Under the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), Doyon and 25 Interior village corporations are entitled to receive more than 12 million acres of land across Interior Alaska. Each village corporation submitted its land selections by 1978, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been conveying those selected lands ever since.
On April 28, 2025, Beaver Kwit’chin Corporation received its final confirmatory patent from the Bureau of Land Management, completing a 54-year-long process that started with the passage of ANCSA in 1971. Doreen Joseph, President of Beaver Kwit’chin Corporation, has worked diligently over the past three years drafting board resolutions and working with the BLM, Doyon, and the Beaver Kwit’chin Corporation board to complete this process. Over 180,000 acres of land have been conveyed along a 50-mile stretch of the Yukon River due to the hard work of the ANCSA adjudicators at the Anchorage BLM office.
The Anchorage BLM office hosted a signing ceremony to celebrate the completion of land conveyances to Beaver Kwit’chin Corporation. Doreen Joseph and Sandy Martinson, a Beaver Kwit’chin Corporation Board Member, were present, along with Jaenell Manchester from Doyon. Each Village Closure Ceremony is marked with a signed and framed Certificate of Completion for the village corporation.
“Everyone was so excited for this momentous occasion,” said Jaenell Manchester, GIS Analyst at Doyon. “It’s been a long time coming and Beaver Kwit’chin Corporation has worked extremely hard to get to this day.”
The acreage allotted to each village corporation was determined by the number Alaska Natives residing in that village in 1970, ranging from 69,120 acres to 161,280 acres. Doyon was required to select the even numbered townships in even numbered ranges, and odd numbered townships in odd numbered ranges (where available), creating the ‘checkerboard’ pattern of land ownership seen across the Doyon Region today.
To date, 21 villages have received their full land entitlement, and 13 villages are still in the process of receiving their lands. Doyon has received patent to over 6.7 million acres of fee simple land, while 1.5 million acres remain in Interim Conveyance status, and over 300,000 acres of selected land remain to be conveyed. Doyon is also entitled to the subsurface estate of ANCSA land conveyed to village corporations, with over 3.2 million acres patented, 370,000 acres in Interim Conveyance status, and 29,000 acres remaining to be conveyed.
For more information, contact the Lands and Natural Resources Department at 907-459-2030, 1-888-478-4755 or lands@doyon.com.
