OPA

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has published final regulations in the Federal Register implementing Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA). IGRA contains a general prohibition against gaming on land acquired after October 17, 1988, the date the act was signed, which may be overcome if the land meets certain exceptions. The final rule incorporates suggestions received by the BIA through public comment and the tribal consultation process. The rule will become effective on June 19, 2008.

“I am pleased to announce the publication of the final rule implementing Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,” Artman said. “It establishes a formal process with clear standards for tribes to utilize when assessing the eligibility of a site for gaming and clarifies when a tribe may request an opinion from the Interior Department or the National Indian Gaming Commission.”

Publication of the Section 20 rule caps a year-long effort by Assistant Secretary Artman to bring predictability, stability and accountability to the Indian gaming marketplace. It joins other tools he has used such as ordering the review of the Indian Reorganization Act fee-to-trust process (25 CFR Part 151) followed by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and issuance of a guidance memorandum on 151(11)(b) for off-reservation acquisitions related to gaming.

The new regulations articulate standards that the Department and NIGC will follow when interpreting Section 20 exceptions to the general prohibition against gaming on after-acquired trust lands and establishes an application process for tribes seeking to conduct gaming activities on lands acquired in trust by the Bureau after October 17, 1988.

Subpart A of the final rule defines key terms contained in Section 2719 or used in the regulation.

Subpart B delineates how the Department will interpret Section 2719(b)(1)(B)’s exceptions regarding: land acquired through settlement of a tribal land claim, the restoration of land for a tribe that has been restored to federal recognition, and the initial reservation of a tribe acknowledged through the Federal Acknowledgment Process.

Subpart C sets forth how the Department will evaluate tribal applications for a two-part Secretarial Determination under Section 2719, which provides an exception for gaming to occur on off-reservation trust lands if the Secretary, after consultation with appropriate state and local officials and officials of nearby tribes, determines that a gaming establishment would be in the best interest of the tribe and its members and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community. The regulation also sets forth how such consultation will be conducted, articulates the factors the Department will consider in making the two-part determination, and gives the governor of the state where the gaming activity is to take place up to one year, with an additional 180-day extension at either the governor’s or applicant tribe’s request, to concur in a Secretarial two-part determination.

Subpart D clarifies that the rule does not disturb existing written opinions made by the BIA or the NIGC.

The BIA first published proposed regulations to implement Section 20 on September 14, 2000. On January 28, 2002, the Bureau published a notice to correct the effective date section in the proposed rule. In March and April of 2006, the Department held a series of tribal consultation meetings on the development of proposed regulations to establish standards for implementing Section 2719. On October 5, 2006, the Bureau published a new proposed rule to address all exceptions contained in Section 2719 in order to explain to the public how the Department interprets these exceptions. On December 4, 2006, the Bureau published a notice to extend the comment period and make corrections concerning the new proposed rule. On January 17, 2007, the Bureau published a notice to reopen the comment period for the new proposed rule. The comments received in 2006 and 2007 were considered in the drafting of the final rule.

The BIA is the only federal agency authorized to acquire land into trust for the federally recognized tribes and to recommend approval of tribal applications under 25 CFR Part 151 and Section 20.

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WASHINGTON – George T. Skibine, a top career official in Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, will temporarily assume the responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Skibine is the Acting Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development – Indian Affairs.

Interior Deputy Secretary P. Lynn Scarlett issued the delegation of authority action on May 23, 2008, following Carl J. Artman’s departure from the post. The delegation is effective until further notice.

“George Skibine is an experienced federal manager who is well known and respected throughout Indian Country,” said Deputy Secretary Scarlett. “The Office of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education will be in very capable hands during the search for a new assistant secretary for Indian Affairs.”

Skibine, who is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, has served as the acting deputy assistant secretary since 2004. He also currently serves as Director of the Office of Indian Gaming in the Department and has directed that office since 1995. From April to August of 2007, he served as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

His experience at the Interior Department also includes having served as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor and as Deputy Associate Solicitor for the Division of Indian Affairs.

He also served for several years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Skibine holds a degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

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WASHINGTON – Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development – Indian Affairs George T. Skibine today announced the publication of a Notice of an Amended Proposed Finding declining to acknowledge that a group known as Biloxi, Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees, Inc., of Louisiana is an Indian tribe according to federal law. This finding determined that the petitioner does not meet four of seven mandatory criteria for federal acknowledgment under the regulations governing the federal acknowledgment process at 25 CFR Part 83, and does not meet the requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

The Biloxi, Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees, Inc. (BCCM), petitioner # 56a, is a confederation of three subgroups, which claim to be the continuations of historical Indian communities on bayous in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. The subgroups are the Bayou Lafourche Band, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band, and Isle de Jean Charles Band. They claim descent from historical Biloxi, Chitimacha and other Indians. They do not claim descent from the Houma tribe, although BCCM’s members and ancestors have been called “Houma” Indians since at least 1907. Neither the confederation nor its subgroups have had a treaty or other formal relationship with the federal government.

Most of the BCCM’s 2,545 members were part of the United Houma Nation (UHN), petitioner #56, in 1994, when it received a proposed finding declining acknowledgment. The BCCM organized separately and petitioned for federal acknowledgment in 1995. The Department told the BCCM that it would issue an “amended Proposed Finding” after the BCCM had responded to the UHN proposed finding as it applied to their petition. The Department also told the BCCM that it would evaluate them “as a petitioner with a proposed finding.”

The BCCM petitioner meets criterion 83.7(a), which requires that a petitioner be identified as an American Indian entity since 1900. The BCCM meets two other criteria, including criterion 83.7(f), which requires that a petitioner be composed of persons who are not members of any already acknowledged North American Indian tribe, and criterion 83.7(g), which prohibits the Department from acknowledging petitioners with congressional legislation forbidding a government-to-government relationship with them. The BCCM has not been the subject of such legislation.

The BCCM petitioner does not meet four other criteria. It does not meet criterion 83.7(b) requiring the petitioning group to comprise a distinct community from historical times until the present. The evidence does not show that the petitioner’s ancestors lived together in a community before 1830, but between 1830 and 1940 they constituted one or more communities identified as meeting this criterion in the 1994 UHN proposed finding. Since 1940, evidence shows that only Isle de Jean Charles, not all BCCM subgroups or the confederation, meets the criterion.

The BCCM petitioner failed to meet criterion 83.7(c) requiring that groups show political influence and authority over members from historical times to the present. The evidence did not show that the BCCM met this criterion before 1830. The BCCM met criterion 83.7(c) from 1830 to 1940, based on the 1994 UHN proposed finding. For the period after 1940, Isle de Jean Charles subgroup met the criterion only since 1990. The other two subgroups did not meet the criterion for any of that period. Although the record contains significant evidence concerning the political influence and authority in communities on the two bayous they claim to represent, the subgroups’ memberships do not appear to encompass the actual memberships of these communities.

The BCCM petitioner does not meet criterion 83.7(d), which requires petitioners to submit governing documents. The three BCCM subgroups submitted governing documents, but the confederation did not submit governing documents, and thus, failed to meet this criterion. The BCCM petitioner does not meet criterion 83.7(e) requiring that petitioners submit an official membership list and demonstrate that its members descend from a historical Indian tribe or tribes that combined and functioned as an autonomous political entity. The three subgroups of the 2,545-member BCCM provided separate membership lists, but the BCCM governing body did not certify them. This analysis of selected members showed that more than half of them descend from at least one of two historical “Indians,” but those two individuals have not been shown to be part of a historical Indian tribe, or tribes which combined.

The Notice of Proposed Finding on the Biloxi Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees, Inc., petitioner will be published in the Federal Register. As provided by the acknowledgment regulations at 25 CFR 83.10(i), the petitioner or any individual or organization wishing to challenge or support the proposed finding has 180 days after the notice’s publication date to submit arguments and evidence to rebut or support the proposed finding before a final determination is issued.

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WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has published in the Federal Register a notice providing guidance and direction to the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) to address recurring administrative and technical problems related to the processing of petitions under the Federal Acknowledgment Process (FAP). The notice does not amend the acknowledgment regulations at 25 CFR Part 83, Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe. The effective date of the notice is May 23, 2008.

“This guidance provides a clearer understanding of the respective responsibilities of OFA staff and petitioners,” Artman said. “This guidance brings greater efficiency and transparency to the Federal Acknowledgment Process.”

In the more than 29 years that the federal acknowledgment regulations have been in effect, the Department has confronted a number of recurring issues in the administration of the regulations which have hampered the OFA’s ability to efficiently process petitions for acknowledgment. The Notice of Guidance and Direction Regarding Internal Procedures addresses such issues which include: the emergence of splinter groups, the administration of technical assistance, requests for expedited processing for uniquely qualified groups, requests for a reduction of the time period for historical evidence, opportunities for streamlining the process through expedited decisions against acknowledgment and decisions against acknowledgment on fewer than all seven mandatory criteria, the handling of questionable submissions, and the designation of an “inactive” status.

The Department developed its federal acknowledgment regulations both as original regulations in 1978 and amended regulations that became effective in 1994. These regulations establish a uniform procedure and fact-based approach to acknowledgement. The Department subsequently published two notices in the Federal Register concerning internal procedures for managing and processing petitions. This notice supplements one published in the Federal Register on March 31, 2005, entitled “Office of Federal Acknowledgment, Reports and Guidance Documents, Availability, etc.”

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WASHINGTON – Internet access is being restored to the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) via the BIA’s network following a recent court order. This means that Indian Affairs, BIA and BIE employees will soon be able to communicate by email with tribes, other federal offices and the general public to provide services and conduct business.

“I am extremely pleased that all Indian Affairs offices and bureaus will now be allowed to enter the 21st century and take their place among their federal peers on the Internet,” said Assistant Secretary Carl J. Artman. “Reconnection will allow our employees to work more efficiently and effectively to meet the needs of tribes and their members.”

On Dec. 5, 2001, the federal judge in a class action lawsuit against the Department of the Interior, Cobell v. Norton, entered a temporary restraining order requiring the Department to disconnect from the Internet all information technology systems that housed or provided access to individual Indian trust data, on the basis of perceived risks to that data. On Dec. 17, 2001, a Consent Order was entered which continued that prohibition and also established a process for the Department to obtain permission from the court to reconnect bureaus on a case-by-case basis.

Parts of the Department were permitted to reconnect in 2002. However, the five offices that work closely with Indian trust data remained off the Internet. On May 14, 2008, U.S. District Judge James Robertson, the presiding judge in the case, vacated the Consent Order thus allowing those offices to reconnect. In addition to the BIA, the offices to go back online are the Office of the Solicitor, the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), the Office of Hearing and Appeals (OHA) and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting (OHTA).

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs is responsible for fulfilling the Interior Department’s trust responsibilities to individual Indian and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, self-governance and economic development for the nation’s 562 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their 1.9 million members.

The BIA administers and manages 66 million acres of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Alaska Natives and federally recognized tribes. Developing forestlands, leasing assets on trust lands, directing agricultural programs, protecting land and water rights, and developing and maintaining infrastructure and economic development on tribal lands are all part of the Bureau’s responsibility.

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WASHINGTON – Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development – Indian Affairs George T. Skibine today announced a substantial enhancement in existing efforts to increase capital investment for business and economic development in Indian Country. Since the advent of the Indian Financing Act of 1974, Indian Affairs’ Guaranteed Loan, Insurance, and Interest Subsidy program has provided opportunities for tribal and Indian-owned businesses to obtain adequate credit in the capital investment market

“Sustainable economies are the foundations needed by tribes to continue their progress towards self-determination and self-governance and the full exercise of their governmental authority,” Skibine said. “The Guaranteed Loan Program is a significant tool to create jobs, businesses and sustainable economies that provide benefits to remote Indian reservations.”

Tribes and individual Indians have been historically, and continue to be, an underserved community for capital investment. Since 1974, about $948 million has been made available to help fund Indian-owned businesses. The program significantly leverages federally appropriated funds. For example, in 2006, an appropriation of $5.5 million allowed over $103 million in loans to be guaranteed for Indian-owned businesses.

To promote increased capital investment in Indian Country, the President requested an additional $2 million for the program in his FY2009 budget request to Congress. In addition to increased funding, Skibine announced that he is also directing the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) to establish four Credit Office Service Centers (COSC) around the country whose sole responsibilities will be to educate both lenders and borrowers about the benefits of investing in jobs and businesses in Indian Country and to provide training and services for Indian-owned businesses. These COSCs will significantly enhance the existing guaranteed loan activities in Indian Affairs by streamlining the training available to Credit Staff, increasing the staff members’ ability to collaborate with one another on projects, and fostering innovations in the program’s business practices.

“Through these Service Centers, we will be making a concerted effort to increase capital investment in Indian Country, either through our Guaranteed Loan Program or through the private capital investment market,” Skibine said. “The staff in these centers will get out in the field and actively promote business growth and investment in Indian Country. In addition, I have requested the IEED to set up a toll-free number where either lenders or borrowers can easily contact the appropriate Credit Staff to get information on the program or ask the status of guaranteed loan requests.”

The Credit Office Service Centers will be located in Albuquerque, N.M., Reston, Va., Lakewood, Colo., and Anchorage, Alaska. Although centrally located staff will allow the program to take full advantage of its economy of scale, they will hold lending conferences, seminars and business development workshops throughout Indian Country on a regular basis.

For more information on the current schedule for the conferences, seminars and workshops, or to learn more about the Guaranteed Loan, Insurance, and Interest Subsidy program and how tribally-owned or Indian-owned business ideas or existing businesses might benefit, please call 1-888-587-4396 or contact the IEED at 202-219-0740.

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The Department of Justice announced today the repatriation of an Acoma Shield and several other important items of historical and cultural significance to the Pueblo of Acoma and its members.

U.S. Attorney John C. Anderson for the District of New Mexico participated in a repatriation ceremony earlier today with Special Agent Franklin Chavez of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Governor Kurt Riley of the Pueblo of Acoma. Other federal and tribal officials and community members also attended the event at the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum.

“The Department of Justice is committed to enforcing federal laws that preserve the historical, cultural, and religious heritage of Native Americans,” said Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker. “This commitment includes ensuring sacred objects like the Acoma Shield are returned to their rightful owners. Today’s announcement further demonstrates the Justice Department’s dedication to the safety, prosperity, and wellbeing of American Indian and Alaska Native people.”

BIA recovered the shield that was repatriated today after learning that it was offered for sale online by an art gallery in Montana. Acoma Pueblo war shields are sacred pieces of cultural patrimony that date back hundreds of years and are at the heart of Acoma Pueblo’s heritage and identity. Items such as the war shield are used for ceremonial purposes and are closely kept among traditional leaders of the Pueblo community.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a federal law intended to return unlawfully obtained human remains and cultural objects to their Native American homelands. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the BIA-Office of Justice Services Cultural Resources Division are dedicated to stemming the loss and trafficking of cultural patrimony by investigating and enforcing the NAGPRA.

“Today, we celebrate the return of several items of cultural patrimony to their true owners: the Pueblo of Acoma,” said U.S. Attorney Anderson. “Our ability to return these items is the result of years of hard work. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, through Special Agent Frank Chavez’s dedicated efforts, discovered these sacred and historic items, and we, at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, are proud to partner with BIA in facilitating their return. Sadly, we all too often find sacred, religious, and culturally significant items being sold at art markets, flea markets and in galleries. In keeping with federal law, we will continue to do everything in our power to locate such objects and deliver them to their rightful homes.”

“I thank the Pueblo of Acoma for their due diligence in locating and reporting these precious objects to BIA and DOJ. I want to acknowledge the voluntarily actions of those individuals who returned the items in their possession once they learned of the cultural significance to the Pueblo of Acoma tribal community,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney. “The proactive work demonstrated by Special Agent Chavez in working closely with all involved makes us proud.”

"We have raised our voices internationally, in the halls of Congress and the legislative chambers here in New Mexico, drawing attention to the longstanding epidemic of theft, looting, and trafficking of our sacred items – all in violation of tribal and federal law. During the 2015 attempted sale of an Acoma Shield by the Eve Auction house in Paris, France, the Pueblo also identified a similar shield and other sensitive cultural items being sold here in the United States. The amount of resources and energy, the Pueblo of Acoma has expended in this matter is a reflection of the seriousness with which we treat the protection of items uniquely distinct to our culture. That is why when U.S. Attorney Anderson informed us that these items of cultural patrimony, including another Acoma Shield, were coming home -- our hearts were overjoyed," said Governor Kurt Riley.

WASHINGTON – Mr. George Skibine, Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, announced today that the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation of Pendleton Oregon have submitted a plan to participate in Indian Affairs’ Public Law 102-477 (477) initiative. The program is a comprehensive employment and training program for federally recognized tribes to address economic and workforce needs in their communities. Along with the plan, Antone C. Minthorn, Chairman of the Tribe submitted a tribal resolution stating the tribes’ intent to improve their employment opportunities for their people. The Confederation consists of people from three tribes: the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla.

“I commend the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation for their vision and foresight to streamline the management of their workforce development programs,” said Bob Middleton, Director, Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development. “Participation in the 477 program has helped tribes decrease their administrative burden, allowing them to better address their employment and economic development needs and serve their clients.”

According to the Tribes’ 477 Program plan, they are developing workshops covering job readiness and wellness, computer skills, etiquette techniques, providing resources to access employment opportunities, workshops on stress reduction, conflict resolution, diabetes maintenance and a wellness conference.

The 477 Program, established in 1994 under the Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Act (Public Law 102-477), allows federally recognized tribes to combine funds from 12 federal employment, training and welfare reform programs administered by the Department of the Interior, which serves as the lead agency, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services into a single, tribally operated program with a single reporting system. Participating tribes can devote up to 25% of their total 477 funding for economic development projects to provide employment opportunities for their members.

For more information about the 477 program, contact Lynn Forcia, Chief, Division of Workforce Development, Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, U.S. Department of the Interior, at (202) 219-5270.

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WASHINGTON, D.C— After 12 years of litigation over its management of the trust funds of individual Indians, U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson today issued a decision in the Cobell lawsuit rejecting the plaintiffs' theory that the government owes them $47 billion.

"The Department is gratified that the court recognized the complexities and uncertainties involved in this case," said James E. Cason, Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior. "We look forward to working with the court, the Congress, and the plaintiffs to bring the case to final closure."

After giving plaintiffs every opportunity to prove their case, Judge Robertson concluded that the model used by the plaintiffs to estimate the amount of money withheld from them could not "be used as a representation or even an estimate of the amount of trust funds that the government has failed to disburse" because it was based on biased expert opinions that assumed that "all data that favors the plaintiffs may be treated as admitted," while rejecting all data that disfavors them.

In his memorandum, the judge wrote: "Their model did not make use of the best available evidence and did not make fair or reasonable comparisons of data." He also wrote "The plaintiffs' model stands or falls with their legal theory, and it falls. The government's model, on the other hand, fits comfortably within the equitable principles that should be applied with respect to the IIM trust, because it offers a useful way of pricing the considerable uncertainty in the data. Plaintiffs presented no statistical testimony challenging the government's model, which I found to be sound."

The court noted that plaintiffs failed to provide any evidence of the "prodigious pilfering of assets from within the trust system" that they have been alleging, and that they also failed to present any evidence that the government had used any undisbursed Indian monies for its own benefit."

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WASHINGTON – A graduation ceremony for members comprising the inaugural class of a federally supported pilot project to train American Indians in the commercial building trade will be held December 19, 2008, near the city of Chicago. The event is the result of an agreement between the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) and United Association (UA), the 326,000-member journeymen and apprentice plumbers and pipe fitters union in North America, to offer unemployed and underemployed American Indians from economically challenged tribal communities in the U.S. the chance to acquire new job skills that can lead to job opportunities back home or elsewhere.

The graduates, representing tribes from across the country, have spent the past 16 weeks in intensive in-class instruction and hands-on training. IEED funding has enabled them to spend the required time away from their homes and families. The ceremony, which will be followed immediately by a luncheon, will take place starting at 11:00 a.m. (Central Time) at the Pipe Fitters Training Center, Local 597, 10850 West 187th Street in Mokena, Ill.

The Secretary of the Interior created the IEED to encourage economic development in Indian Country. Its mission is to foster strong Indian communities by creating jobs, Indian-owned businesses, and a trained workforce, and by developing Indian energy and mineral resources, and increasing access to capital.

CREDENTIALS: This invitation is extended to working media representatives, who are required to display sanctioned media credentials for admittance to the event.

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