The Ute Indian Tribe has been credited with providing a strong argument in an ongoing debate concerning the distribution of CARES Act funding to Alaska Native Corporations. The Ute Indian Tribe shared in a Tuesday press release that: ‘On Monday, April 19th, the Ute Indian Tribe presented arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on the distribution of [CARES Act] funds to federally recognized tribal governments. The consolidated cases are known in the media as Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, but actually include a number of separate cases brought by the Ute Indian Tribe, other Indian tribes, and Alaska Native Villages. In its case, the Ute Indian Tribe raised issues that were central to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision in favor of tribal governments—whether ANCs were “recognized governing bodies of Indian tribes” as required by the CARES Act. Relying on the Ute Indian Tribe’s arguments, the Court of Appeals held, “[b]ecause no ANC has been federally ‘recognized’ as an Indian tribe, as the recognition clause [in the CARES Act] requires, no ANC satisfies the [Indian Self-Determination Act] definition.” In fact, ANCs are for-profit corporations organized under Alaska state law, and they include some of the largest and most profitable corporations in Alaska.’ In a follow up to the press release, the Ute Indian Tribe stated that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor recognized that the argument being made by the Ute Indian Tribe was one of the strongest arguments against distributing CARES Act funding to Alaska Native Corporations.
