{"id":575,"date":"2020-09-16T11:10:33","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T16:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/w\/?p=575"},"modified":"2020-09-16T11:10:33","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T16:10:33","slug":"catawba-nation-welcomes-land-affirmation-bill-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/09\/16\/catawba-nation-welcomes-land-affirmation-bill-in-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Catawba Nation welcomes land affirmation bill in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/img>\r\n
Chief Bill Harris of the Catawba Nation announces the name of the Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort at a private event in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, on August 28, 2020. Photo by The Catawba Nation\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
New Legislation Introduced by Key Members of Congress Reaffirms Land Trust Status of the Cleveland County, North Carolina, lands of the Catawba Nation<\/div>\r\n
Land was taken into trust by the U.S. Department of Interior in March<\/em><\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, September 16, 2020<\/div>\r\n
By Catawba Nation<\/div>\r\n
catawbaindian.net<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nKINGS MOUNTAIN, North Carolina \u2013 The Catawba Nation today announced its support and appreciation of Tuesday’s introduction of the Catawba Indian Nation Lands Act (H.R. 8255<\/a>) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

<\/p>\r\nCongressman G.K. Butterfield (North Carolina) was joined in introducing the bipartisan bill by Congressman Jim Clyburn (South Carolina), Congressman William Timmons (South Carolina), Congressman Dan Bishop (North Carolina), Congressman Joe Cunningham (South Carolina), Congresswoman Alma Adams (North Carolina), Congressman David Price (North Carolina) and Congressman Joe Wilson (South Carolina).

<\/p>\r\nThe bipartisan bill reaffirms the actions earlier this year of the Department of the Interior, following a thorough, years-long review, in taking 17 acres of land into trust status in Cleveland County, North Carolina, for the Catawba Nation.

<\/p>\r\nThe Catawba Nation\u2019s aboriginal lands extend to six North Carolina counties and farther north in the Piedmont of North Carolina, as evidenced by names such as Catawba County and Catawba College.

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThe newly introduced legislation demonstrates the ongoing support from members of Congress in righting historical wrongs against the Catawba people,\u201d said Chief Bill Harris of the Catawba Nation.

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWe are pleased that this legislation will reaffirm the Interior Department\u2019s action recognizing the Catawba Nation\u2019s historical and ancestral ties to the lands in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. These are the lands of not just our ancestors, but also the hundreds of Catawba citizens that reside there today,\u201d Harris said.

<\/p>\r\n

<\/IMG>
Artist’s rendering of \r\nproposed Catawba Nation casino in North Carolina. Image: Catawba \r\nNation Project Brief<\/A> <\/FIGCAPTION>\r\n<\/figure>

<\/p>\r\nHarris noted that it is not unusual for Congress to reaffirm land-trust decisions by the Interior Department. The \u201cGun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act\u201d from 2014 and the \u201cSanta Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Land Affirmation Act\u201d from 2019 are recent examples of such an action.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Catawba Nation recently broke ground on a major economic development project on the land that was taken into trust in Kings Mountain. The project is expected to create 4,000 permanent jobs at full buildout and thousands of construction jobs in the region.

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThis legislation demonstrates there is strong support in Congress to affirm that the Department of Interior properly followed the applicable rules and regulations,\u201d Harris said. \u201cIt also shows support for creating the jobs this project will bring as quickly as possible.\u201d

<\/p>\r\nHarris said the bill reaffirms the Administration’s determination that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act applies to the Catawba Nation and its lands located in North Carolina. This provision is critical to ensuring the Catawba Nation\u2019s gaming will be subject to an agreement that provides North Carolina with a role in the regulation of the facility.

<\/p>\r\nThe Catawba Nation\u2019s 1993 Settlement Agreement assigns the tribe a federal service area, recognizing its aboriginal ties and historical occupation of these lands. This service area includes six counties in North Carolina, including Cleveland County. Congress\u2019s original intent of this service area was to allow the tribe to grow and benefit within this area in North Carolina.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Related Stories<\/div>\r\n\r\nCatawba Nation continues work on controversial casino in North Carolina\r\n<\/a> (September 1, 2020)","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bipartisan bill ensures the Catawba Nation can move forward with a gaming development on ancestral territory in North Carolina.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[67,20,14],"tags":[50,117,188,183,187,48,186,184,185],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-gaming","category-indian-trust","category-politics","tag-116th","tag-bia","tag-bill-harris","tag-catawba","tag-h-r-8255","tag-house","tag-land-into-trust","tag-north-carolina","tag-south-carolina","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-9h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/twokingscasinoresort-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}