Title 43 › CHAPTER 33 — ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT › § 1611
Village Corporations must pick the townships where their villages lie and enough extra land so their total equals the acres they are owed, within three years from December 18, 1971. They must choose from lands set aside under section 1610(a). No Village Corporation may take more than 69,120 acres from the withdrawn public lands category, more than 69,120 acres from the National Wildlife Refuge System, or more than 69,120 acres in a National Forest. If a Village takes the surface in a Wildlife Refuge or Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, the Regional Corporation for that region may take an equal amount of subsurface acres elsewhere in the region. Selections should be contiguous, fairly compact, and in whole sections when possible, and typically in units of at least 1,280 acres. The Secretary can waive the whole-section rule in certain cases (for example, when water or unavailable land divides a section, when no small islands would be left, or when a better land pattern or management results), or when the remaining lands in a section are already chosen by another Native corporation. After Village selections, the Secretary must divide the remaining acreage up to a 22,000,000‑acre total among the eleven Regional Corporations (excluding southeastern Alaska) by number of enrolled Natives. Each Regional Corporation must reallocate its share among the villages by October 1, 2005, taking historic use, subsistence, and population into account; those allocation decisions cannot be reviewed by courts. The difference between 38,000,000 acres and the 22,000,000 acres already chosen is then divided among the same eleven regions based on each region’s share of Alaska land (excluding southeast), with rules to reduce a region’s share if it already selected more than its allotment. Each Regional Corporation must pick its allotted acres before the end of the fourth year after December 18, 1971, using specified withdrawn lands and following an even/odd township rule. Where only mineral estates remain, special rules let a Regional Corporation request inclusion, exclude them, or ask to have them conveyed, with a 12,000‑acre limit for certain in‑lieu choices and a 90‑day deadline to pick matching surface acres after notice. No mineral or in‑lieu surface acres are available in the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska or in Wildlife Refuges as their boundaries stood on December 18, 1971. For Dutch Harbor, no federal surplus property may be sold for two years from December 18, 1971 so the village can select nearby lands and improvements. Village boundary or selection disputes are settled by arbitration panels made up of one member chosen by each village involved and one or two additional members they pick to make an odd-numbered panel. Village entitlements and reallocations can be combined without changing totals or special limits; combined selections follow the same rules and generally do not require separate patents or surveys unless a survey was already contracted for December 10, 2004.
Full Legal Text
Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
43 U.S.C. § 1611
Title 43, Public Lands
Last Updated
Sep 23, 2026
Release point: 119-110