Metlakatla (/ˌmɛtləˈkætlə/; Tsimshian: Maxłaxaała or Tak'waan; Lingít: Tàakw.àani[2]) is a census-designated place (CDP) on Annette Island in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, United States.

The Metlakatla voted to opt out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of the 1970s and retained rights to their land and waters.

Duncan went to Washington, D.C., in the United States and asked the U.S. government to give his group land in Alaska.

The U.S. under President Cleveland gave them Annette Island after a Tsimshian search committee in seagoing canoes discovered its calm bay, accessible beaches, nearby waterfall, and abundant fish.

In 1888, William Duncan returned to Washington and lobbied the U.S. Congress for an Indian reserve on Annette Island.

During World War II, the United States made a treaty with the Metlakatla Indian Community to permit construction and operation of a military airbase on Annette Island.

In exchange, the US promised to build a road connecting the ocean-side city to Alaska's Inside Passage (in order to allow year-round ferry service to Ketchikan).

[6] This airfield served the area commercially until the 1970s, when the new Ketchikan Airport was built at Gravina Island in the Inside Passage.

In the 1970s, the Metlakatla did not accept the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and thus kept the Reserve Status, and maintained sovereign immunity.

Metlakatla Indian Community has exclusive commercial and subsistence fishing rights to the islands’ waterways extending from 3,000 feet at mean low tide.

More than 50 years after the end of WWII, in 1997 the US Federal Government began construction of the cross-island road promised to Metlakatla under its wartime M.O.A.

Members of the Active and Reserve components of the Army, Navy, United States Air Force, and the Marines deployed to the island on 2- to 3-week rotations to build the road.

Metlakatla has a Marine west coast climate (Köppen Cfb), with windy and wet weather year-round, cool winters, and mild summers, and straddles the border between USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 7 and 8.

Precipitation averages more than 101 inches (2.57 m) annually, with June and July being the driest months and October and November the wettest.