Committee on Indian Affairs United State

Carcieri: Bringing Certainty to Trust Land Acquisitions Committee on Indian Affairs United State

Publisher Marketing: For the period of 1887 to 1933, approximately 90 million acres of tribal land went out of tribal ownership. By 1934, the then-Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, stated that tribal lands had been diminished by 80 percent, and the value of tribal lands had decreased 85 percent. When Congress enacted the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, it represented a fundamental shift away from the United States' failed policies of the 19th century. America returned to recognizing tribes as a government, and dealing with them in a government-to-government relationship with shared goals of strengthening tribal communities and improving the lives of Native Americans. In 1994, Congress made an adjustment to the Indian Reorganization Act, amending it to ensure that all federally recognized tribes are treated equally, including the right to have land taken into trust. A Supreme Court decision in 2009, Carcieri v. Salazar, once again created two classes of tribes. In that case, the Supreme Court defined tribes that could have land taken into trust as only those tribes under Federal jurisdiction in 1934. This decision reversed what had been 80 years of Federal policy to restore land holdings and strengthen tribal governments.