An Alaska Native corporation with friends in high places was moving to dismantle a fish camp deemed illegal by a federal appeals court until Interior Secretary Gale Norton intervened, The Anchorage Daily News reports.

Cook Inlet Region Inc. uses the camp in Lake Clark National Park to entertain executives, wealthy donors and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and his wife. CIRI says the camp is located on an allotment promised to Alaska Natives.

But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the camp was illegal. So CIRI and the National Park Service came up with a plan to remove the camp.

Norton learned about the proposal from a prominent professor who mentioned Stevens' involvement, The Daily News said. She then told a Park Service director in Alaska to follow-up and now the camp removal is on hold.

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CIRI's elite guests help bid for disputed parkland (The Anchorage Daily News 9/3)
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