Bering Straits Native Corporation

"Our mission is to improve the quality of life of our people through economic development while protecting our land and preserving our culture and heritage."

Bering Straits Native Corporation is owned by more than 7,700 Alaska Native shareholders. These include original shareholders, heirs and gift recipients residing inside and outside Alaska. BSNC shareholders who are Alaska Native are eligible to vote for the Board of Directors or on other advisory matters that come to the shareholders for a vote at the Annual Meeting.

At incorporation, BSNC enrolled about 6,333 Alaska Native shareholders, each of whom received 100 shares of BSNC stock. As an ANCSA corporation, BSNC has no publicly traded stock and its shares cannot legally be sold.

BSNC is committed to providing meaningful benefits to its shareholders and descendants. There are many benefits that come with being a BSNC shareholder or descendant, including eligibility to receive scholarships from the Bering Straits Foundation (BSF) and hire preference for qualified shareholders. In addition to these benefits, BSNC issues shareholder dividends, Elder dividends and bereavement benefits.

Descendants are eligible to receive scholarships from the Bering Straits Foundation and qualified job applicants are eligible for the same hiring preference offered to BSNC shareholders. Descendants who meet academic qualifications are eligible to participate in BSNC’s Summer Internship Program. Descendant use of BSNC’s lands for recreational and subsistence endeavors is allowed and encouraged. For any commercial activity Land Use Permits should be submitted to the BSNC Land and Resource Department. Please visit www.beringstraits.com/lands to learn more. In addition to these benefits, BSNC issues bereavement benefits provided to families to assist after the death of an original BSNC shareholder, spouse of an original BSNC shareholder, or lineal descendant of an original BSNC shareholder.

Gifting stock to descendants

Under the 1991 Amendments to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), shareholders may give stock to a person who is their child, grandchild, great-grandchild, niece, nephew, brother or sister and who is also a Native or descendant of a Native. H.R. 3157 “The Alaska Land Status Technical Corrections Act of 1992,” allows for gift of stock to siblings. The law defines a Native as a person who is at least one-fourth degree Alaska Indian, Eskimo or Aleut blood, or any combination; a descendant of a Native is a lineal descendant (child, grandchild, great-grandchild, etc.) of a Native or an adoptee of a Native or descendant of a Native is who is adopted before the age of 18. Once the gift is completed on the corporate books, the recipient will own and have all the stock rights for those shares, including the right to vote the shares at the shareholder meetings, to receive dividends and distributions on the shares, to bequeath the shares upon death, or to give the shares to a relative.

The BSNC region encompasses most of the Seward Peninsula and eastern Norton Sound in Alaska. BSNC's land entitlement under ANCSA includes over 2.1 million acres (8,900 km²) of surface and/or subsurface estate in this region.

Under federal law, Bering Straits Native Corporation and its majority-owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and partnerships are deemed to be "minority and economically disadvantaged business enterprise[s]" (43 USC 1626(e)).

• Bering Straits Native Corporation (official website).