A 2021 legal battle between Alaskan Indigenous corporations, the Alaska Board of Fish and Game, and the Federal Subsistence Board ended 15 June 2026 with a district court judge awarding Indigenous corporations USD 1.8 million (EUR 1.5 million) in attorney fees during a battle over the Kuskokwin River.
The district court judge said Alaska “waited too long to argue a sovereign immunity defense,” according to a report by Law360. The case, named “U.S. v. Alaska et al,” was escalated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, and became a multi-year debate over the control of the Kuskokwim River on limiting subsistence fishing.
"The State of Alaska resurrected its long-running attempt to overturn the Katie John litigation and strip rural Alaskans of their federally protected subsistence rights,” a spokesperson for Native American Rights Fund, which represents the Association of Village Council Presidents, told Law360. “Having now lost – again – the State has an obligation to pay attorneys' fees and costs as provided by Congress in ANILCA. The State cannot continue to fight its Alaska Native citizens and expect them to also bear the financial burdens of litigation.”
In 2021, Alaska projected low Chinook salmon populations and issued emergency orders against gillnet subsistence fishing in the river for all Alaskans, including the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Native populations argued that these restrictions were an attempt to gut the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) subsistence provisions as well as the government’s efforts to protect fishing rights for tribal members.
Law360 reported that the state of Alaska “had sufficient notice” that it could be liable for the attorney fees for corporations under ANILCA when escalating this case, and U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason brought that matter up again in court on 15 June. Gleason said the state waited “until those costs were due to claim the defense.”
In January, the Alaskan Federation of Natives, the Association of Village Council Presidents, Ahtna Tene Nené, and the Kuskokwin River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission filed separate requests to seek USD 2.2 million (EUR 1.8 million) in attorney fees after the Supreme Court declined to take the state’s petition to overturn a Ninth Circuit order barring Alaska from opening up part of the river to fishers.
Alaska argued that petition in September 2025 in high court, saying the river was not considered public land under ANILCA, and the appellate court upheld the decision to secure protections for rural subsistence fishing rights by invalidating Alaska’s regulations that conflicted with ANILCA.
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition from the state of Alaska seeking to limit federal authority over regulating subsistence fishing on federal lands in the state.
In March, Alaska argued that it did not receive adequate notice from Tribal corporations for the attorney fees, and said the request exceeded the rate the district court awarded for comparable legal work in the past.
The Alaskan Federation of Natives will receive USD 404,939 (EUR 348,81)] in attorney fees, the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission USD 513,084 (EUR 441,955), Athna and its subsidiary Ahtna Tene Nené 326,997 (EUR 281,665) and the Association of Village Council Presidents USD 519,506 (EUR 447,486).
