Galena and Tanana tribes team up so neither takes a below-market BIA lease rate

Two Yukon River tribes are teaming up to negotiate what the federal government pays them for the buildings they use to run federal programs.

The Louden Tribe in Galena and the Native Village of Tanana agreed to negotiate their leases together so neither accepts a rate below fair market value, Tanana Chiefs Conference Chief Administrative Officer Victor Joseph said Thursday at TCC's Fall Summit in Fairbanks.

The worry is that a low rate in one village becomes the yardstick for the next. "We don't want them to say to us, well, they just did it, and so these are the dollars that we're going to be allowing you to," Joseph said.

The leases come from a federal program known as 105(l). When tribes run federal programs out of their own buildings, it pays for rent, depreciation, utilities, janitors and repairs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs describes these as facility-cost agreements more than traditional leases.

BIA has split Alaska into seven regions and is building a database of agreed rates to judge what's reasonable, attorney Rebecca Patterson told the summit. She said the agency hasn't shared that data.

Galena's lease shows how the process has played out. Brooke Sanderson, Louden's tribal administrator, said the tribe hired an Anchorage company to appraise its building and sent the appraisal to BIA in May. In October, BIA rejected the proposed cost per square foot by email and said the tribe could negotiate or seek a waiver.

BIA hasn't named a rate, Sanderson said, but told the tribe its proposal was about 20 times higher than the agency would accept. BIA offered rents from Fairbanks and Anchorage for comparison, then cited rents for Galena School District teacher housing.

"We asked them, why are you comparing residential subsidized rent to the rent of an office building? And they couldn't really give us an answer," Sanderson said.

Patterson said BIA has changed its lease guidance five times since summer 2025 and still hasn't released the results of a consultation with tribes on proposed changes this fall. She said the agency compares village buildings with rents within 200 miles, so Tanana is measured against Fairbanks.

She also said BIA rejects cost-approach appraisals, which value a building by what it would cost to build, by citing a regulation that doesn't exist, 25 CFR 900.74(d), and uses it to deny leases or cut what tribes propose. That section lists three options for these leases in paragraphs (a) through (c). It has no paragraph (d).

The delays add up. Patterson said negotiations take 18 months on average, against a backlog of almost 1,800 leases, and tribes that applied in 2023 or 2024 are judged under rules written since. Joseph said leases are re-signed every year, but changing the amount means a new appraisal that can cost up to $15,000 for one building. A tribe applying today, he said, may not see a dollar before 2028.