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Congressman Steve Daines has called on the Natural Resources Committee to hold a hearing for his legislation that would grant Montana’s Little Shell Tribe with long-overdue federal recognition.

In a letter to Congressman Don Young, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, Daines noted that a hearing on his bill, H.R. 2991, would also provide the Committee with an opportunity to further examine the current shortcomings of the federal recognition process.

“In my state of Montana, the Little Shell Tribe, which has already received its state recognition, has been fighting for federal recognition for decades and I believe their plight is especially telling of how broken the federal recognition process has become,” Daines wrote.“I hope you can understand how H.R. 2991 presents a unique opportunity to federally recognize the Little Shell Tribe through the legislative process.”

Daines’ legislation, which mirrors a Senate proposal introduced by Montana Senator Jon Tester, provides the Little Shell Tribe with formal federal status and provides the Tribe with legal ownership of 200 acres of land that has been historically recognized as theirs.

Testers’ companion bill, S. 161, received a hearing by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs late last month.

The City of Great Falls and Cascade, Blaine and Glacier Counties, where the vast majority of those identified with the Little Shell Tribe reside, also stand in support Daines’ legislation and the federal recognition for the Little Shell Tribe.

Montana is home to seven federally recognized Indian Reservations and the state recognized Little Shell Tribe.  There are more than 5,200 enrolled members of the Little Shell Tribe, most of who live in Montana.

The Little Shell Tribe has been working for federal recognition since the 1930s, beginning with petitions under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and working under the current regulatory recognition process through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) from 1978 to the present.

Earlier this year during a Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Native Alaska hearing, Daines expressed his frustrations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ failure to grant federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe, despite decades of fighting and overwhelming local support for the designation. 

“It seems if we can’t settle Little Shell Tribe’s recognitions—an effort that Montana, including our two Democratic Senators and my predecessor Republican Denny Rehberg, our state government, the local community, and myself all support—I’m not sure what else the Bureau of Indian Affairs needs to know,” Daines stated during the hearing.

During that hearing, Daines outlined how the Little Shell Tribe provided the BIA with 10,000 pages of paperwork after the BIA had released a preliminary decision that the Tribe met all seven criteria for federal recognition.  However, ten years later, the BIA revoked the positive finding.

In 2000, the BIA stated in the Federal Register that the Little Shell Tribe had met all seven of the criteria for federal recognition. However, a final determination was later issued denying Little Shell’s federal recognition.  The Tribe appealed this decision, which was also recently denied by Interior Board of Indian Appeals.

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