From the Traverse City Record-Eagle:
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians celebrates its 30th anniversary of federal recognition this year, but nothing, apparently, is sacred in ever-changing federal American Indian policy.
A controversial Supreme Court ruling last year blocks many American Indian tribes recognized by the U.S. Interior Secretary after 1934 from making more land-to-trust applications.
The high court’s Carcieri vs. Salazar ruling on Feb. 24, 2009, and politics surrounding a proposed legislative fix, show just how frustrating, confounding and shameful federal American Indian policy has been over more than two centuries of American history — and apparently still is.
The ruling appears to have no effect on the Grand Traverse Band, which was recognized in 1980. In fact, the Interior Department approved trust status for 78 acres in Antrim County on Dec. 10.
The ruling also does not appear to affect two other area tribes — the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in Emmet County and the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Manistee County, both recognized in 1994 by federal statute.
It does, however, reverse decades of federal American Indian policy and creates a legal limbo for many American Indian tribes recognized since 1934. It mires an already slow process of tribal land-into-trust applications. It will result in unnecessary and expensive lawsuits across the country over routine tribal requests to place lands purchased by the tribes into government trust status.
Some critics say the ruling also would create “have” and “have-not” classes of American Indians — those recognized before 1934 and those after.
Tribes across the nation are closely watching the fate of three bills now in Congress — Senate Bill 1703 and almost identical House Bills 3742 and 3697. All three bills attempt to resolve the problem quickly. They propose amending a few words in the landmark federal Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
The act allowed non-reservation American Indian communities of long standing to organize and apply for federal recognition, which qualified them for government services and assistance. It also gave the U.S. Secretary of the Interior the right to accept lands into trust for “any recognized Indian tribe now under Federal jurisdiction.”
The bills would amend that phrase to say “any federally recognized Indian tribe” and would define “Indian tribe” and “tribe” as “Any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village or community, that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges to exist as an Indian tribe.”
The Senate bill has moved out of committee to be scheduled for debate. The House bills are moving more slowly because of concerns by some state’s right advocates and others who fear the consequences of more lands going back to the tribe — especially in western states.
The bills have the support of tribal leaders, President Barack Obama and many congressional members, including U.S. Rep Dale Kildee, a Flint Democrat, who sponsored House Bill 3742.
Testimony at congressional committee over the last year indicates tribal leaders are confident of the Grand Traverse Band’s legal standing as a treaty tribe because its history is well documented and shows that the band has had a “continuous existence” in the Grand Traverse Bay area since at least 1675 and was considered by federal officials as a treaty signatory. The Little Traverse Bands and the Little River Bands also have well-documented history as treaty tribes. Both were recognized in 1994 by federal statute, which gives them further protection.
Federal American Indian policy has a long history of mismanagement, neglect, abuse and land frauds. That history is a national travesty, and there is no need to repeat it.
The court’s Carcieri ruling ignored the intent of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which was to right more than a century of U.S. mistreatment of Americans and failure to honor federal treaties.
Congress must approve the House and Senate versions of the bills that would reverse the effects of the Carcieri ruling.
Turtle Talk 