Tribes can exert jurisdiction over allotments granted to individual Natives, the department’s head attorney said on Feb. 1.
A new legal opinion by the top attorney at the U.S. Department of the Interior has extended the jurisdiction of Alaska tribes over a broad swath of the state, upending decades of precedent and offering new opportunities for the state’s, issued Feb.
“All in all, it will be a positive step forward for the state of Alaska,” said Rhonda Pitka, first chief of the Native Village of Beaver. “Having Native lands in Native jurisdiction makes a lot of sense for everybody, I think.”that said, “In two strokes of its Solicitor’s pen, Interior has changed how Alaska has operated for more than 50 years. The state has gone from minimal amounts of tribal territorial jurisdiction to millions of acres.
“And if the state is worried about confusion, it could proactively work with Tribes to address any issues, as other states have done for years,” she said. “We’ve called them on this several times, and the troopers won’t enforce it. They asked us to put up more signs on our lands. So we do that, and they still don’t come out and enforce the trespass,” Pitka said.Having tribal jurisdiction over that allotment might allow the tribe or the owner of the allotment to bring claims in tribal court against trespassers and thieves.
To date, the federal government has restricted the locations of new allotments, and most are in Interior, northern, or western Alaska. Jackson, of Kake, said Vietnam veterans in his area have been reluctant to seek allotments under the new law because they’re far from home.
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