On Friday, the State appealed U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason’s decision upholding a federal agency’s authority to take lands into trust in Alaska, creating a 787-square vacant lot in downtown Juneau into “Indian Country,” subject to federal law, not municipal or state law.
“ANCSA eliminated the reservation system in Alaska and left no authority for the federal agency to recreate that system on its own more than 50 years later,” Alaska Attorney General Taylor said. “The State is not going to wait for the federal agency to think of new ways to change how Alaska works. We filed this litigation so the courts can resolve this issue for good. To get such finality, we need the appellate courts to weigh in.”
In June, the Court largely agreed with the State when it vacated a U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision to take a 787-square-foot parcel of land in downtown Juneau into trust on behalf of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians because the decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and “contrary to the law.” The Court found that the U.S. Assistant Secretary could not take the Tribe’s land into trust to “restore” Indian lands because such an action was contrary to the bargain Congress struck in 1971 when it passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).
Although the State agrees with Judge Gleason on that important point, the Court left open the possibility that a federal agency could still place an Alaska tribes’ lands into trust and thus improperly bypass Congress to create reservations in Alaska.
Although ANSCA erased most “Indian Country” in Alaska in favor of the establishment of Native Corporations with their own land, Gleason said the federal government is entitled to create all the Indian Country that it wants, without limits.
The small parcel, owned by Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, is big enough to park a couple of motor homes.
Read the filing at this link.
Can we get Trump to transfer Judge Gleason to the Marshall Islands?
Suzanne says: “The small parcel, owned by Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, is big enough to park a couple of motor homes.”
Or a really oddly shaped casino. Cheers –
Let them have it. Let them create their little utopia.
And let them provide electricity, sewerage, EMS, all of it. No buying from CBJ. Give them exactly what they want.
And let them complain to Gleason when reality hits them.