Republican appointees at BIA overturn revised land-trust regulations
McCaleb says rules did not balance needs of tribes, governments

By Eileen McNamara - More Articles
Published on 11/10/2001

Neal McCaleb

Republicans at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs have withdrawn new land-trust regulations that were adopted by former agency administrators and aimed at helping Indian tribes reclaim lost lands. New appointees of President Bush on Friday revoked the rules, saying they were not responsive enough to the concerns of state and local governments.

Neal A. McCaleb, undersecretary of the Department of the Interior, announced Thursday he is overturning the rules, drafted by his Democratic predecessor, Kevin Gover. McCaleb said he wants to draft his own land-trust proposals to make sure they balance concerns raised by states and towns with the needs of tribes.

The move has further angered Indian tribes nationally that have already criticized McCaleb's decision to withdraw several tribal recognition decisions Gover and his former assistant approved, including the preliminary recognition of the Nipmuc Nation in Massachusetts.

Tribes spent months helping Gover's staff draft the land-trust regulations and waited months more for the new Republican administration to take final action on them, said John Dossett, a lawyer for the National Congress of American Indians.

Dossett also questioned why McCaleb withdrew the new rules since they gave leaders at the Interior Department broad powers to decide tribal land trust requests.

“That's why it was so frustrating to invest all that time just to have them say 'No, it doesn't go far enough,' ” he said.

State and local officials, however, applauded McCaleb's decision, saying revisions to land-trust laws are needed to address the needs of towns and states that lose zoning authority, policing controls and tax revenues when the federal government expands tribal land bases.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Friday he was pleased with McCaleb's decision. Blumenthal, along with several other attorneys general from across the country, had questioned the new land-trust rules and their potential impact on local towns.

"The ramifications of placing land into trust for Indian tribes ... absolutely require the BIA to weigh tribal needs with the concerns of local governments and individuals,” Blumenthal said.

In a prepared statement this week, McCaleb agreed.

“All along we have recognized that a balance must be struck between the needs of the tribes to acquire land in accordance with (federal law) and the concerns of those governments, communities and individuals who are affected by land-into-trust requests,” McCaleb said. He also said the rules adopted by Gover did not provide clear direction and standards for processing tribal land-trust requests.

Nicholas H. Mullane II, North Stonington's first selectman, said he also backs McCaleb's decision because the federal land-trust regulations could have a significant impact on his town and neighboring communities.

“It's encouraging because there were a lot of problems under the old system,” Mullane said.

Mullane said the rules proposed by Gover, and the existing regulations, did not give towns and states enough voice in the land trust process.

North Stonington, along with Ledyard and Preston, is suing to block the expansion of the Mashantucket Pequot reservation. The Interior Department several years ago approved the tribe's request to add 165 acres on Route 2 to the reservation against the towns' objections. The land straddles North Stonington and Ledyard.

Like other communities across the country, local towns have complained that tribes that have achieved economic self-sufficiency through gaming don't need additional reservation lands.

A Mashantucket spokesman said the tribe is gratified that McCaleb intends to consult with tribes when he develops his own land trust regulation changes.

“The tribal nation has maintained that any land-into-trust regulations should be developed with the input of tribes,” said Cedric Woods, a tribal spokesman. “Regulations that are clearly written and understood benefits everyone involved.”

Gover's proposed land-trust rules were intended to help tribes reclaim some 90 million acres of reservation lands they lost through the Allotment Act of 1887. His proposed rules would have made it easier for tribes to seek land located near their reservations, and would have made it more difficult for tribes to seek parcels far away. The new rules were intended to encourage tribes to focus on reclaiming ancestral reservation lands instead of gaming properties.

Gover approved the regulations in January, but incoming Bush administrators at the Interior Department put them on hold. Later, they reopened the comment period on the regulations.

Dossett said the zeal with which state and local officials pursued overturning the land-trust proposals ignores the long and tortured history of tribes that have sought to keep or reclaim their lands. The 90 million acres of reservation lands the government sold under the Allotment Act represented two-thirds of tribes' land base.

To address that injustice, the government in 1934 passed the Indian Reorganization Act. It allowed the government to take land into trust for tribes, but it took decades before the federal government adopted regulations that cleared the way for land acquisitions. So far, tribes nationally have reclaimed 8 million acres.

McCaleb's decision to rescind the proposed regulation changes, Dossett said, “is a continuation of one of the most unfair things that ever happened in American history.”

e.mcnamara@theday.com 
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