Press Release

State Appeals Lands into Trust Decision

August 23, 2024

(Anchorage, AK) – Today 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.

“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.

For more information contact Solicitor General Jessie Alloway at (907) 269-6612.

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Department Media Contact: Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.

Due to resource constraints, we no longer post links to referenced records. Records filed in a federal court are readily available at Docket Search or PACER, and records filed in a State of Alaska court are readily available from the Alaska Court System (Trial Courts - Alaska Court System and Search for an Appellate Case). Contact Sam Curtis to request a referenced record that is not readily available from a court or on the internet, or contact law.recordsrequest@alaska.gov to submit a formal Alaska Public Records Act request.