State will not appeal ruling allowing Alaska tribes to put land in federal trust
FAIRBANKS - The state of Alaska has decided not to appeal a circuit court decision allowing tribes in Alaska to put lands into federal trust as tribes in the contiguous United States can.
By placing their land in trust, tribes allow the federal government to take co-ownership through a trust benefiting the tribe. For decades, such land trusts were allowed throughout the contiguous U.S. but not in Alaska because of an interpretation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The state lost a prior appeal in June, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the state's case was moot. The case pitted Akiachak and two other Alaska Native communities against the U.S. Interior Department, but when the department acquiesced and changed its rules, the state of Alaska stepped in to continue fighting the case.
The Alaska Department of Law announced its decision not to appeal on Monday in a news release posted on its website.
Read more: http://www.newsminer.com/news/alaska_news/state-will-not-appeal-ruling-allowing-alaska-tribes-to-put/article_f3d5cfe4-6327-11e6-a156-9b744004a4e4.html
