{"id":10325,"date":"2021-04-19T00:49:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T04:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=10325"},"modified":"2021-04-19T00:50:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T04:50:33","slug":"scotusblog-supreme-court-takes-up-covid-19-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/04\/19\/scotusblog-supreme-court-takes-up-covid-19-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUSBlog: Supreme Court takes up COVID-19 dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"\"supremecourt\"\r\n
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Are Alaska Native corporations Indian tribes?<\/div>\r\n
A multimillion-dollar question<\/div>\r\n
Monday, April 19, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Gregory Ablavsky<\/div>\r\n
SCOTUSblog<\/div>\r\n
scotusblog.com<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n• Indianz.Com on Clubhouse: Supreme Court COVID-19 CARES Act Case \ud83c\udfa7\ud83d\udc42 \ud83d\uddde<\/a>\r\n<\/strong>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAre Alaska Native corporations \u2014 special corporations that Congress created in 1971 when it resolved Native claims in Alaska \u2014 \u201cIndian tribe[s]\u201d under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act?\r\n

<\/p>\r\nOn Monday, the Supreme Court will hear argument on that question in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation<\/em><\/a>. Immediately at stake in the answer is billions of dollars in federal CARES Act funding. But the outcome could also have longer-term consequences for how, and from whom, Alaskan Natives receive essential services.\r\n

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Remember the $8 billion #CoronavirusReliefFund for tribal governments? Well the Supreme Court is finally hearing arguments in the long-running #COVID19 dispute! At stake are $534 million in remaining funds from the #CARESAct. #COVID19 #Coronavirus https:\/\/t.co\/yejkzIV8eN<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/p>\r\nFirst, some background. Just as, in McGirt v. Oklahoma<\/em><\/a> last term, the court confronted the complex past of Oklahoma\u2019s Native nations, Chehalis turns on the unique legal history of Alaskan Natives. Though Alaska became part of the United States in 1867, the federal government only fitfully devoted attention to the status of the new territory\u2019s Indigenous peoples. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nConsequently, when Alaska became a state in 1959 and when, soon thereafter, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, federal law left open many questions \u2014 especially land ownership. Alaskan Natives pressed their enduring ownership of much of the new state; in response, in 1971, Congress enacted the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which extinguished all Alaskan Native aboriginal land claims in return for nearly $1 billion in compensation and 38 million acres of fee title to land.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMost importantly for Chehalis<\/em>, ANCSA departed from long-standing models of federal Indian law that governed the lower 48 states. ANCSA created two sets of for-profit Alaska Native corporations: two hundred village corporations and thirteen larger regional corporations. Based on residence or origin, Alaskan Natives became shareholders in both a village and regional corporation; both sets of corporations received land and money under ANCSA. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nToday, the regional ANCs in particular are among the most important companies in Alaska, with billions in revenue from energy development, tourism and government contracting.\r\n

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Now in spreadsheet form! Search and sort to find out how much tribal governments received from the $8 billion #CoronavirusReliefFund. #COVID19 #Coronavirus #CARESAct https:\/\/t.co\/aVuyyitszv<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/p>\r\nANCSA left unsettled, however, the status of Alaskan Native governments. Federal law had long spoken of federal recognition of \u201cIndian tribes,\u201d a process formalized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1978. In 1993, after long uncertainty, the bureau determined that Alaskan Native villages remained federally recognized Indian tribes with inherent sovereignty under federal law.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe next year, Congress passed the List Act, which requires the BIA to publish an annual, official list of \u201call federally recognized tribes which are eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.\u201d Today, 574 federally recognized tribes are listed, including 229 tribes in Alaska.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBecause of this history, there are three kinds of Alaskan Native entities today: Alaska Native village corporations, Alaska Native regional corporations, and federally recognized tribes, often called Alaska Native villages. The first two are for-profit corporations that also provide some services to Alaskan Natives; the third are sovereign governments.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe meaning of these distinctions is at the core of the current litigation over the 2020 CARES Act. The act provided $150 billion in emergency relief during the coronavirus pandemic to states, territories and local governments, including, after intense negotiation, $8 billion earmarked for tribes.\r\n

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