global Time: 21:00 GMT | 7.6.2009 : Monday
Local Time: 12:00 GMT-9 | 7.6.2009 : Monday

Kristen and Michael, the two other Americans on the ship, rented a car and met Stacey, Joaquim, Dr.Dsa, and Andrew after breakfast. As they drove, Joaquim advised the others to buy land here if they had the money. He predicted that as polar ice melted, it would open up safe passage from the Pacific to Europe. The changes this would produce in the shipping industry would make any land in Dutch Harbor extremely valuable. Andrew wondered who one bought land from. There was plenty of it, and houses in some places sat by themselves on hills. Kristen, a lifelong Alaska native, explained that it was owned, most likely, by the Ounalashka Corporation.

About half the land in Alaska was owned by the federal government. Of the remainder, it was mostly split between state ownership and Native Corporations. The United States, Kristen explained, has for many years held a policy of providing settlements to the indigenous peoples of any land it acquires which has natives already present. The Alaskan territories were purchased from Russia in 1959, but rather than take the usual package – reservations – the natives of Alaska were granted 18 corporations, instituted by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. These corporations owned and controlled the interests and lands granted to each by the act through a board of directors and a body of shareholders comprised of any Alaskan native. One could be a member of only one corp, and each had different traits. The corporation system proved very profitable for some. Doion held massive amounts of land. Arctic Slope Regional leased of oil fields. Cook Inlet Regional made their money on real estate and natural gas. Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, and the rest of the Alaskan Peninsula were serviced by the Ounalashka Corporation.

The land was not simply parceled in chunks, either. Most of Alaska was a checkerboard of ownership, forcing cooperation. Animals and geology did not recognize territorial boundaries, and the setup fit the land. Though some corporations were in poor financial shape, the natives of the land had fared much better than the natives of most American lands. When asked how they garnered such a favorable deal, Kristen apologized for any generalities, but explained that she felt Alaska had a very different mindset. The Caucasians preferred the land to be owned by natives than by the federal government, and besides this, the natives were well respected people.