And while tribal leaders initially couched their concerns to Sweeney as rumors originating from the D.C. swamp, she all but acknowledged ongoing efforts to replace, rescind or otherwise eliminate two legal opinions that had been issued during the Barack Obama administration in order to bolster tribal rights. She said the Office of the Solicitor at Interior, whose leader was formally installed just a few months ago, was the one calling the shots on key Indian policy issues. "She confirmed it," Lance Gumbs, a longtime regional vice president of NCAI who serves as the vice chairman of the Shinnecock Nation, told Indianz.Com after the dust up. By the end of the day, NCAI was being pushed to take stronger action. Ron Allen, the organization's longtime former treasurer, said tribes must send a clear message to Sweeney about her trust and treaty responsibilities to the first Americans. "Make it unequivocally clear: This your job," said Allen, who received a special honor from NCAI on Tuesday evening in recognition of his decades of service. "Do your job and get our land back into trust," said Allen, who has served as chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe for more than four decades.At National Congress of American Indians, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney calls crisis of missing & murdered Native Americans an “epidemic.” Trump administration’s new #MMIW #MMIP task force holds 1st listening session on Wednesday. #ECWS2020 @ASIndianAffairs pic.twitter.com/TyxZGx3EnG
— indianz.com (@indianz) February 11, 2020
Sweeney, who is the first Alaska Native to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and only the second woman in that role, also faced criticism about a project that is near and dear to President Trump's re-election campaign. Construction of the controversial and costly wall along the U.S. border with Mexico recently resulted in the destruction of tribal burial grounds, said Ned Norris, Jr., the chairman of the Tohono O'doham Nation "They desecrated those human remains that were there," Norris said, citing activities that just took place a couple of weeks ago in Arizona, right after a key Democratic member of Congress visited the border to oversee construction of the wall. "You have an obligation to protect sacred sites, sacred areas and religious areas for Native American people," Norris, whose people were divided by the imposition of the border through their homelands, told Sweeney. "You have failed to protect those areas." "I call on you to exercise your responsibility and stop the destruction of sacred sites within Native American communities," Norris said to applause. The fire directed at Sweeney hardly comes as a surprise. During her appearance at NCAI's 76th annual conference last October, she was hit with similar complaints about the fee-to-trust process at Bureau of Indian Affairs and how it is impacting tribes whose federal recognition was only recently confirmed by the U.S. government, as well as tribes in Alaska. Four months later, and long after her arrival in D.C. in the summer of 2018, Sweeney remains outmaneuvered at Interior, the federal agency with the most responsibilities in Indian Country. She admitted that Solicitor Daniel Jorjani, who was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate to his post last September, was holding the cards when it comes to tribal homelands in the lower 48 and in Alaska. "I have to tell you that the Solicitor's Office sets the position for the department," Sweeney said on Tuesday, essentially abdicating authority to the legal arm of her agency. "My role is one of advocacy, and advocacy for clarity and decision-making." "In my discussions with the Solicitor, I continue to advocate that Indian Country deserves to have transparency in the process," Sweeney continued. "Indian Country deserves to have decisions rendered in a timely manner and that there's clarity in how we make decisions." For tribal leaders from Sweeney's home state of Alaska, timeliness and transparency have all but gone out of the window. Jackie Pata, NCAI's longtime former executive director, posed nearly the exact same question to the Assistant Secretary on Tuesday as she did in October. "We have heard nothing from the department as to where we are with any proposed rules, or even just implementing Alaska land-into-trust," said Pata, who serves as second vice president for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes, which is the largest Native government in the state. "I'd love to have your response."EARLIER: “You have an obligation to protect sacred sites and sacred areas. You have failed”: Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr blasts Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney for letting Trump administration desecrate sacred places for wall along US border. pic.twitter.com/yrEzEgetBJ
— indianz.com (@indianz) February 11, 2020
The response hadn't changed, and it again rested on the whims of the Solicitor's Office at Interior, which halted all land-into-trust applications in Alaska and put a hold on a pro-tribal legal opinion affecting tribes in the state, before Sweeney could even take office. "The land-into-trust issue with respect to Alaska is still under review," Sweeney said of a process that was initiated by the legal arm of Interior more than 18 months ago, to no apparent conclusion. "I don't have any other information to provide you at this time." "I wish I could give you a different answer but you know that I will always give you an answer," Sweeney added. "It may not be one that we agree on -- but you're going to get an answer from me." The legal opinion, known internally as M-37043, was written during the Obama administration after tribes in Alaska secured a major court victory that confirmed their right to have their homelands restored through the fee-to-trust process. A formal regulation, also finalized during the Obama era, adopted the outcome of the decision. Even though the court ruling was never reversed, the Trump administration refuses to follow it by failing to process fee-to-trust applications for tribes in Alaska. The web page for the Solicitor's Office merely states that M-37043 remains withdrawn "pending review."WOW. A day after hailing the "historic" addition of an Alaska Native to the team, the Trump administration has withdrawn -- pending "further review" -- an Obama-era legal opinion that affirmed the rights of tribes in Alaska to restore their homelands https://t.co/q89IVhGRpi pic.twitter.com/1i4KrcDMRo
— indianz.com (@indianz) June 29, 2018
![](https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/02/12/jessiebairdcherylandrewsmaltais.jpg)
State of Indian Nations kicks off busy week for tribal leaders (February 10, 2020)
Indian Country awaits latest budget proposal from Trump administration (February 10, 2020)
Top Indian Affairs official trumped out on key tribal issues in Washington (October 22, 2019)