A sacred site promised in 1978 is being considered by Congress to go to Doyon

In 1978, Doyon, Limited selected a place called Geese House — a rock formation near Lake Minchumina that has held meaning in Athabascan oral tradition for generations. Then Denali National Park and Preserve expanded around it, and the claim went nowhere for nearly half a century.

A Senate committee takes up the fix Wednesday. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's Geese House Site Conveyance Act, cosponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan, would order Interior to hand Doyon about 21,578 acres inside the preserve and redraw the park boundary around it. The Park Service found it lacked the authority to make the transfer on its own, Murkowski's office said, so it took an act of Congress.

The bill keeps the land protected: Doyon could not sell it to anyone but the federal government, allow mining, or permit development that damages the site. The corporation says it would limit access to shareholders and to people with a working reason to be there.

Geese House is not a one-off. Across Alaska, land Native corporations selected under the 1971 settlement act was later folded into national parks and refuges, leaving Congress to reconcile the two. Doyon has title to more than 11.5 million of the 12.5 million acres it is owed.

Wednesday's vote is only a committee step; the bill would still need the full Senate, the House, and the president.