Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes continue long fight for return of land

Monday, March 10, 2014  

Leadership disputes have kept the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma in the news for the last couple of years but there's one issue that binds the community together -- the return of their ancestral land.

The federal government took about 10,000 acres for use as Fort Reno. The land was supposed to be returned when it was no longer needed for military purposes but that hasn't happened yet.

“The land belongs to us,” Amber Bighorse, an attorney and former lieutenant governor of the tribe, told Politico. “That’s one thing all the Cheyenne-Arapaho agree on.”

The tribe has counted members of Congress as allies to their cause. But Oklahoma's delegation -- including Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), one of two Native Americans in the House -- won't help.

“I would like to help them. I just would like to help them in other ways than reopen litigation on all this other stuff,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) told Politico.

And President Barack Obama doesn't appear to be sympathetic either. He recently designated the Grazinglands Research Laboratory, located at Fort Reno, as a hub for climate change research.

The newly enacted Farm Bill also keeps the land out of the tribes hands. Section 7512 of the H.R.2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act, keeps the Department of Agriculture in control for another five years.

Get the Story:
For tribes, new farm bill revives old wounds (Politico 3/10)

Land taken from Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes gets new project (2/5)
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes seek return of ancestral land (1/9)