regulation

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior

§ 83.7

the actual research on behalf of the petitioner.
(d) Any notice which by the terms of
these regulations must be published in
the FEDERAL REGISTER, shall also be
mailed to the petitioner, the governor
of the state where the group is located,
and to other interested parties.
(e) After an Indian group has filed a
letter of intent requesting Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe and
until that group has actually submitted a documented petition, the Assistant Secretary may contact the
group periodically and request clarification, in writing, of its intent to
continue with the petitioning process.
(f) All petitioners under active consideration shall be notified, by April 16,
1994, of the opportunity under § 83.3(g)
to choose whether to complete their
petitioning process under the provisions of these revised regulations or
the previous regulations as published,
on September 5, 1978, at 43 FR 39361.
(g) All other groups that have submitted documented petitions or letters
of intent shall be notified of and provided with a copy of these regulations
by July 25, 1994.
§ 83.6 General provisions for the documented petition.
(a) The documented petition may be
in any readable form that contains detailed, specific evidence in support of a
request to the Secretary to acknowledge tribal existence.
(b) The documented petition must include a certification, signed and dated
by members of the group’s governing
body, stating that it is the group’s official documented petition.
(c) A petitioner must satisfy all of
the criteria in paragraphs (a) through
(g) of § 83.7 in order for tribal existence
to be acknowledged. Therefore, the
documented petition must include
thorough explanations and supporting
documentation in response to all of the
criteria. The definitions in § 83.1 are an
integral part of the regulations, and
the criteria should be read carefully together with these definitions.
(d) A petitioner may be denied acknowledgment if the evidence available
demonstrates that it does not meet one
or more criteria. A petitioner may also
be denied if there is insufficient evi-

dence that it meets one or more of the
criteria. A criterion shall be considered
met if the available evidence establishes a reasonable likelihood of the
validity of the facts relating to that
criterion. Conclusive proof of the facts
relating to a criterion shall not be required in order for the criterion to be
considered met.
(e) Evaluation of petitions shall take
into account historical situations and
time periods for which evidence is demonstrably limited or not available.
The limitations inherent in demonstrating the historical existence of
community and political influence or
authority shall also be taken into account. Existence of community and political influence or authority shall be
demonstrated on a substantially continuous basis, but this demonstration
does not require meeting these criteria
at every point in time. Fluctuations in
tribal activity during various years
shall not in themselves be a cause for
denial of acknowledgment under these
criteria.
(f) The criteria in § 83.7 (a) through
(g) shall be interpreted as applying to
tribes or groups that have historically
combined and functioned as a single
autonomous political entity.
(g) The specific forms of evidence
stated in the criteria in § 83.7 (a)
through (c) and § 83.7(e) are not mandatory requirements. The criteria may be
met alternatively by any suitable evidence that demonstrates that the petitioner meets the requirements of the
criterion statement and related definitions.
§ 83.7 Mandatory criteria for Federal
acknowledgment.
The mandatory criteria are:
(a) The petitioner has been identified
as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900.
Evidence that the group’s character as
an Indian entity has from time to time
been denied shall not be considered to
be conclusive evidence that this criterion has not been met. Evidence to be
relied upon in determining a group’s
Indian identity may include one or a
combination of the following, as well
as other evidence of identification by
other than the petitioner itself or its
members.

271

VerDate Aug<31>2005

13:23 Apr 17, 2006

Jkt 208082

PO 00000

Frm 00281

Fmt 8010

Sfmt 8010

Y:\SGML\208082.XXX

208082

§ 83.7

25 CFR Ch. I (4–1–06 Edition)

(1) Identification as an Indian entity
by Federal authorities.
(2) Relationships with State governments based on identification of the
group as Indian.
(3) Dealings with a county, parish, or
other local government in a relationship based on the group’s Indian identity.
(4) Identification as an Indian entity
by anthropologists, historians, and/or
other scholars.
(5) Identification as an Indian entity
in newspapers and books.
(6) Identification as an Indian entity
in relationships with Indian tribes or
with national, regional, or state Indian
organizations.
(b) A predominant portion of the petitioning group comprises a distinct
community and has existed as a community from historical times until the
present.
(1) This criterion may be demonstrated by some combination of the
following evidence and/or other evidence that the petitioner meets the
definition of community set forth in
§ 83.1:
(i) Significant rates of marriage
within the group, and/or, as may be
culturally required, patterned out-marriages with other Indian populations.
(ii) Significant social relationships
connecting individual members.
(iii) Significant rates of informal social interaction which exist broadly
among the members of a group.
(iv) A significant degree of shared or
cooperative labor or other economic
activity among the membership.
(v) Evidence of strong patterns of discrimination or other social distinctions by non-members.
(vi) Shared sacred or secular ritual
activity encompassing most of the
group.
(vii) Cultural patterns shared among
a significant portion of the group that
are different from those of the non-Indian populations with whom it interacts. These patterns must function as
more than a symbolic identification of
the group as Indian. They may include,
but are not limited to, language, kinship organization, or religious beliefs
and practices.
(viii) The persistence of a named, collective Indian identity continuously

over a period of more than 50 years,
notwithstanding changes in name.
(ix) A demonstration of historical political influence under the criterion in
§ 83.7(c) shall be evidence for demonstrating historical community.
(2) A petitioner shall be considered to
have provided sufficient evidence of
community at a given point in time if
evidence is provided to demonstrate
any one of the following:
(i) More than 50 percent of the members reside in a geographical area exclusively or almost exclusively composed of members of the group, and the
balance of the group maintains consistent interaction with some members
of the community;
(ii) At least 50 percent of the marriages in the group are between members of the group;
(iii) At least 50 percent of the group
members maintain distinct cultural
patterns such as, but not limited to,
language, kinship organization, or religious beliefs and practices;
(iv) There are distinct community social institutions encompassing most of
the members, such as kinship organizations, formal or informal economic cooperation, or religious organizations;
or
(v) The group has met the criterion
in § 83.7(c) using evidence described in
§ 83.7(c)(2).
(c) The petitioner has maintained political influence or authority over its
members as an autonomous entity
from historical times until the present.
(1) This criterion may be demonstrated by some combination of the
evidence listed below and/or by other
evidence that the petitioner meets the
definition of political influence or authority in § 83.1.
(i) The group is able to mobilize significant numbers of members and significant resources from its members
for group purposes.
(ii) Most of the membership considers
issues acted upon or actions taken by
group leaders or governing bodies to be
of importance.
(iii) There is widespread knowledge,
communication and involvement in political processes by most of the group’s
members.
(iv) The group meets the criterion in
§ 83.7(b) at more than a minimal level.

272

VerDate Aug<31>2005

13:23 Apr 17, 2006

Jkt 208082

PO 00000

Frm 00282

Fmt 8010

Sfmt 8010

Y:\SGML\208082.XXX

208082

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior

§ 83.7

(v) There are internal conflicts which
show controversy over valued group
goals, properties, policies, processes
and/or decisions.
(2) A petitioning group shall be considered to have provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the exercise of
political influence or authority at a
given point in time by demonstrating
that group leaders and/or other mechanisms exist or existed which:
(i) Allocate group resources such as
land, residence rights and the like on a
consistent basis.
(ii) Settle disputes between members
or subgroups by mediation or other
means on a regular basis;
(iii) Exert strong influence on the behavior of individual members, such as
the establishment or maintenance of
norms and the enforcement of sanctions to direct or control behavior;
(iv) Organize or influence economic
subsistence activities among the members, including shared or cooperative
labor.
(3) A group that has met the requirements in paragraph 83.7(b)(2) at a given
point in time shall be considered to
have provided sufficient evidence to
meet this criterion at that point in
time.
(d) A copy of the group’s present governing document including its membership criteria. In the absence of a written document, the petitioner must provide a statement describing in full its
membership criteria and current governing procedures.
(e) The petitioner’s membership consists of individuals who descend from a
historical Indian tribe or from historical Indian tribes which combined and
functioned as a single autonomous political entity.
(1) Evidence acceptable to the Secretary which can be used for this purpose includes but is not limited to:
(i) Rolls prepared by the Secretary on
a descendancy basis for purposes of distributing claims money, providing allotments, or other purposes;
(ii) State, Federal, or other official
records or evidence identifying present
members or ancestors of present members as being descendants of a historical tribe or tribes that combined and
functioned as a single autonomous political entity.

(iii) Church, school, and other similar
enrollment records identifying present
members or ancestors of present members as being descendants of a historical tribe or tribes that combined and
functioned as a single autonomous political entity.
(iv) Affidavits of recognition by tribal elders, leaders, or the tribal governing body identifying present members or ancestors of present members
as being descendants of a historical
tribe or tribes that combined and functioned as a single autonomous political
entity.
(v) Other records or evidence identifying present members or ancestors of
present members as being descendants
of a historical tribe or tribes that combined and functioned as a single autonomous political entity.
(2) The petitioner must provide an official membership list, separately certified by the group’s governing body, of
all known current members of the
group. This list must include each
member’s full name (including maiden
name), date of birth, and current residential address. The petitioner must
also provide a copy of each available
former list of members based on the
group’s own defined criteria, as well as
a statement describing the circumstances surrounding the preparation of the current list and, insofar as
possible,
the
circumstances
surrounding the preparation of former
lists.
(f) The membership of the petitioning
group is composed principally of persons who are not members of any acknowledged North American Indian
tribe. However, under certain conditions a petitioning group may be acknowledged even if its membership is
composed principally of persons whose
names have appeared on rolls of, or
who have been otherwise associated
with, an acknowledged Indian tribe.
The conditions are that the group must
establish that it has functioned
throughout history until the present as
a separate and autonomous Indian tribal entity, that its members do not
maintain a bilateral political relationship with the acknowledged tribe, and
that its members have provided written confirmation of their membership
in the petitioning group.

273

VerDate Aug<31>2005

13:23 Apr 17, 2006

Jkt 208082

PO 00000

Frm 00283

Fmt 8010

Sfmt 8010

Y:\SGML\208082.XXX

208082

§ 83.8

25 CFR Ch. I (4–1–06 Edition)

(g) Neither the petitioner nor its
members are the subject of congressional legislation that has expressly
terminated or forbidden the Federal relationship.
§ 83.8 Previous
ment.

Federal

acknowledg-

(a) Unambiguous previous Federal acknowledgment is acceptable evidence
of the tribal character of a petitioner
to the date of the last such previous acknowledgment. If a petitioner provides
substantial evidence of unambiguous
Federal acknowledgment, the petitioner will then only be required to
demonstrate that it meets the requirements of § 83.7 to the extent required by
this section.
(b) A determination of the adequacy
of the evidence of previous Federal action acknowledging tribal status shall
be made during the technical assistance review of the documented petition
conducted pursuant to § 83.10(b). If a petition is awaiting active consideration
at the time of adoption of these regulations, this review will be conducted
while the petition is under active consideration unless the petitioner requests in writing that this review be
made in advance.
(c) Evidence to demonstrate previous
Federal acknowledgment includes, but
is not limited to:
(1) Evidence that the group has had
treaty relations with the United
States.
(2) Evidence that the group has been
denominated a tribe by act of Congress
or Executive Order.
(3) Evidence that the group has been
treated by the Federal Government as
having collective rights in tribal lands
or funds.
(d) To be acknowledged, a petitioner
that can demonstrate previous Federal
acknowledgment must show that:
(1) The group meets the requirements
of the criterion in § 83.7(a), except that
such identification shall be demonstrated since the point of last Federal acknowledgment. The group must
further have been identified by such
sources as the same tribal entity that
was previously acknowledged or as a
portion that has evolved from that entity.

(2) The group meets the requirements
of the criterion in § 83.7(b) to demonstrate that it comprises a distinct
community at present. However, it
need not provide evidence to demonstrate existence as a community historically.
(3) The group meets the requirements
of the criterion in § 83.7(c) to demonstrate that political influence or authority is exercised within the group at
present. Sufficient evidence to meet
the criterion in § 83.7(c) from the point
of last Federal acknowledgment to the
present may be provided by demonstration of substantially continuous historical identification, by authoritative,
knowledgeable external sources, of
leaders and/or a governing body who
exercise political influence or authority, together with demonstration of
one form of evidence listed in § 83.7(c).
(4) The group meets the requirements
of the criteria in paragraphs 83.7 (d)
through (g).
(5) If a petitioner which has demonstrated previous Federal acknowledgment cannot meet the requirements
in paragraphs (d) (1) and (3), the petitioner may demonstrate alternatively
that it meets the requirements of the
criteria in § 83.7 (a) through (c) from
last Federal acknowledgment until the
present.
§ 83.9 Notice of receipt of a petition.
(a) Within 30 days after receiving a
letter of intent, or a documented petition if a letter of intent has not previously been received and noticed, the
Assistant Secretary shall acknowledge
such receipt in writing and shall have
published within 60 days in the FEDERAL REGISTER a notice of such receipt.
This notice must include the name, location, and mailing address of the petitioner and such other information as
will identify the entity submitting the
letter of intent or documented petition
and the date it was received. This notice shall also serve to announce the
opportunity for interested parties and
informed parties to submit factual or
legal arguments in support of or in opposition to the petitioner’s request for
acknowledgment and/or to request to
be kept informed of all general actions
affecting the petition. The notice shall
also indicate where a copy of the letter

274

VerDate Aug<31>2005

13:23 Apr 17, 2006

Jkt 208082

PO 00000

Frm 00284

Fmt 8010

Sfmt 8010

Y:\SGML\208082.XXX

208082