Chugach Alaska Corp. has purchased over 150 acres of surface and subsurface estate at Point Martin at the edge of the Copper River Delta and transferred the property to the Chugach Heritage Foundation for future cultural and historic preservation uses.
The purchase from The Nature Conservancy, announced on Wednesday, Jan. 20, is a significant one, said Josie Hickel, CAC’s executive vice president of ANCSA and community affairs.
“By allowing Chugach to purchase Point Martin and pass ownership on to CHF, our shareholders and their descendants can continue to use this property for subsistence and cultural purposes and honor our traditions and the rich heritage of our lands for generations,” she said.
The official transaction documents signed by CAC and TNC conclude that this land and its waters “are the irreplaceable birthright of the Chugach, Eyak and Tlingit people of Alaska,” said John F.C. Johnson, vice president of cultural resources for CAC. “Most notably, the area was once a Tlingit/Eyak village called Qixtaqlaq, which means ‘Behind the Martin Islands’.”
Back in 1883, the Staatiche Museum in Berlin collected numerous cultural items from Qixtaqlaq and from burial sites in the Chugach region, Johnson said. The groundwork is now laid for a future partnership with Berlin to share that history and knowledge, he said.
