The new Deputy Secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, wouldn’t commit to supporting a new rule that many tribes support: updating the Indian Traders rule. The deputy secretary is what one senator called, “the COO” of the department. The Bureau of Indian Affairs reports to him.
Bernhardt, in his first appearance before tribal leaders, at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, did not promise to push for updating the rule. “I’m not convinced that we won’t,” he added.
Randy Phelan, vice chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (MHA), explained why so many tribes want the rule, which would end the practice of dual taxation on reservations. In Phelan’s state of North Dakota, both the federal government and the state tax energy resources.
“The state of North Dakota is draining our taxes,” Phelan told Bernhardt. To date, North Dakota has collected $1.2 billion from the reservation’s energy industry. That’s much less than what the tribe itself has collected.
Bernhardt promised to try to learn more about the issue.
Some members of Congress have warned the Trump administration not to get involved in this fight between the tribes and the states.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to hold several consultations and listening sessions with tribes on the proposed rule.
Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, urged the administration to “move on this thing as fast as possible.” He stressed the importance of being clear that only tribes can tax on Indian land.
Aaron Payment, chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, told Bernhardt that adopting the rule would generate economic activity on reservations and create jobs. He thus subtly reminded him of Trump’s state goal of being pro-business.
The administration recently asked tribes to submit examples of economic opportunities they missed due to worries of being doubly taxes.
NCAI’s general counsel, John Dossett urged members to respond to the survey.
One member of the department, Gavin Clarkson, deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic development for the BIA, is enthusiastic about the proposal. Several months ago, according to the Bismarck Tribune he told a tribal energy symposium: “Together, we’re going to prove that it is in everybody’s best interest for taxes collected at MHA to stay at MHA and be collected by MHA and by nobody else.”
Other Interior officials have commented that state dual taxation has prevented many projects from happening.
At the same time, a number of tribal leaders are lambasting the Trump administration for adding steps to what they already consider an onerous process for putting land into trust.
However, critics of the ease in which tribes had under the Obama administration in taking land far from their reservations and putting it into trust are less scathing.
Tribal leaders spoke their minds at a so-called “listening session” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin scheduled so they could give feedback to members of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The man doing the listening, and little of the talking, was John Tahsuda, acting assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, whose job was to run the Bureau until last week’s appointment of Tara MacLean Sweeney, a member of the Native Village of Barrow and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, as his boss.
The listening session was also the occasion for the National Congress of American Indians’ 74th annual meeting in the Wisconsin Center.
Yavapai-Apache Nation Vice Chair Larry Jackson, Sr. declared, “We’re talking about doubling the burden on tribes in an already burdensome process. It’s about creating a burden on the tribal nations.”
Outgoing National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby, who is also chairman of the Swinomish Tribe, said, “What I as a tribal leader am seeing is more burdens, more hoops to jump through.”
Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe was even more critical: “The timing is terrible. That’s the kind of Christmas present you’re going to give us? I don’t think so.” He said that tribes would have to take their grievances to Congress.
He predicted that the proposed rule changes would make it easier for those he called “anti-Indians” to file lawsuits to stop land being put into trust. He urged the administration, “get the hell out of the way,” of tribal sovereignty.
Tahsuda, who is a member of the Kiowa Tribe, did speak a bit. “To my mind, we are trying to streamline the process,” he said. He said the proposed change would create a “two-phased” review for tribes that seek to put land into trust that isn’t adjacent to their reservations.
During a speech to the group of hundreds of tribal leaders, he said, “We understand that there is a need for jobs in Indian Country and this administration offers an important and encouraging opportunity for creative approaches for drawing businesses and economic development to our tribal communities.”
Tribes would be obliged to submit data on tribal unemployment, and be able to show the economic benefits of putting the land into trust. They would also be required to show that they worked with local governments, and how their acquisition might affect local economies.
Gus Frank, chairman of the Forest County Potawatomi Community, was the only tribal member who supported the changes. He said that it would prevent a tribe from acquiring land and opening a casino on what was another tribe’s homeland.
More sessions are scheduled later this year in Seattle, Sacramento and Phoenix.
Moving the focus to Washington D.C., the bureau will soon undergo grilling by the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. Tahsuda will testify about H.R. 215, the American Indian Empowerment Act, which would allow tribes to take land out of trust and be placed in “restricted fee” status.
The purpose of the bill, says author Rep. Don Young of Alaska is to give tribes more control over their homelands. “The land will keep its immunity from civil regulation, state and local taxation, and likely state criminal jurisdiction,” he wrote in a memo.
Previously the BIA opposed the bill. Tahsuda could signal a change.
The previous administration helped put more than 500,000 acres into trust, and restored another 1.87 million acres through the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations.
