**1. Introduction**

The Indigenous Peoples1 of what is now called Alaska are comprised of 231 federally recognized Tribes and, at a minimum, speak 20 different languages [2,3]. Alaska Natives2 were colonized first by the Russians and then by the United States. This colonization was based on racism and founded the current systemic racism, discrimination, and marginalization Alaska Natives experience today [4–7]. Colonization of Alaska Natives through slavery, war, boarding schools, land grabbing, and diseases were just some of the atrocities which led to lasting historical trauma, as well as land, culture, and language loss in Indigenous communities [8–11]. Although colonization is practiced in new ways, not currently through slavery and war in Alaska, it is an ongoing process [12]. Alaska Natives were colonized and continue to live under colonization due to there never being a decolonization process, their colonizers never leaving and maintaining control of the government, and ongoing settler colonialism [13].

Land stewardship (now management and ownership3) was in the hands of Indigenous people for thousands of years, and through colonization their land was taken as was their rights to steward that land [15,16]. Efforts to rectify this are few and far between and in Alaska most traditional Indigenous lands and subsistence rights are now under state and federal jurisdiction [17,18]. Land management changed from the Indigenous relational perspective of stewardship to one of development and economic profit [4,5,14]. These racist colonial practices have led to the mismanagement of the land, water, fish, and wildlife

**Citation:** Gordon, H.S.J. Alaska Native Subsistence Rights: Taking an Anti-Racist Decolonizing Approach to Land Management and Ownership for Our Children and Generations to Come. *Societies* **2022**, *12*, 72. https:// doi.org/10.3390/soc12030072

Academic Editor: Ranjan Datta

Received: 28 February 2022 Accepted: 23 April 2022 Published: 28 April 2022

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populations, unequal co-management policies, and lawsuits as Alaska Natives assert their rights [19,20]. Co-management and the Federal Subsistence Board [21] offer some space for Alaska Natives to have a voice in management, but this paper seeks to take an antiracist approach [22], decolonizing land management practices and exploring Indigenous understandings of land and subsistence stewardship and recognition of subsistence rights.

This paper seeks to address the current racist and ongoing colonization practices involved in land ownership and management in Alaska, and how that affects Indigenous subsistence rights and their ability to pass on their culture to their children, grandchildren, and future generations. In this paper, I address the racialization of Alaska Natives and the colonization and racism they experienced and continue to experience. I next explain the current land ownership and management practices in Alaska. I detail the problems resulting from a lack of recognition of Tribal sovereignty and no government-to-government relationship with the state, as Alaska does not recognize the 231 Indigenous Tribal Nations4 even though they are federally recognized Tribes [23,24]. My case study highlights perspectives of Ninilchik community members on current land ownership and management practices and how that affects subsistence and Ninilchik Village Tribal members being able to live sustainably and pass on their culture to their children, grandchildren, and future generations. It brings forth the Indigenous Knowledge they have around sustainable land stewardship practices based on a relational understanding of the world and thinking of the survival of future generations, and the central roles the Tribes can be playing in this regard. Finally, this paper speaks to legislators and policy makers on how they can take anti-racism decolonial approaches to land to protect Indigenous subsistence rights through, (a) acknowledging Tribal sovereignty and recognizing Tribes, (b) respecting Indigenous Knowledge and prioritizing Indigenous stewardship of the land and waters, and (c) engaging in the land back movement as Indigenous Peoples had their land stolen.
