Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation

Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, or UIC, is one of about 200 Alaska Native village corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation was incorporated in Alaska on April 19, 1973. Located in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation is a for-profit corporation whose Alaska Native shareholders are primarily of Iñupiat Eskimo descent.

The name of the corporation derives from one of the Iñupiaq names for Utqiaġvik, ukpiaġvik, which means "place to hunt snowy owls."

A current listing of Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation's officers and directors, as well as documents filed with the State of Alaska since UIC's incorporation, are available online through the Corporations Database of the Division of Corporations, Business & Professional Licensing, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

At incorporation, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation enrolled Alaska Native shareholders, each of whom received 100 shares of UIC stock. As an ANCSA corporation, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation has no publicly traded stock and its shares cannot legally be sold.

When the United States purchased the Alaskan Territory from Russia in 1867, the only land ownership recognized by American law was that obtained by Russian title. Like the Native Americans of the 48 contiguous states, Alaskan Natives were granted claims to ancestral lands, but had no citizenship rights. When Alaskan statehood was granted in 1959, the federal government claimed most of the land.

In response, Alaskan Natives began to dispute government claims, making “who owns Alaska" a national issue, particularly after oil was discovered on the Northern Slope. In response, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, extinguishing Alaska Native land claims in exchange for about 11 percent of Alaska plus $962.5 million. By conveying Native land title to 12 regional and 200 local village corporations, the ANCSA changed the relationship between Natives and the land from communal tenure to corporate ownership.

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