Evans

This case is the latest round in a long-simmering legal feud between an Alaska Native corporation and a municipality over ownership of land on St. Paul, one of the Pribilof Islands, located in the Bering Sea some 350 miles west of mainland Alaska. In 1988, following the filing of various federal and state lawsuits, the Tanadgusix Corporation (“TDX”), a Native corporation, and the City of St. Paul (“the City”) reached a settlement of their respective land rights on the tiny island. The federal *1031 government approved that Settlement Agreement.

Over time the City chafed under the strict limits on its ability to make commercial use of its land and, eight years later, filed this lawsuit challenging the validity of the Agreement. In response to the lawsuit, TDX filed counterclaims in an effort to reaffirm the settlement. The City now argues that, in rushing to approve the Agreement, City officials violated the City’s own conflict of interest ordinance and the Alaska Open Meetings Act. The City also seeks to void the Agreement.

The district court found that the City’s claims were barred by the six-year statute of limitations that Alaska law imposes on lawsuits by…