Dozens of tribal leaders were in Washington, D.C., this week to lobby lawmakers on three major issues: the budget, land-into-trust and violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women.

The Congressional "super committee" is looking to cut $841 billion from the budget. Tribes are worried that their programs -- a key part of the federal government's trust responsibility -- could be sacrificed.

“There is still an effort to do away with trust responsibility for tribes,” observed National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel, Indian Country Today reported.

Tribal leaders also attended a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar. A council member for the Narragansett Tribe, whose land-into-trust rights were curtailed by the ruling, spoke frankly about the lack of attention to the issue while the case was in the lower courts.

"We had been fighting for years, but it is only in the last two that you all have come to support us,” Hiawatha Brown said, Indian Country Today reported. “Collectively, many of our tribal leaders have become complacent."

Finally, tribes are supporting amendments to the Violence Against Women Act to punish Indian and non-Indian offenders. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, plans to introduce a bill later this month.

Get the Story:
Tribal Leaders Present United Front to Congress (Indian Country Today 10/13)
Arizona tribal leaders lobby in Washington on budget cuts, regulations (Cronkite News Service 10/12)

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