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over in there”—Dave sweeps his hand across the vast forest to the east—“you don’t see them from up here. They’re big, but, boy, they can vanish on you. You’d have to get down in there and look. But I got to tell you, everything down here along the river is Ahtna, Incorporated land. Whatever you do about that is none of my business . . . I’m just telling you.”
    Bushpilot Dave is referring to something that’s been plaguing me for the last few months. Right after receiving the news that I’d won the permit, I began studying up on the applicable rules as established by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. While some of the rules of the hunt were presented in terms of what you
may
do (you may kill a buffalo of either sex, and you have seven months, from September 1 to March 31, to do it), the bulk of the rules were in terms of what you couldn’t do. You
may not
: shoot from roads; use motorized vehicles (airplanes, boats, ATVs, snowmobiles, trucks, and so forth) to chase animals; use a helicopter in any way that has anything to do with hunting or transporting hunters or hunting gear; use a machine gun; use bait; pursue animals with the use of fire, artificial light, laser sight, electronically enhanced night vision scope, radio communication, cellular or satellite telephone, artificial salt lick, explosive, expanding gas arrow, bomb, smoke, or chemical; shoot buffalo while they are swimming; or hunt on the same day that you fly in a bush plane.
    Those rules are all great, and they’re essential to a fair-chase hunt. However, I was floored when I received the following letter from the Department of Fish and Game:

    July 19, 2005

    Dear Hunter:

    Congratulations on winning a Copper River Herd Bison Permit. You must provide Fish and Game with a written notification of intent to hunt by September 1, 2005 . . . After we receive your notification we will mail to you a hunt information packet and map. You are still required to pick up your permit at the Glennallen Fish and Game office. At that time we will discuss with you the important land access issues that affect this hunt.
    Much of the land where the bison are found is private land. Opportunities to hunt bison on private land are extremely limited. You may want to spend some time researching land ownership in the area before you commit to the hunt.

    My first thought was, Important land-access issues!? Private land!? Extremely limited? Before you
commit
to the hunt? What the hell? This is Alaska, for God’s sake. The Last Frontier, the Great White North, God’s Country, a state that is about 70 percent public lands. My dismay turned to disbelief, and I fired off my intent-to-hunt letter in hopes that I’d get some clarification. Then, in early August, I received a packet of information. On the enclosed map, the thousands upon thousands of acres of land within the DI454 area were colored green for public land (Wrangell–St. Elias) and orange for private property. The map was mostly green, except for strips of orange that bordered the Copper River on both sides. So that was the important land-access issue: if you were hunting by raft, which was the only way to do it, you couldn’t get from the river into the wilderness without crossing private land. It was as if you were allowed to travel on a highway and on the land alongside the highway, but you weren’t allowed to cross the shoulder.
    The entity that owned all of this private property was Ahtna, Incorporated, one of thirteen regional corporations established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. The act distributed 44 million acres of land and $1 billion in cash to citizens who could claim at least one-quarter of native Alaskan descent. Rather than being paid out on an individual basis, the money and land were piled into large corporations that operate on a for-profit basis and issue shares to stakeholders. Ahtna, which holds over 1.5 million acres, is one such corporation. Because