Federal Recognition
Various bills before Congress have proposed granting federal recognition for the six Virginia Tribes. Recent sponsors of such Federal recognition bills have been Senator George Allen, R-Va and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. These bills would grant federal recognition to the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock and Nansemond Tribes, and Monacan Indian Nation. These are six non-reservation tribes whose members have demonstrated continuity of community, as noted by state recognition. Federal recognition of these tribes would compensate for some of the historic injustices they suffered under Virginia government, and recognize their continuing identities as Virginia Indians and American citizens.
On May 8, 2007, the US House of Representatives passed a bill extending federal recognition to the six tribes mentioned above. It was not passed by the Senate. The bill died in the Senate.
On March 9, 2009 the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2009 was sent to the House Committee on Natural Resources. Hearings for the bill were heard before the committee on March 18, 2009 and on April 22, 2009, the committee referred the bill to the US House of Representatives. On June 3, 2009, the House approved the bill and the following day it was introduced in the Senate, where it was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs, which approved the bill on October 22. On December 23, 2009 the bill was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under general orders. This is the furthest the bill has gotten in the Congressional process.
The bill has a hold on it placed for "jurisdictional concerns." Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) believes that requests for tribal recognition should be processed through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a process the Virginia tribes cannot use because of the destruction of records under Walter Plecker. The hold prevented the bill from reaching the Senate floor, and it died with the end of the Congressional session.
The two reservation tribes, the Pamunkey and Mattaponi, are not part of the federal recognition bill. They are trying to get federal recognition through applying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, under current regulations and administrative process.
On February 17, 2011, two bills that would grant the six Virginia Indian tribes federal recognition were introduced in the 112th Congress, one in the Senate (S.379) and one in the House of Representatives (H.R.783). The Senate bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The House bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources, who referred it to the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs on February 25.
On July 28, 2011, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs ordered the Senate version of the bill "to be reported without amendment favorably."
Read more about this topic: Native American Tribes In Virginia
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