ANCHORAGE - At a Sept. 15, 2014 signing ceremony, NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. (NANA) received land patents totaling 178,814 acres from the Bureau of Land Management, fulfilling NANA’s land entitlements for Kiana, Noorvik, and Selawik village corporations. These entitlements, totaling 391,680 acres, were established under the Alaska Native Claims Act of Dec. 18, 1971 (ANCSA).
The land entitlements of Ambler, Buckland, Deering, Kobuk, and Shungnak village corporations were also fulfilled in recent years. Only two NANA villages, Kivalina and Noatak, await final land entitlements.
A confirmatory patent for 19,035 acres just south of Noatak was also signed at Monday’s ceremony as part of NANA’s ANCSA Section 12 (c) entitlement. Much of the remaining 12 (c) acreage will be patented in 2015.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management