BSNC names Stebbins' Theodore Katcheak among 14 Elders of the Year

Bering Straits Native Corporation has named Theodore Katcheak of Stebbins among 14 Elder shareholders honored as its 2026 Elders of the Year. The corporation credits him with helping implement the federal Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, a 1975 law, and with a court fight over oil and gas leasing in the Bering Sea.

Stebbins Native Corporation nominated Katcheak for the honor. He served as mayor and council member of Stebbins, and as president and manager of both Stebbins Native Corporation and the Stebbins Community Association. He also held various roles with BSNC. The tribute cites his work in community development, grant writing, land and resource management and advocacy for Native land rights.

BSNC says Katcheak "was involved in successfully challenging the Navarin Basin oil and gas sale and exploration through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals."

The federal government leased 163 Navarin Basin tracts on April 17, 1984, for more than $500 million in bonus payments, according to the Supreme Court's 1987 opinion in Amoco Production Co. v. Village of Gambell. The Native villages of Gambell and Stebbins argued offshore leasing could harm subsistence hunting and fishing. They said the Interior secretary had not met the subsistence-review requirement in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The case began over an earlier Norton Sound sale, in which 59 tracts were leased May 10, 1983, for more than $300 million.

The Ninth Circuit ordered a preliminary injunction against activity tied to the leases, finding the secretary likely had failed to comply with that requirement. The Supreme Court later reversed the Ninth Circuit, both on the injunction and on whether the subsistence provision applies to the Outer Continental Shelf.

A 2016 BSNC profile described Katcheak's lifelong reindeer-herding work and named him an owner of a tri-party herd shared by the Katcheak family, the Stebbins Community Association and the Native Village of St. Michael.

He studied economics and political science at Alaska Methodist University and Arctic biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The corporation says he has spent his life "advocating for the people of western Alaska."