Welcome:
Welcome to the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development (DANSRD). We offer several dynamic degree programs including a Bachelor's of Alaska Native Studies, a Bachelors of Rural Development, and a Master's of Rural Development.
All of our degree programs are distance delivered so students never have to leave home to achieve their educational goals.
If you are interested in further developing your leadership and management skills and/or in enhancing the quality of life in your community, we invite you to enroll in a class or apply for one of our degree programs.
Vision:
Self-determined Indigenous and community development
Mission:
Empowering Communities Through Our Students
Student Opportunities

Serving rural and Alaska Native students from across Alaska, Rural Student Services (RSS) is here to help you make UAF your home away from home.
Talk to an RSS advisor
The 2022 Festival of Native Arts was hosted virtually on Friday and Saturday, March 25-26th, 2022. For information about upcoming events or to get involved, visit the FNA website.
FNA website
The UAF Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development (DANSRD) and Doyon, Ltd hosted a symposium on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) on April 12th and 13th,
2022.
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Our Programs
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DANSRD Graduate Continues to Lead
November 02, 2021
DANSRD would like to congratulate former faculty member Barbara ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak Blake on her successful bid for a seat on the Juneau Assembly. Barbara is a graduate of the RD MA (2013) and BA programs and taught for DANSRD 2013 through 2014. ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak is of Haida, Tlingit and Ahtna Athabascan descent and belongs to …
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ANCSA at 50 on the DANSRD Blog
December 01, 2021
On December 18, 2021 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) turns 50. To mark the occasion, the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development will publish a series of blog posts from faculty and graduates discussing ANCSA at 50: The Next 50 Years. Posts will be related to the history of the law, …
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“An Outsider’s Thoughts on ANCSA” by Emeritus Professor Jenny Bell Jones
December 02, 2021
ANCSA changed the lives of everybody in Alaska. Whether you are Alaska Native, non-Native, or some “other” kind of Native as I am, your life has been affected by ANCSA if you have spent any length of time at all in the state. Alaska would not look the way it looks today were it not …
Continue reading "“An Outsider’s Thoughts on ANCSA” by Emeritus Professor Jenny Bell Jones"
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Deanna Fitzgerald, B.S.
Undergraduate Academic Advisor
Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development

Christine Davenport, M.A.
Graduate Student Coordinator
Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development
Sitka, AK