Alaska's Native peoples, like their counterparts in the rest of the United States, have a long and complex history of relationships with federal and state governments. Indian law is far from a settled area, and in Alaska, it is particularly in flux. Vital topics, such as the right of Alaskan Natives to tribal sovereignty over lands and persons, and Native rights to subsistence harvests of fish, game, and other resources, are now being litigated. Douglas Mertz is one of only a few attorneys in Alaska who have dealt with these issues intensively over the last 15 years.

• In 1982, the Attorney General of Alaska assigned Mr. Mertz to take on the role of the state's principal expert on Alaskan Native law. He served in this role until 1990 when he opened Mertz Law.

• Native rights issues in connection with subsistence claims under state law and under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, P.L. 96-487 (ANILCA). 
• Litigating the first subsistence case before the Alaska Supreme Court, and winning a decision affirming the right of the State to allocate wild game on the basis of the subsistence needs of user groups (State of Alaska v. Tanana Valley Sportsmen's Association, 583 P.2d 854 [Alaska 1978]). 
• Identifying the state's interests and legal positions in regard to Native sovereign rights and representing the state in federal and state courts. 
• Serving as primary author of the state's successful brief in the United States Supreme Court in Native Village of Noatak v. Blatchford, 111 U.S. 2578 (1991), regarding federal jurisdiction over suits by tribes under the Eleventh Amendment. (See The Noatak Decision: Why Everyone Lost.) 
• Serving as a contributing editor for the American Indian Law Deskbook of the Conference of Western Attorneys General (University Press of Colorado, 1993).

Since entering private practice, Mr. Mertz has:

• Participated in legal education seminars on Native rights and written on the subject. (See A Primer on Alaska Native Sovereignty.) 
• Lectured before the Alaska Anthropological Association on the role of anthropologists as expert witnesses in litigation over Native rights and title to Native American artifacts. (See The Role of Anthropologists as Expert Witnesses.) 

• An Alaskan Native village interested in claiming tribal status and title to ancestral lands
• Individuals seeking adjudication of Native allotment claims dating back to the 1920s
• Groups of shareholders seeking to influence Native corporation policies.