A local family will pay $52,000 in legal fees after losing a lawsuit last year over private property on the Chilkoot River.

“The whole thing feels like I’m in an episode of the Twilight Zone,” said Reuben Loewen. He and his wife Rosalie attempted to identify the boundaries of and protect their private land in 2013.

The Chilkoot Indian Association, Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 5, and Sealaska Corporation argued against the protection, saying subsistence fisherman had historically used the land for eulachon fishing and drove on the property so the elderly and people with disabilities could have access.

A Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Native organizations in September, saying that although the Loewens own the land, they cannot block access to it during the spring eulachon run.

The judge last month ordered the Loewens to pay $52,000 in legal fees, a portion of the about $240,000 the Native groups requested. The fees will be distributed between Chilkoot Indian Association and Sealaska.

A state law known as rule 82 allows the winning party to receive financial compensation from the losing side. Rosalie said “deep-pocketed” litigants use this tactic to intimidate small landowners from standing up for their rights.

“If people continue to be allowed to use rule 82 in this way, people who are like us, small landowners, will be intimidated out of the court system and forced to give up things that they shouldn’t be forced to give up,” Rosalie Loewen said.

Kristin Miller, lawyer for Sealaska in the case, said Alaska civil rules allowed Sealaska and the Chilkoot Indian Association to ask for that compensation, and the Loewen’s would have been entitled to do the same if they won the case.

“We would have preferred to not spend so much time and money on litigation to preserve the status quo,” Miller said.

Reuben Loewen said he and Rosalie are paying the fees by taking from savings, securing a loan and getting help from family. He also said he is looking for work to help cover the costs, and that “may very well not be in Haines.”

Rosalie said if her family does not pay the penalty, the Native organizations will get a writ to seize the Loewens’ land and home.

“We’ve had our lives just totally dismantled,” she said. “Our financial stability has been removed. We never broke the law, we never acted unreasonably. All we said is we have some rights on this land, too. And for that, our life is just taken apart.”

Reuben Loewen said the case was character assassination and felt combative. He said he felt a few members of the Native organizations “made it a white vs. Native thing,” and handled the case in a “divisive” way.

Miller said she agreed it was a combative case, and there were altercations at the site before the issue was settled in court.

“I’m disappointed that it came to that, but it’s just how it worked out,” Miller said.

Miller said the Native organizations never set out to make it about race. She said use of the trails was not limited to Native Alaskans.

Rosalie said she even posted signs that said the property was closed to vehicle access except for elders and people with disabilities.

“To me that’s a strong indication that we were always willing to work with other groups,” Rosalie said.

“I don’t totally understand it, I guess,” Reuben said. “We try to work in good faith and constructively and that has not really served us well.”

Rosalie Loewen said she now wants to focus on the positive.  

“First, we are very grateful that this appears to be coming to a close. Second, the Loewen family will be fine, we have our health, we have the support of our families, and we are so lucky in so many ways,” she said. “This didn’t work out the way we hoped it would, but we did the best we knew how to do, and now it’s time to pick up the pieces and move forward.”