Alaska News

Calista shareholders getting their biggest-ever dividend

BETHEL – Calista Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, announced Tuesday that it will be issuing its biggest-ever dividend, a total of just over $5 million to 12,900 shareholders. A typical shareholder with 100 shares will receive $380, the corporation said.

The spring dividends go out by April 15 and will bring an infusion of cash to one of the poorest parts of Alaska. About 60 percent of the shareholders live in the region.

"This estimated $3 million impact for the region is significant for one of the most economically challenged areas in the nation," Calista's board chairman, Willie Kasayulie, said in a written statement.

Since its creation under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Calista has distributed $31 million, of which half has been set by the board in the last three years. Unlike some Native corporations, Calista does not have big mineral or logging resources to exploit. Shareholders received no dividends at all from 1985 through 2007.

Shareholders currently are debating whether to open enrollment to descendants of shareholders. Such action would dilute the value of existing shares but ensure a voice for the corporation as the number of original members declines.

Calista's annual meeting is set for July 11 in the village of Kasigluk.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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