Alaska is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its fight with the federal government over salmon management on the Kuskokwim River in Southwest Alaska.

Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox on Monday petitioned the court to hear the case.

The state asserts that the issue is a matter of state control over “public lands” in navigable rivers as they flow through federal conservation areas, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Law on Monday.

The lawsuit pits the state against Alaska Native groups that have joined the side of the federal government in the case, including the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission that represents more than two dozen tribes along the watershed.

The Native groups argue that the state is trying to st

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