US Supreme Court hears Indigenous tribe arguments on COVID aid

Tribal groups are vying over $8bn in funding intended for tribal governments under the 2020 CARES Act.

US Supreme Court justices on Monday signalled sympathy towards allowing federal COVID-19 relief funds to go to specially created corporations for Native Alaskans even though they are not officially recognised as tribal governments in a case pitting groups of Indigenous Americans against each other. The justices heard almost two hours of arguments in the case in which tribal groups are fighting over $8bn in funding intended for tribal governments under the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act. About $533m of that aid hinges on the case’s outcome. Three groups of Native American tribes from other parts of the United States sued in federal court in Washington in April 2020 seeking to prevent what are known as Alaska Native corporations from receiving any of the funds. Among the challengers are the Navajo Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.