Tribal Recognition

June 8, 2006 Listen to the Show

A Debate on the Native Hawaii Recognition Bill; 100 Days: An Update on the Six Nations Standoff in Caledonia; The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Moves Towards Federal Recognition

100 Days of Occupation: Six Nations Standoff at Caledonia Continues
First Nations chiefs from across Ontario pledged their support to Caledonia protestors yesterday on the eve of the occupation’s 100th day. The group of 100 chiefs also warned governments to expect more occupations if aboriginal land claims aren’t settled. "We are all one nation across this country," said Grand Council Chief John Beaucage, who represents 43 First Nations across the province. Six Nations spokesperson Clyde Powless said the mass show of support was about more than Caledonia. "Canada," he shouted, "this giant you woke up grew enormously today and will continue to grow." Meanwhile in the Canadian Parliament on Monday, Progressive Conservatives leader John Tory made a motion calling for a public inquiry into Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s handling of the Caledonia standoff. Liberals failed to vote down the motion even though they have a majority in the legislature. There were only 6 or 7 Liberals in the legislature at the time. McGuinty dismissed the motion’s vote as “mischief-making” and told reporters on Tuesday the vote shows the Progressive Conservatives who sponsored it “have not drawn the lessons that should be drawn from Ipperwash.” In 1995, police killed native protestor Dudley George at Ipperwash provincial park. An inquiry to determine if the PC government of Mike Harris directed police force against protestors who occupied the provincial park on Lake Huron has not yet concluded. In February, Six Nations members occupied or reclaimed land where a housing development was under construction. The situation became more tense weeks ago after the Ontario Provincial Police stormed the site to enforce a court order as land claims talks continued. The Six Nations community has made it clear they want to deal primarily with the federal government. An update from: Kahentinetha Horn, Editor of Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com

Debate on the Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill: Giving Native Hawaiians Their Long Overdue or Preventing Land and Sovereignty Claims?
The U.S. Senate debated for three hours on Wednesday the long-stalled Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill. The bill would recognize a legal and political relationship between the United States and a Native Hawaiian governing entity, giving Native Hawaiians self-governing rights similar to those of Native American tribes. The Native Hawaiian governing entity would be authorized to negotiate with the state and federal governments over such issues as historical grievances and control of natural resources, lands and assets. Yesterday on the Senate floor, opponents blasted the bill as divisive and race-based. Supporters said the bill would give recognition that’s long overdue for Native Hawaiians. It has been called the Akaka bill after it’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Dan Akaka. He says Native Hawaiians have not been given the same treatment as other indigenous people in the U.S. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee launched the longest attack on the bill yesterday calling it a “dangerous precedent.” He said “If we start down this path, the end may be the disintegration of the United States into ethnic enclaves… [it] Wouldn't be much different than if American citizens who were descended from Hispanics who lived in Texas before it became a republic in 1836 created their own tribe.” Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona voiced concern that the bill will “divide Hawaii and encourage racial division there and elsewhere.” The bill’s supporters who spoke yesterday on the Senate included both Democratic Senators from Hawaii, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Meanwhile, in Hawaii yesterday a group of Native Hawaiians occupied Iolani Palace for a couple of hours to protest the bill. Members of the group Hui Pu said the Akaka bill would prevent Hawaiian land and sovereignty claims, among other things. One protestor said, “I think it is important that history knows that Hawaiians stood up against this bill despite that fact that there is hundreds of thousands of dollars of propaganda by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and other organizations to support this bill.” This according to KITV Honolulu. Lobbyists for the bill include the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the National Congress of American Indians, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the American Bar Association. Anne Keala Kelly, Native Hawai'ian journalist and filmmaker. She is working on a documentary called "Noho Hewa Ma: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai'i." Robert Klein, attorney with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as its board counsel, and a former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. While on the high court, Klein authored the landmark decision expanding the rights of Hawaiians to enter some private property for traditional gathering, religious and cultural practices.

Federal Recognition in the United States: The Mashpee Wampanoag Seek Tribal Status
After decades of work, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts was recently accorded preliminary acknowledgment by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a federally recognized Indian tribe. The Mashpee Wampanoag were among the earliest Native peoples of North America to have significant contact with Europeans. Almost 400 years ago, they greeted the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower near what is now the town of Plymouth. It is their story that has been mythologized in the celebration of Thanksgiving. Federal recognition will make this tribe the 564th recognized tribe in the nation and the second in Massachusetts. The preliminary decision is followed by a 210-day public comment period. The tribe will receive final determination by March 31, 2007. Glenn Marshall, Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council. Christine Grabowski, PhD. She has more than 20 years experience in federal recognition and has testified before Congress on the process. She is the principal of Grabowski & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in economic development, research and analysis, and communications for Indian country.

January 2, 2006

Homeless for Over a Century, a Tribe Awaits U.S. Redemption

Here is an article that describes one tribe's struggle for federal recognition, highlighting the history of U.S. land theft that displaced the tribe and left them marginalized. The article also provides a good outline of how the the recognition process unfolds, including its shortcomings and inadequacies, and the reasons why tribes continue to seek it.
By Jim Robbins The New York Times December 24, 2005

Here at the base of a rise called Hill 57, a steady, cold wind blows on a cloudless day as James Parker Shield and Russ Boham tell of life for the landless Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

The tribe, its land taken away more than a century ago, squatted in Great Falls and elsewhere in north-central Montana through the late 1960's, living as many as 12 to a tar-paper shack without plumbing, and scavenging at the dump for scrap metal, rags and food. Parents often ran afoul of state child welfare officials. ''They'd see you sleeping in a car body and take you away from your family,'' said Mr. Boham, who, like Mr. Shield, was among those shipped to the state orphanage when he was a child.

Today, with most of its members living in public housing around Great Falls, Mr. Shield and Mr. Boham are leading a protracted fight for government recognition of the tribe. Recognition would allow their people to gain control of federal money to buy land here for a tribal headquarters and housing, and to win back a measure of dignity.

The 112 families led by Chief Little Shell lost their North Dakota homeland to the government in 1892 when a chief of the Pembina Chippewa signed away their rights to it, without their authority and in their absence. The Little Shell had left home, in the Turtle Mountain area, to go hunting, and an Indian agent forced the other Chippewa to accept the Ten Cent Treaty -- so called by Indians because it bought about 10 million acres of Chippewa land, including that of the Little Shell, for a million dollars.

Ever since, the Little Shell have known only diaspora. Most came to Montana, where they lived near dumps and on the streets of Great Falls, Helena and other towns. In 1896, angry whites asked the government to do something about them, and the Army rounded them up at gunpoint, put them on boxcars and shipped them to Canada. ''Most of them made their way back,'' said Mr. Shield, the vice president of the tribal council, which Mr. Boham serves as assistant.

The three other surviving Chippewa tribes from the Turtle Mountain area -- the Turtle Mountain, the White Earth and the Rocky Boy -- were all less scattered and received federal recognition over time; they now have reservations. But the 4,500 or so Little Shell still await official recognition from the Office of Federal Acknowledgment at the Interior Department, a quest for which they have gained the support not only of other tribes in Montana but also of the Montana governor's office, the State Legislature and Cascade County, which includes Great Falls.

The recognition process was created by the government in 1978 to make reparations to tribes that had been forced to move from place to place throughout American history. There are now 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States. Roughly 220 others have expressed interest in recognition, but such efforts are often strongly opposed. Some of that opposition comes from tribes, already recognized, that are eager to protect their vast casino gambling income, and from states that do not want recognized tribes within their borders, because a bid for recognition is occasionally a ploy of relatively few Indians with dubious historical ties simply to open a new casino. ''We're running into the ripple effects of gaming and politics,'' Mr. Shield contended. ''But the gaming has nothing to do with us. If you take a hard look at the gaming opportunities in Montana, there's no market and no population. We want a home.''

James E. Cason, an associate deputy interior secretary who oversees Indian affairs, denied that the gambling issue had been a factor in the case of the Little Shell, who first applied for recognition in 1984, who received preliminary approval in 2000 and who have spent much of the time since then engaged in assembling the documentation needed for final approval. (The final draft of their petition was sent to the government earlier this year.) ''It doesn't have anything to do with gaming -- it's a non issue,'' Mr. Cason said, adding that the Little Shell had been ''in control of this process the last five years and have asked for extensions.'' With the final draft now in hand, ''we will try to do it as expeditiously as we can,'' he said.

But the recognition process has long been criticized by Indians as unwieldy, partly because of a requirement for extensive documentation that proves they have acted as a tribe politically and culturally over the last two centuries. ''It's extremely onerous, almost prohibitively so,'' said Kim Gottschalk, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm based in Boulder, Colorado, that is researching the Little Shell claim. The fund estimates that it has spent more than $1 million in out-of-pocket expenses on the petition, not counting lawyers' pay.

Kevin Gover, a Pawnee Indian who was assistant interior secretary for Indian affairs from 1997 to 2000 and is now a law professor at Arizona State University, is also critical of the recognition program. ''They've been around for 30 years,'' he said, ''and they've never managed to approve more than two a year.'' Professor Gover said the Office of Federal Acknowledgment demanded far too much documentation, ''and that is especially a problem for tribes like the Little Shell,'' who lived in a remote area and have no written records from the period.

The Little Shell band is not claiming land. But with $3.5 million held in trust for it by the federal government until recognition is achieved, it would buy 200 acres of farmland here in Cascade County, where most tribal members live, and build a headquarters, a clinic and housing. In November, Cascade County commissioners passed a resolution calling for the county to be the home base of the tribe, even though that would mean the removal of 200 acres from the tax base.

"We support them moving forward with official recognition,'' said Commissioner Lance Olson. ''But if they aren't going to recognize them, they should tell them.'' Federal recognition would also allow the Little Shell to apply for minority contracts and to have a government-to-government relationship with Washington. ''That means they could no longer treat us,'' Mr. Shield said, ''like someone they don't want to admit they fathered.'