Alaska's Changing Arctic: Trends in Arctic Policy Series

About the series

At the national level, Alaska has three members of Congress acting on the state’s behalf. They receive information and support from the Congressional Research Service.

In March 2022, the Service released an updated report, Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress. This nationally focused document outlined the biggest aspects of Arctic change likely to require federal government attention. However, the service is general and cannot provide detailed, real-time information with a sensitivity to the needs of Alaska’s diverse population and suited to use by the Alaska Legislature.

Read Energy Issues and Trends online.

Download PDF

Read Coastal Security and Infrastructure online.

Download PDF

Alaska, the state that makes the United States an Arctic nation and enables U.S. membership in the Arctic Council, has the ability to create and maintain policies that are state and regionally specific. Doing so can expand Alaska’s Arctic role as well as address effects of environmental and developmental changes. Though there is not a routine suite of information for the Legislature in relation to Arctic issues, the Arctic Policy Act of 2015 directs the state to attend to its Arctic nature. This declaration of state Arctic policy was the result of several years of bipartisan efforts and community engagement of the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission. The AAPC was created by the Alaska Legislature in 2012, at the recommendation of the Alaska Northern Waters Task Force. Twenty six Commissioners, including 10 legislators and 16 experts from around Alaska, formed the effort.

The AAPC aimed to continue the work of the task force, creating actionable Arctic policy for Alaska and positively influencing federal Arctic policy. The AAPC completed its work in 2015 and published a final report and implementation plan for Alaska’s Arctic policy, framing its recommendations into four lines of strategic effort. Later that year the Alaska Legislature passed the Arctic Policy Act (44.99.105. Declaration of State Arctic Policy).

Why create these reports and why the University of Alaska?

These reports are designed specifically for state government and Alaska citizens. They address four priority lines of effort identified in Alaska’s Arctic Policy, “promoting economic and resource development,” through various topics. While the reports recognize the policy-making power of local and tribal governments, they highlight key interactive trends in Alaska and the Arctic that are most likely to require legislative decision-making in the near future.

The authors are University of Alaska experts with local, national and international partnerships in both public and private sectors. They used scientific studies, historical and current policy analysis in combination with a close understanding of state, regional, federal and international governance to work collaboratively across the university. The shared result is a synthesis of the key trends that Alaska government needs to pay attention to as they seek success in the globalizing Arctic.

The University of Alaska is able to serve as an information resource to the state government. These reports are one way to do that. They aim to:

efficiently contextualize for the Alaska audience state concerns in relation to Arctic economic, social and environmental trends in terms decision-makers and their staffs are able to grasp quickly and evaluate in relation to their own political choices,
serve as a timely resource for questions legislators, executive agencies or other government officials may have, and
highlight the unique opportunities of the state of Alaska to serve as a model for energy policies and practices serving cold climate and rural areas in the United States and internationally.

These goals rest on the well-understood relationship between the university and state: these reports seek to inform, not advocate for any particular outcome or for the university itself. The report design facilitates state capacity to address the Arctic Policy Act, including concerns related to climate change and geopolitics without the pressure of advocacy or recommendations.

Sec. 44.99.105. Declaration of state Arctic policy

a. It is the policy of the state, as it relates to the Arctic, to

1. uphold the state’s commitment to economically vibrant communities sustained by development activities consistent with the state’s responsibility for a healthy environment, including efforts to

A) ensure that Arctic residents and communities benefit from economic and resource development activities in the region;
B) improve the efficiency, predictability, and stability of permitting and regulatory processes;
C) attract investment through the establishment of a positive investment climate and the development of strategic infrastructure;
D) sustain current, and develop new, approaches for responding to a changing climate, and adapt to the challenges of coastal erosion, permafrost melt, and ocean acidification;
E) encourage industrial and technological innovation in the private and academic sectors that focuses on emerging opportunities and challenges;
F) maintain a strong, sustainable fisheries industry and increase fisheries research and monitoring;
G) continue to prepare the residents of the state for emerging economic activities by using multiple education and training opportunities and implementing state workforce plans;

2. collaborate with all levels of government, tribes, industry, and nongovernmental organizations to achieve transparent and inclusive Arctic decision-making, including efforts to

A) strengthen and expand cross-border relationships and international cooperation, especially bilateral engagements with Canada and Russia;
B) sustain and enhance state participation in the Arctic Council;
C) pursue opportunities to participate meaningfully as a partner in the development of federal and international Arctic policies, thereby incorporating state and local knowledge and expertise;
D) strengthen support for and collaboration with Arctic Council Permanent Participant organizations that include Indigenous peoples of the state;

3. enhance the security of the Arctic region of the state and, thereby, the security of the entire state, including efforts to

A) enhance disaster and emergency prevention and response, oil spill prevention and response, and search and rescue capabilities in the region;
B) provide safe, secure, and reliable maritime transportation in the areas of the state adjacent to the Arctic;
C) sustain current, and develop new, community, response, and resource-related infrastructure;
D) coordinate with the federal government for an increase in United States Coast Guard presence, national defense obligations, and levels of public and private sector support; and

4. value and strengthen the resilience of communities and respect and integrate the culture, language, and knowledge of Arctic peoples, including efforts to

A) recognize Arctic Indigenous peoples’ cultures and unique relationship to the environment, including traditional reliance on a subsistence way of life for food security, which provides a spiritual connection to the land and the sea;
B) build capacity to conduct science and research and advance innovation and technology in part by providing support to the University of Alaska for Arctic research consistent with state priorities;
C) employ integrated, strategic planning that considers scientific, local, and traditional knowledge;
D) safeguard the fish, wildlife, and environment of the Arctic for the benefit of residents of the state;
E) encourage more effective integration of local and traditional knowledge into conventional science and research.

b. It is important to the state, as it relates to the Arctic, to support the strategic recommendations of the implementation plan developed by the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission and to encourage consideration of recommendations developed by the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission. Priority lines of effort for the Arctic policy of the state include

promoting economic and resource development;
addressing the infrastructure and response capacity gap in order to support the Arctic region;
supporting healthy communities; and
supporting existing and fostering new science and research that aligns with state priorities for the Arctic.

c. In this section, “Arctic” means the area of the state north of the Arctic Circle, north and west of the boundary formed by the Porcupine, Yukon, and Kuskokwim Rivers, all contiguous seas, including the Arctic Ocean, and the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas, and the Aleutian Chain, except that, for the purpose of international Arctic policy, “Arctic” means the entirety of the state.

(1) This map shows the Indigenous language regions of Alaska. The language boundaries represent traditional territories in approximately 1900. Alaska Native Peoples are those who are Indigenous to this place now called Alaska. [Source: Krauss, M., Holton, G., Kerr, J., & West, C.T., 2011. Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alaska. Fairbanks and Anchorage: Alaska Native Language Center and UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research.]

Indigenous peoples in Alaska

Alaska Native Peoples have thrived on the lands and waters of what is now the state of Alaska for 10,000 years or more, since before Russian and American exploitation and colonization. The map on this page shows the language groups by region of the Indigenous population. In 1942, when construction on the Alaska Highway began, there were 73,000 people in Alaska, about half of them Alaska Native. This percentage fell to 26% in 1950, and to 19% by the time of statehood in 1959. Today the population is approximately 20% of roughly 730,000 Alaska citizens. Looking to the future, the Alaska Department of Labor projects the Alaska Native population to increase by about 30,000 people by 2050. This would increase their proportion of Alaska’s total projected population to 23%.

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

The Alaska Statehood Act of 1959 did not comprehensively address Indigenous land claims, noting only that the “State must disclaim all right and title to lands and other property not granted or confirmed to the State including right or title which may be held by any Indians, Eskimos or Aleuts (natives) or is held by the United States in trust for said natives.”

In the 1960s the Alaska Federation of Natives was established to advocate for a land claims settlement. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, known as ANCSA, extinguished aboriginal land title in Alaska. Its foundation was in Alaska Native corporate ownership. The state was divided into 12 regions creating private, for-profit Alaska Native regional corporations and over 200 private, for-profit Alaska Native village corporations. ANCSA also mandated that both regional and village corporations be owned by enrolled Alaska Native shareholders. Through ANCSA, the federal government transferred 44 million acres — land to be held in corporate ownership by Alaska Native shareholders — to Alaska Native regional and village corporations. The federal government also compensated the newly formed Alaska Native corporations a total of $962.5 million for land lost in the settlement agreement.

Land acknowledgment

As a we build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future, we acknowledge and honor the Alaska Native Peoples of the land on which we work and live.

University of Alaska Anchorage UAA recognizes and values the diversity of our unique location in Southcentral Alaska, the ancestral lands of the Dena’ina, Ahtna, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq, Chugachmiut and Eyak peoples.

Dena’ina land acknowledgment Dena’inaq ełnenaq’ gheshtnu ch’q’u yeshdu. “I live and work on the land of the Dena’ina.” Translation: Helen Dick, Sondra Shaginoff-Stuart, Joel Isaak.

University of Alaska Fairbanks We acknowledge the Alaska Native nations upon whose ancestral lands our campuses reside. In Fairbanks, our Troth Yeddha’ Campus is located on the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River.

University of Alaska Southeast Our campuses reside on the unceded territories of the Áakʼw Kwáan, Taantʼá Kwáan and Sheetkʼá Kwáan on Lingít Aaní, also known as Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka, Alaska, adjacent to the ancestral home of the Xaadas and Ts’msyen peoples.