Proposed changes by the Department of the Interior for recognizing Indian tribes are controversial, with state and local governments viewing them with skepticism and tribes generally supporting them.
The department has used the current process for 35 years. Prior to that tribes were given recognition by acts of Congress.
In California the proposed changes are particularly controversial since the Golden State has more Indian tribes than any other state, and under the proposed rules, another 34 tribes could be added to the existing 109, which might mean another 22 casinos would join the existing 71.
“Few can argue that the Golden State is in need of more,” wrote the Press Democrat last week.
The new changes would change the criteria that must be met by a tribe to achieve recognition and would shorten how much time is taken to evaluate a tribal application.
Currently tribes must demonstrate that they have roots that go back to 1789, when the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The new rules would require tribes to show that they have roots going back to 1934.
Some state and local officials in California contend that the federal recognition process is already largely secret and that their input would have even less effect on the process. Last week the Sonoma Board of Supervisors passed a resolution that stated that the process, “must not compromise the integrity of the Bureau’s decisions to recognize a group as an Indian tribe nor should it eliminate a county’s voice in the federal acknowledgment process.”
Local jurisdictions lose the power to tax land that is taken into the reservation. The land is also removed from a county or city’s zoning and land use regulations.
At a recent gathering in Mashpee, Massachusetts hosted by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell supported the plan. His tribe achieved recognition in 2007 after trying for 30 years. “There’s something wrong when a process takes more than a generation to complete,” he said.
Other tribal leaders say the new rules don’t go far enough. Some object to allowing some “third parties” the power to prevent tribes that have previously been denied federal status from reapplying.
However, a resident of Taunton, Massachusetts, where the Mashpees want to build a casino said, “The current process was not intended to create a tribal existence where none had existed. It is meant to protect the integrity of the historical Native American tribes that have an honored place in our nation’s history.”
The Bureau earlier this month extended the deadline for the public comment period on the proposed changes to September 30.
