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Law360 (May 6, 2020, 8:28 PM EDT) -- An Alaska Native regional corporation and five village corporations moved Tuesday to intervene in the fight by tribes to stop any of the $8 billion in direct tribal funding for COVID-19 relief from going to such companies.
The parties joined corporation Ahtna Inc. in seeking an intervention after a D.C. federal judge preliminarily prevented U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from sending them a share of the funds. The corporations said the federal government has so far failed to represent their interests in the case.
"This motion will ensure that these proceedings are not conducted without real parties in interest that are capable of supplying complete and accurate information about this complex subject-matter," the Calista Corporation and five village corporations within its southwest Alaska region said in the filing.
The interveners say that they need relief funding to continue providing essential services to their indigenous shareholders. St. Mary's Native Corporation, for example, is providing school supplies and employment assistance and has distributed $45,000 worth of food, according to the motion.
"Rather than purely maximizing shareholder returns, ANCs treat the preservation of their community's culture and way of life as among their primary duties to shareholders," the corporations wrote.
The other intervening village corporations are Kwethluk Incorporated, Sea Lion Corporation, Napaskiak Incorporated and Akiachak Limited.
Six tribes, three from Alaska and three from the Lower 48, filed the original complaint in the case on April 17, saying the 12 Alaska Native regional corporations and 225 Alaska Native village corporations — which have billions of dollars in revenue and are among the largest private landowners in Alaska — weren't intended to receive any of the "tribal stabilization fund" included in the relief act.
Five more tribes — including the Navajo Nation, which has been especially hard hit by COVID-19 — later joined the suit.
Two associations representing Alaska Native corporations also sought intervention Tuesday: the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association Inc. and the Association of ANCSA Regional Corporation Presidents/CEOs Inc.
"While [we] are sympathetic to the plaintiffs' desire to protect their own tribal members, the Alaska Natives that comprise and are serviced by the ANCs are no less deserving of relief," they wrote.
The associations added that they fear their exclusion from COVID-19 relief funding could prevent them from accessing federal funds in the future. "This specter of adverse precedent surely is sufficient to support the … intervention," they said.
The plaintiff tribes oppose both interventions and the government takes no position, according to Tuesday's motions.
Counsel for the lead plaintiffs and the government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday that it will start paying out $4.8 billion of a total $8 billion in disputed funding, but is reserving a portion it believes should go to the ANCs.
The tribes in the lead case are represented by Riyaz Kanji and Cory J. Albright of Kanji & Katzen PLLC, Harold Chesnin of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Lisa Koop Gunn of the Tulalip Tribes.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is represented by Nicole E. Ducheneaux and Rose M. Weckenmann of Big Fire Law & Policy Group LLP.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is represented by Natalie A. Landreth, Wesley James Furlong, Erin C. Dougherty Lynch, Matthew N. Newman and Megan R. Condon of the Native American Rights Fund.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe is represented by Jennifer Bear Eagle of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Legal Department.
The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation is represented by Frances C. Bassett, Jeffrey S. Rasmussen and Rollie Wilson of Fredericks Peebles & Patterson LLP.
The federal government is represented by Joseph H. Hunt, Eric Womack and Jason C. Lynch of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division.
Ahtna Inc. is represented by Michael J. O'Leary and Jonathan Katchen of Holland & Hart LLP.
Calista Corporation et al. are represented by Ragan Naresh, Paul D. Clement, Erin E. Murphy and Matthew D. Rowen of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
The ANC associations are represented by Daniel W. Wolff, David Chung and Kirsten L. Nathanson of Crowell & Moring LLP and Christine V. Williams and J. Harrison Powell II of Outlook Law LLC.
The lead case is Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation v. Mnuchin, case number 1:20-cv-01002, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
--Additional reporting by Andrew Westney and Kelly Zegers. Editing by Jill Coffey.
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