Opinion ID: 494707
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The 1925 Alaska Game Law

Text: 39 The district court held, however, that closed season subsistence hunting by Alaskan Natives is not regulated by the MBTA, but instead by the 1925 Alaska Game Law. It concluded that the 1925 AGL superceded the MBTA with respect to the hunting of migratory birds in Alaska and that the 1925 AGL prohibits the Secretary from adopting regulations restricting closed season subsistence hunting by Alaskan Natives. The district court held that this prohibition remains in force today. 40 The district court held that the 1925 AGL repealed the MBTA both by its plain language and by implication. The 1925 AGL regulated the hunting of various types of animals and birds in Alaska, including migratory game birds. 1925 AGL Sec. 8. The Law created an Alaska Game Commission and delegated to the Commission substantial enforcement authority over hunting in Alaska. 1925 AGL Secs. 4, 5. The Law provided that, unless permitted by it or regulations made pursuant to the 1925 AGL, it was unlawful to hunt migratory birds. 1925 AGL Sec. 8. The Secretary of Agriculture was granted the authority to issue regulations permitting the hunting of game birds. 1925 AGL Sec. 10. 41 The 1925 AGL was ambiguous as to its relationship with the MBTA. In section 10 it explicitly prohibited the Secretary from adopting regulations contravening the MBTA. 5 Section 16 of the 1925 AGL, however, could be read as an implicit repeal of the MBTA as it applied to Alaska. Section 16 stated that preexisting legislation relating to the protection of birds in Alaska would only remain in force until ninety days after regulations had been issued pursuant to the 1925 AGL. 6 The 1925 AGL also contained a provision in section 10 that prevented the Secretary from issuing regulations that prohibited Eskimos and Indians from taking birds during the closed season when other food was not available unless the Secretary determined that the particular species was in danger of extermination. 42 The district court began its analysis by holding that the two clauses in section 10 conflict. One clause proscribed restrictions on emergency subsistence hunting. The other clause prohibited regulations conflicting with the MBTA. Because the MBTA prohibited all hunting of migratory game birds between March 10 and September 1 of each year and the 1925 AGL permitted emergency subsistence during the entire year, the district court found that the clauses conflicted. The district court resolved the conflict by concluding that the 1925 AGL superceded the MBTA with respect to the regulation of migratory bird hunting in Alaska. It found that the 1925 AGL was intended to comprehensively regulate all game and bird hunting in Alaska and replace the MBTA as a source of authority for issuing regulations in Alaska. The court relied on section 8 of the 1925 AGL which stated that all taking of game animals and birds was illegal unless permitted by this Act or by regulations made pursuant to this Act. 7 From this statement the district court concluded that the general repealing clause in section 16 expressly repealed the MBTA insofar as the MBTA applied to Alaska. The district court attempted to harmonize section 16 with section 10's provision that the MBTA was not to be contravened. It held that the MBTA was incorporated by reference into the 1925 AGL and that the MBTA still applied to Alaska to the extent that it was not inconsistent with the 1925 AGL. In the alternative, the district court found that the 1925 AGL repealed the MBTA's applicability to Alaska by implication. It relied on the principle that ambiguities in statutes intended to benefit natives must be resolved in favor of natives and the principle that a specific locally oriented clause such as the emergency taking clause is presumed to control over a more general statute such as the MBTA. 43 When interpreting a statute, we look first to the statutory language and then to the legislative history if the statutory language is unclear. Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 896, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 1548, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984). It is a rule of statutory construction that one provision should not be interpreted in a way which is internally contradictory or that renders other provisions of the same statute inconsistent or meaningless. Shields v. United States, 698 F.2d 987, 989 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 816, 104 S.Ct. 73, 78 L.Ed.2d 86 (1983). [W]e must examine the language of the statute and the particular concerns which motivated Congress to pass it. Hopi Tribe v. Watt, 719 F.2d 314, 317 (9th Cir.1983). 44 It is possible to interpret the two clauses in section 10 so that they do not conflict and so that both provisions serve a purpose. The subsistence hunting provision fairly can be read to permit subsistence hunting of all animals and all birds which are not migratory. Emergency subsistence hunting of migratory birds would then be permissible insofar as it is permitted by the MBTA. Because the MBTA allows subsistence hunting of some migratory nongame birds, both clauses would be given effect. 45 The legislative history of the 1925 AGL does not clarify the relationship between these two clauses. See H.R.Rep. No. 993, 68th Cong., 1st Sess. (1924); S.Rep. No. 480, 68th Cong., 1st Sess. (1924). The legislative reports do not refer to subsistence hunting by Alaskan Natives or to the MBTA. The reports do, however, delineate the policies which Congress intended to promote by adopting the 1925 AGL. Among those policies were flexibility in meeting local needs and conservation of the natural resources of the area. See, e.g., S.Rep. No. 480 at 4. These policies support an interpretation of the emergency hunting provision that recognizes the emergency subsistence needs of Alaskan Natives but which also restricts the subsistence hunting of migratory birds. 46 If the two clauses of section 10 are not in conflict, the district court's conclusion that section 16 repealed all prior legislation specifically addressed to the Territory of Alaska but not legislation protecting animals nationwide, is called into doubt. We must ascertain and give effect to the plain meaning of the statute. See Kidd v. United States Dep't of Interior, 756 F.2d 1410, 1412 (9th Cir.1985). Because the statute specifically stated that the provisions of the MBTA were not to be contravened, the plain language of the statute suggests that section 16 did not repeal the MBTA insofar as it applied to Alaska. 47 The interpretation of the statute by the Secretary is also ambiguous, but it provides some guidance in determining Congress' intent when it adopted the 1925 AGL. We give great deference to the interpretation given a statute by the agency charged with its administration. Udall v. Tallman, 380 U.S. 1, 16, 85 S.Ct. 792, 801, 13 L.Ed.2d 616 (1965). Although it is unclear how the agency initially interpreted the 1925 AGL, the agency's longstanding interpretation has been that Congress did not intend to permit subsistence hunting of migratory game birds or to have the 1925 AGL supercede the MBTA. 48 We are particularly deferential to the contemporaneous interpretation given to a statute by those responsible for its implementation. See Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259, 272-73, 101 S.Ct. 1673, 1680-81, 68 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981); Udall, 380 U.S. at 16, 85 S.Ct. at 801 (quoting International Union of Elec., Radio & Machine Workers, 367 U.S. 396, 408, 81 S.Ct. 1529, 1535, 6 L.Ed.2d 924 (1961)). Four months after the 1925 AGL was passed, the Bureau of Biological Survey issued regulations implementing the 1925 AGL. See U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Alaska Game Law and Regulations and Federal Laws Relating to Game and Birds in the Territory, issued May 1925. These initial regulations do not conclusively establish whether the agency believed emergency subsistence hunting was permissible or whether the 1925 AGL superceded the MBTA in Alaska. Regulation 8 permitted the taking of animals and birds by Indians and Eskimos who had not severed tribal relations if they were in absolute need of food. 8 This regulation contained no limitations as to the time of year when subsistence hunting could take place or as to which birds could be hunted. The regulations also contained an introductory statement which stated that the 1925 AGL did not supersede the MBTA. 9 While it is unclear what authority this introductory statement was intended to carry, its inclusion with the regulations shows an agency intent that the MBTA continue in effect. Thus, the initial regulations show an intent to permit emergency subsistence hunting but to also follow the restrictive provisions of the MBTA. 49 The regulations issued pursuant to the MBTA in 1926, shortly after the 1925 AGL was enacted, continued to regulate the hunting of migratory birds in Alaska and to permit subsistence hunting of the migratory nongame birds as required by the United States-Canada Convention. See Presidential Proclamation of June 22, 1925, 44 Stat. 2579-81, amending Presidential Proclamation of July 31 1918, 40 Stat. 1812-18. The MBTA regulations were not altered in any way to account for passage of the 1925 AGL. See Id. 50 Subsequent administrative interpretation supports the view that the 1925 AGL did not supercede the MBTA and that the emergency hunting provision in the 1925 AGL did not govern the hunting of migratory game birds. First, regulations issued after 1926 under the MBTA have continued without exception to govern the hunting of migratory birds in Alaska. See, e.g., 50 C.F.R. Sec. 20.102 (1986). The only subsistence hunting exceptions in the MBTA regulations are those authorized by the four treaties. See id. Sec. 20.132. 51 Second, the Secretary of the Interior modified regulation 8 in 1944 to make clear that the regulation did not permit the taking of migratory game birds in contravention of the MBTA. 10 The revised regulation resolved the ambiguity that previously existed. Although we give less deference to a subsequent agency interpretation which conflicts with that agency's contemporaneous interpretation, see Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259, 273, 101 S.Ct. 1673, 1681, 68 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981), General Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 143, 97 S.Ct. 401, 411, 50 L.Ed.2d 343 (1976), we do not believe that this case is one in which we need question the later interpretation. The revised regulation continued in force for the next sixteen years with only minor modifications. There is no evidence that the change in the regulation resulted from a changed interpretation of the 1925 AGL. Rather, it is likely that the revised regulation simply clarified the interpretation given to the statute initially. 52 Third, administrative action at the time Alaska became a state shows that both the agency and Congress believed that the MBTA governed subsistence hunting of migratory game birds in Alaska. Although the Alaska Statehood Act, Pub.L. 85-508, 72 Stat. 339 (1958), reprinted at 48 U.S.C. prec. Sec. 21, did not expressly repeal the 1925 AGL, the 1925 AGL was considered repealed under a general repealing clause. See 72 Stat. 339, Sec. 8(d); see also Executive Order No. 10,857, 25 Fed.Reg. 33 Sec. 1 (1960) (stating that functions performed by the United States would cease to be performed as of Dec. 31, 1959); Proposed Rulemaking: General Revision of Fish and Wildlife Regulations, 25 Fed.Reg. 7681, (1960) (stating that the 1925 AGL's implementing regulations would be deleted because they were superceded by operation of the Alaska Statehood Act). We find no evidence that the repeal of the 1925 AGL authorized the State of Alaska to regulate the hunting of migratory game birds by Alaskan Natives. The federal government continued to regulate the subsistence hunting of migratory birds pursuant to the MBTA based on its belief that it had always had this authority. 53 We hold that the MBTA was not superseded in Alaska by the 1925 Alaska Game Law. The subsistence hunting provision in the 1925 AGL prohibited the adoption of regulations restricting subsistence hunting of animals and non-migratory birds in Alaska. Thus, the MBTA and not the 1925 AGL governs the hunting of migratory birds. The MBTA permits the Secretary to adopt regulations permitting subsistence hunting only to the extent that the hunting is permissible under the treaties with Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the Soviet Union. We reverse and remand to the district court to determine whether the Hooper Bay Agreement and the 1985 Goose Management Plan are contrary to the MBTA.