BETHEL — Alaska’s Akiachak tribe is preparing to inventory land for federal trust status following a federal appeals court decision allowing Alaska Native communities to have their lands placed out of state jurisdiction.
A federals appeals court in Washington, D.C. dismissed the state’s challenge of land trust applications on July 1.
Akiachak Native Community Council Chairman Phillip Peter Sr. told KYUK-AM that placing land into federal trust would allow for greater tribal sovereignty.
“Our elders in the past wanted a land base in order to control our jurisdiction,” Peter said. “Land is really important, because all those years we didn’t have any recognition from the state of Alaska. We need a jurisdiction in order to control our village.”
By placing their land in trust, tribes allow the federal government to share ownership and can gain access to Bureau of Indian Affairs funding for things such as economic development and transportation projects.
Peter said he hopes the federal funding will go toward improving public safety and law enforcement on the land.
The Akiachack tribe and Akiachack Native Corporation are meeting to conduct the inventory of lands for federal trust status after the peak of the summer subsistence season, according to Peter.
“It will be helpful, especially for the younger generation, from my son to granddaughter and grandsons. We are paving the way. And our elders before they passed on, they told us and instructed us to take care of our land, even though we had hard times, not to give up. It’s our right,” Peter said.
The Department of Interior will publish a list of tribes that have filed for trust status later this year.
The Akiachak tribe had been one of three Alaska Native communities that brought the initial court case forward in 2007, when they challenged the Department of Interior’s interpretation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. A district court judge ruled in favor of the communities, striking down a decades-long rule the Department of Interior used that barred it from putting Alaska Native land into trust.
The state then appealed the ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the appeal earlier this month.
