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1 1 (March 25, 2005)

handle is hein.crs/crsahug0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21109 Updated March 25, 2005 The Bureau of Indian Affairs's Process for Recognizing Groups as Indian Tribes M. Maureen Murphy Legislative Attorney American Law Division Summary The list of federally recognized Indian tribes is not a static one. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has an administrative process by which a group may establish itself as an Indian tribe and become eligible for the services and benefits accorded Indian tribes under federal law. The process requires extensive documentation, including verification of continuous existence as an Indian tribe since 1900, and generally takes considerable time. Final determinations are subject to judicial review. This report will be updated as warranted by legislative activity. Federal Recognition or Acknowledgment of Indian Tribal Existence The list of federally recognized Indian tribes is not static. Not only does Congress periodically pass legislation according federal recognition to individual tribes, but the Department of the Interior (DOI), through its Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has a process, 25 C.F.R. Part 83, by which a group can establish itself as an Indian tribe and thereby become eligible for all the services and benefits accorded to Indian tribes under federal law.1 Included among these are the ability to have land taken into trust under 25 1 The federal courts have had a role in determining whether a group qualifies as an Indian tribe for a particular purpose. For example, in 1877, in United States v. Joseph, 94 U.S. 614, the Supreme Court determined that the Pueblos were not an Indian tribe for purposes of the Indian liquor laws. Later, their status was reconsidered, and the Pueblos were held to be an Indian tribe and their lands protected under a federal law that prohibited the sale or alienation of Indian land without federal approval. United States v. Candelaria, 231 U.S. 28 (1913). Groups have sought court orders to compel DOI to process their applications for acknowledgment in a more timely fashion. See, e.g., Tribe v. Babbitt, 233 F. Supp. 2d 30 (D.D.C. 2000). That approach may have been precluded by a ruling in Mashpee Wapanoag Tribal Council, Inc. v. Norton, 336 F. 3d 1094 (continued...)