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More than 1,000 papers documenting Alaska Native history by Tlingit elder Walter Soboleff have been posted on the Internet by Sealaska Heritage Institute in what officials are calling a unique and priceless collection.

Running from 1929 to 1995, the documents provide insight into the Native land claims struggle and the Alaska Native Brotherhood, institute President Rosita Worl said. The ANB was a key player in the land claims fight.

"He begins at a real pivotal time in our history," she said.

Sealaska Heritage began digitizing the documents in 2005 through a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

"We do have a great photographic collection that is also available online, but as far as (documents), this is the first time we've had such a major collection available," said Worl, an anthropologist by training.

Soboleff, 99, amassed a stockpile of documents over the years through his involvement with ANB. These papers include handwritten letters and meeting minutes, correspondence with high-ranking elected officials on Native issues, and even issues of "The Voice of Brotherhood," the group's periodical. A lot of programs and papers from the annual Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood Grand Camp conventions are also included, Soboleff said Wednesday in an interview.

"I attended many (conventions) and I saved many papers and letters I'd written," he said.

Soboleff presently serves as grand president emeritus of ANB, a nonprofit fraternal organization founded in 1912. He nearly donated the documents to his alma mater, the University of Dubuque in Iowa, but later decided to keep them in Southeast Alaska.

"Papers of that nature are to be as near as possible to the people of whom the articles have been written," Soboleff said in a press release. "They have been very interesting articles - even handwritten letters telling the historic events of the people. Those are among them."

Worl said it was interesting to see documents that juxtapose a culture embracing contemporary changes while still holding traditional Tlingit values dear.

"They wanted to learn the new way but still use all the cultural protocols," she said.

The documents also provide better insight into Soboleff, Worl said, a widely known and respected Tlingit elder.

Worl said the documents include a resolution passed by the ANB and other similar papers highlighting the struggle to reclaim Native lands decades before the Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act was signed into law in 1971.

"The ANB begins to unify Native people in Southeast, and I think that's going to give us a lot of insight into that process," she said.

By making the collection available to the public, SHI hopes educators and researchers will use the records to further tell the story of Alaska Natives, Worl said.

Wally Olson, a local anthropologist and author of "The Tlingit: An Introduction to Their Culture and History," said Soboleff's donation is a big contribution.

"I think it will give more insight into what was happening in the '20s and the '30s with the ANB and those organizations, and trying to get a land claim settlement," he said. "I think it will give you a picture of history."

Worl said she hopes that Soboleff's donation will spur others to donate documents for posterity.

"What's really exciting are calls from other people who have records of their own and they're thinking of donating," she said.

The collection can be viewed at www.sealaskaheritage.org/collection/index.htm.