Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indians of Alaska, and Sealaska Corporation v. Chugach Native Association and Chugach Natives, Inc.

This is a suit brought by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indians and their regional corporation, Sealaska Corp., to compel arbitration of a boundary dispute with the Chugach Natives under § 7(a) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The district court held the suit was barred by laches, and this appeal ensued. We reverse.

The Native Claims Act grants the Native peoples of Alaska substantial amounts of money and forty million acres of land as compensation for the Natives’ aboriginal land claims. To administer the property and money, the Act authorizes the creation of twelve regional corporations which are to correspond to the areas inhabited by the various Native groups. The Tlingits’ and Haidas’ Sealaska Corp. and the Chu-gachs’ Chugach Natives, Inc., are the two corporations established for those peoples’ regions.

The statute, in § 7(a), sets forth the procedure for determining the boundaries of the twelve regions.

The Tlingits and Haidas basically reside in the southeastern portion of the state — the relatively populous panhandle between Canada and the sea — from near Yakutat and the 141st meridian southward. The Chugachs are their immediate northerly…