United States v. Atlantic Richfield Co.

CHOY, Circuit Judge:

Appellants protest the ruling of the district court that their trespass claims were extinguished by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellants1 represent all the Eskimos on the North Slope of Alaska. Appellees are *1134the State of Alaska2 and companies involved in the effort to exploit North Slope petroleum. Until one or two decades ago the North Slope was essentially unpeopled except for a few Inupiates 3; more recently, there has been a mighty “oil rush.” For the purposes of this appeal, we assume that the Inupiats retained unrecognized…