ABSTRACT
The New Dealers in charge of Indian Affairs, who consisted of Harold Ickes, John Collier and Felix Cohen, believed New Deal reservations in Alaska were necessary. In March 1942, Ickes established the first New Deal reservation at Unalakeet. Venetie/Arctic and Karluk were the first of these New Deal reservations created. In 1946, prior to leaving office, Ickes proposed two more New Deal reservations, at Diomede and at Hydaburg. It was the last of the New Deal reservations created by the Secretary of the Interior, and then two years after its creation, the Federal District court nullified it. The largest New Deal reservation and located north of the Arctic Circle, it benefitted only twenty-five Athabascan families. In short, the establishment of these New Deal reservations signaled the beginning of a new Alaska reservation policy that included both land and water, and it also created the potential for future conflicts between Natives and non-Natives over natural resources.
