Native Village of Venetie IRA Council v. Alaska

The governing bodies of the Native Alaskan villages of Venetie and Fort Yukon as well as two individual residents of those villages won declaratory relief in district court requiring the State of Alaska to give full faith and credit to adoption decrees issued by the villages. The villages now appeal the district court’s denial of their motion for attorneys’ fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . We reverse and remand for an award of attorney’s fees.

BACKGROUND

In November 1986, Venetie and Fort Yukon as well as two residents of those villages filed suit against the state of Alaska asserting claims under the Indian Child Welfare Act ( 25 U.S.C. § 1911 (d)), 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , and the Fourteenth Amendment. The claims arose out of the state’s refusal to recognize adoptions that were being executed and recorded by the Venetie and Fort Yukon tribal courts. The villages claimed that Alaska’s policy violated the full faith and credit provision of the Indian Child Welfare Act and deprived them of their “federally protected right of self-governance, their constitutional right to equal protection of the laws and their substantive due process and freedom of association rights to determine the…