A bill to speed up the federal recognition process for tribes
who have waited more than two decades for an answer would
weaken the system, a top Bureau of Indian Affairs official
said on Thursday.
Testifying before the House Resources Committee, principal
deputy assistant secretary Mike Olsen said the Bush administration
supported some of the goals of H.R.512. The bill was
introduced by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-California), chairman of
the committee, in hopes of providing finality for tribes
whose recognition petitions have languished for years.
But Olsen criticized provisions that require the BIA to issue a proposed
finding on the tribes within six months and complete
a final determination within one year. He said the bill wouldn't
give agency staff enough time to carry out the work needed to
research thousands of pages of historical, anthropological
and other documents
"We are concerned that the timeframes established by the bill
would not allow the Office of Federal Acknowledgment adequate
time to thoroughly review a petition, thereby lowering the acknowledgment
standards," Olsen told the panel.
Olsen said the BIA was willing to consider other reforms
to the slow-moving process, such as establishing its own deadlines.
The agency has been able to speed up the system in recent years,
Robin M. Nazzaro, a director at the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed at the hearing yesterday.
But Pombo, who has taken a sympathetic view of tribes that have
been in limbo, said the changes aren't
enough. "I don't care how busy the [Interior] Department is," he
said. "At some point over the last 20 or 30 years,
there should have been enough time to move forward on these."
Pombo agreed with Olsen that a provision giving tribes a right of action
in federal court could be viewed as drastic but said it was
necessary. "I'm not too wild about bringing the courts into
these, but [the tribes] have to have some remedy," he said.
"There has to be some kind of hammer that follows," he added.
Other committee members, Republican and Democrat, backed
Pombo. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Michigan) said it was a matter
of "justice" that the tribes get an answer, noting that Congress
has provided more money to the BIA in hopes of fixing the
system.
"I've been here for 29 years and have never ... seen a sense of urgency"
at the BIA, he said. "That's very frustrating."
Harry Sachse, an attorney who represents the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of
California, also supported the bill. He blasted the "broken culture"
that exists among the BIA and the Interior Department's Solicitor's Office.
"I think it's awful," he said the current system. "I think that your
bill is correct," he told Pombo. "You gotta do something tough with the department or
nothing will happen. We hear excuse after excuse after excuse."
Lance Gumbs, a member of the Shinnecock Nation of New York who serves
as a tribal trustee, said the bill would help his tribe obtain justice.
The tribe filed its petition in 1978, completed the documentation
in the 1990s and has been waiting ever since.
"The status of our petition sits in what I call the Black Hole,"
he said. The tribe is number 12
on the BIA's "ready for active consideration" list but Gumbs
said there has been no movement in two years.
"At this rate, without major changes to the process, the Shinnecock
Nation will languish in an unrecognized state indefinitely," he
testified.
Pombo's bill is directed at the 10 tribes who filed for recognition prior to October
17, 1988, the date of the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The
petitions for these tribes remain in the "Black Hole" that Gumbs identified.
A nearly identical bill made it through the committee but never
got a vote on the House floor. It was never taken up by the Senate.
Over the years, several lawmakers have offered bills to reform
the system and nearly all have run into opposition from the
BIA. One measure would have stripped the agency of its recognition
powers and handed them to an independent commission. Others would
have imposed timelines on the BIA or modified the recognition
standards to help tribal groups.
In hopes of heading off some of the proposals,
former assistant secretary Neal McCaleb offered an aggressive
recognition plan in October 2002. It was primarily administrative,
such as filling staff vacancies and improving technology.
Nazzaro of the GAO said the BIA had implemented much of the plan
except for creating a website that provides all documentation
related to the petitions. However, Kildee called the claim into
question when he pointed out that the BIA never beefed up
the recognition staff from 11 to 33 as the plan envisioned.
Olsen also confirmed that the BIA has lost some of its
researchers and the OFA, formerly known as the Branch of
Acknowledgment and Research, is now down to just nine people.
In prior years, the staff hovered around 11 or 12.
Get the Bill:
H.R.512
Related House Report:
TO
REQUIRE THE PROMPT REVIEW BY THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR OF THE LONG-STANDING
PETITIONS FOR FEDERAL RECOGNITION OF CERTAIN INDIAN TRIBES, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES (HR.108-788)
Only on Indianz.Com:
Federal
Recognition Database (July 2004)
Relevant Documents:
BIA Strategic Plan
GAO Report:
Improvements Needed in Tribal Recognition Process |
Relevant Links:
House Resources Committee - http://resourcescommittee.house.gov
Rep.
Richard Pombo - http://www.house.gov/pombo
Stay Connected
Contact Us
indianz@indianz.com202 630 8439 (THEZ)
Search
Top Stories
Trending in News
1 Tribes rush to respond to new coronavirus emergency created by Trump administration
2 'At this rate the entire tribe will be extinct': Zuni Pueblo sees COVID-19 cases double as first death is confirmed
3 Arne Vainio: 'A great sickness has been visited upon us as human beings'
4 Arne Vainio: Zoongide'iwin is the Ojibwe word for courage
5 Cayuga Nation's division leads to a 'human rights catastrophe'
2 'At this rate the entire tribe will be extinct': Zuni Pueblo sees COVID-19 cases double as first death is confirmed
3 Arne Vainio: 'A great sickness has been visited upon us as human beings'
4 Arne Vainio: Zoongide'iwin is the Ojibwe word for courage
5 Cayuga Nation's division leads to a 'human rights catastrophe'
More Stories
Suzan Shown Harjo: Churchill went 'tribe-shopping' Editorial: Here we go again, Bush cuts UTTC funds
News Archive
2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000