The Ute Tribe is sounding their opposition to a new series of oversight hearings by the House Committee on Natural Resources that will examine the Indian Reorganization Act(IRA) among other land management laws. During the first of the hearings held on May 24th, Diane Dillon, Supervisor of Napa County, California, testified in her words of the Department of the Interior’s abuse of the IRA and failure to follow its own guidelines. Dillon says they abused the IRA “to completely strip state and local governments of their authority over local land use, with little to no regard for state and local concerns.” In a press release issued June 7th, the Ute Tribe called the hearings to examine the Indian Reorganization Act a case of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. The Ute Tribe Business Committee stated, “Trying to reform the IRA and Indian trust lands is asking the wrong question. We need economic development laws and policies that work on Indian trust lands — not private lands.” The House Committee states that the Indian Reorganization Act limited the ability to put land into trust only to tribes who were federally recognized in 1934 when the IRA was enacted. The issue, argues the House Committee, is that the federal government has routinely placed land into trust for tribes that weren’t recognized until after the enactment of the IRA.
