{"id":116514,"date":"2025-02-06T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T18:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=116514"},"modified":"2025-02-06T11:36:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T18:36:55","slug":"alaska-beacon-trump-administration-faces-lawsuit-over-tribal-gaming-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/02\/06\/alaska-beacon-trump-administration-faces-lawsuit-over-tribal-gaming-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Beacon: Trump administration faces lawsuit over tribal gaming facility"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Celebration<\/a>
Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people gather in Juneau, Alaska, for the opening of Celebration, a biennial festival of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples, on June 5, 2024. Photo by James Brooks \/ Alaska Beacon<\/figcaption>\r\n
New lawsuit seeks to limit Alaska Native tribes\u2019 authority, stop Eklutna gambling hall<\/div>\r\n
The suit, filed by the state, challenges a legal interpretation that allows tribes to exert authority over as much as 2.7 million acres<\/div>\r\n
Thursday, February 6, 2025<\/div>\r\n
By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon<\/a> <\/div>\r\n

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

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the legal opinion \u2014 issued by the Interior Department\u2019s top attorney under the Biden administration \u2014 was \u201carbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.\u201d<\/p>

If the court rules in the state\u2019s favor, it could force the closure of the gaming hall, which has been operating since January. More broadly, it could deny all of Alaska\u2019s 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.<\/p>

\u201cThis challenge isn\u2019t about gaming. This is about jurisdiction over lands. We are asking a court to reaffirm what it has already said \u2014 the State maintains primary jurisdiction over Alaska Native allotments,\u201d said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor in a written statement announcing the lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n