[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 126 (Friday, June 28, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33762-33764]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-16503]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Indian Affairs


Proposed Finding Against Federal Acknowledgment of the Duwamish 
Tribal Organization

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of proposed finding.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Assistant Secretary--Indian 
Affairs (Assistant Secretary) proposes to decline to acknowledge that 
the Duwamish Tribal Organization, 107 Ranier Ave. So., Renton, WA 
98055, exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. 
This notice is based on a determination that the Duwamish Tribal 
Organization does not satisfy three of the seven criteria set forth in 
25 CFR 83.7 and, therefore, does not meet the requirements for a 
government-to-

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government relationship with the United States.

DATES: Any individual or organization wishing to challenge the proposed 
finding may submit factual or legal arguments and evidence to rebut the 
evidence relied upon. This material must be submitted within 120 
calendar days from the date of publication of this notice. Interested 
and informed parties who submit arguments and evidence to the Assistant 
Secretary should also provide copies of their submissions to the 
petitioner.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the proposed finding and requests for a copy of 
the report which summarizes the evidence and analyses that are the 
basis for the proposed decision should be addressed to the Office of 
the Assistant Secretary, 1849 C Street N.W., Washington, DC 20240, 
Attention: Branch of Acknowledgment and Research, Mailstop: 4641-MIB.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Holly Reckord, Chief, Branch of 
Acknowledgment and Research, (202) 208-3592.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published in accordance with 
authority delegated by the Secretary of the Interior to the Assistant 
Secretary by 209 DM 8 and pursuant to 25 CFR 83.9(f) of the previous 
acknowledgment regulations. Although revised acknowledgment regulations 
became effective March 28, 1994, the Duwamish Tribal Organization 
chose, as provided in 25 CFR 83.3(g) of the revised regulations, to 
complete their petitioning process under the previous acknowledgment 
regulations.
    The petitioner, the Duwamish Tribal Organization, is an 
organization of Duwamish descendants that has existed since 1925. While 
the petitioner's individual members can trace their ancestry back to a 
historical Duwamish tribe, the petitioner has not existed as a tribal 
entity continuously since the time of first sustained contact between 
the historical Duwamish tribe and non-Indians. The petitioner has been 
identified by external observers as an Indian entity, but only since 
about 1940. The petitioner does not form, and has not formed, a 
distinct social or geographical community in western Washington. Its 
organization has functioned for limited purposes since 1925 and has 
exercised no meaningful political influence or authority over its 
members. Of the seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as 
an Indian tribe, the petitioner has met criteria (d), (e), (f), and 
(g), but has failed to meet criteria (a), (b), and (c).
    A historical Duwamish tribe was described as consisting of the 
Indians living at the confluence of the Black, Cedar, and Duwamish 
Rivers south of Lake Washington, as well as along the Green and White 
Rivers, around Lake Washington, and along the eastern shore of Puget 
Sound in the area of Elliott Bay. Federal negotiators combined the 
Duwamish with other tribes and bands into confederated ``treaty 
tribes'' for the purpose of making a treaty in 1855, and continued to 
deal with treaty-reservation Indians as the ``Duwamish and allied 
tribes.'' The evidence indicates that a distinct Duwamish community has 
not existed since about 1900 and that political activity linked to 
residents of traditional settlements has not occurred since about 1916. 
The petitioner's organization came into existence in 1925 when eight 
men announced their ``intention of forming'' an organization. No 
contemporary evidence indicates that this new organization continued 
the activities of a previous group, and its membership was 
substantially different from the membership of a Duwamish organization 
which had been formed in 1915.
    The petitioner has satisfied criterion (e), because the available 
evidence demonstrates that 386 out of the 390 members on the 
petitioner's 1992 membership roll clearly descend from historical 
Duwamish Indians. The petitioner has met criterion (d) by providing 
copies of the constitution and by-laws of the Duwamish Tribal 
Organization which were adopted in 1925 and are still in effect today. 
These governing documents also describe the petitioner's membership 
criteria. There is no evidence that a significant percentage of the 
petitioner's members belong to any federally-recognized tribe, or that 
the petitioner was subject to legislation terminating or forbidding a 
Federal relationship. Thus, the petitioner has met criteria (f) and 
(g).
    The petitioner's current members do not maintain a community that 
is distinct from the surrounding non-Indian population. No geographical 
area of concentrated settlement provides them with a social core. The 
group's geographical dispersion is consistent with other evidence 
showing that members do not maintain, and have not maintained, 
significant social contact with each other. Before 1925, the 
petitioner's ancestors, primarily descendants of marriages between 
Duwamish Indians and pioneer settlers, had little or no interaction 
either with the Indians of the historical Duwamish settlements or with 
those Duwamish who moved to reservations. Since 1925, the social 
activities of the petitioner's members with other members, outside the 
organization's annual meetings, took place within their own extended 
families, but not with members outside their own family lines. Because 
the petitioner has not maintained a cohesive community that is socially 
distinct from other populations in the area, it has not met the 
requirements of criterion (b).
    The Duwamish Tribal Organization has not exercised political 
influence or authority over its members. Instead, it has limited itself 
to pursuing Federal acknowledgment and claims against the United States 
for its dues-paying members. The organization's annual meetings have 
generally consisted of a presentation by the chairman or chairwoman, a 
report by the group's claims attorney, and motions only to elect 
officers, accept new members, or endorse attorney contracts. No 
evidence shows that members were involved actively in making decisions 
for the group or resolving disputes among themselves. A decision to 
intervene in an important fishing rights case was made by a single 
individual, the chairman. Later, no members participated in completing 
the paperwork in that case which would have allowed members to utilize 
fishing rights temporarily. The available evidence shows that this 
organization has played a very limited role in the lives of its 
members, and there is no evidence of the existence of informal 
leadership or political influence within the group outside of the 
formal organization. Because the petitioner has not maintained tribal 
political influence or authority over its members throughout history, 
it has not met the requirements of criterion (c).
    The petitioner has been identified intermittently since 1940 as an 
Indian organization by Federal officials. A historical Duwamish tribe, 
which existed at the time of first sustained contact with non-Indians, 
was identified by contemporary Government officials and American 
settlers, and by later ethnographers, historians, and the Indian Claims 
Commission. The existence of a Duwamish community at a traditional 
location near the junction of the Black and Cedar Rivers was identified 
by external observers as late as 1900. These various identifications of 
Duwamish entities before 1900 and after 1940, however, do not identify 
the same entity and do not link the modern petitioner to the historical 
tribe as an Indian entity which has continued to exist over time. 
Because the petitioner has not been identified as having a 
substantially continuous Indian identity from historical times to the 
present, it

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has not met the requirements of criterion (a).
    Based on these factual determinations, we conclude that the 
Duwamish Tribal Organization should not be granted Federal 
acknowledgment under 25 CFR part 83.
    After consideration of the comments on this proposed finding, the 
Assistant Secretary will publish the final determination of the 
petitioner's status in the Federal Register as provided in 25 CFR 
83.9(h) of the previous acknowledgment regulations.

    Dated: June 18, 1996.
Ada E. Deer,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 96-16503 Filed 6-27-96; 8:45 am]
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