State of Alaska v. Bruce E. Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior United States of America, William T. Bryant

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

The United States issued a 500 acre grant to the State of Alaska in 1961. The grant was of a right of way for a material site to mine gravel. It was part of a comprehensive scheme of right of way grants for what has become the Parks Highway, the primary highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The highway was constructed, in parts quite slowly over extraordinarily rugged terrain, during 1969-71. The land at issue in this case is about 30 miles south of Cantwell.

In 1970, appellee William T. Bryant filed an application for an Alaska Native allotment, 1 the relevant…