The “liberty, property, and religion” of Russian subjects who wished to stay in Alaska were guaranteed by the Treaty of Cession, which transferred Alaska from Russia to the United States in 1867. This guarantee applied to many established indigenous, mostly Aleuts. The treaty described Native Americans who did not reside in Russian colonies as “the uncivilized tribes,” and said that they would be “subject to such laws and regulations as the United States may, from time to time, adopt in regard to the aboriginal tribes of that country.”
The regrettable result of this wording’s imprecision was to obscure the Native Americans’ rights to the land they had lived on for at least 4,000 years. It made people subject to a foreign country’s laws without making it apparent what responsibility that government took on on their behalf. In subsequent years, the US did implement some remedial measures, but the uncertainty persisted.
The Act of 1884, which established civil administration in the area, so stated, as was previously indicated in Chapter 3, “that the Indians or other persons in said district shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or now claimed by them.” This language appeared to put “other persons” and Indians on an equal footing with landowners, without mentioning the possibility that “others” might be in possession of lands where the aboriginal title hasn’t been previously extinguished or that Native Americans might have prior rights due to their original occupation.
Furthermore, because the statute additionally stipulated that “the terms under which such persons may acquire title to such lands is reserved for future legislation by Congress,” both types of owners—Indians and “other”—could not be assured of their standing on the property. A subsequent law that protected Native Americans in their own nation was a little more detailed.
That was the 1891 legislation that expanded the Homestead Act to Alaska, permitting private property purchases up to 160 acres, with the caveat that “any lands… to which the Native Americans of Alaska have prior rights by virtue of actual occupation” were specifically excluded. In other cases, provisions were created to reserve coastal areas for Native American canoes and other vessel landing spots, as well as for 80-acre house plots, the title to which would be unalienable and untaxable until Congress decided otherwise.
In addition to these small concessions to the original occupants, somewhat larger areas were designated as reindeer reserves after the animals were introduced as herd animals towards the end of the previous century. Small reserves were set aside for school purposes, typically not exceeding forty acres. The clause allowing for home site selections was rarely used by Native Americans, and these early laws had very little impact on the resolution of the land dispute.
These several laws were hasty, fragmented attempts to address a serious issue of Indian-White interactions in a frontier civilization rather than adhering to a predetermined policy. The state of affairs persisted until 1936, at which point Congress began to take the commitment made in 1884 seriously by establishing the conditions under which Native Americans may obtain ownership to the lands they had been occupying.
The tool was the 1936 Alaska Amendment to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which gave the Secretary of the Interior the authority to declare any area of land used and inhabited by Indians or Eskimos, along with nearby public lands, as an Indian reservation, as long as the Secretary thought it would be practical to do so.
But the Indians or Eskimos have to approve the reserve through a secret ballot vote before the Secretary’s designation could take effect. The purpose of the latter clause was to provide a native group the chance to be involved in the selection of the property and to reject those that would be considered, for whatever reason, insufficient or inappropriate. The measure fell short of expectations in part because its goals were unclear and in part because they were masked by partisanship throughout the discussion.
Native electorates approved just six reserves, rejecting the Secretary’s designation in the other three cases. The Native American groups’ seeming hesitation to ask for land reserves under the 1936 Act was a reflection of their mistrust of the government’s policies. Even in the absence of a court ruling defining their rights, they had been mostly left alone to pursue their daily goals, and they were afraid that recognizing a reservation would restrict their freedom of movement.
Native children who were transferred by the government to far-off boarding schools like Chemawa, Oregon, and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, developed a dislike for the authoritarian school administrators, and their interactions with other Indians in the country only served to deepen their mistrust of the white man in charge. They later spoke out against putting themselves under government monitoring as adults.