Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 932 - Aroostook Band of Micmacs Settlement Act

NOTE: An earlier version (11/1/91) was sent to the House — this Is a Revision.
(House)
(Snowe (R) ME and Andrews (D) ME)

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 932, because the bill would statutorily acknowledge the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians (Maine) as an Indian tribe. If H.R. 932 is presented to the President, the Secretary of the Interior would recommend a veto.

In 1978, the Department of the Interior established in regulation a Federal "acknowledgment" process to ensure that all petitions for acknowledgment as an Indian tribe would be evaluated in an objective and uniform manner. The process, developed with the support of the Indian community and Congress, provides each petitioning group the opportunity for an unbiased, detailed review of its petition.

Federal acknowledgment establishes a perpetual government-to- government relationship between the tribe and the United States and has major political, social, and economic implications for the petitioning tribe and Federal, State, and local governments.

H.R. 932, however, would circumvent this process. To do so may erroneously acknowledge a group as an Indian tribe, thereby entitling the group to numerous Federal programs and benefits afforded only federally recognized tribes. Recognition through legislation would be unfair to all other groups seeking Federal acknowledgment. It would also undermine the administrative process that was designed to eliminate the need for ad hoc determinations through legislation.

Furthermore, the Administration finds no basis for any assertion that the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act prohibits the Aroostook Band from seeking Federal acknowledgment. The 1980 Act, which extinguished the aboriginal land and natural resource claims of Indian groups in Maine, neither prohibits the Aroostook Band from seeking acknowledgment recognition through the standard acknowledgment process, nor prevents the Department of the Interior from reviewing and acting on a petition for acknowledgment of the Aroostook Band.