On tribal recognition Martin treads familiar path

FROM THE ARCHIVE

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MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2003

The acting head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Friday said she feels "sympathy" for tribes seeking federal recognition, having grown up on a reservation where her family's Indian identity was denied.

Although Aurene Martin is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, she has strong ties to the Menominee Nation. During her youth in the 1960s and 1970s, the Wisconsin tribe -- one of the many victims of the the federal government's termination policy -- was battling to reclaim its federal status.

"We all knew we were Indian, we felt we were Indian very down to the core of our being," Martin said during an appearance on Native America Calling, "but we didn't have that relationship anymore with the federal government."

Martin's mother is a member of the tribe and her father has Menominee, Oneida and Chippewa blood. Both parents, she said, worked to restore the federal-tribal relationship, which culminated in success in 1973.

Martin said the experience has a big impact on the work she does today at the BIA.

"I have a real sympathy for the tribes who are applying for federal acknowledgment because I've met so many of those leaders from those tribes and I know that they are Indian people," she told host Harlan McKosato. "But the way the federal law is written, you have to follow all of these rules and you have to go through all of these steps to get recognized."

Martin's views on the controversial recognition process aren't all that different from some of her predecessors. Kevin Gover, who headed the BIA during the last three years of the Clinton administration, came under fire for looking through the process through historical eyes. He refused to penalize a tribe for lack of written documentation -- especially since federal and state governments tried to assimilate and stamp out Indians for many years.

"It didn't pay to be an Indian in those days," he said in a recent interview. "You were trying not to be noticed."

Unlike Gover, however, Bush administration officials aren't keen on straying from the BIA's regulations that require petitioning groups to satisfy seven criteria on a continuous basis. "It doesn't seem fair that as part of our regulations that we require them to show written documentation for those periods of time," Martin said.

"But that is the existing regulation and it has to be followed," she said.

The contradiction wasn't lost on Ivana, a caller to the show and a member of the Chinook Nation of Washington. Gover, on his last day in office, recognized the tribe but McCaleb later reversed the decision. "If we've been around for so many centuries, why can't the BIA recognize us as a tribe?" she asked. "I think that's unfair."

Martin's former boss, Neal McCaleb, retired last December without seeing a reform plan he helped draft put into action. Under a pending reorganization of the BIA, which was signed into effect last week, a new Office of Federal Acknowledgment will be created to handle recognition. McCaleb's plan envisioned an elevation in status and called for an increase in staff and budget, including pay raises.

The BIA was tasked with deciding who is Indian and who isn't in 1978. Since then, the agency has only recognized about 15 groups, denying status to an nearly equal amount. More than 200 are in the queue, about a dozen of which have been waiting in limbo for several years.

The situation can have a negative impact on a community, Martin recounted. After it was terminated, the Menominee Nation began to lose land, assets and economic wealth. Martin said tribal youth were adamant at seeing that stop.

"One of the things I remember feeling was a lot of uncertainty," Martin said. "But there was never any question in my mind . . . that we were Indian people."