Sinclair to testify in D. C. on Little Shell recognition

The chair of a Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana said Monday he will be traveling to Washington D. C., to testify before a Senate committee on his tribe's plea for federal recognition.

Chair John Sinclair received an invitation from Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chair of the Committee on Indian Affairs, to testify Thursday when the committee hears bills, including Montana Sen. Jon Tester's bill, to grant the Little Shell federal recognition.

"I will travel to this oversight hearing, " Sinclair said Monday. "I am very pleased that Senator Tester has brought this legislation forward and am grateful that Senator Akaka has scheduled the hearing.

"Little Shell recognition has languished in this process far too long, " Sinclair added. "And judging from the record of the Interior Board of Indian Appeals the federal legislative process may be our last real chance for justice to prevail. "

Although the tribe has been recognized by the Montana government, more than a century of trying to achieve federal recognition stalled in 2009.

The bill, cosponsored by Montana's Sen. Max Baucus, Tester recounts the history of the tribe's search for recognition, including its participating in the Pembina Treaty of 1863, under which a large area of land in the State of North Dakota was ceded to the United States.

Since then, the tribe has sought federal recognition under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, starting in the 1930s and 1940s.

The last attempt, started in 1978, was denied by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2009.

Under Tester and Baucus' bill, the members of the tribe will be eligible for federal services and benefits regardless of whether the tribe has a reservation or where the tribal member lives.

It also authorizes the federal government acquiring 200 acres of trust land to be used for a tribal land base, with the secretary of the interior authorized to acquire additional land in the future for the benefit of the tribe.