Biden Administration Makes It Easier For Tribes To Reacquire Lands
Source: huff post
04/27/2021 01:12 pm ET
Tuesday’s actions “unwind the bureaucratic knot” that the Trump administration created in the process of placing lands into trust, one Interior official said.
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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, herself a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe of New Mexico, signed a secretarial order giving regional directors at the Bureau of Indian Affairs the authority to review and approve land-into-trust applications. That reverses a 2017 action from the Trump administration that gave that authority to staff at Interior’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., which Biden officials say caused significant delays in the process.
“At Interior, we have an obligation to work with Tribes to protect their lands and ensure that each Tribe has a homeland where its citizens can live together and lead safe and fulfilling lives,” Haaland said in a statement. “Our actions today will help us meet that obligation and will help empower Tribes to determine how their lands are used — from conservation to economic development projects.”
In addition to Haaland’s secretarial order, Interior’s top lawyer rescinded several Trump-era legal opinions that the Biden administration said made it harder for Native American and Alaska Native tribes to acquire lands. The Interior Department is responsible for honoring the government’s trust and treaty responsibilities to tribes, and lands held in trust are key for tribal economic development, community housing and law enforcement jurisdiction.
In a call with reporters Tuesday, Interior officials said that during President Barack Obama’s eight years in office, 560,000 acres of land were placed into trust for tribes. The Trump administration placed only 75,000 acres into trust during its four years in office.
Tuesday’s actions “unwind the bureaucratic knot that was created by the last administration,” an Interior department official said on call with reporters. ...............................
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interior-department-tribes-trust-lands_n_608839eee4b02e74d21fe162
Trump was pure meanness --a man-child who loved to hurt people.
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Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland speaks during a daily press briefing at the White House on April 23.
Alex Wong via Getty Images
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