Listening Session on the Alaska IRA

• Feb 06 2019
  08:00

  In 1936, Congress extended certain provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA) to the Territory of Alaska. The amendment, known as the Alaska IRA, included the following language:

  [G]roups of Indians in Alaska not heretofore recognized as bands or tribes, but having a common bond of occupation, or association, or residence within a well-defined neighborhood, community, or rural district may organize to adopt constitutions and bylaws and to receive charters of incorporation and Federal loans under section 16, 17, and 10 of the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984).

  In recent years, the Department of the Interior ("Department") has received a number of requests from groups in the State of Alaska seeking to organize under the Alaska IRA. This process is separate and distinct from the Department's administrative process for Federal acknowledgment described in 25 CFR Part 83, Federal Acknowledgment of American Indian Tribes.

  On January 2, 2020, the Proposed Rule was published in the Federal Register. Furthermore, the Department has invited Federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Native Corporations to attend one or more consultations or public meeting sessions. Additional information is provided in the presentation available here.

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