Representatives of several towns in Connecticut who fear that new rules for recognizing tribes will “drastically” reduce the ability of towns and others who might be affected by recognition to make their concerns known during the process.
One of the representatives, attorney Donald Baur met with officials of the Office of Management and Budget, which is subjecting the new rules proposed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to a final scrutiny before allowing them to go into effect.
The rules could be in effect by the end of summer if the OMB acts with dispatch.
Baur argues that the new rules will inevitably result in legal challenges because in streamlining the process they make it harder for interested parties to make their objections known. Ninety days, as called for under the new rules, is not enough time, he said.
Besides representatives of Connecticut towns, there were also officials from several California counties.
Currently such officials can “participate fully in every aspect” of reviewing petitions for a tribe’s recognition. Baur noted that such participation led to the reversal of recognition in 2005 to the Eastern Pequot Tribe’s 2002 recognition.
Baur declared, “Under the existing regulations, there’s a track record back to 1978 when they were first developed. If starting from scratch with dramatically different standards, that precedence is of limited value. It’s going to be starting the cycle of legal issues on all of those levels over again.”
