Our Story
Unangan culture predates Russian settlement of the region by thousands of years. Our ancestors flourished in a place both rugged and unforgiving and spawned a culture rich in art and oral traditions, including grass basketry, sleek iqyan (skin boats), and beautiful bentwood hats. Russian contact began in the mid-1700s, and the Alaska Native population began a rapid decline due to the introduction of illness and other Western practices.
Today, OC shareholders are located throughout the country and come from all walks of life. We are connected by a shared heritage and are an extended family. OC is committed to bringing value to all of our shareholders and their descendants, through support for education, career opportunities, dividends, and investment in cultural preservation. To learn more about Unangan culture, lands, and history, visit the Museum of the Aleutians.
Kudalii}in maqa{takan txichin aguqangin
The way of our beginning, our ancestors
ANCSA
The United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) on December 18, 1971, officially honoring aboriginal claims on public lands in the State of Alaska. This gave birth to a new breed of business: the Alaska Native corporation. The Act conveyed 44 million acres of land to the Alaska Native people and paid a cash settlement of nearly $1 billion. Both the land conveyances and the cash payments were made to infant profit corporations formed in compliance with ANCSA to manage its proceeds.
ANCSA incorporated a body of villages and regional Native corporations to manage the lands and money and made comprehensive conditions concerning the administration of the corporations. ANCSA stock cannot be sold, or otherwise alienated. A person can only receive stock through inheritance or a “gifting” instrument executed by specific lineal relatives. The intent was to keep the corporate assets under Native control. There are 12 regional corporations today, and ANCSA listed 204 villages that qualified for incorporation under the Act. The Law conveyed acreage of surface estate to the village corporations and the subsurface to the villages’ corresponding regional corporations. This Ounalashka Corporation was formed pursuant to ANCSA in 1973.
