Alaska Native Corporations

Sealaska Corporation and The Nature Conservancy have set aside $10 and $7 million respectively in seed money to help support the fund.

Some of the village corporations got large payouts while Juneau-based Sealaska, the corporation with the most shareholders, got the least of the 13 regional corporations. Corporation executives say they’re still trying to understand the wide disparities in disbursements.

The three-day event had been scheduled for Oct. 21-23 in Anchorage.

A shareholder resolution to require more in-depth reporting of results failed, as did a second resolution that would have restricted the practice of allowing the board majority to steer proxy votes toward favored candidates that critics say perpetuates the status quo.

For the tribes, it’s about guarding their sovereignty as governments.

More than 90% of shareholders have agreed to the plan. It calls for The Conservation Fund to buy easements on 44,000 acres.

Albert Kookesh, the Tlingit leader, Indigenous rights advocate, culture bearer, politician and basketball player, died Friday at 72. His death is reverberating across the state and his home region of Southeast Alaska.

Kookesh was a legendary figure in Southeast Alaska, starting as a star basketball player at Mount Edgecumbe High School.

Sealaska says it wants to take advantage of the 2017 tax overhaul passed by Congress that allows corporations to offer tax-free payments to shareholders.

The state’s Division of Banking & Securities cited Ray Austin last year and ordered him to pay $1,000 for dozens of Facebook posts that criticized sitting Goldbelt directors.