Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) was formed in 1972 as the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act regional Alaska Native Corporation for the Bering Strait region, which encompasses the majority of Alaska’s Seward Peninsula and the coastal lands of eastern Norton Sound. This region is perhaps the most culturally diverse area in the state with three native languages spoken: Siberian Yupik, Central Yup’ik and Inupiaq. BSNC began with 6,333 original shareholders, and owns and manages nearly two million acres of subsurface land selected by 17 village corporations.

BSNC is headquartered in Nome, Alaska. Regional operations include real estate management, development, tourism, construction, mining services and sales of rock and aggregate. BSNC also has an office in Anchorage, which oversees government contract work under SBA 8(a) – an ownership-diversity certification sponsored by the Small Business Association of the US government – HubZone and other small business programs. Anchorage operations also include construction, support services and shareholder services.

BSNC’s mission statement

“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.”

History and regional background

The Bering Straits Native Corporation region is one of the most culturally diverse regions established through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Three distinct languages — Inupiaq, Siberian Yupik and Central Yup’ik — are spoken in the Bering Strait region. For centuries, the areas north and west of Solomon were occupied by Inupiaq speakers, while the area to the east and south was the homeland of Yup’ik peoples. The people of the Diomede and King Islands are Inupiaq. Saint Lawrence Island is the home of the only Siberian Yupik people on the American side of Bering Strait.

The lifestyles and subsistence pursuits of people of the Bering Strait region were even more diverse than their languages:
• Inland caribou hunters and fishermen, exemplified by the Qawiaramiut people (now Mary’s Igloo and Teller Native Corporation), occupied most of the interior of the Seward Peninsula.
• Along the coast of Norton Sound, Unaliq people pursued sea mammals, fish and caribou.
• Approximately 40 miles off the mainland, King Island, only a little more than two square miles in area, was home to hunters of walrus, polar bear and seal.
• Like the King Islanders, the people from Diomede Island and Saint Lawrence Island lived off the ocean’s resources.

Around 160 years ago, small groups of people from the Selawik and Kobuk River areas, north of the BSNC region, migrated south to Norton Sound. This migration may have been the result of a famine, devastation brought on by smallpox or the disappearance of the local caribou herds. These Malemiut speakers (a dialect of Inupiaq) married into the remaining families of Yup’ik speakers, and eventually settled in the communities of Koyuk, Shaktoolik and Unalakleet. The communities of St. Michael and Stebbins are the home of central Yup’ik people.

Today
While the introduction of cash into the local economy and the establishment of permanent communities, schools, churches and health services have brought significant change over the past 100 years, subsisting off the land continues to be the central component of each community’s identity. The region’s people use cash to supplement and enhance subsistence pursuits. Respect for the ancient history of land use and natural resource stewardship is a testament to the strength and viability of the region’s people.

Gail Anagick Schubert is the president and CEO of Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC), an Alaska Native regional corporation serving 17 villages in the Bering Straits region. She is Inupiaq and was born and raised in Unalakleet, Alaska. She serves on a number of boards, including the State of Alaska’s Retirement Management Board, the ANCSA Regional CEOs Association, and the Alaska Federation of Natives. She is also a member of the Arctic Economic Council. Schubert earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, and her law degree from the Cornell Law School. She is an ATHENA society member, YWCA Woman of Achievement awardee and a 2014 recipient of the Northwest Indian Bar Association’s Unsung Hero Award.