A U.S. District Court judge has put a temporary halt on disbursement of any of the $8 billion in pandemic relief funds to Alaska Native regional or village corporations founded under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, pending a final decision in the case.
The decision was issued on Monday, April 27, by U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta in the U.S. District of Columbia.
The lawsuit was filed by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in Maine and the Akiak Native Community, Asa’carsarmiut Tribe and Aleut Community of St. Paul Island in Alaska.
Native News Online noted that while the court enjoined Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from releasing funds to the Alaska Native corporations, the ruling did not direct the treasury secretary to disburse all $8 billion to the 574 federally recognized tribes, including several from Alaska that joined a dozen other tribes in filing the lawsuit.
“Enjoining the Secretary from disbursing funds to ANCs remedies the immediate harm that Plaintiffs face — the payment of Title V funds to ANCs that will be unrecoverable once made,” Mehta wrote. “The added relief that plaintiffs seek—an order directing the Secretary to distribute the full $8 billion only to federally recognized tribes — is greater than necessary to protect them against that injury.”
Following release of the judge’s decision, tribal organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians, issued a statement saying that NCAI is encouraged by the court’s decision to side with tribal governments.
“Tribal nations should not have to wait any longer to receive relief funding as they battle the coronavirus pandemic,” NCAI President Fawn Sharp said.
Dante Desiderio, executive director of the Native American Finance Officers Association, called the judge’s decision “a strong and clear win for tribal governments.”
The ANCSA Regional Association and Alaska Native Village Corporation Association promptly issued a joint statement expressing their disappointment in the decision, and said they believed their position would still meet with success in the court system.
The associations contend that unlike other for-profit companies the Alaska Native regional and village corporations are mandated by Congress to care for the social, cultural and economic well-being of their Alaska Native shareholders in perpetuity.
The Native corporations have the support of the Alaska congressional delegation, who contend that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) includes $8 billion for tribes as a set-aside in the $150 billion fund.
“The Coronavirus Relief Funds must be distributed in a manner that takes into consideration the unique circumstances in Alaska and respects (as the Department of Interior has done for decades) the sovereign authority of each tribal government to choose how it wishes to receive and use federal funding and to plan, administer, and deliver governmental programs and services,” the congressional delegation said in a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Mnuchin.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy also lent support to the ANCSA regional and village corporations with a letter on their behalf to President Donald Trump and Bernhardt. The governor said that the CARES Act clearly included the ANCSA firms as recognized governing bodies of an Indian tribe by incorporating the definition of Indian tribe contained in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.
