Print article In late March, Gov. Mike Dunleavy threw down a rhetorical gauntlet, announcing that after more than 60 years of statehood, Alaska is exercising its right to manage all navigable waterways in the state — including those that flow through federal land. It’s a gambit that’s backed by recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and although its impact for ordinary Alaskans is mostly symbolic, it may wake federal authorities up to unfulfilled promises made to the state decades ago. The assertion that Alaska can manage all navigable waterways in the state, as well as the lands underneath them, has its roots in recent Supreme Court case law — in particular, the John Sturgeon case. The court’s unanimous 2019 ruling established that the state has those management rights even for rivers that pass through federal lands. Fortunately, that ruling threaded a needle in preserving another landmark decision important to Alaska — the Katie John decision, which found that land management rights aside, the National Parks Service has the right to regulate subsistence fishing. Based on that decision, authorities have prioritized the use of fish by those who live along the rivers and rely on the fish in them to survive. Sturgeon and the Alaska Federation of Natives found common cause in seeking a management solution that kept subsistence rights intact — and, fortunately, the Supreme Court found those goals compatible under the Alaska National Interest Land Claims Act.