“Incorporating” American Colonialism: Accounting and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

Abstract

ABSTRACT The history of Alaska is a colonial history (Pomeroy 1947; Haycox 2002). The purpose of this paper is to examine how the corporate form of organization and corporate accounting were used by the United States (U.S.) government to rationalize decisions, exercise control, and exploit Alaskan resources to benefit corporate America and the existing U.S. states. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) established Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs), whose stock was distributed to qualifying Alaska Natives in exchange for their agreement to extinguish all aboriginal land claims. Guided by prior work in accounting and postmodern colonialism, our analysis uncovers ways in which ANCSA, though lauded by the U.S. government as an innovative and generous settlement, perpetuated a historical pattern of indigenous exploitation by western economic interests, and employed corporate accounting policies and techniques to further the interests of the U.S. government and large corporations at the expense of Native Alaskans.