Alaskan land selections by Alaska Native corporations which exceed the acreage to which corporations are entitled may be reduced through procedures proposed in the Federal Register by the Department of the Interior.
Native corporations, entitled to a total of 44 million acres of land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, applied for more acreage than they are entitled to receive during the early 1970s when the Act required them to select lands for possible conveyance.
The Native corporations were allowed to make these over selections to ensure receipt of the full acreage allotted to them. Interior could not ensure conveyance of many of the lands since they were subject of various legal questions. Current regulations allow over selection, but do not specify a maximum amount allowable.
Proposed regulations would set a method for determining what over selection is and a system for reducing it. The regulations would also give the Secretary authority to reject over selections that exceed 125 percent of the acreage to which the corporation is entitled.
Preparation of the regulations was begun as a result of a stipulation agreement between Interior and the State of Alaska Comments on the proposed regulations will be accepted until September 19, 1982 by the Director (140), Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.
