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- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Real Estate
NDN Collective transferred title to a parcel in Alaska’s Orca Inlet to the Eyak Community Land Trust last week, marking its latest in a series of land return transactions with Alaska Native partners. The acreage and financial terms were not disclosed.
The parcel was identified as a purchase opportunity in 2023 by the Native Conservancy, which had cultural access to the private inholding for 25 years, according to a statement. NDN Holdings, the nonprofit group’s community development arm, acquired the property and subsequently transferred ownership to the newly formed Eyak Community Land Trust.
The site will host cultural and ecological education workshops and retreats. NDN officials said the project is part of its “LANDBACK” initiative, which focuses on returning culturally significant lands to Indigenous communities.
“Through multiple deals facilitated by NDN Holdings over the last couple years, the Eyak people now have land and waterway access back – which will ensure the ecology and biodiversity in the area is stewarded in a good way,” Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of NDN Collective, said in a statement.
The agreement follows a 2024 exchange in which NDN Holdings helped return a two‑acre property along Eyak Lake to the Eyak people.
“Securing our Eyak land back is critical, because our land has been taken and exploited since territorial days in the mid‑1850’s, with land issues exacerbated by statehood in 1959, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971,” said Dune Lankard, an elder and trustee with the Eyak Community Land Trust. “Our Eyak lands have continued to be divided up by individuals, the state, the federal government and private corporations. NDN Collective’s support of our Eyak Community Land Trust and Native people’s LANDBACK efforts allows Native people time to build a safe harbor to prepare for these earth changing times.”
