Sullivan, Murkowski Seek to Extend Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Allotment Program

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski (both R-Alaska) have re-introduced legislation to extend the Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Land Allotment Program for five additional years. Without such an extension, the program will expire in December 2025 and potentially leave well over a thousand eligible Alaska Native Vietnam veterans and their heirs without their rightful land allotments.
“While serving their country during the Vietnam War era, many Alaska Native veterans missed the deadline to apply for their legally entitled land allotment—an injustice that we are still working to fix nearly 70 years later,”said Senator Sullivan.“I’ve been working on this issue since I came into office. In 2019, President Trump signed into law a major lands package led by Senator Murkowski that included an allotment program I authored with a five-year window to apply. Unfortunately, throughout the implementation of this program, the Biden administration callously threw up endless regulatory hurdles and delays, dramatically limited the lands available for selection, and ended up delivering allotments to about 40 Alaskans out of more than 2,000 eligible veterans. We are reintroducing this legislation to extend this program and finally secure these land allotments for our courageous veterans who sacrificed greatly on behalf of our country. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to see this legislation signed into law and successfully implemented to fix this historic injustice and honor our Vietnam veterans’ heroic service.”
“As thousands of Alaska Natives served our nation during the Vietnam War, they missed their opportunity to select the land allotments they are rightfully owed,”Senator Murkowski said.“With roughly 150 veterans remaining to be notified, and the pace of allotment certifications slower than we hoped it would be, an extension has become necessary—especially as we push to open additional lands closer to where many of these veterans and their families actually live.”
The Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Land Allotment Program was established through a Sullivan-Murkowski provision in Murkowski’s2019 lands package. The program has enabled thousands of Alaska Native veterans to apply for their congressionally-pledged land allotments, which can range from 2.5 to 160 acres, on certain Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in Alaska.
As of February 13, 2025, BLM Alaskareportedthat it has received 453 applications for allotments and completed certifications for 41 of them. Hundreds of eligible veterans and their heirs—especially those who live in southeast, western, and northern Alaska—have not submitted applications because no lands are available within hundreds of miles of their place of residence or ancestral homelands.
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