Alaska tribes claimed a second significant sovereignty victory within a year, this time with the Alaska Supreme Court.
On Friday, the state's high court upheld a lower court ruling, nearly 16 months after hearing arguments between the state and the village of Tanana.
It essentially ruled that "Alaska Native tribes are not necessarily precluded from exercising sovereign jurisdiction to initiate child custody proceedings. . . "
Heather Kendall-Miller, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, represented Tanana plus several other villages and tribes who joined the initial suit.
"This is huge affirmation of tribal power to initiate cases, and beyond, the state under federal law has to place full faith in tribal court decrees," Kendall-Miller said.
It ends a seven-year case unless the state decides it wants to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alaska Law Department spokesman Bill McAllister said the agency is still reviewing its options.
This is in part because the court did not rule on certain items it deemed "hypothetical."
"The court clarified some things but said that other issues could not be resolved," McAllister said.
"As a result, we are going through it carefully to determine what the ramifications are.
"We are interested in the welfare of children of this state and hope to work with tribes and others assure our tribes and children are safe."
Friday's was the second case fought by the NARF against the state of Alaska.
The issue: Who has jurisdiction over the custody and placement of a tribal member's child? The state or the tribe?
So far the tribes have prevailed.
Last fall the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a child adoption case out of Kaltag when the state challenged tribal courts' authority to oversee certain adoptions.
The Tanana case featured a Fairbanks couple who struggled to get help from state agencies after adopting Native children.
Agencies began balking at giving the adoption credence and NARF embarked on arguing this case, eventually alongside the Kaltag case.
Joining Tanana were the Nulato Village, the Village of Kalskag, Akiak Native Community, the Village of Lower Kalskag and Kenaitze Indian Tribe.
This story is posted with permission from Alaska Newspapers Inc., which publishes six weekly community newspapers, a statewide shopper, a statewide magazine and slate of special publications that supplement its products year-round.