Alaska Native Regional Corporations (ANRCs) are corporate entities established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1972 (Public Law 92-203, as amended by Public Law 94-204) to conduct the business and nonprofit affairs of Alaska Natives. Alaska is divided into 12 ANRCs that cover the entire State, except for the Annette Islands Reserve, which is an American Indian reservation.[1] The boundaries of the 12 ANRCs were established by the Department of the Interior in cooperation with the Alaska Natives. Each ANRC was designed to include, as far as practicable, Alaska Natives with a common heritage and common interests. The ANRC boundaries were first identified in conjunction with the 1980 census, although there were no data presentations for ANRCs as geographic entities.
Alaska Native Villages (ANVs) are tribes, bands, clans, groups, villages, communities, or associations in Alaska that are recognized pursuant to the ANCSA of 1972. The Census Bureau established Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs) as geographic entities for data tabulation purposes. For the 1990 census, the Census Bureau worked with officials of the nonprofit corporation within each ANRC, as well as with other knowledgeable officials, to delineate boundaries for the settled portion of each ANV. The ANVSAs are located within the ANRCs and do not cross ANRC boundaries. The ANVSAs for the 1990 census replace the ANVs that the Census Bureau recognized in conjunction with the 1980 census.
The U.S. Government identified American Indian settlement areas as early as the census of 1790. This identification, however, constituted a form of reverse recognition, since the objective was to not include American Indian settlement areas as part of the United States, but rather to exclude such areas from the enumeration process. Enumerators identified such settlements as non-enumeration areas because American Indians living in these settlements (and, later, on American Indian reservations) were not taxed. It was not until
- ↑ A thirteenth, nongeographic, ANRC was established for Alaska Natives who are not permanent residents of the State and who chose not to enroll in one of the 12 ANRCs; there are no decennial census data products for this ANRC.
