What was described by a Southeast tribal leader as a benchmark achievement has led to what could become landmark litigation over Native lands.
The state of Alaska filed a lawsuit Jan. 17 against the federal government over a small plot of land in downtown Juneau, which was approved as the first parcel owned by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to be put into federal trust.
Lands held in trust are afforded permanent protection from state or municipal actions that could be detrimental to the tribe, according to supporters of the transfer.
The state’s lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court to declare the federal government’s action “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion,” and seeks to undo the decision to take the land into trust. The state also wants to stop similar land-into-trust applications in the future.
“It’s insulting — I am dismayed the state wants to continue these tired and old arguments,” said Tlingit and Haida President Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson. “It’s mean-spirited and it’s an assault on many of the mutual efforts and goodwill that have in recent years defined state and tribal relations in Alaska. It’s incredibly disappointing.”
The lawsuit comes less than a week after the sovereign tribe in Juneau signed a deed on the transfer. The application for the land was originally filed more than a decade ago and was approved in mid-November — only the second such trust agreement ever approved in Alaska.
“This was a great day for our tribe, self-determination and all tribes in Alaska. We have crossed the finish line in the land-into-trust process and will continue the journey for our remaining applications,” Peterson said in a statement after the signing.
“Tlingit and Haida will no longer be a landless tribe, but (will) be eligible for a much greater range of land-based programs,” he said.
The state’s lawsuit echoes an opinion by the Trump administration that replaced a 2017 Obama administration opinion which determined that the Interior Department could take land into trust to benefit Alaska Natives. The Trump-era opinion predicted accepting land into trust in Alaska would result in protracted litigation.
According to the state’s complaint, the Department of the Interior action limits the state’s sovereign jurisdiction.
The Department of the Interior allowed the first land-to-trust transfer in Alaska by the Craig Tribal Association in 2017. Tlingit and Haida has four more additional applications for land that are still pending, along with applications still pending from the Ninilchik Traditional Council and the Native Village of Fort Yukon.
“We believe that this issue of tribal lands was settled with the passage of ANCSA (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) in 1971, and that has been the law of the land for more than 50 years. If we are wrong, then the court needs to clarify it,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “The purpose of the case is to receive unambiguous legal clarity for the state, local governments, the tribes and all Alaskans, on the question of placing Native land into federal trust for the tribes.”
Peterson said he is confident Tlingit and Haida will prevail and “will not give up the fight.”
“We’re not the enemy — together we can do so much more for Alaskans than we do against each other,” he said. “I challenge Dunleavy to put these antics aside and sit down with us civilly with an open heart, mind and ears to learn.”
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