Unalaska, AK – November is National Native American Heritage month and it's Alaska Native Heritage Month here in this state. It's celebrated with a parade in Sitka, and classrooms across the state give special attention to the history of Alaska Natives during this time.

Here in Unalaska, residents have found more personal ways to celebrate. Wendy Svarny-Hawthorne is the president of the Ounalashka Corporation, and she worked with her sister Sharon Svarny-Livingston to acquire a group of nine Unangan baskets this month.

"Two of them were made by Alice Hope, who happens to be my grandmother," say Svarny-Hawthorne.

As president of a Native village corporation, Svarny-Hawthorne has also considered the role the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act has played over the past four decades. The act was signed in 1971, and it created both the regional and village corporations.

"The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act changed everything for everybody," she says. "Thirty-eight years later, that act is still a work in progress, and the jury's still out on whether it's been successful or not."