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Home Practice Areas D.C. Overview Native American and Tribal Law

Native American and Tribal Law

The Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot lawyers in Washington, D.C., and Alaska have diverse and robust practices in support of the many legal challenges - and opportunities - facing Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and tribes. The firm represents many large and small Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) and Native American tribes in litigation and business transactions. Our Washington office is highly skilled and extensively experienced in representing, advocating and lobbying on behalf of ANCs and tribes on diverse matters such as appropriations, school funding, land exchanges, Indian gaming, ANC and tribal preferences in federal procurement, and Indian incentive programs.

BHBC has proven its mettle in more than thirty-five years of advocacy on behalf of Alaska Natives and Native Americans. Attorneys on our staff have been instrumental and intimately involved in the monumental legislation and litigation that shaped the relationship of the federal government with the First Americans in Alaska and defined the land use patterns in the State of Alaska. Several of our attorneys helped draft and implement two foundational federal statutes, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). We have also represented Alaska Native Corporations at their formation stages and during subsequent complex business transactions resulting from their success and growth.

Our attorneys have considerable experience and expertise in Native American and tribal law. BHBC attorney William P. Horn served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior at the time ANILCA was being implemented and the federal government distributed more than 150 million acres to the State of Alaska and Alaska Natives as part of ANCSA, ANILCA and Alaska Statehood Act. Douglas S. Fuller, another senior attorney, served as Counsel to the House Committee on Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over Native American policy and legislation. In addition, attorneys in the firm were the key litigators representing ANCs in cases that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sought to limit federal procurement preferences enjoyed by tribes and the ANCs. The Court denied the petition for writ of certiorari.

Attorneys

• Jon M. DeVore
• Douglas S. Fuller
• William P. Horn