Annette Islands Reserve

Annette Islands Reserve, at the southern tip of the Alaska Panhandle about 16 miles south of Ketchikan, is the only federal Indian reservation in Alaska. It is home to the Metlakatla Indian Community, Tsimshian people whose ancestors followed the missionary William Duncan from Old Metlakatla in British Columbia in 1887 to build a new settlement here. Congress set the islands aside for them in 1891, and a 1916 proclamation added the surrounding waters within 3,000 feet of shore.

When Congress settled Alaska Native land claims in 1971 with Native-owned corporations instead of reservations, Metlakatla chose to keep its reserve, its land and its fishing waters. The town of Metlakatla, called Maxłakxaała in the Tsimshian language, has about 1,450 residents and lives largely from commercial fishing, seaweed harvesting and the sea. In 2022 a federal appeals court held that the 1891 act also protects members' right to fish in traditional waters beyond the reserve.

• Alaska
  The largest U.S. state, a sub-Arctic giant located in
• Tongass National Forest
  The largest U.S. national forest, a temperate rainforest in Southeast Alaska near