ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the issues, processes, and conditions of Native institution-building. It also describes a special case, the efforts of one Alaska Native group, the Inupiat Eskimo of the Northwest Arctic, to manage the impacts of severe social change through a regional strategy of "human resource" development. Northwest Arctic Native Association (NANA) Corporation exercises the leading role in the rural development strategy by using its share of the land and cash settlement of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) to systematically build a regional employment structure. The geographical boundaries of these profit-making corporations approximate those of pre-ANCSA Native associations politically organized to serve areas populated by people sharing similar cultural styles and languages. Foremost are the tandem goals of "instilling pride and confidence in the shareholders and Natives of the NANA region," and to "preserve and protect the resources essential for continued subsistence living."
