By JON FAULKNER
In a setback to Native allotment holders in Alaska, last week the U.S. Department of the Interior reversed a controversial Biden administration policy and reaffirmed the State’s territorial jurisdiction over Alaska Native allotments.
“We are encouraged that Interior has returned to a position grounded in Alaska’s unique history,” said Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox. “The Supreme Court has often said, ‘Alaska is the exception, not the rule.’ Today’s action respects that principle and restores the jurisdictional balance Congress intended and courts have repeatedly affirmed.”
Native Allotments originated in a 1906 Congressional act that granted individual Alaska Natives the right to claim up to 160 acres of unappropriated federal land, conditioned upon their continuous use and occupancy. These personal homesteads were created without tribal participation; by 1960, 80 allotments existed. After statehood, applications for allotments surged and over 17,000 exist today, totaling over three million acres, mostly centered around villages.
When Alaska achieved statehood in 1959, Native land claims were unresolved. With the discovery of oil on Alaska’s North Slope, settlement of land claims became necessary before a pipeline could be built. The 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) created Native corporations and vested them with land and cash, but in exchange extinguished certain aboriginal land claims. ANSCA also ended new allotments but preserved existing ones as restricted lands—inalienable without federal approval. These allotments fell under a cloudy jurisdictional divide: federal oversight for certain easements or land use restrictions, but state laws for day-to-day governance.
ANSCA policy was generally re-affirmed in 1993 when the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Solicitor issued an opinion declaring that Alaska’s federally recognized tribes—over 200 strong—lacked territorial jurisdiction over Native allotments. These lands, the opinion argued, were not “Indian country” in the legal language adopted from Lower 48 cases, but were subject to state and federal territorial jurisdiction, much like non-native properties. This position held for three decades, affirmed in 2021 by a federal court in the Native Village of Eklutna case which ruled allotments resembled general homesteads, not tribal territories.
In February 2024, a new Solicitor Opinion issued by the Biden Administration abruptly reversed Interior’s long-standing policy by recognizing tribal jurisdiction over allotments owned by members. This altered Alaska’s legal map, sparking uncertainty across millions of acres: Would tribal land laws apply to non-natives, or just members? State officials criticized the action as Federal overreach, as inconsistent with Alaska’s unique history and decades of legal precedent, while also bypassing Congress and the State’s public process.
Meanwhile, pressure was mounting in Alaska as plans for casinos and gaming facilities on native land were circulating, posing jurisdictional issues for state and municipal administrators.
Finally, in February 2025, the State filed a lawsuit challenging a series of federal decisions that were based on the Biden Administration’s now-reversed rule. Alaska’s Department of Law hopes this litigation is permanently resolved by the Interior’s latest action.
According to a Department of Law press release: “Today’s decision restores Interior’s prior position: that the State maintains primary jurisdiction over land owned by Alaska Natives, Alaska Native corporations, and Alaska tribes (with the exception of trust lands beneficially owned by the Metlakatla Indian Community).
Read the revocation on the Solicitor’s Opinon webpage.