companies sought to build pipelines across Alaska, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall “froze” oil pipeline construction by requiring settlement of aboriginal land claims. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), included $1 Billion cash settlement ($6.4 Billion today’s value) and a 45 million acre settlement in fee land subject to state taxation and jurisdiction (worth $45 Billion today). In ANCSA, Congress rejected “racially defined institutions” of the lower-48 states and our “reservation system”. In the CARES Act, Congress included funding for State-Local-Tribal Government Coronavirus Relief Funds. Congress expressly intended to fund Tribal Governments as the governing body of Federally Recognized Indian Tribes. The CARES Act references the definition of “Indian tribe” in 25 U.S.C. § 5304(e), which dates to 1975. ANCs are not federally-recognized Indian tribes under the second- prong of the definition: “ r cognized as eligible for the programs and services that the United States provides to Indian tribes based upon their status as I i s.” BIA now reads only the first part of the Indian tribe definition to obscure its meaning when it comes to CARES Act funding. Alaska Native Corporations are not directly eligible for funding under the CARES Act because they are not Federally Recognized Indian Tribes per the List Act, which uses the same Indian program eligibility language as the Indian Self-Determination Act. ANCs can act as agencies of Alaska Native village if, by resolution, the Alaska Native village authorizes them to do so. Even under this condition, ANCs are not Indian tribes. We hope that the Treasury Department rejects the BIA’s legal interpretation which is incorrect on its face, according to a strict construction of the CARES Act. Indian Country has already united around rejecting the patently and legally insufficient plan proffered by the BIA, under Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Tara Sweeney’s leadership. We must call upon the President and Congress to use the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act in the future because the List is intended to include “ all of the federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States which are eligible for the special programs and services provided by t United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.” Please write to your Senators and Congressmen to call upon the United States to use the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act in all future funding for Federal programs and services for Indian tribes. A model letter is attached.
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