1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i BIAs New Take on Taking Land into Trust for Indians May 6, 2020 The Department of the Interior (DOI) recently released Solicitors Opinion M-37055 and new guidance on taking land into trust under Section 5
2、 of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934. The IRA is the major law under which the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) acquires land in trust for the benefit of federally recognized Indian tribes. M-37055 withdrew an earlier interpretation that had guided the DOIs land-into-trust process un
3、der the IRA since the Supreme Courts 2009 Carcieri v. Salazar decision. In Carcieri, the Court ruled that, for the Secretary to take land into trust, Section 5 required tribes to have been “under Federal jurisdiction” when Congress enacted the IRA. As a result, Carcieri cast doubt on the Secretarys
4、authority to take land into trust for tribes that were added to DOIs list of federally recognized tribes after 1934. DOIs earlier interpretation laid out a process for evaluating whether a tribe was “under Federal jurisdiction” in 1934. The new guidance requires tribes to have been both “recognized”
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