Alaska would give up a land claim so three Native Vietnam veterans can finally get their allotments

The state of Alaska is proposing to relinquish its claim to roughly 480 acres along the Yukon River so that three Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans, or their heirs, can receive land allotments they were long denied. The Department of Natural Resources is taking public comment on the move until 3 p.m. Sept. 8.

The land is federally managed, and the state holds only a selection right to it. Giving that up clears the way for three 160-acre allotments to be conveyed. The state would relinquish only its claim to the surface, keeping its oil, gas and mineral rights underneath.

The allotments trace to a long-standing injustice. A 1906 law let Alaska Natives claim up to 160 acres of federal land, but Congress ended the program with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, just as thousands of Alaska Native men were serving in Vietnam, cutting off many of them from their one chance to apply. The 2019 Dingell Act reopened the door for veterans who served between 1964 and 1971, and their heirs, letting them select federal land through 2030. Progress has been slow: roughly 2,000 eligible veterans are still waiting, and only a few dozen claims have been processed in five years.

Because the Dingell program can only draw on unencumbered federal land, allotments on ground the state has selected can't move forward until the state gives up its claim. In one recent year, DNR received 29 such relinquishment requests and approved three.

The Association of Village Council Presidents has urged caution on federal land and allotment policy more broadly, warning that expanding eligibility could reduce land access or management flexibility down the line. The available materials don't indicate the organization has taken any position on these three applications.

Comments go to DNR, and only those who comment can later seek reconsideration of the decision.