Federal Judge Dashes Alaskan Tribe’s Electronic Bingo Ambitions

A federal try has nixed a conjure by Alaska’s Native Village of Eklutna to build a small gambling hall on its terra firma 20 miles out of doors of Anchorage.

The Eklutna sued the Department of the Interior inwards 2019 after it blocked the plan. The lawsuit argued the DOI had “misapplied relevant standards” and used “outdated sound precedent” inward deciding the shore inwards oppugn was non the tribe’s sovereign territory. Under federal law, a tribe must make governmental authorisation o'er its set ashore to feature gaming rights there.

But Judge Dabney L. Friedrich in the District Margaret Court for the District of capital of South Carolina ruled the DOI conclusion had been “rational.”

“Though the Tribe may non concord with Interior’s coating of law to the facts at hand, the record book shows that Interior made a well-grounded mind which the Court testament not second-guess,” she wrote. “Thus, the Tribe’s claim that Interior acted arbitrarily and freakishly inward applying the Red Indian lands test lot forward in the Sansonetti Opinion must fail.”

Sovereignty Limited

The Sansonetti Opinion is a George IV H.W. Bush-era legal judgement that examined the extent of tribal jurisdiction inwards Alaska. It concluded Native Village sovereignty was severely limited.

The Eklutna contended the legal opinion was out of day of the month and had been superseded past intervening changes inwards the law. Friedrich rejected that assertion.

Alaskan Tribes hold a different effectual position from their counterparts inwards the relaxation of the US. That’s because they’re classified as “corporations,” as opposed to supreme nations.

That’s knock down to 1971’s federal Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The Nixon-era natural law sought-after(a) to solve long-standing issues surrounding tribal shore claims in the state. It restored 44 million acres of unalienable land and shared $962.5 1000000 among the tribes.

Tribes Miss Out

It was hoped that designating the tribes as corporations would help them mesh inward the capitalistic system of rules and arouse economic development. But it meant Alaska’s tribes get mostly missed come out on gaming. The 1988 American Indian Gaming Regulatory Act safeguards gaming rights for monarch nations alone.

Had the Eklutna got its planned electronic bingo hall upwardly and running, it would get been only if the indorsement such installation inward Alaska. The only when other is operated by the Metlakatla American Indian Community, which declined to sign on to ANCSA.

Alaska has no casinos and no more tell lottery, but it does certify a smattering of kindly bingo establishments.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Eklutna President Henry Louis Aaron Leggett described the ruling as “a disappointment,” but added the tribe was reviewing its options. It could appealingness the decision if it chooses to ut so.