If Alaska’s governor Bill Walker refuses to challenge the recent U.S. District Court decision (Akiachak Native Community vs. DOI) to revoke the “Alaskan Exception” written into the Alaska Natives Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) would then be in a position to take back primary jurisdiction from the state on 40 million acres of Alaska Natives lands. This federal court decision could result in a direct loss of state sovereignty over 10% of Alaska. Add that to the 60%+ of the state already under federal DOI jurisdiction and the State would be reduced to primary jurisdiction on a checkerboard pattern of lands amounting to about 25%, a quarter of what was promised in the Alaska Statehood Act.

Settling aboriginal land claims in Alaska was suppose to be different from what happen in the continental U.S. during previous years of territorial expansion. If the judge’s decision in Akiachak Native Community vs. DOI is left to stand, it would gut ANCSA and create Indian country just like what is happening in the Western U.S. The court decision will allow Alaskan Native lands to be held in trust by the DOI.

Creating Indian Country in Alaska was not the intent of tribal leaders, leadership in the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), the Alaska State Administration, Alaska’s Congressional delegation, or the U.S. Congress when it passed ANCSA into law in 1971.

Changing fee title lands owned by tribes and individual natives into federal trust status could greatly compromise the State’s ability to manage and allocate its fish and game resources, protect the environment, tax, provide public services, ensure public safety, and enforce state alcoholic beverage control laws. Resource development on trust lands could be further complicated by federal regulations and tribes could control surface access to Native Regional corporation subsurface resources.

Alaskans’ ability to access public resources on federal public lands has been under attack by DOI land managers since the passage of the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act of 1980. Governor Bill Walker should not allow Alaska’s sovereign jurisdiction to be further diluted by a federal judge sitting in Washington, D.C. Why would Alaska’s governor not do everything he could to stop federal overreach onto 40 million acres of Alaska Native private lands? It’s clear that the DOI agenda is to preserve as much of Alaska in a wilderness status as it can get away with, and there are many examples of this over the last 35 years.

Alaska Native rights activists are causing imminent injury to Alaska by advocating for their own sovereign rights at the expense of the State’s jurisdiction to provide for the economic wellbeing of all Alaskans. Alaskans should say “enough is enough” and pressure Governor Bill Walker into defending Alaska’s jurisdiction by challenging the federal court’s decision to undermine federal law by allowing Indian Country to occur in Alaska.

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