Our Region

Communities

The Calista Region includes 48 permanent and 8 seasonally occupied villages located along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers and the Bering Sea coast. No paved roads connect the villages, making them only accessible by boat, plane, snowmachine or four-wheeler.

Our communities are led by 56 Tribes and 45 Village Corporations and they are served by regional non-profit organizations that provide critical services. Some communities have formed city governments. The majority of our Shareholders are also Tribal members.

Culture

Households in our Region maintain their traditional language and subsistence way of life to a greater degree than many other areas of Alaska.

Yugtun (our preferred name for the Yup’ik language) is the second-most common Native language spoken in the entire country, according to the 2006-2010 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Through its research and educational programs, our non-profit partner, Calista Education and Culture, documents traditional knowledge in the Calista Region and passes it on to our young people.

Subsistence

Subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering is the lifeblood of our Region. It holds our communities together and is part of our identity.

In the early 1970s, the Calista Land Department worked with Elders in each of our villages to record the locations for subsistence hunting, gathering and fishing. Leaders of each village used this information—and information about minerals and oil and gas—to decide which lands to select under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

Alaska Native hunting and fishing rights were removed from ANCSA before it became law. Calista continues to advocate for our state and federal leaders to restore our subsistence rights.

Role of ANCSA

ANCSA authorized the creation of 12 for-profit regional corporations and over 230 village corporations to receive money and lands to manage on behalf of their Shareholders.

Yukon-Kuskokwim regional leaders subsequently voted to establish Calista Corporation as their for-profit regional corporation. With assistance from Calista, the villages also established 56 village corporations and selected their land entitlement.

Village corporations for the communities of Kalskag, Lower Kalskag, Aniak, Chuathbaluk, Napaimute, Crooked Creek, Georgetown, Red Devil, Sleetmute and Stony River later merged to form The Kuskokwim Corporation. The village corporations for Nightmute and Umkumiute merged to form Chinuruk, Incorporated.

Did you know?
In the early 1970s, Calista interviewed Elders and assembled vast amounts of data to assist the 56 villages in our Region with their land selections. Find out about this monumental task in our white paper, Calista Corporation’s Role in The Land Selection Process Pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of December 18, 1971.