Metcalf says the bill is necessary to keep tribes that have failed to gain treaty rights in court from continually trying to gain recognition through administrative avenues. Hearings probably will be held sometime next month by the House Resources Subcommittee on Native American and Insular Affairs, said Jim Miella, spokesman for committee Chairman Elton Gallegly, R-Calif. Metcalf introduced the bill at the behest of the Tulalip Tribes of Marysville, which have a history of seeking to block unrecognized Western Washington tribes from gaining recognition. The Tulalips are particularly concerned about the Snohomish and the Snoqualmie, which they contend are merely social groups descended from the two tribes. Recognition carries with it federal dollars for support of tribal government, health care, social services, education, housing and cultural resources.
Recognized tribes become sovereign governments with a legal status similar to states.
Without federal recognition, it would be difficult for tribes to survive. He said it is time to bring some finality to the government's decades-long process of deciding which Indian groups deserve to be officially recognized. The Snohomish and Snoqualmie, along with the Duwamish, Samish and Steilacoom tribes, were excluded from participating in treaty fishing in the 1970s when U.S. District Judge George Boldt made his landmark ruling that Puget Sound tribes are entitled to half the salmon catch. Boldt ruled the five tribes could not share in treaty rights, in part, because he found that they had not continually maintained an organized tribal structure since their ancestors signed treaties with the United States in the 1850s. Metcalf's bill draws language directly from the Boldt ruling to exclude Western Washington tribes from recognition.