Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch is urging the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources to “proceed with caution” on amending the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) in order to give the US Secretary of the Interior “the unchecked power to take land into trust at his or her choosing.”

Lynch added, “Rhode Island and many other states have resolved previous land-claim disputes in good faith, and I hope that these claims are honored.”

Lynch was referring to two bills heard by the full House panel yesterday, Nov. 4, that seek to amend the IRA in view of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Carcieri v. Salazar. Native American tribes and other supporters have referred to the bills as the “Carcieri fix” legislation.

The court’s decision, issued on Feb. 24 of this year, held that the specific language of the IRA precluded the Interior Secretary from taking a 31-acre parcel in Charlestown into trust for the benefit of the Narragansett Indian Tribe because the Tribe was not under federal jurisdiction when the IRA was enacted in 1934. The Narragansett Indian Tribe was not federally recognized until 1983.

The bills heard yesterday, HR 3742 and HR 3697, are sponsored by Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and would reaffirm the secretary’s authority to take land into trust for Indian tribes.

In testimony that he submitted yesterday, Lynch wrote, “…cognizant as I am that the United States Congress has every right to amend laws as it sees fit, from the State of Rhode Island’s perspective, the statutory ‘deconstruction’ proposed in HR 3742 and HR 3697 is not simply a matter of tweaking grammar or of deleting a single word, ‘now,” in the IRA. The proposed legislation cuts to the core of the intrinsic issue, sovereignty. Whether held and exercised by the federal government or by state, local or tribal government, sovereignty is paramount — especially when it is unilaterally stripped away.”

Lynch’s reference to the word “now” applies to the words chosen when the IRA was enacted, referring to a tribe that was, in 1934, “now under federal jurisdiction.”

“If the Congress is inclined to amend the IRA, it is critical that the resolutions of previous claims, reached in good faith, be honored. To enact a law that opens even slightly the opportunity to challenge those resolved claims will cause uncertainty across our nation,” Lynch wrote.

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Please note: A PDF copy of AG Lynch’s written testimony is attached to this press release.

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