The Bureau of Indian Affairs official who issued a new land-into-trust checklist referred to objections from the state of Connecticut as "incomprehensible," Indian Country Today reports.

George Skibine, the acting principal deputy secretary for economic development and policy, issued the checklist in March. He said he can't understand why Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal has suggested that it eliminates the state consultation requirement for land-into-trust acquisitions.

''We can't eliminate the governor's consent. It's a requirement of the statute. We certainly did not do that at all. I don't know where he's getting that. I just can't understand how he can understand that from reading the checklist,'' Skibine, who also serves as director of the BIA's Office of Indian Gaming Management, told ICT.

Blumenthal responded that he stood by his criticism of the checklist. "They are rules. He can call them whatever he wants, but they are rules. We contend they should be regulations with formal comments promulgated officially and properly," the official told ICT.

Separately, an analyst with the BIA's gaming office, questioned the negative attention being heaped on the land-into-trust process for off-reservation lands. ''I have to say I think it's hysteria," she was quoted as saying at a recent Indian law conference.

Get the Story:
Blumenthal blasts BIA's 'new rules' (Indian Country Today 5/13)
Land to trust 'hysteria' threatens to backfire (Indian Country Today 5/13)

Relevant Links:
NIGC Indian Land Determinations - http://www.nigc.gov/nigc/nigcControl?option=LAND_DETERMINATIONS
Land into Trust, National Congress of American Indians - http://www.ncai.org/main/pages/issues/
governance/land_into_trust.asp

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