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).