The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the state of Alaska\u2019s latest attempt to alter Alaska\u2019s decades-old system of subsistence fishing management.<\/p>\n
In a one-sentence order<\/a> Monday, the court said it will not review a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a>, which ruled in August that Alaska cannot manage fishing on a stretch of the Kuskokwim River that flows through the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>.<\/p>\n If the Supreme Court had taken up the case, it could have redefined Alaska\u2019s unique system of hunting and fishing management<\/a>, which allows the federal government to restrict subsistence hunting and fishing on federal land to rural Alaskans. The state is forbidden<\/a> by the Alaska Constitution from offering the same preference.<\/p>\n Alaska Native organizations, including the Alaska Federation of Natives, praised the court\u2019s decision, but the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said by email that it would continue to work with the federal government on the issue.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s Supreme Court decision ends a five-year dispute that began during a salmon shortage on the Kuskokwim River in 2021. The state of Alaska issued orders to open fishing that contradicted federal fisheries managers\u2019<\/a> decision to keep it closed.<\/p>\n Salmon fishing is a critical aspect of Alaska Native culture, tradition and survival. Salmon returns have plummeted in recent years, straining managers who must balance the wants and needs of Alaskans and Yukoners pursuing the same fish.<\/p>\n On the Kuskokwim, the state claimed it was simply interpreting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2019<\/a>, but the federal government disagreed with the state\u2019s interpretation and sued the following year.<\/p>\n Alaska Native groups sided with the federal government, and Alaska District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in favor of the federal government<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n The state appealed to the 9th Circuit, which again ruled in favor of the federal government. That prompted the state to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n The Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission was one of the lead groups standing with the federal government.<\/p>\n \u201cOur Fish Commission is very pleased with this historic victory in favor of the people of the Kuskokwim River. The victory not only upholds rural subsistence rights in Alaska, but upholds the participation of local people, elected by the Tribes, in the co-management of Kuskokwim salmon,\u201d said the group\u2019s chair, Martin Andrew, in a written statement.<\/p>\n Attorney Erin Dougherty Lynch worked on the case for the Native American Rights Fund, which represented the Association of Village Council Presidents.<\/p>\n By phone, she noted that even though this case is over, the Bureau of Land Management is considering changes to the subsistence program<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the state is seeking to accomplish now is basically the same thing through administrative processes. They\u2019re definitely still going after subsistence. This won\u2019t be the end, unfortunately, of their efforts to restrict subsistence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n