State of Alaska v. Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior, Katie John v. United States of America

These appeals arise from the efforts of Katie John, Doris Charles and the other upper Ahtna Athabaskan Indians of Mentas-ta Village to continue subsistence fishing at Batzulnetas as they and their ancestors have done since time immemorial. The fishery at Batzulnetas lies near the confluence of Tana-da Creek and the Copper River and within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. They also involve the claim by the state of Alaska that the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, on behalf of the federal government, are attempting to exercise too much control over fish and wildlife management within the state.

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), 16 U.S.C. § 3101 et seq., requires that subsistence fishing and hunting be given a priority over other uses of fish and wildlife on “public lands.” The sole issue remaining in this appeal concerns the meaning of the definition of public lands in § 1Q2 of ANILCA. 16 U.S.C. § 3102 . Specifically, the parties dispute whether navigable waters fall within the statutory definition of public lands and are thus subject to federal management to implement ANILCA’s subsistence priority.

The district court adopted a highly…