[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H10303-H10305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STIGLER ACT AMENDMENTS OF 2018
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur
in the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 2606) to amend the Act of
August 4, 1947 (commonly known as the Stigler Act), with respect to
restrictions applicable to Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes of
Oklahoma, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the Senate amendments is as follows:
Senate amendments:
(1)On page 3, line 12, strike [, as of said date,] and
insert: , as of the date of enactment of the Stigler Act
Amendments of 2018,
(2)At the end of the bill, add the following:
SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION PROVIDING FOR NO RETROACTIVITY.
Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act,
shall be construed to revise or extend the restricted status
of any lands under the Act of August 4, 1947 (61 Stat. 731,
chapter 458) that lost restricted status under such Act
before the date of enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. McClintock) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Grijalva) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise today in support of the Senate amendments to H.R. 2606. This
bill would amend the 1947 Stigler Act to remove the Indian blood
quantum requirement for certain land to be maintained in restricted fee
status for any member of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma.
Under H.R. 2606, restricted fee land currently owned by members of
the Five Tribes would remain in restricted status regardless of the
blood quantum of the owners.
H.R. 2606 passed the House on September 12, 2018, by voice vote. A
clarifying amendment was adopted before being passed by the Senate on
December 13, 2018.
I thank the sponsor of the legislation, the gentleman from Oklahoma
(Mr. Cole), for his work on this bill.
I urge adoption of the measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2606 seeks to amend the 1947 Stigler Act by
removing the arbitrary blood quantum levels it established for Indian
land ownership. This will ensure that lands currently owned by the
citizens of the Five Tribes of Oklahoma will remain in restricted fee
status, regardless of their blood quantum levels or that of their
heirs.
The House has already passed this measure once, and I am happy to
agree to the changes that the Senate made to Mr. Cole's bill.
Upholding the sanctity of a Tribe's land base should be of utmost
importance to Congress and the Federal Government as a whole. A tribal
land base is not just about tax-exempt status or economic development,
both of which are vitally important to tribal communities. It is also
about construction of housing, schools, clinics, and eldercare
facilities, things that are extremely vital to the health and the well-
being of tribal members.
It is also about recognizing a tribe's historical, cultural, and
spiritual connection to the land, land that they called their own until
it was forcibly or wrongly taken from them.
We need to ensure that tribal sovereignty and self-governance are
more than just talking points. There are real-world decisions that we
make that have very real consequences, so it is shameful that a dark
chapter in history is now repeating itself. I am referring to the dire
situation that is facing the Mashpee Tribe of Massachusetts.
The Mashpee have inhabited present-day Massachusetts and eastern
Rhode Island for more than 12,000 years. Their ancestors are the ones
who welcomed the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock, as well as the
people who aided these Pilgrims through the hard times of 1621 that we
now refer to as our First Thanksgiving.
Like many tribes, the Mashpee were intentionally and systematically
rendered landless through various actions by the States and the Federal
Government.
{time} 1700
They have fought long and hard since that time to reestablish that
which was taken from them: their homeland. They fought first for
Federal recognition, which they finally received in 2009 after a 30-
year struggle. They then fought to establish a homeland for their
people, which they finally did in 2015, when Interior approved their
application to take 320 acres into trust for the Tribe.
Things were looking optimistic for the Mashpee people. They
constructed a government center, which includes a school, courtrooms,
and multipurpose rooms, and they established a medical clinic facility.
They were planning to embark on economic development opportunities that
would help sustain the Tribal people and ensure their prosperity for
future generations. Then the rug was cruelly pulled out from beneath
them.
In 2017, the Department of Justice, under the Trump administration,
inexplicably refused to continue to defend the status of the Tribe's
reservation in court.
Then on September 7, 2018, the Department of the Interior issued its
first Carciary decision, in which it refused to reaffirm its own
authority to confirm the status of the Tribe's reservation. Interior
rejected clear evidence that the Mashpee were indeed under Federal
jurisdiction, evidence that was accepted as sufficient in prior agency
decisions.
This decision is devastating and unprecedented. It would mark the
first time since the dark days of the termination era that the United
States acts to de-establish an Indian reservation and make a Tribe
landless.
[[Page H10304]]
On our side of the aisle, we have been sounding the alarm for some
time that this would come to pass if we did not address the Carciary
issue, and yet the majority has refused to address that issue for
almost a decade.
Many other Tribes also face frivolous lawsuits on land that they have
had in trust for years, sometimes decades. These attacks on sovereignty
eat up valuable Tribal resources and funds, funds that could be instead
used on housing, healthcare, economic development, and a myriad of
other Tribal needs and concerns.
As a result of this, the Trump administration's decision, the Mashpee
and the Tribal government is on the brink of total dissolve. The legal
limbo that has been imposed by the decision is forcing the Tribe to
have to borrow thousands of dollars every day to keep its government
running. This has resulted in devastating cuts to essential services
and massive layoffs.
The majority of Tribal members are employed with the Tribe. Due to
this, the Tribal unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 49 percent. They
have had to essentially dissolve their police force except for one
patrol officer; they have laid off all Tribal court staff; they are in
the process of shutting down their elder services and addiction
treatment programs; and they are having to shut down their language
immersion school serving preschool and school-age children. This is
completely unacceptable and, sadly, avoidable.
If this were occurring with a State or a local government, my
colleagues across the aisle would have already remedied the situation,
and we could do just that. We could address this issue head-on by
simply reaffirming the trust status of Mashpee land. We could overturn
the misguided agency decision and give stability and sovereignty back
to the Mashpee people.
This is exactly what many of us on both sides of the aisle have
strongly advocated for months; however, the silence from Republican
leadership of the House is deafening. Legislation to affirm the Mashpee
homeland has existed for months, even before the Interior decision, yet
the majority has refused to move it.
Inaction is complacency, and the inaction of this body sets a
dangerous precedent moving forward for other Tribes that are having
their sovereignty challenged.
Many of us have worked diligently over the years to right the wrongs
of the past and rightfully return land back to Tribes. Mr. Speaker, I
implore our Republican majority to work with us now to ensure Mashpee
culture and its way of life survives.
Congress must affirm its Federal trust responsibility and ensure
Tribal sovereignty remains intact. We must not idly stand by as Tribal
people are on the losing end of another heinous wrongdoing--not on this
watch.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the gentleman
from Arizona on an inspiring and eloquent speech on a subject that has
nothing to do with the bill at hand.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), the author of this measure.
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding,
and I certainly want to thank him and Chairman Bishop for their
assistance through this whole process.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2606, the Stigler Act
Amendments of 2018, and on the Senate amendments to that legislation.
I also speak on behalf of the citizens of the Cherokee Nation, the
Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Muscogee (Creek)
Nation, and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, commonly known as the Five
Civilized Tribes. This bill only addresses and affects those Tribes and
lands of their citizens within the State of Oklahoma. The passage of
this legislation is critical to maintaining the inherited land of our
Native citizens' ancestors.
This legislation seeks to amend the original Stigler Act of 1947 and
remove the one-half degree requirement of Native American blood.
The original Stigler Act provides that, upon probate, if the heirs or
devisees of an original allottee from the Five Tribes have passed out
of one-half degree of Native blood, the allotment loses its restricted
fee status.
This bill ends that practice. It provides the opportunity for the
heirs and devisees to take title to the land and allow the parcel to
maintain its restricted status.
This legislation will also create parity in Federal law in the
treatment of Native American-allotted land by removing minimum blood
degree requirements. Currently, these minimum requirements apply only
to the citizens of the Five Tribes.
The House has already passed this legislation this Congress by voice
vote, and it was passed in the Senate with an amendment by unanimous
consent. The Senate amendment provides clarifying technical language,
which I fully support.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to once again support and pass
H.R. 2606 to remove this outdated and discriminatory law and to
preserve what Native-held land is left in Oklahoma's Indian Country.
Mr. Speaker, I want to again thank the chairman for his help in this
matter. It partially rights an historic wrong.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to
the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern).
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Arizona
(Mr. Grijalva), my good friend, for yielding time and for his
leadership on this and so many other important issues.
Mr. Speaker, I have no concerns with the underlying bill before us
today, and I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), whom I have
the great honor to serve with on the House Rules Committee, for his
efforts on this bill.
However, I am very concerned--and I can't stress that enough, very
concerned and disappointed--that this majority has refused to allow an
important bipartisan bill affecting a Tribe in my home State of
Massachusetts from coming to the floor today.
Mr. Speaker, I want to express my appreciation for all the hard work
my fellow Massachusetts delegation members Joe Kennedy and Bill Keating
have done to advance that bill.
The Federal Government formally recognized the Mashpee Wampanoag in
2010. In 2015, the previous administration agreed to hold several
hundred acres of land in trust. Yet, despite these actions, the status
of the Native American Tribe that greeted the Pilgrims landing on
Plymouth Rock nearly 400 years ago is in question.
In September, the Department of the Interior unjustly reversed its
prior decision to hold the Mashpee land in trust.
The review of the Department's prior decision came due to a quirk in
a 1934 Federal law, but that minor quirk could have major implications
for this Tribal community. Schools could be shuttered, healthcare
access could be restricted, and its economic sovereignty could be
limited.
H.R. 5244, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act,
was introduced by my good friend Bill Keating. This bill would reaffirm
the Mashpee land as being held in trust in Massachusetts, effectively
overturning this unjust decision by the Department of the Interior.
Mr. Speaker, Congress has acted time and again to correct unjust
actions taken by our government with respect to Native American Tribes
across the country. We must do so again to protect the Mashpee
Wampanoag Tribe, and I urge my colleagues to bring this legislation
that will do just that to the House floor for a vote as soon as
possible.
Now, if that doesn't happen in the remaining hours of this Congress,
I will look forward to working with the distinguished incoming chair of
the Natural Resources Committee to make this bill a reality. This is
the right thing to do, and, quite frankly, it is just inexcusable that
this House hasn't moved this issue forward.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding the time.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt the issues raised by the
gentleman will be addressed in the future. In the meantime, this bill
addresses an important matter to the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma,
and I would ask for its adoption.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
[[Page H10305]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe of Texas). The question is on the
motion offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) that
the House suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendments to the
bill, H.R. 2606.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that
a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is
not present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.
____________________