TAPS and Native Land Claims

In 1968, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, sparking hasty plans by multinational oil companies for the construction of a Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The problem for the oil companies was that Alaska Natives were then in negotiations with federal and state authorities over each parties’ land claims in the new state. Alaskan Natives, represented by the Alaska Federation of Natives, looked to maintain historic land claims against efforts by the state government to gain title to larger tracts of Alaskan property. The discovery of oil and the plans for TAPS only placed greater emphasis on the resolution of these negotiations

In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act provided a legislative solution. The bill terminated native land claims, allotting tribes one-ninth of Alaskan lands and compensation of $962.5 million paid out to a network of “village corporations.” It also made procedural deferrals to tribes and incorporated suggestions from leaders of the Alaska Federation of Natives. For its supporters, including those in the Alaska Federation of Natives, the bill represented the most generous settlement reached between the government and any Indigenous group. 

But for its critics, assenting to the TAPS constituted an assault on the social, cultural, and environmental existence of Alaskan Natives. The primary source included here is a letter from one such group of Alaska Natives to the Friends of the Earth, a prominent environmentalist organization. In it, Doyon, a regional corporation representing native communities in the Alaskan interior, describes the different forms of damage that the TAPS would render on the natural and social landscape. 

Citation:

Friends of the Earth. Transcription of Letter from Doyon, Limited. David Brower Papers. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. July 23, 1973.

Library Item Date:

July 23, 1973