federal recognition

Malinda Maynor Lowery on The Politics of Lumbee Recognition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Cross-posted from First Peoples Blog:

Historian and First Peoples author Malinda Maynor Lowery (Lumbee) writes for us about her tribe’s federal recognition struggle and how recent moves by the Lumbee Tribal Council highlight the fact that every tribe, recognized or not, is still a political entity.

Who’s Pulling the Strings in Today’s Lumbee Recognition Process?
By Malinda Maynor Lowery

I’m a big fan of the Godfather (there are a lot of metaphors that explain Indian politics in those movies) and so recent events with Lumbee recognition have reminded me that someone else is always pulling the strings.

My book Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South (University of North Carolina Press 2010) explores federal recognition and identity formation between the 1870s and the 1950s, a critical period when the Lumbees’ formal political organization developed in the presence of brutal pressure from white supremacists at both local and federal levels. My community responded to this pressure by dividing into strategic factions, and each party developed its own way of dealing with the capricious and subjective identity definitions that Congress and the BIA articulated. These identity definitions revolved in part around stereotypes of Indians, but they also involved comparisons to African Americans. We had to convince outsiders that we were not black, and therefore worthy of separate recognition.

During this period, our political system developed essentially two tiers—a formal, elected leadership, and an informal, unelected leadership. The unelected leaders were the puppeteers, pulling the strings behind the scenes. They were often the most literate members of the community, the ones with the closest personal and political ties to whites, and they believed that they understood the “system” and could make it work for us. To a degree, walking this tightrope between black and white forced these brokers into political compromises that worked against our interests. But the brokers also had their own reasons for making these compromises; often they wanted to shore up their own power and authority within the Indian community by delivering on a promise, and they wanted to increase their clout with the white elites, locally and nationally, who were giving lip service to our recognition efforts.

What these leaders never grasped was that the more you squeeze out of the system, the more autonomy it squeezes out of you, and we are left with compromises that ultimately get us nowhere (the two previous instances of recognition, in 1938 and 1956, are cases in point). So how will it turn out this time?

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Mackinac Bands Constitution Developed

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

From Indianz:

The Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians of Michigan are asking the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be treated as a federally recognized tribe.

The Mackinac Bands are considered a part of the federally recognized Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. But the bands say they are a distinct and self-governing tribe.

The bands wrote a new constitution to reflect their status.

Get the Story:

New Anishinabe Constitution presented (The Cheboygan Daily Tribune 2/12)

NYTs Editorial on the Shinnecock Recognition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Pathetic. Rank hypocrisy, at the very least.

From the NYTs:

More than 200 years late — 31 if you count from the tribe’s petition — the federal government has acknowledged that the Shinnecocks of Southampton, Long Island, are an Indian tribe. Settling that question raises new ones. The Shinnecocks will almost certainly try to build a casino — they have been lobbying as hard for one as they have for recognition — but how big, and where?

The “where” is an especially interesting question. Casinos are usually built on reservation land. The Shinnecocks live on the East End of Long Island, a national depository of wealth, privilege and privacy. When the tribe jumped the gun a few years back and bulldozed part of its property for a bingo hall, the not-in-my-backyard opposition erupting from the dunes and privet hedges was ferocious. And that was just a skirmish.

That is probably why the Shinnecocks are exploring other sites in Suffolk County, at two New York racetracks and in the Catskills. But building an off-reservation casino is itself fraught with uncertainty and regulatory hurdles. The tribe could end up spending many years and lots of money chasing something that is a guaranteed winner only for lobbyists and consultants.

Casinos are also a magnet for tainted money and a handmaiden to addiction, crime and other social ills. That is why we would urge the tribe to spend its energy on finding other ways to leverage its valuable real estate.

A casino is, after all, only a means to an end — to economic vitality, greater respect, a better future for the tribe’s 1,000 members. The Shinnecocks are now in a much better position to pursue that dream. Lack of federal status did more than hamper the tribe’s quest for gambling riches. It also denied it access to federal programs for housing, health care and education.

The Shinnecocks have a long, proud history of self- governance, and advantages that poorer, more remote tribes can only dream of: geography, bargaining power and the support of state officials including Gov. David Paterson, who endorsed their quest for recognition. The good news on recognition would be even better if the tribe could foresee a future apart from slots and dice.

Kevin Maillard on the Shinnecock Recognition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Faculty Lounge:

28oysters-600The Shinnecock Indian Nation ended its 30 year battle for federal recognition yesterday, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs approving the Long Island tribe’s petition.   The small tribe of 1,066 people is located in Southampton, in the midst of wealthy beach communities.

This comes as a great victory for the Shinnecocks, who are one of the very few tribes who have emerged successful from the recognition process.  Currently, there are 564 federally recognized tribes, and only 8 percent of these tribes have ever been individually recognized since 1960.  Poor tribes with limited resources have trouble hiring lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants to guide them successfully through the process.  The Shinnecocks paid at least $1.74 million since 2005 in their recognition effort.

The process is incredibly rigorous, with recognition standards often tautologically excluding groups whose conception of “tribe” differs from the federal governments. Many tribes, often Northeastern ones, do not fulfill requirements of “significant rates of marriage within the group” and relative isolation from nontribal members.  Tribes historically situated near urban areas and those who have incorporated others as family have not been approved, most notably the Mashpee of Cape Cod.

Recognition criteria, as stated in 25 CFR 83.7, can be found here.

(Picture: Shinnecock oyster farming taken by Gordon Grant for the NYT.)

BIA Proposes to Extend Federal Recognition to the Shinnecock Indian Nation

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Nation’s counsel:

The Department of Interior today issued a positive Proposed Finding to extend federal acknowledgment to the Shinnecock Indian Nation.  Under the federal consent decree governing the processing of the Nation’s petition, DOI must issue a final determination at some point between May 19 and November 13, 2010.  (Given the consent decree terms, the date will likely be in the middle of this range.)
Congratulations should be extended to the Shinnecock Nation’s members and leaders, and the Nation’s team, all of whom have worked long and hard to get the federal bureaucracy to acknowledge what the Nation has always known (and what a federal court determined in 2005).
Of note, upon federal acknowledgment becoming effective, the Nation will be eligible to game under IGRA.  The Nation’s Southampton, NY reservation, over which the State has continuously disclaimed jurisdiction, immediately will meet IGRA’s definition of Indian lands eligible for gaming.
DOI’s press release and the Proposed Finding should be available on the BIA’s website.

Federal Court Grants Stay in Shinnecock Smokeshop Case Pending BAP Decision

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the most recent opinion in Gristede’s Foods v. Poospatuck (Unkechauge) Nation — DCT Order Granting Stay until August 2010

Federal Court Rejects Second Attempt by Samish Indian Nation in Federal Recognition Trust Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the latest opinion in Samish Indian Nation v. United States (Fed. Cl.) — Samish Ct Cl Order

An excerpt:

It is readily apparent that the federal government’s failure to treat plaintiff as a recognized Indian tribe between 1969 and 1996 deprived plaintiff of many of the federal benefits enjoyed by other federally recognized Indian tribes during that time period. However, the relief plaintiff seeks is not available in the Court of Federal Claims. Indeed, if plaintiff is lagging behind some of its sister tribes as a result of the deprivation of federal benefits, its avenue for relief is with Congress.

Schaghticoke Petition for Rehearing En Banc before Second Circuit

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here — STNRehearingPetition091125

Prepared Testimony of Federal Recognition Hearing Witnesses

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the SCIA:

Panel 1
MR. GEORGE SKIBINE
Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC

Accompanied: MR. R. LEE FLEMING, Director, Office of Federal
Acknowledgement U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC

Panel 2
MR. FRANK ETTAWAGESHIK
Chair, Federal Acknowledgment Task Force, National Congress of American Indians, Washington, DC

THE HONORABLE JOHN SINCLAIR
President, Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Havre, Montana

THE HONORABLE ANNE D. TUCKER
Chairperson, Muscogee Nation of Florida, Bruce, FL

MS. PATTY FERGUSON -BOHNEE
Director, Indian Legal Clinic, Tempe, Arizona

Senate Hearing on Federal Recognition Witness List

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the SCIA:

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced Tuesday the panel will hold a congressional oversight hearing at 2:15 PM on Wednesday, November 4. The hearing will examine Department of Interior efforts to repair the federal acknowledgement process for Indian tribes.  It will also review proposals for improving the system.

Securing formal, federal tribal recognition is vital. It establishes a formal government-to-government relationship between the tribe and the U.S. government. Once federally recognized, a tribe has access to federal benefits and programs.

Yet, the acknowledgement process is broken and has been since it was established in 1978. Tribes routinely wait decades without getting a decision. Some tribes, including one tribe which will present testimony at the hearing, have been stuck in the federal acknowledgment process since 1978 with no decision. The prolonged process cost tribes funds urgently needed elsewhere, and denies tribes that are eventually recognized access to benefits and programs, often for decades.

Details follow:

WHO: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman; Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), Vice Chairman, and other members of the committee.

WITNESSES: George Skibine, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Interior; Frank Ettawageshik, Chair, Federal Acknowledgement Task Force, National Congress of American Indians; John Sinclair, President, Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Havre, Montana; Ann D. Tucker, Tribal Chairperson, Muscogee Nation of Florida, Bruce, Florida;  and Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Director, Indian Legal Clinic, Tempe, Arizona.

WHAT: Congressional oversight hearing

WHEN: 2:15 PM, Wednesday, November 4, 2009

WHERE: 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

WHY: To review Department of Interior efforts to repair the federal acknowledgement process for granting formal recognition to Indian tribes.