Union Calendar No. 428
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4180
[Report No. 103–781]
A BILL
To prohibit the withdrawal of acknowledgement or
recognition of an Indian tribe or Alaska Native
group or of the leaders of an Indian tribe or
Alaska Native group, absent an Act of Congress.
OCTOBER 3, 1994
Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee
of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and or-
dered to be printed
IB
Union Calendar No. 428
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4180
[Report No. 103–781]
To prohibit the withdrawal of acknowledgement or recognition of an Indian
tribe or Alaska Native group or of the leaders of an Indian tribe or
Alaska Native group, absent an Act of Congress.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 12, 1994
Mr. THOMAS of Wyoming (for himself, Mr. RICHARDSON, Mr. YOUNG of Alas-
ka, and Mr. BOEHLERT) introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Natural Resources
OCTOBER 3, 1994
Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House
on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 12, 1994]
A BILL
To prohibit the withdrawal of acknowledgement or recogni-
tion of an Indian tribe or Alaska Native group or of
the leaders of an Indian tribe or Alaska Native group,
absent an Act of Congress.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federally Recognized
Indian Tribe List Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
For the purposes of this Act:
(1) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of
the Interior.
(2) The term ‘‘Indian tribe’’ means any Indian
or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village
or community that the Secretary of the Interior ac-
knowledges to exist as an Indian tribe.
(3) The term ‘‘list’’ means the list of recognized
tribes published by the Secretary pursuant to section
4 of this Act.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) the Constitution, as interpreted by Federal
case law, invests Congress with plenary authority
over Indian Affairs;
(2) ancillary to that authority, the United States
has a trust responsibility to recognized Indian tribes,
maintains a government-to-government relationship
with those tribes, and recognizes the sovereignty of
those tribes;
(3) Indian tribes presently may be recognized by
Act of Congress; by the administrative procedures set
forth in part 83 of the Code of Federal Regulations
denominated ‘‘Procedures for Establishing that an
American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe;’’
or by a decision of a United States court;
(4) a tribe which has been recognized in one of
these manners may not be terminated except by an
Act of Congress;
(5) Congress has expressly repudiated the policy
of terminating recognized Indian tribes, and has ac-
tively sought to restore recognition to tribes that pre-
viously have been terminated;
(6) the Secretary of the Interior is charged with
the responsibility of keeping a list of all federally rec-
ognized tribes;
(7) the list published by the Secretary should be
accurate, regularly updated, and regularly published,
since it is used by the various departments and agen-
cies of the United States to determine the eligibility
of certain groups to receive services from the United
States; and
(8) the list of federally recognized tribes which
the Secretary publishes should reflect all of the feder-
ally recognized Indian tribes in the United States
which are eligible for the special programs and serv-