1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Justices Consider Whether Treasury May Distribute CARES Act Funds for “Indian Tribes” to Alaska Native Corporations May 14, 2021 On April 19, 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Yellen v. Conf
2、ederated Tribes of the Chehalis Indian Reservation (Chehalis). The case asks whether Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) are “Indian tribes” eligible to receive approximately $530 million of the $8 billion allocated to “Tribal governments” in the Coronavirus Relief Fund provisions of the Coronavirus A
3、id, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The 12 regional and 200 village ANCs are state-chartered corporations authorized by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) to receive proceeds of the settlement of Alaska Natives aboriginal land claims. Unlike traditional Alaska Nat
4、ive villages, ANCs are not included on the Department of the Interior (DOI) list of federally recognized tribes. Seventeen of those federally recognized Indian tribes are challenging a Treasury Department determination that ANCs qualify for the payments under the CARES Acts definition of Indian trib