TRIBES SUING U.S. AFTER NOT GETTING THEIR STIMULUS AID

WASHINGTON» A group of American Indian tribes is suing the Treasury Department for failing to provide billions of dollars in coronavirus relief allocated for tribes in the $2.2 trillion stimulus package, setting off one of the most significant legal battles between tribal governments and the United States in years.

The human and economic toll of the pandemic has been particularly devastating for tribes across the country, which were struggling with inadequate federal resources and are now among the most vulnerable and hardest-hit by the virus. While the stimulus law mandated that $8 billion be provided to tribes by the end of April, tribal leaders say they have yet to receive any of the money, prompting the lawsuit Thursday.

But the delay stems in part from a dispute among the nation’s native populations, which are feuding over who is entitled to the aid. It pits more than 200 Alaska Native corporations, for-profit businesses that serve tribal villages in Alaska, against federally recognized tribal governments in the lower 48 states that argue the corporations should not be eligible for the relief.

The Trump administration has sided with the Alaska Native corporations. More than a dozen tribes filed lawsuits last month challenging the Treasury Department’s decision to allow the corporations to apply for the aid, saying they do not meet the definition of tribal governments.

In a ruling Monday, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the tribal governments and issued a temporary injunction to stop funds from being sent to the corporations during the litigation.

The outcome of the lawsuits will dictate how the stimulus funds and any future relief are distributed among the 574 federally recognized tribes, tribal leaders and advocates said. But it also all but guarantees that some of the aid will remain frozen.

“I just honestly thought this was the kind of treatment we would still only read about in the history books,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.