Residents Sue to Block Eklutna Tribe Casino Near Anchorage

A group of local residents near Anchorage, Alaska are challenging the Native Village of Eklutna’s (NVE) legal right to build a casino in the area.

The lawsuit argues that the NVE is “not a federally recognized tribe whose governing body possesses powers of self-government.” This means that the federal National Indian Gaming Commission’s (NIGC) recent approval of the casino was invalid.

The plaintiffs say they are concerned that the proposal would increase crime in the area and cause traffic congestion and environmental damage.  

NVE has for years been trying to establish a modest electronic bingo hall on its land 20 miles outside of Anchorage, but until recently has been hamstrung by laws that confer a different legal status on Alaska tribes than that of their counterparts in the rest of the US.

That’s because the federal Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which predated IGRA by 17 years, recharacterized the tribes as private corporations rather than sovereign nations with sovereign powers.

‘Indian Land’

Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), most Native American tribes are free to operate class II gaming facilities — such as electronic bingo halls — on their sovereign land without the permission of the state, provided similar operations are legal elsewhere in the state.

Under the IGRA a tribe must have governmental authority over its land to have gaming rights there. But the NVE’s land is not “Indian land,” as defined by IGRA, but an “allotment,” as defined by ANSCA, according to the lawsuit.

There are three small Alaska Native bingo halls, all in the far southwest of the state. These are either owned by tribes, such as the Metlakatla Indian Community, which opted out of ANSCA, or the Organized Village of Kake, whose land was taken into trust before the enactment of ANSCA.

The NVE is still waiting for final approval from the DOI’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and is hoping that might happen soon. In October, the tribe began clearing land in preparation for the casino.

Federal Status Questioned

While the NVE is designated a “federally recognized tribe,” the new lawsuit argues this designation was illegitimate. Rather than being approved by Congress, the status was conferred “unilaterally” in 1993 by Ada Deer, then Assistant Secretary of the Bureau for Indian Affairs, who simply published a list in the Federal Register. The list included the NVE along with 200 other Alaska Native tribes.

[…T]he members of defendant Native Village of Eklutna are not a federally recognized tribe whose governing body possesses powers of self-government. And because the governing body does not, members of defendant NVE are not an IGRA Section 4(5) “Indian tribe” that is eligible to conduct gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,” the lawsuit asserts.

In a statement, NVE president Aaron Leggett called the lawsuit “disappointing.”

“To be clear, the basis of this lawsuit is that there are no Tribes in Alaska, and that concept has already been repeatedly rejected by the courts,” Leggett said.