This is a developing story.
A federal judge on Wednesday vacated what local tribal leaders have called a landmark agreement with the federal government, which took a 787-square-foot parcel of land in downtown Juneau into trust on behalf of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
However, the ruling in a state-filed lawsuit also affirmed the right of tribes to put land into trust, potentially giving the state’s 228 federally recognized tribes a significant boost in sovereignty rights. The ruling against Tlingit and Haida was based on what the judge deemed a flawed process that could be redone.
The “land into trust” agreement announced in November of 2022 essentially designates the parcel just off the corner of Capital Avenue and Village Street as “Indian Country,” giving Tlingit and Haida the right to exercise sovereign government powers there. Tribal leaders called the agreement a momentous decision despite the small size of the land parcel, both for its legal significance and because of similar applications pending for other land owned by the tribe.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state in January of 2023 challenging the designation as “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason declared in a 39-page ruling the federal government can create land trust agreements with tribes in Alaska. But she stated the specific process used in the agreement with Tlingit and Haida created “tension” with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
“To the extent that the Assistant Secretary justifies taking Tlingit & Haida’s land into trust based on the ‘restoration of Indian lands,’ the Court finds that specific justification to be arbitrary and capricious,” Gleason wrote.
The Alaska Department of Law issued a press release Wednesday evening portraying the decision as a victory, but “this decision ultimately seems to raise more questions than answers,” Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said in a prepared statement.
As a result, “we will need some time to thoroughly evaluate it before determining next steps,” Taylor said.
“We filed this litigation because of the patchwork it would create with enclaves of reservations scattered through the state,” he said. “The judge’s decision today ensures that for the time being, that is not happening. The agency’s decision was vacated, and the agency will have to address some pretty major hurdles in order to grant an application in the future. What the decision did not do was provide the clarity and finality that the State was ultimately seeking.”
Officials with Tlingit and Haida could not immediately be reached by the Empire for comment. Whitney Leonard, an attorney who represented Tlingit and Haida in court, told the Alaska Beacon the ruling is the second by a federal judge declaring the U.S. Secretary of the Interior has the authority to make land into trust agreements in Alaska, with the other ruling coming in a 2016 decision that later was vacated by an appeals court.
The Beacon also reported Interior Department policies on such pacts have fluctuated with presidential administrations, with Democratic ones supporting them and Republicans opposing.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
