Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) is one of thirteen

Alaska Native regional corporations The Alaska Native Regional Corporations were established in 1971 when the United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) which settled land and financial claims made by the Alaska Natives and provided for the establi ...

created under the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standin ...

of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Cook Inlet Region, Inc. was incorporated in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

on June 8, 1972.Corporations Database
Cook Inlet Region, Inc.
. Division of Corporations, Business & Professional Licensing, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. Headquartered in

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...

, CIRI is a for-profit corporation, and is owned by more than 7,300 Alaska Native shareholders of Athabascan and Southeast Indian, Inupiat, Yup’ik, Alutiiq and Aleut descent. Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (2006)
"Shareholder Responsibilities."
Retrieved on 2007-03-27. The CIRI region in the

Cook Inlet Cook Inlet ( tfn, Tikahtnu; Sugpiaq: ''Cungaaciq'') stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage. On its ...

area of southcentral

is the traditional homeland of the Dena'ina and

Ahtna The Ahtna (also Ahtena, Atna, Ahtna-kohtaene, or Copper River) are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. The people's homeland called Atna Nenn', is located in the Copper River area of southern ...

Athabaskan Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific ...

peoples, and about 40 percent of CIRI shareholders are of Dena'ina or Ahtna descent. However, as the CIRI region also holds the urban center of Alaska, including Alaska's largest city,

, the region has attracted Alaska Natives from many other parts of the state. Consequently, CIRI's shareholder population is diverse, including descendants of all Alaska Native cultures, including Dena'ina,

, other

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

Tsimshian The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only ...

Eyak The Eyak ( Eyak: ʔi·ya·ɢdəlahɢəyu·, literally "inhabitants of Eyak Village at Mile 6"Krauss, Michael E. 1970. ''Eyak dictionary''. University of Alaska and Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1963-1970) are a Native American indigenou ...

and

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a 1 ...

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

;

Iñupiat The Iñupiat (or Inupiat, Iñupiaq or Inupiaq;) are a group of Alaska Natives, whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current ...

Yup'ik The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik ( own name ''Yup'ik'' sg ''Yupiik'' dual ''Yupiit'' pl; russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an I ...

Siberian Yupik Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits (russian: Юиты), are a Yupik people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik ...

, and

Alutiiq The Alutiiq people (pronounced in English; from Promyshlenniki Russian Алеутъ, " Aleut"; plural often "Alutiit"), also called by their ancestral name ( or ; plural often "Sugpiat"), as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a s ...

Eskimos; and

Aleuts The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the ...

.Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (2006)
"The People of Cook Inlet."
Retrieved on 2007-03-27. As a result, about 20% of CIRI's shareholders also enrolled in Cook Inlet's ANCSA "Village Corporations". Most other ANCSA regional corporations have the opposite 80/20 At-large/Village shareholder ratio, demonstrating urban migration and assimilation patterns that affect the operations of the regional corporations.Personal interview with Roy Huhndorf, CEO of CIRI circa 1986.

Officers and Directors

A current listing of Cook Inlet Region, Inc.'s officers and directors, as well as documents filed with the State of Alaska since CIRI's incorporation, are available online through the Corporations Database of the Division of Corporations, Business & Professional Licensing, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

Shareholders

At incorporation, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. enrolled about 7,000 Alaska Native shareholders, each of whom received 100 shares of CIRI stock. Currently CIRI has about 7,300 shareholders. As an ANCSA corporation, CIRI has no publicly traded stock and its shares cannot be sold; they can be transferred by gift or inheritance, almost always to descendants or relatives.

Business enterprises

Under federal law, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. and its majority-owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and partnerships are deemed to be "minority and economically disadvantaged business enterprise (43 USC 1626(e)).

Underground Coal Gasification Proposal

In October 2009, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. announced plans to pursue the first

underground coal gasification Underground coal gasification (UCG) is an industrial process which converts coal into product gas. UCG is an ''in-situ'' gasification process, carried out in non-mined coal seams using injection of oxidants and steam. The product gas is brought to ...

project in the country...Anchorage Daily News 10-9-09
CIRI Energy Website
This project has been touted as being

environmentally friendlier Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that cla ...

than traditional coal combustion, but concerns still remain about groundwater contamination and possibilities for

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...

remittance.Alaska's Wild Resource Web: Underground Coal Gasification
/ref>

Notes

{{reflist

External links

Cook Inlet Region, Inc.
(official website). 1972 establishments in Alaska Alaska Native culture in Anchorage Alaska Native regional corporations Companies based in Anchorage, Alaska