Kenai Fjords National Park guide · 2 min read
ANILCA 1980 and Native Inholdings
Kenai Fjords became a national park when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, known as ANILCA, was signed into law by Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980.
Its roots reach back to Operation Great Land, a 1964 study by George Hartzog, director of the National Park Service, that urged building up the existing parks in Alaska. Follow-up work by Hartzog brought the Park Service into talks over the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, but Kenai Fjords was not a top priority under it. The first proposals for a national park here came in the 1970s.
At designation, the park's boundaries took in 119,000 acres of native selected lands. These were properties removed from federal ownership and handed to Alaska Native corporations, mostly along the coastline. In the 1990s the Park Service bought back 30,295 acres of that land and kept subsistence rights on about 9,000 acres. This changed the park's original intent, which had left out subsistence claims. Kenai Fjords was the only Alaska national park that did not at first allow subsistence use by Native people.
Native village corporations still hold inholdings inside the park, and they have since secured subsistence rights on those tracts. The Port Graham Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation, owns land along the coastline. A land use permit is needed for these private lands, but some areas are marked as public easements that allow visits of up to 24 hours without one. The Port Graham community built Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge on Aialik Bay, within Port Graham land.
Aialik Bay is one of the park's most notable fjords, and it is reached by water. Kayaking near Aialik Glacier is one way to explore it, and guidance on camping safely along the coast is available. Before setting out, consult the map to see whether your route may cross Port Graham land.
