The bigger question is should the US govt be allowed to confiscate property from a state and then stop the state from developing it. Teddy Roosevelt started the practice to allow monopolies of his coal-mining buddies, and it needs to end.
Alaska used to belong to Russia until the US govt. purchased it. So Alaska might be a special case.
Well considering that the state was bought as a teritory from Russia by the federal government, and then turned some of the land over to us after Statehood, they have not confiscated teh land.