Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people gather in Juneau for the opening of Celebration on June 5, 2024. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people gather in Juneau for the opening of Celebration on June 5, 2024. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

New lawsuit seeks to limit Alaska Native tribes’ authority, stop Eklutna gambling hall

State challenges legal interpretation that allows tribes to exert authority over as much as 2.7M acres.

The state of Alaska has filed suit against the federal Department of the Interior in an attempt to overturn a legal opinion that allowed the Native Village of Eklutna to open a federally regulated gaming hall near Anchorage.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the legal opinion — issued by the Interior Department’s top attorney under the Biden administration — was “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”

If the court rules in the state’s favor, it could force the closure of the gaming hall, which has been operating since January. More broadly, it could deny all of Alaska’s 229 federally recognized tribes the ability to exercise jurisdiction over as much as 2.7 million acres of land held in trust for individual Alaska Natives by the federal government.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

“This challenge isn’t about gaming. This is about jurisdiction over lands. We are asking a court to reaffirm what it has already said — the State maintains primary jurisdiction over Alaska Native allotments,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor in a written statement announcing the lawsuit.

Allotments are parcels of land up to 160 acres in size that the federal government holds in trust for individual Alaska Natives and their families.

For decades, federal officials said that those parcels were not considered “Indian country” and thus not subject to the jurisdiction of tribes in the way that Indian reservations are.

Eklutna and other tribes have repeatedly questioned that idea. In 2021, following a lawsuit by Eklutna, the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., ruled that allotments do not count as tribal land for the purposes of opening a gaming hall.

But in early 2024, the Interior Department’s top attorney changed a legal interpretation that the department and courts had used for decades.

Using that new legal interpretation, the department and federal Indian gaming officials approved Eklutna’s plans for a gaming hall. It began operating on a limited basis last month.

Aaron Leggett, president of the Native Village of Eklutna, said in a written statement on Tuesday that the tribe is “saddened and disappointed” that the governor and attorney general would take the tribe to court over an economic development project.

“This is not only an unnecessary expense for NVE and the State, but also a time-consuming, unwarranted federal lawsuit that will increase the financial strain on the Eklutna people and create another barrier to economic benefits for Tribal members and the broader community. This is a burden the Tribe, the local community and the State of Alaska’s citizens should not have to bear,” Leggett said.

“Fifteen days ago, the Native Village of Eklutna opened its Chin’an Gaming Hall to the public. Already, over 60% of our Chin’an employees are Eklutna Tribal members. They are proudly working alongside colleagues who are neighbors from the local community,” he said.

The gambling hall has already been the subject of a different lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Alaska, by several neighbors. Tuesday’s filing by the state says that since the D.C. District Court previously ruled on the Eklutna issue, that case should take precedence.

The Eklutna case is also part of a larger trend by the state, which has been fighting to restrict the ability of tribes to exert governmental jurisdiction over land in Alaska.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 put most Alaska Native land here under the control of Native corporations — which are not sovereign governments — instead of tribes, which are.

Just as the state filed the Eklutna case, state attorneys were also at work on arguments in a separate lawsuit now in the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals about the ability of tribes to put land into federal trust on their own.

Last year, an Alaska judge said they have the right to do so, but the state is continuing to fight the case, with oral arguments possible later this year.

Complicating matters is the switch from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. In the first Trump term, the Interior Department opposed Alaska tribes’ ability to take land into federal trust. The Biden administration strongly supported that right. It remains to be seen whether the second Trump term will mark a return to the policies used in the first.

• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of March 16

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Wednesday, March 19, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Tuesday, March 18, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, March 17, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) walks through a hallway of protesters with his wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, before his annual address to the Alaska Legislature on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Sullivan generates warmth and heat with energy filled speech to Alaska Legislature

Senator takes barrage of friendly and confrontational questions from lawmakers about Trump’s agenda.

Research biologists pause among the wetlands of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, with the Brooks Range in the background. The Trump administration is taking steps to offer the entire coastal plain for oil and gas leasing, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Thursday. (Lisa Hupp/USFWS)
Interior secretary announces plans to advance new Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil leasing

Follow-ups to Trump executive orders will mean leasing across ANWR, wider NPR development.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Storis near Tampa, Florida, on Dec. 10, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
Storis icebreaker expected to make ceremonial visit to Juneau this summer, officials say

Coast Guard icebreaker set to be homeported locally will still need further upgrades for deployment.

The Columbia state ferry docks at the Auke Bay Ferry Terminal on March 4. (Laurie Craig / For the Juneau Empire)
Alaska Marine Highway’s long-range plan met with skepticism and concerns

Residents decry loss of service, Murkowski says “once-in-a-generation” funding opportunity in peril.

Most Read