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Press Release: Obama Administration Exceeds Ambitious Goal to Restore 500,000 Acres of Tribal Homelands

Sarah M Donnelly1 Comment

Date: October 12, 2016 Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov
(AS-IA) Nedra Darling 202-219-4152

Administration makes good on promise to place at least one half million acres of land into trust for tribal nations, working to make tribal communities whole again

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. “Larry” Roberts today announced that the Obama Administration has exceeded its goal of placing half a million acres of tribal homelands into trust for federally recognized tribes.

“Restoring tribal homelands has been a pillar of President Obama’s commitment to support tribal self-determination and self-governance, empowering tribal leaders to build stronger, more resilient communities,” Secretary Jewell said. “The Administration broke the logjam on trust land applications in 2009 and has worked steadily, collaboratively and effectively to restore Native lands that will help strengthen tribal economies and make their nations whole again.”

The 500,000 acre goal was surpassed Friday when President Obama signed into law the bipartisan Nevada Native Nations Lands Act, which conveys more than 71,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands to the U.S. Department of the Interior to place into federal trust status for six Nevada tribes. The tribes will use their newly acquired lands to expand housing, provide economic development opportunities and promote cultural activities for and by their tribal members.

“Secretary Jewell announced early on a goal of restoring 500,000 acres to Indian Country by the end of the Obama Administration and we view this as a meaningful start to correcting the enormous loss of tribal homelands Indian Country has endured,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Roberts told tribal leaders at the opening session of the National Congress of American Indians’ 73rd Annual Convention in Phoenix, AZ earlier this week.

Roberts further said, “I want to thank the Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Mike Black for his implementation of this important policy, the Regional Directors and their staff for their hard work to make it a reality. While our fee-to-trust process remains rigorous and tribes must expend precious resources to address the Carcieri decision, tribes continue to prioritize the return of their homelands, investing their own resources to ensure a land base for future generations.”

Restoring tribal homelands has been a key part of the Obama Administration’s Indian Country priorities, representing a shift from historic federal policy that previously resulted in tribes losing millions of acres of land across the U.S. over several hundred years. Since 2009, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has processed 2,265 individual trust applications and restored more than 542,000 acres of land into trust. And in partnership with tribes and agency staff at all levels, Indian Affairs continues to process additional applications for land into trust.

As part of President Obama’s pledge to work nation-to-nation with tribal leaders to strengthen their communities and build their economies, the Administration also has overhauled antiquated leasing regulations to provide tribes greater control over their homelands and issued new regulations to allow the Interior Department to accept land into trust for federally recognized Alaska tribes, thereby advancing tribal sovereignty and closing a long-standing gap that had not extended this eligibility to Alaska Natives.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 to acquire land into trust for federally recognized tribes. Lands held in federal Indian trust status, which cannot be sold, alienated, or transferred to non-Indians or non-Natives, benefit their American Indian and Alaska Native tribal owners through federal programs for business development, housing, and environmental and cultural protection. Typical uses of trust land include governmental operations, cultural activities, agricultural/forestry activities, housing, economic development, social and community services, and health care and educational facilities.

538: “Clinton And Trump Are Both Promising An Extreme Supreme Court”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

WaPo: “Donald Trump’s long history of clashes with Native Americans”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Complaint in Automotive United Trades Org. v. Friends of Bob Ferguson

Ann Tweedy

In this case, Automotive United Trades Organization seeks to prohibit political campaigns from accepting contributions from tribes on the theory that those contributions represent public monies and are therefore illegal under Washington law. The complaint is here.

Co-Counsel in Failed Lawsuit Against Montana Tribe is Now Trump’s Foreign Advisor

Sarah M Donnelly1 Comment

Trump Foreign Policy Advisor Tied To Montana Anti-Tribal Efforts

Excerpt:

Joseph Schmitz is well at home with the anti-Muslim tenor of Kogan’s anti-CSKT lawsuit, having supported Donald Trump’s call to bar Muslims from entering the United States, according to the Washington Post. Schmitz is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a Washington, D.C-based think tank and leading force promoting the idea that Islamic sharia law is taking over the United States.

Senator Heitkamp (D-ND) Highlighting Native Youth on Instagram

Sarah M Donnelly

In support of S. 246, The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act, Senator Heidi Heitkamp is highlighting Native youth from North Dakota on her Instagram account starting yesterday.  It will continue over the next few days.  There are a lot of challenges that Native kids face, but these profiles are meant to highlight kids who have overcome them using the hashtag #AgainstTheOdds.

Colorado Governor Commissions Study On Indian Mascots in Public Schools

Sarah M Donnelly

Executive Order here.

Press release here.

Link to media coverage here.

Heather Kendall-Miller & Lloyd Miller: GOP candidate a threat to Native rights

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

From Indianz:

Now that the primary is over and Dan Sullivan is the Republican nominee running against Alaska Senator Mark Begich, it’s time to closely examine his record on issues of import to Alaska Natives. The Native community has long assessed political candidates based on their positions on subsistence, tribal sovereignty, Indian child welfare, and voting rights. In each of these areas, Dan Sullivan’s record is clear: he is a staunch opponent of Native rights.

Perhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native people than the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices, and to pass on the subsistence way of life to future generations. Dan Sullivan has aggressively opposed subsistence interests through litigation, legislative initiatives, and support for state policies that marginalize tribal voices.

As Governor Sarah Palin’s Attorney General, Sullivan waged war on subsistence rights by carrying on the Katie John litigation and seeking to overturn a prior court decision affirming the federal government’s retained authority to manage subsistence fisheries in Alaska. As most Alaskans know, Katie John was a revered Ahtna elder who fought tenaciously to protect her right to subsistence fish on her Native allotment in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

Attorney General Sullivan joined the ranks of past Indian fighters who argued that the subsistence protections established under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act should be narrowed to exclude vast stretches of Alaska waters from subsistence fishing, in favor of sport and commercial fishing. Had it been successful, the appeal would have dismantled the Federal Subsistence Board’s authority to prioritize subsistence fishing over other uses when resources become limited. Fortunately, both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the state’s attack.

Sullivan’s hostility to Native interests continued when Governor Sean Parnell moved Sullivan over to be the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. As Commissioner, Sullivan led the charge in adopting a new Bristol Bay Area Plan which reclassified land use planning for state land at the Pebble Mine deposit as solely mineral land, omitting any land use for subsistence hunting and fishing purposes in an area central to subsistence in southwest Alaska.

Continue reading →

NYTs Article on Chickasaw Member Running for US Senate

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

“Walking With Our Sisters” Commemorating Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada and the U.S.

Victoria Sweet6 Comments

The “Walking With Our Sisters” project will be wrapping up and beginning its journey across Canada and possibly into the United States in just over a month (it is currently booked through the beginning of 2018), but there is still time to participate for anyone interested.

If you are not familiar with this project, here is a description from project founder Christi Belcourt:

“Walking With Our Sisters” A Commemorative Art Installation for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Canada and the United States.

Although statistics in the U.S. are not available at present, In Canada, it is estimated that 600+ native women have gone missing or have been murdered in the last 20 years. Many have vanished without a trace with little to no concern paid by the media, the general public or politicians. This is a travesty of justice.

600+ moccasin tops are being created by hundreds of caring and concerned people to create one large collaborative art piece that will be installed for the public in various galleries and sites. They will be installed in a winding path of beaded vamps on cloth over a gallery floor. Viewers would need to remove their shoes to walk over the cloth and walk along the path.

 The exhibit is currently booked to tour across Canada and perhaps into the United States.

This project is about these women, paying respect to their lives and existence on this earth. They are not forgotten. They are sisters, mothers, daughters, cousins, grandmothers. They have been cared for, they have been loved, and they are missing.

A recording of traditional honour songs will also be created for the audio portion of the installation. A separate call to traditional singers anywhere in Turtle Island has gone out.

The due date for work is July 15, 2013. Mailed to Christi Belcourt, P.O. Box 5191, 133 Barber St., Espanola, ON, P5E 1A0. Send all work by a traceable package (Expedited, Registered, Express Post, etc.)

Donations towards the purchase of cloth, tobacco, shipping costs and other expenses directly related to the exhibit tour can be made by e-transfer to wwos@live.ca. Or directly to TD Canada Trust. Checks or money orders can be made out to Walking With Our Sisters and mailed.

All the work for the project is being done 100% by volunteers. No one is being paid for this work.

Link to the Facebook page for more information here.

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