For this discussion I’ve decided to focus on the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and the Inuit Circumpolar Council. The former due to its significance to Alaska’s economy and labor force, and the latter in hope to learn more about the Inuit people and their role in the Arctic.
The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation is an Alaska Native Regional Corporation created from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Their webpage states that they are “owned by and represents the business interests of its approximately 13,000 Iñupiat shareholders in the villages of Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainwright, Atqasuk, Utqiaġvik, Nuiqsut, Kaktovik and Anaktuvuk Pass.” This private and for-profit corporation run by local Iñupiat shareholders focuses on natural resource development, petroleum refining, and oil field services within Alaska’s Arctic Slope. However, they are also committed to the development in a manner that respects and preserves Iñupiat subsistance values, as well as proper care for the local environment, habitats, and wildlife. This is meant to not only take advantage of the wealth located within Alaska’s Arctic Slope for the corporation’s stakeholders, but to ensure that these practices do not harm the essential subsistence practices and local ecosystems.
The Inuit Circumpolar Council is an Indigenous multi-national non-governmental organization that represents the 180,000 Inuit, Yupik, and Chukchi people from Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and Russia. Their main goal as an institution is to create unity among Arctic indigenous peoples, promote their human rights and interests, as well as to preserve and ensure the development of their indigenous cultures. The Conference was originally held in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, in 1977, and ICC was given special consultative status at the United Nations in 1983. They hold a general assembly every four years, and serve as one of the six indigenous communities that hold Permanent Participant status on the Arctic Council. The ICC accomplishes their goals by providing consultation to both the UN and Arctic Council on the interests and rights of indigenous people in the Arctic.
Both of these institutions exist to serve indigenous communities in very different ways.
Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_Circumpolar_Council
https://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/about-icc/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Slope_Regional_Corporation