On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear argument on that question in
Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. Immediately at stake in the answer is billions of dollars in federal CARES Act funding. But the outcome could also have longer-term consequences for how, and from whom, Alaskan Natives receive essential services.
Remember the $8 billion #CoronavirusReliefFund for tribal governments?
Well the Supreme Court is finally hearing arguments in the long-running #COVID19 dispute!
First, some background. Just as, in
McGirt v. Oklahoma last term, the court confronted the complex past of Oklahoma’s Native nations, Chehalis turns on the unique legal history of Alaskan Natives. Though Alaska became part of the United States in 1867, the federal government only fitfully devoted attention to the status of the new territory’s Indigenous peoples.