California's Bay Area congressional delegation has a dilemma in the form of a tireless tribal chairwoman named Charlene Nijmeh.
Ms. Nijmeh is waging a high-octane, public relations campaign aimed at regaining federal recognition for the Muwekma Ohlone, a San Francisco Bay Area tribe of about 600 that lost its status in 1927 after erroneously being declared “extinct.”
“All we’re asking is, go through the process, prove who you are, prove your identity,” Richard French, chairman of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians tribal council, said in the. “Don’t ask someone to circumvent the process just to put it in there for political gain. That’s not right.” “First, although the Interior Department has made improvements to the federal regulations governing the federal tribal recognition process, it can still be a lengthy and burdensome process for a tribal group,” Ms. Rand said. “If a tribal group has support in Congress, it may be that the tribe can achieve federal recognition via federal statute more quickly and with fewer costs.”
There are an estimated 400 unrecognized tribes, many of which have organized as 501c3 nonprofits. Some are virtually indistinguishable from recognized tribes in that they offer services to their members, hold regular meetings and events, and even receive limited federal support. He warned that legislation conferring federal status on tribes unable to satisfy the BIA’s requirements “represents a clear and present danger to every legitimate tribe across the nation.”
After California state Sen. Dave Cortese sponsored a bill last year to give state recognition to the Muwekma, the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations and California Nations Indian Gaming Association countered that the state “lacks the historical record, experience, and trust responsibility” to make such decisions.
Like her mother, a tribal leader who was jailed for hitting an archeologist with a shovel in a dispute over burial grounds, Ms. Nijmeh isn’t one to pull her punches.
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