Federal court open door to improved tribal-state relations.

• Author: Miller, Lloyd B.

Last November a federal court of appeals affirmed the right of the Venetie Tribe to govern the affairs of its 350-member community - to make its own laws in its remote territory, and to live by those laws. With the ruling the Court has opened the door to a new era of improved and positive Tribal-State relations in Alaska covering a wide range of endeavors. Now, only politics and ignorance can stand in the way of seizing this historic opportunity to forge a more cooperative rapport between the State and its many tribes, beginning with the Venetie Tribe.

On reflection, the judicial determination that Venetie can continue to govern its own affairs on its 1943 reservation lands was not remarkable. What was remarkable was that this judicial confirmation took so long, and that it was resisted so fiercely by the State - remarkable, too, because had the courts ruled otherwise Alaska would be the only state in the Union with a substantial Native population that lacks the right to govern its own communities. Perhaps the reader will be helped by putting all this in perspective.

The notion that Alaska Natives are governed by the same ordinary rules that apply to Native American tribes elsewhere is not new. This very idea was set forth in Article III of the original America-Russia 1863 Treaty of Cession. And one of those bedrock rules of "federal Indian law" (as this legal field is known) is that Native American tribes continue to retain their inherent sovereignty to govern their own affairs in their own communities, just as they did before the arrival of European powers. Through two centuries of American law this retained right of self-governance continues, notwithstanding the formation of the federal government or even the surrounding states. This rule was laid down by the Supreme Court early on, based upon principles of international law that have nothing to do with race. Although the rule has been eroded in many areas over the years (both by the Supreme Court and by Congress) it has remained the legal foundation for our Nation's dealings with its Native American tribes.

Alaska Reservations Pre-dated Statehood

In the early part of this century the courts returned to these original understandings in reviewing the legal status of Alaska Natives, and by the 1930s the Interior Department had issued a comprehensive opinion on the matter. By the 1940s, as pressure from outsiders continued to threaten Native lands, Congress and the Executive Branch took...