Mono Lake Kutzadikaa Tribe Recognition Act
Bill: H.R.3649 | Sponsor: Rep. Obernolte, Jay (R-CA)
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
Mono Lake Kutzadikaᵃ Tribe Recognition Act
This bill extends federal recognition to the Mono Lake Kutzadikaᵃ Tribe.
The bill makes the tribe and its members eligible for services and benefits provided to federally recognized tribes and their members, without regard to the existence of a reservation or the location of the residence of any member. The service area of the tribe is considered to be Mono and Inyo counties, California.
In addition, the bill grants the tribe hunting and fishing rights on all federal lands within its aboriginal land area.
Further, the tribe must submit a membership roll to the Department of the Interior as a condition of receiving recognition, services, and benefits. The tribe must maintain the membership roll.
Interior, upon the request of the tribe, must take into trust certain land in Mono County, California, for the benefit of the tribe.

To extend Federal recognition to the Mono Lake Kutzadika\a\ Tribe, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Mono Lake Kutzadika\a\ Tribe 
Recognition Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The Mono Lake Kutzadika\a\ Tribe has existed for time 
        immemorial in the Mono Basin of east-central California and 
        adjacent Nevada.
            (2) The Mono Lake Kutzadika\a\ people were first 
        encountered in 1825 by early trappers in the area, but were 
        officially documented by the Federal Government in June 1852 by 
        Army Lieutenant Tredwell Moore, who was in pursuit of hostile 
        Indians in the Yo-Ham-i-te (today ``Yosemite'') Valley, and 
        tracked them through a previously undiscovered pass through the 
        Sierra Mountains that lead to Mono Lake. The pass was later 
        named ``Mono Pass'' also known as ``Tsadoba'', after the 
        ``Indians of that name''.
            (3) The Tribe, like all tribes in California, was not the 
        beneficiary of a reservation through the treaty process and 
        remained landless and without Federal protection in the wake of 
        the California gold rush and other non-Indian encroachment into 
        the Tribe's aboriginal lands.
            (4) In 1904, the plight of the Tribe was brought to the 
        attention of the Committee on Indian Affairs by the Northern 
        California Indian Association through a petition and extensive, 
        but not exhaustive, study documenting the landless Indians in 
        California. The study identified the numerous tribal 
        communities in California who were in desperate need of land, 
        as well as Federal support and protection, and the Mono Lake 
        Kutzadika\a\ community was among those surveyed. As a result of 
        the petition, Congress began to appropriate funding for the 
        purchase of lands in California for the ``homeless Indians''.
            (5) In 1907, historical members of the Tribe were issued 
        individual allotted lands near Mono Lake under the General 
        Allotment Act. In accordance to the General Allotment Act, 
        allotted lands were only provided to Indians shown to be 
        recognized or entitled to be recognized members of an ``Indian 
        tribe''. The Federal Government determined that Mono Lake 
        Kutzadika\a\ members met this criteria.
            (6) In the early 1920s, the Los Angeles Department of Water 
        and Power began purchasing lands throughout Inyo and Mono 
        Counties in its effort to secure a reliable water supply for 
        the expanding city of Los Angeles in southern California. The 
        Mono Lake Kutzadika\a\ allottees were not immune to the 
        pressures of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and were 
        encouraged to sell their land, which most did. However, Tribal 
        members remained at Mono Lake working and living on local farms 
        and in some cases squatting on Los Angeles Department of Water 
        and Power or other Federal lands.
            (7) Although Tribal members were once again landless, they 
        remained under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government and 
        appeared on the Bureau of Indian Affairs census records, their 
        children attended Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools, 
        and members received (and do today) health care services, and 
        other Federal benefits and services.
            (8) Federal representatives worked with the Tribe to no 
        avail in the 1920s and 1930s to secure a land base, and these 
        efforts are well documented in official Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs correspondence and records.
            (9) In June 1950, Tribal members submitted a petition to 
        the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and the 
        Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, requesting an investigation 
        into their living conditions. In the petition, they stated that 
        they hoped that through an investigation, the agencies might 
        ``appropriate, rehabilitate, or set aside land for us''. H.R. 
        Muskrat, a Bureau of Indian Affairs field representative who 
        investigated the conditions of Tribal members, reported to J.M. 
        Stewart, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director for 
        California, that there were no public lands available for the 
        Tribe or its members, and all water resources were owned by the 
        Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
            (10) On December 26, 1950, a formal petition was filed 
        before the Indian Claims Commission on behalf of the Northern 
        Paiute Nation, which included various individual Northern 
        Paiute Indians and several reservation tribes, all located in 
        Nevada. The original claim, designated as Docket No. 87, did 
        not include California Paiute tribes from the Owens Valley, 
        Mono Lake, Deep Springs Valley, or Fish Lake Valley. During the 
        course of the liability phase of the trial, expert testimony 
        was introduced correcting the oversight, and on August 8, 1951, 
        an amended petition was filed that included the Tribe and other 
        overlooked California Paiute Nations. Unfortunately, the 
        Commission awarded only meager compensation to individual 
        members and did not provide lands to the Tribe.
            (11) In 1955, the Tribe submitted a petition to State 
        Senator Charles Brown of Sacramento, California, seeking to 
        establish a reservation that included 66,000 acres of land. The 
        petition rested on a 1912 Presidential Executive order that had 
        set aside lands for the Tribe and other tribes in Inyo and Mono 
        County, but was later withdrawn because the original land 
        identified was unsuitable. The Tribe's petition was again met 
        with the statement that there was no land available for a 
        reservation.
            (12) Believing that recognition might lead to land for the 
        Tribe, the Tribe submitted a letter of ``Intent to Petition for 
        Recognition'' in 1976 to the Office of Federal Acknowledgment 
        and began working on a petition for recognition, an effort that 
        continues today.
            (13) In 1977, the Tribe adopted formal Articles of 
        Association to define its enrollment criteria and election of 
        Tribal leaders.
            (14) Also in 1977, the Tribe petitioned and was recognized 
        by the BIA as an ``adult Indian community of one-half degree of 
        Indian blood'' under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (25 
        U.S.C. 5101 et seq.). However, the Bureau of Indian Affairs 
        made clear that this status did not give Federal recognition to 
        the Tribe. The status did solidify that Tribal members were 
        recognized as ``Indians'' and entitled to Federal benefits and 
        services.
            (15) Even without formal Tribal recognition, the Tribe has 
        remained a political force and the protector of Mono Lake, 
        Kutzapaa' which is at the center of the Tribe's culture and 
        history and provided its ancestors with a critical food source. 
        On March 19, 1983, Jessie Durant, a revered Tribal elder, 
        testified before the Subcommittee on Public Lands and National 
        Parks on the importance of Mono Lake to the Mono Lake people 
        and culture. Mono Lake is now known as the Mono Lake Tufa State 
        Natural Reserve thanks in large part to the efforts of the 
        Tribe and the Mono Lake Foundation.
            (16) On April 28, 1989, the Senate Select Committee on 
        Indian Affairs held hearings in Sacramento, California, on SB 
        611, a bill to Establish Administrative Procedures to Determine 
        Status of Certain Indian Groups. Tribal member Richard Blaver 
        was invited to and provided testimony on behalf of the Tribe on 
        the difficulties encountered by tribes seeking recognition 
        through the Bureau of Indian Affairs' administrative 
        acknowledgment process.
            (17) The Federal agencies that now manage Federal lands, 
        some of which are the ancestral lands of the Tribe, share a 
        deep respect for the Tribe, and acknowledge that the 
        Kutzadika\a\ members are the aboriginal people of the Mono 
        Basin. Small examples can be seen from the Forest Service, that 
        in 1991 worked with the Tribe in protecting the Tribe's 
        ``Indian'' cemetery located in part on Forest Service lands.
            (18) In 1993, the Forest Service hosted a dedication in 
        honor of the elders of the Kutzadika\a\ Tribe by setting aside 
        a grove of Jeffrey pine trees for traditional purposes and 
        designated the area as the Piaga Park. The Forest Service 
        specifically dedicated the trees in ``honor of the Mono Lake 
        [Kutzadika\a\] Elders who have historically harvested the 
        [Piaga] from the area''.
            (19) In 1996, the National Park Service issued a directive 
        to all Yosemite Entrance Station personnel informing them that 
        members of the Tribe were to be granted entrance to the 
        Yosemite National Park at no cost. More recent examples are the 
        ongoing Federal, State, and county agencies consultations with 
        the Tribe on proposed environmental projects, land management 
        planning, and repatriation of Tribal funerary objects and 
        artifacts under the Native American Graves Protection and 
        Repatriation Act when encountered on Federal lands.
            (20) In 2000, the Tribe partnered with the Mono County 
        Board of Supervisors to seek funding to assist the county in 
        completing a community center in Lee Vining, California. The 
        Tribe was awarded a State Community Development Block Grant 
        from the California Native American Allocation for $475,000, 
        which was used to complete construction of the community 
        center. In exchange for this contribution, the county has 
        dedicated office space to the Tribe and a large meeting room 
        for Tribal general council meetings, and the building is 
        identified as the ``Mono Lake Indian and Lee Vining Community 
        Center''.
            (21) In 2003, the Tribe adopted a Constitution and other 
        governing documents to formalize its Tribal Government 
        structure, enrollment process, and elections of its leaders. 
        Even without Federal financial assistance to carry out its 
        governmental functions or a land base, the Tribe remains a 
        distinct community both politically and culturally. The Tribe 
        works with its Federal, State, and county agency partners to 
        protect cultural and sacred sites, the environment, Mono Lake, 
        and habitat. In recent years, the Tribe has established the 
        ``Mono Lake/Yosemite Traditional Walk'', which is the 
        revitalization of the walk their ancestors took from Mono Lake 
        to Yosemite in order to trade with and engage with family and 
        neighboring tribes. The Tribe celebrates and honors their 
        elders and veterans through community events and Tribal 
        functions on an annual basis.
            (22) Federal recognition of the Tribe through this Act is 
        supported by the Mono County Board of Supervisors, all five 
        federally recognized Tribes in Inyo County, the non-federally 
        recognized tribe Southern Sierra Muwuk Nation, and the 
        federally recognized tribes of Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, 
        Picayune Rancheria of the Chuckansi Tribe, and the North Fork 
        Rancheria of Mono Indians. Support also comes from the National 
        Park Service, the Sierra Club, Friends of Inyo County, the 
        Anthropology Department of California State University Chico, 
        California Indian Legal Services, and other organizations.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Member.--The term ``member'' means an individual who is 
        enrolled in the Tribe pursuant to the constitution of the 
        Tribe.
            (2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.
            (3) Tribe.--The term ``Tribe'' means the Mono Lake 
        Kutzadika\a\ Tribe.

SEC. 4. FEDERAL RECOGNITION.

    (a) In General.--Federal recognition is extended to the Tribe.
    (b) Effect of Federal Laws.--Except as otherwise provided in this 
Act, all Federal laws (including regulations) of general application to 
Indians and Indian tribes, including the Act of June 18, 1934 (25 
U.S.C. 5101 et seq.; commonly known as the Indian Reorganization Act), 
shall apply to the Tribe and members.

SEC. 5. FEDERAL SERVICES AND BENEFITS.

    (a) In General.--The Tribe and each member of the Tribe shall be 
eligible for all services and benefits provided by the United States to 
Indians and federally recognized Indian Tribes, without regard to--
            (1) the existence of a reservation for the Tribe; or
            (2) the location of the residence of any member on or near 
        an Indian reservation.
    (b) Service Area.--For purposes of the delivery of services and 
benefits to members, the service area of the Tribe shall be considered 
to be the counties of Mono and Inyo, in the State of California.

SEC. 6. REAFFIRMATION OF RIGHTS.

    (a) In General.--Nothing in this Act diminishes any right or 
privilege of the Tribe or any member that existed before the date of 
the enactment of this Act.
    (b) Claims of Tribe.--Except as otherwise provided in this Act, 
nothing in this Act alters or affects any legal or equitable claim of 
the Tribe to enforce any right or privilege reserved by, or granted to, 
the Tribe that was wrongfully denied to, or taken from, the Tribe 
before the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (c) Hunting and Fishing Rights.--The Tribe shall be granted hunting 
and fishing rights on all Federal lands within its aboriginal land 
area. Each Federal agency who administers lands within the Tribe's 
aboriginal land area shall work with the Tribe so as to accommodate the 
exercise of its hunting and fishing rights within the agencies existing 
land use plans, Federal law and governing regulations.

SEC. 7. MEMBERSHIP ROLL.

    (a) In General.--As a condition of receiving recognition, services, 
and benefits pursuant to this Act, the Tribe shall submit to the 
Secretary, by not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, a membership roll consisting of the name of each 
individual enrolled as a member of the Tribe.
    (b) Determination of Membership.--The qualifications for inclusion 
on the membership roll of the Tribe shall be determined in accordance 
with section (a) of Article III of the constitution of the Tribe, dated 
June 23, 2003.
    (c) Maintenance of Roll.--The Tribe shall maintain the membership 
roll.

SEC. 8. TRUST LAND.

    (a) Identification of Land.--The Secretary shall identify land 
administered by the Bureau of Land Management that is located in that 
portion of Mono County that is within the Tribe's ancestral homelands, 
sufficient to support the location of Tribal Government administration 
and services, economic development, and housing.
    (b) Land Into Trust.--After the Secretary identifies said land to 
meet the purposes so described, the Tribe shall request and the 
Secretary shall accept such lands into trust for the benefit of the 
Tribe. Nothing in this section shall prevent the Secretary or the Tribe 
from acquiring land, and the Secretary taking land into trust for the 
benefit of the Tribe, pursuant to section 5 of the Act of June 18, 1934 
(25 U.S.C. 51108; commonly known as the Indian Reorganization Act). For 
purposes of acquisitions under such Act, the Tribe shall be deemed to 
have been under Federal jurisdiction in 1934.
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