Welcome to Version 2.0 of the Federal Recognition Database by Indianz.Com!
The database is an online version of
the Acknowledgment Decision Compilation (ADC), a record of
documents that the Bureau of Indian Affairs
has on file for dozens of groups that have made it through the
federal recognition process. The ADC contains over 750
MB of documents -- up from over 600MB in version 1.2 --
that were scanned in and cataloged by the agency's Office of
Federal Acknowledgment.
The BIA has changed a couple things since the version 1.2. First, all
the documents are now in Adobe PDF format, a widely-used and popular
Internet format. The PDFs replace the TIFF image files that some viewers
might have found difficult to use.
Second, the BIA has added decision documents for the
Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a Michigan
tribe that was denied federal recognition in March 2004,
and the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation of Connecticut, whose
status is now being reconsidered after receiving a favorable
final determination.
Other than that, the ADC is
still a Microsoft Access database that contains links to PDF
images of the documents. Indianz.Com
converted the database to a web page that you can find at
http://www.indianz.com/adc20/adc20.html.
The database only contains information on petitioners that
have received an answer -- preliminary or final -- on their
status. Groups that are still in the process are not included.
But for each petitioner that has received an answer, the
ADC has the following information:
letter of intent technical assistance letters, if any
proposed finding
final determination
The ADC does not contain evidence pertaining to each petitioner.
That information is found in the Federal Acknowledgment Information
Resource (FAIR), another Access database that BIA officials developed
for the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation of Connecticut. The system is
being used for all new recognition cases.
Documents in the ADC date as far back as 1826, when the
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana asked for recognition. The earliest
proposed finding, in favor of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa
and Chippewa in Michigan, is from 1979.
This version of the ADC posted online stops in August 2004. The previous
version 1.2, which we posted online posted
in July 2004, stopped in 2003.
The BIA had planned to post the ADC on its web site but still
hasn't received permission from a federal court to reconnect
to the Internet.
