Obama Administration Advancing New Tribal Recognition Rules
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is on the brink of making new federal tribal recognition rules — a move that could be a boon to several Connecticut tribes — and opponents are making 11th-hour attempts to stop or slow the process.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs said late Monday that its long rule-making process is nearly over. The new regulations are on their way to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for final review “after … numerous tribal consultations and as part of President [Barack] Obama’s commitment to strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship with Native Americans.”
Opponents of the new regulations, fearful of their ramifications, aren’t giving up.
Connecticut officials, in particular, are concerned about large land claims and the possibility that new Indian casinos could affect a slot machine revenue-sharing agreement between the state and the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans, two federally recognized tribes with gaming operations in Connecticut.
The title of the hearing reflects opponents’ concern that changing the rules will extend protections and rights, including the right to open casinos, to those who don’t merit them.
Federal recognition also establishes the federal government as the trustee of tribal lands and makes tribal governments and tribe members eligible for federal programs and funding.
The “Part 83” process, named after a section in the federal code, was established in 1978 to give tribes a structured way to seek federal acknowledgment.
Kevin Washburn, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, wanted to make the Part 83 process more transparent and quicker. In a draft proposal unveiled about a year ago, he proposed modifying certain requirements.
For instance, current tribal recognition rules require a tribe to prove that it has been a community with a continuous political authority “from historical times.” Washburn’s proposal would change that to allow a petitioning tribe to demonstrate that it has maintained a state reservation or a tribal authority since at least 1934.
Washburn said the changes were overdue because the regulations have been updated only once since they were created.
Now he’ll have to justify his proposal to Young and other lawmakers, even though Congress can block the new regulations only through new legislation — a measure that would probably earn a veto from Obama.
There have been objections to Washburn’s plan from other quarters, but Connecticut officials from every level of government have swamped the BIA with criticisms.
Reps. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th District, and Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, were among five House members — including Young — who sent Interior Secretary Sally Jewell a letter last month warning that the new regulations could “create new problems that lead to unintended and unjustifiable outcomes.”
They said the funding to each of the tribes would drop as the number of federally recognized tribes, now about 560, grows and the federal budget does not.
In their March 26 letter, the lawmakers also asked the Interior Department to hold off issuing the final regulations until “we have conducted the necessary oversight.”
The lawmakers requested a meeting “in the next two weeks to discuss how we will coordinate with the department as we undertake this congressional oversight.”
The meeting has not taken place.
Washburn’s overhaul draft would allow tribes like Connecticut’s Eastern Pequot, Golden Hill Paugussett and the Schaghticoke — groups that have been refused recognition under the present rules — to reapply. But in response to Connecticut’s pushback, Washburn added the requirement that the Connecticut tribes’ applications would be subject to the approval of those who have previously opposed their bids.
The Connecticut tribes, and many other Indians, hope that the final rules eliminate that “third-party veto” provision, which they say is unconstitutional.
Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, will be a witness at Wednesday’s hearing. The NCAI has condemned the “third-party veto.”
Other witnesses include the representatives from California’s Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the Tulalip Tribes and the Quinault Indian Nation of Washington state.
Ana Radelat is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (ctmirror.org. Copyright 2015 ©The Connecticut Mirror.
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