The wheels of the legal system continue to grind in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the state of Alaska, challenging whether the federal government can designate new parcels of land as Indian Country.
Last week, the Alaska Attorney general asked the U.S. District Court of Alaska for a summary judgement in its lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tlingit (lthlin-git) and Haida (high-duh), the regional tribal government for Southeast Alaska.
In January, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Bryan Newland, granted Tlingit and Haida’s request to take a small parcel of land in downtown Juneau into trust.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor says Newland didn’t have the authority to do that, because the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act doesn’t allow new trust land to be created in Alaska. Instead of adding new reservations, the settlement created Native Corporations that were given cash and legal title to 44 million acres of land.
And although the piece of land in question is tiny – less than 800 square feet – the state says if it remains in trust, it creates the equivalent of a reservation, which the Claims Act sought to prevent – a huge issue in a state with more than 200 tribes. Two other tribes, Ninilchik (nih-NILL’-chick) and Fort Yukon (you-con), have other land-into-trust requests pending, as well as Tlingit and Haida.
The state’s request for a summary judgement is a pre-trial motion, in which the judge can decide some issues and set others aside for later. For now, both parties are submitting written arguments to the court. A spokesperson for the Department of Law says there may be oral arguments at some point.
Tlingit and Haida says putting land into trust gives it economic benefits and access to federal and tribal programs.
