Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation faces federal recognition deadline

Monday, November 18, 2019

It's National Native American Heritage Month and one tribe is trying to prove that it qualifies for federal recognition.

The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation has until November 18 to make the case. The tribe is up against the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose leader signed a proposed finding against formally acknowledging the people who have been connected to the famed Yosemite National Park in California since time immemorial.

“We are still being destroyed as a people,” Chairman Bill Leonard told The Fresno Bee. “They’re still killing us. In that way, the genocide has not stopped. … The genocide isn’t over as long as they’re denying tribes their rights.”

A few months after joining the Trump administration, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney signed the proposed finding, which said the tribe did not meet all seven mandatory criteria for federal recognition. The decision was issued during National Native American Heritage Month in 2018.

The comment period on the proposed finding against acknowledgment would have ended in May but the BIA agreed to an extension requested by the tribe. A bipartisan group of lawmakers also called for an extension.

The tribe began the federal recognition process by sending in a letter of intent in 1982.