Emil Notti

Dr. Emil Reynold Notti (born March 11, 1933) is an American engineer, indigenous activist and democratic politician of Koyukon Athabaskan heritage. Born in Koyukuk, Alaska, Notti arguably played the most pivotal role in developing the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standing issues surrounding aboriginal land claims in Alaska and could, perhaps, be considered an ending of more than a century of endeavor by the Native people of the state to secure their land, as well as to stimulate economic development throughout Alaska. Notti was the first President of the Alaska Federation of Natives and Doyon’s third President, a regional corporation who owns 12.5 million acres. He is a U.S. Navy veteran and worked for Autonetics, a division of North American Aviation, on the Minuteman Ballistic Missile during The Cold War. Later, he served under several Alaska Governors as Deputy Commissioner of Health and Social Services, Commissioner of Community and Regional Affairs and Commissioner of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. These Governors included William Egan, the first governor of the State of Alaska, Bill Sheffield, and Sarah Palin, the Republican Party nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2008 presidential election. Notti served on numerous boards, including the National Bank of Alaska (acquired by Wells Fargo), the Alaska Railroad, a two time Board of Trustee for APFC (the United State's largest Sovereign Wealth Fund with $75 billion under management), and Cook Inlet Regional, Inc. Notti earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and electrical engineering from Northrop University. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from both Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Anchorage.

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Emil Notti, 1970

AFN and ANCSA

On an October morning in 1966, Emil called for a Statewide meeting inviting numerous leaders around Alaska to gather and create the first meeting of a committee. The historic meeting was held October 18, 1966 - on the 99th anniversary of the transfer of Alaska from Russia. Notti presided over the three-day conference as it discussed matters of land recommendations, claims committees, and political challenges the act would have getting through Congress. Many respected politicians and businessmen attended the meeting and delegates were astonished at the attention which they received from well-known political figures of the state. One Native leader in attendance at the convention observed that "if any delegate was seen paying for his own meal, it was probably because he chose to dine alone!" The growing presence and political importance of Natives were evidenced when association leaders were elected to the legislature. Members of the association gathered and were able to gain seven of the sixty seats in the legislature. When the group met a second time early in 1967, it emerged with a new name, The Alaska Federation of Natives, and a new full-time President, Emil Notti. AFN would change the human rights and economic stability of the Alaska Native population forever.

Before ANCSA, the Native population had gone through numerous hardships over the last century from European expansion. In the mid-1700s Alaska's population (according to James Mooney) was home to an estimated 74,000 Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts. As of 2018, the Native population in Alaska is around 110,972 showing the cruelties and killings of thousands over generations by the Russian fur traders during the Russian-American Company period. From 1750 to 2018 the annual growth rate of the local Alaska Native population has been 0.15%. In comparison, since 1790 the United States population as a whole has grown at a 1.96% annual growth rate. Alaska's closest comparable state by population is North Dakota at a 2017 estimate of 757,000 residents. The population of North Dakota has grown 3.96% since the earliest data of North Dakota demographics. Alaskan Natives' low growth rate is just barely lower than Poland's 1931-2018 rate of 0.20% which suffered over six million deaths in World War II.

After the purchase of Alaska by the United States in 1867, Alaska was still not classified a State and was considered a territory. Native Alaskans still did not have the rights of U.S. citizens. "Thus, without further ceremony," wrote historian Bancroft, "this vast area of land, belonging by right to neither, was transferred from one European race to the offshoot of another." Negotiations regarding the purchase of the land were conducted with such speed that the treaty itself was hastily drawn and failed to define clearly the status of Natives, their rights, or matters of land ownership. Only one paragraph (part of Article III) was devoted to the inhabitants of Russia-America. It was not until 1959 that Alaska would officially become a State of the United States.

At hearings held in Fairbanks and Anchorage the 17th and 18th of October 1969 prior to the passage of ANCSA, Notti commented pushing that the money in the bill was not enough "The $500 million provision of our bill may seem like a lot of money, but after looking at the conditions in our villages, $500 million will only give our Native people a chance to operate on a standard of living of what we consider basic minimums, I think, for the rest of the United States." In its final bill, ANCSA would give the Native people of Alaska over $900 million. After many congressional meetings, he had no organization, no political experience, no funding; there was no precedent for what had to be done. He accomplished the task of the land claims in five years. ANCSA, the act, composed of 44 million acres (180,000 km2) and $962.5 million patented and titles transferred to twelve Alaska Native regional corporations and over 200 local village corporations. The surface rights to the patented land were granted to the village corporations and the subsurface right to the land was granted to the regional corporation, creating a split estate pursuant to section 14(f). Notti also cast the tie-breaking vote to enter Sealaska and Tlingit and Haida into the Alaska Federation of Natives. His tie-breaker vote brought $7.2 million and 290,000 acres of land to Native Corporations in Southeast Alaska. In 2017, 9 out of the 10 largest Alaska-owned and -operated corporations by revenue were Native corporations, given life by the creation of ANCSA. The twelve regional Native corporations and several village corporations today employ around 58,000 people creating thousands of jobs for Native and non-Native Alaskans.

An act to provide for the settlement of certain land claims of Alaska Natives, and for other purposes.

In his foreword to the book Alaska Native Land Claims, published with support from the Ford Foundation, Notti delivers a powerfully compelling narrative about the passage of ANCSA and its implications as an awakening to the Canadian and Hawaiian Native people. An excerpt from the Foreword:

No Alaskan--Native or non-Native--is unaffected by the settlement. To some it has meant money and title to lands and the growing assurance that comes from waging a successful fight and becoming a little more a master of one's own fate; to others it means they are no longer so free to move across the face of Alaska as millions of acres become private property. Nov. 1975

Later life

After the passage of ANCSA, Notti continued his career with AFN, eventually becoming the CEO of Doyon Limited, Commissioner of Commerce & Economic Development, and Commissioner of Community & Regional Affairs for the State of Alaska.

Today, Notti is considered one of the most highly respected leaders of the Native Alaskan people and many State and local public officials during elections seek his endorsement to gain the Native population vote. He also continues to advise and voice his opinion on the current state of affairs regarding the Native Alaskan people for their best interest.