Do any of the other states have less than 1% owned by individuals and the majority of the State's land held by the Federal Government? If you want Alaska to stand on its own, maybe it should be allowed to develop its resouces and own its land.
I 100% agree with this statement.
Right on. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 gave the Alaska Natives land before state entitlements were even selected. Tribal Americans were placed into a corporate structure with 12, then 13 Regional Corporations. There are adjoining non-profit corporations, and some 200 village corporations. That was what it took to get the pipeline built over the efforts of obstructionist environmentalists.
The Alaska Permanent Fund is a natural antithesis to the massive ANSCA settlement; revenues going to State government are invested in trust for future Alaskans rather than pissed away. The federal government has been our big daddy for a long time and with development of natural resources we are finally finding a way to appropriately develop this wonderful part of the world. It is expected that a lot of knee-jerk Outsiders wouldn't have a clue about why we have created an innovative approach to provide basic services for so few people spread over so many miles.