BIA decision on Cowlitz casino resolves land-into-trust questions

Friday, January 7, 2011  

The Cowlitz Tribe of Washington didn't gain formal federal recognition until 2000 but it can still follow the land-into-trust process, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The tribe filed its land-into-trust application for a casino before the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Carcieri v. Salazar. As a result, the BIA to determine whether the tribe was "under federal jurisdiction" as of 1934, Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk said in a record of decision posted by The Columbian.

The inquiry involves two parts. First, there must be evidence that the federal government took "an action or series of actions" to establish "obligations, duties, responsibility for or authority over the tribe," Echo Hawk said in the decision.

Second, there must be evidence that the tribe's "jurisdictional status remained intact in 1934." The tribe satisfied both parts, Echo Hawk said.

First, the tribe negotiated a treaty in 1855. Although the document was never ratified, "it demonstrates that the federal government acknowledged responsibility for the tribe," Echo Hawk said.

Second, Echo Hawk said there is no evidence that the tribe lost its jurisdictional status between the 1850s and 1934. The federal government continued to try to negotiate a treaty with the tribe, attempted to move the tribe to a reservation, communicated with tribal leaders and their descendants in the late 1800s and early 1900s and worked with the tribe on allotments and land claims, the decision stated.

"All of this evidence, taken together, supports our conclusion that prior to and including 1934 the Cowlitz Tribe retained and did not lose its jurisdictional status as tribe 'under federal jurisdiction,'" Echo Hawk said.

The Cowlitz decision is the first to address the "under federal jurisdiction" issue since the Supreme Court ruling. The Obama administration supported a fix to resolve the case but it did not pass during the 111th Congress.

Get the Story:
Document sheds light on casino approval (The Columbian 1/7)

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BIA approves land-into-trust application for Cowlitz Tribe casino (12/23)