Catholic missionaries first started venturing into the Alaska territory in the late 19th century, not long after Russia sold the land to the United States for 2 cents per acre.
The Catholic church built missions and churches, and in the 1950s, bought land in the Copper River Valley from the U.S. government for a mission school largely serving Native students. Even at a modest $1.25 per acre, the sale netted the U.S. government a tidy return on investment.
Now, 50 years after the once-thriving school was shuttered, the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau wants to sell the 462-acre property back to its Indigenous inhabitants for more than $4,000 an acre â or put it up for sale on the open market.
Alaska village eyes return of ancestral lands
STEWART HUNTINGTON, Indian Country Today
May 22, 2021
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1of3In this April 22, 2021, photo, signs of spring thaw appear along the Tazlina River in Tazlina, Alaska. The Catholic Church wants to sell 462 acres that once housed the Copper Valley mission school to the Native Village of Tazlina, a federally recognized tribe. The tribe is scrambling to raise the nearly $1.9 million asking price so it can regain stewardship of its ancestral land. (John Tierney/Indian Country Today via AP)John Tierney/APShow MoreShow Less
2of3This April 22, 2021, photo, shows a sign in tiny Tazlina, Alaska, northwest of Anchorage. The Native Village of Tazlina, a federally recognized tribe, is trying to raise money so it can buy 460 acres of ancestral lands from the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau. The land once held a mission school. (John Tierney/Indian Country Today via AP)John Tierney/APShow MoreShow Less