Historically, tribes have been granted federal recognition through treaties, by the Congress, or through administrative decisions within the executive branch—principally by BIA within the Department of the Interior. (See app. I for additional information on how tribes have been recognized.) In a 1977 report to the Congress, the American Indian Policy Review Commission found that the criteria used by the Department to assess a group’s status were not very clear and concluded that a large part of its recognition policy depended on which official responded to the group’s inquiries. Until the 1960s, the limited number of requests by groups to be federally recognized permitted the Department to assess a group’s status on a case-by-case basis without formal guidelines. However, in response to an increase in the number of requests for federal recognition, the Department determined that it needed a uniform approach to evaluate these requests. In 1978, it established a regulatory process for recognizing tribes. In 1994, the Department revised the regulations to clarify what evidence was needed to support the requirements for recognition, although the basic criteria used to evaluate a petition were not changed.In addition, in 1997 BIA updated guidelines on the process, and in February 2000, BIA issued a notice in the Federal Register clarifying internal processing procedures. In summary, a group enters the regulatory process and becomes a petitioner by submitting a letter of intent requesting recognition. A petitioner then must provide documentation that addresses seven criteria that, in general, demonstrates continuous existence as a political and social community that is descended from a historic tribe. The technical staff within BIA’s Branch of Acknowledgement and Research (BAR) reviews the submitted documentation, provides technical review and assistance, and determines, with the petitioner’s concurrence, when the petition is ready for active consideration. Once the petition enters active consideration, the BAR staff reviews the documented petition and makes recommendations on a proposed finding either for or against recognition. Staff recommendations are subject to review by the Department’s Office of the Solicitor and senior officials within BIA, culminating with the approval of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. After a proposed finding is approved by the Assistant Secretary, it is published in the Federal Register and a period of further comment, document submission, and response is allowed. The BAR staff reviews comments, documentation, and responses and makes recommendations on a final determination that are subject to the same levels of review as a proposed finding. The process culminates in a final determination by the Assistant Secretary that, depending on the nature of further evidence submitted, may or may not be the same as the proposed finding. Requests for reconsideration may be filed with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals within 90 days after the final determination. This review process can result in affirmation of the Assistant Secretary’s decision or direction to the Assistant Secretary to issue a reconsidered determination. BIA has received 250 petitions for recognition under this process. However, many of these petitions consist only of letters of intent to petition or are petitions for which only partial documentation has been submitted. Others are no longer active because they have been withdrawn or resolved outside the regulatory process or because a petitioner has lost contact with BIA. In fact, of the 250 petitions, only 55 have completed documentation that allows them to be considered by the process. For those completed petitions, BIA has finalized 29 decisions—14 recognizing a tribe and 15 denying recognition. Of the remaining 26 completed petitions, 3 decisions are pending; 13 are under active consideration; and 10 are ready, awaiting active consideration. A complete outline of the process and the status of the 250 petitions are provided in appendix II. With federal recognition, Indian tribes become eligible to participate in billion dollar federal assistance programs and can be granted significant privileges as sovereign entities—including exemptions from state and local jurisdiction and the ability to establish casino gambling operations. Federally recognized tribes and their members have almost exclusive access to about $4 billion annually in federal funding through direct payments and services unavailable to the general public or to Indians that are not members of recognized tribes. For example, tribal governments can receive direct payments to provide community services, such as health clinics or sewer improvements, and members of tribes may be eligible for housing programs or small business loans. The exemptions from state and local jurisdiction for recognized tribes generally apply to lands that the federal government has taken in trust for a tribe or its members. Currently, about 54 million acres of land are being held in trust. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA), which regulates Indian gambling operations, permits a tribe to operate casinos on land in trust if the state in which it lies allows casino-like gambling and the tribe has entered into a compact with the state regulating its gambling businesses. In 1999, tribes collected about $10 billion in gambling revenue. Federal recognition provides a tribe with access to special Indian programs reserved almost exclusively for recognized tribes and their members. The Department of Health and Human Service’s Indian Health Service (IHS) and BIA—the two main agencies that provide funding and services to tribes and their members—have a combined annual budget of over $4 billion (see table 1). The combined funding for the two agencies has increased by $1 billion (in real terms) since the regulatory recognition process was established in 1978. Both agencies have established procedures for funding newly recognized tribes. At IHS, newly recognized tribes are assigned funds on a case-by-case basis. At BIA, newly recognized tribes with 1,500 members or less are provided with base funding of $160,000; tribes with 1,501 to 3,000 members are provided $300,000; and the base funding for tribes with more than 3,000 members is determined on a case-by-case basis. In addition to the funding and services from IHS and BIA, the Office of Management and Budget estimates that for fiscal year 2000 an additional $3.9 billion was appropriated for other federal programs specifically for Indians or set-asides for Indians within larger programs (see table 2). Federal recognition is not necessarily an eligibility requirement for these programs. In fact, the eligibility requirements for these programs vary widely, making it difficult to estimate the funding for programs that require federal recognition for eligibility. Tribes may have been eligible for some of these programs, or for similar programs, prior to their federal recognition. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides grant funding under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act to federally recognized tribes and some nonfederally recognized Indian groups. Additionally, Indians, as U.S. citizens, are eligible to receive assistance from any federal program for which they meet the eligibility requirements. By 1886, Indian lands had been reduced to about 140 million acres largely on reservations west of the Mississippi River. The federal government’s Indian policy encouraging assimilation further reduced Indian land holdings by two-thirds, to about 49 million acres in 1934. However, in 1934, the government’s Indian policy changed to encourage tribal self- governance with the Indian Reorganization Act. The act provided the Secretary the authority to take land in trust on behalf of federally recognized tribes or their members. Since 1934, the total acreage held in trust by the federal government for the benefit of tribes and their members has increased from about 49 million to about 54 million acres. Much of the recent controversy over recognition decisions, whether made by the Congress or the Department, stems from events that can only occur after a tribe is recognized. With recognition, the federal government can take land in trust for tribes that may not have a land base or may want to add to their land base. This raises concerns from local communities regarding the loss of local jurisdiction over the land. For example, land taken in trust is no longer subject to local property taxes and zoning ordinances. Additionally, gambling may occur on land held in trust by the federal government for tribes or their members. However, the process of taking land in trust, like gambling, is not governed by the same laws and regulations that govern tribal recognition. Land may be taken in trust through legislation or BIA regulations. The regulations governing the land- in-trust process became effective in October 1980 and set forth criteria, including the impact on the local tax base and jurisdictional problems, that the Secretary should consider in evaluating requests to take land in trust. At that time the regulations did not require notification of affected state and local communities, nor did they allow for outside comments. Taking land in trust became more controversial with the enactment of IGRA in 1988. In 1995, the land-in-trust regulations were revised to require that affected state and local governments be notified of each land-in-trust request and that they be given 30 days to submit written comments. The revised regulations also distinguished between on- and off- reservation acquisitions. The criteria for off-reservation acquisitions became more stringent, and state and local governments’ concerns were given more weight. Indian gambling, a relatively new phenomenon, started in the late 1970s when a number of Indian tribes began to establish bingo operations as a supplemental means of funding tribal operations. However, state governments began to question whether tribes possessed the authority to conduct gambling independently of state regulation. Although many lower courts upheld the tribal position, the matter was not resolved until 1987 when the U. S. Supreme Court issued its decision in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians. That decision confirmed the tribes’ authority to establish gambling operations on their reservations outside state regulation—provided the affected state permitted some type of gambling. In 1988, the Congress passed IGRA, which established a regulatory framework to govern Indian gambling operations. One of the more important features of IGRA is that only federally recognized Indian tribes may engage in gambling. IGRA established three classes of gambling to be regulated by a combination of tribal governments, state governments, BIA, and the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC)— an entity created by IGRA to enforce IGRA requirements and to ensure the integrity of Indian gambling operations. Under IGRA, Class I gambling consists of social gambling for minimal prizes or ceremonial gambling.