NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. (NANA) is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of Alaska Native land claims. NANA was incorporated in Alaska on June 7, 1972.[1] NANA is a for-profit corporation with a land base in the Kotzebue area in northwest Alaska. Its corporate office is in Kotzebue, Alaska. NANA's Alaska Native shareholders are of Inupiat descent.
The Northwest Arctic Native Association was NANA's predecessor, and played a key role in the effort to resolve Alaska Native land claims that led to passage of ANCSA. However, NANA is not an acroymn today.
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NANA states their mission as follows: "We improve the quality of life for our people by maximizing economic growth, protecting and enhancing our lands, and promoting healthy communities with decisions, actions, and behaviors inspired by our Iñupiat Ilitqusiat values consistent with our core principles."
NANA is a shareholder-managed corporation that is guided by a Board of Directors, composed of Inupiat shareholders, and a senior management team. The 23 member NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. Board is elected solely by NANA shareholders. It is made up of two Iñupiat shareholder board members from each NANA village (with the exception of Kotzebue with one board seat) and an Elder Advisor. The NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. Senior Management Team, is led by Marie N. Greene.
Donald G. Sheldon - NANA Regional Corporation, Board Chair Marie N. Greene - NANA Regional Corporation, President/CEO Gladys Pungowiyi - Chief Operating Officer, Vice President Kevin Thomas - Chief Financial Officer Walter Sampson - Vice President, Lands and Regional Affairs Dr. Lance Miller - Vice President, Resources E.J. Doll Garoutte - Vice President, Shareholder Relations Red Seeberger - Vice President, Administration Jackie Luke - General Counsel
Most of NANA's approximately 12,000 shareholders are Alaska Natives of Inupiat descent. As an ANCSA corporation, NANA has no publicly traded stock and its shares cannot legally be sold, though Class A, B and C stocks can be inherited or gifted. Unlike other American corporations, NANA - as an Alaska Native Corporation, has economic,social and cultural responsibilities to its shareholders. A wide variety of unique shareholders services are offered through the corporation.
NANA offers an internship program to its shareholders to provide them with on-the-job training, experience, skills. This training offers students career insights, exposure to the workplace and networking opportunities. NANA's mentoring program pairs shareholder employees with mentors who are managers in professional fields.
The NANA region in northwest Alaska encompasses 38,000 square miles (98,000 km2), about the size of Indiana. Most of it is north of the Arctic Circle, and its area coincides with the area of the Northwest Arctic Borough. The region has a population of about 7,300 people living in 11 communities. Of these, more than 85 percent of the region’s residents are Iñupiat, descendants of the first people who settled the region more than 10,000 years ago. The regional hub is Kotzebue; other villages include: Ambler, Buckland, Deering, Kiana, Kivalina, Kobuk, Noatak, Noorvik, Selawik, and Shungnak.
Subsistence plays a key role in the lives of the Inupiat. For centuries, they have relied on hunting and fishing. For most families in the region, the household economy is a mix of participation in these subsistence activities and full-time or part-time employment.Subsistence is not just economic necessity – it also plays a strong cultural and social role in the lives of NANA shareholders - and the preservation of subsistence resources is a vital element of the Inupiat cultural identity and values.
Until 1971, the issue of land ownership in Alaska was divisive. Oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope and Alaska Native peoples, including the Iñupiat of northwest Alaska, worried about maintaining rights to traditional lands and the ability to protect their valuable subsistence resources. The passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (or ANCSA) helped resolve many of the issues surrounding land rights.
ANCSA created 12 regional corporations in Alaska (a 13th was added later), and the state and Alaska Native groups worked together to select lands for each region. Each of these regions formed a for-profit corporation to manage these land rights.
Today, NANA owns 2,280,000 acres (9,200 km2), or approximately 9.4 percent of the 24,300,000 acres (98,000 km2) that comprise the NANA region. NANA lands encompass an area that is roughly the size of Indiana.
In 1972, a merger of the area’s regional corporation and ten of the eleven village corporations resulted in NANA’s ownership of both the surface and subsurface acreage, with the exception of the surface acreage Kikiktagruk Iñupiat Corporation (KIC) retained.
The land selection and conveyance process is now largely completed, but the work of our Lands Department continues to ensure that our rights are never again in question.
NANA-owned lands are managed by the NANA Lands and Regional Affairs Department.
NANA lands are part of the largest, unexplored on-shore basin in North America. The land is mineral-rich and NANA works with its partners to develop the resources to the benefit of its shareholders. NANA states that subsistence is the highest and best use of their lands and all projects must be in alignment with that priority. NANA is land-owner of the Red Dog Mine. The mine was developed in 1982 under an innovative operating agreement between NANA, a Native corporation owned by the Iñupiat people of northwest Alaska, and Teck Alaska, Inc. (Teck), a U.S. subsidiary of Teck Resources Limited, a diversified mining and metals company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. NANA owns the land on which Red Dog Mine is situated, and NANA shareholders receive direct and indirect benefits from development at the mine.
NN Under federal law, NANA and its majority-owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and partnerships are deemed to be "minority and economically disadvantaged business enterprise[s]" (43 USC 1626(e)).
NANA Regional Corporation's subsidiaries include:
NDC owns companies that operate in engineering and construction; resource development; facilities management and logistics; real estate and hotel development; and information technology and telecommunications.
NANA Development Corporation is one of the largest hotel operators in Alaska. Its properties are managed through the NMS Lodging, the hotel division of NANA Management Services.