Native American Legislative Update

On March 18, Deb Haaland was officially sworn in as secretary of the interior. As a member of the Laguna Pueblo, she becomes the first Native American woman to serve as a cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

Welcome to FCNL’s Native American Legislative Update! NALU is a monthly newsletter about FCNL’s Native American policy advocacy and ways for you to engage members of Congress.

The end of 2020 brought a number of critical developments for Indian Country on Capitol Hill, including tribal provisions in year-end spending and COVID relief.

As 2020 comes to an end, it is important that we take stock of the work we have done, and look ahead to what must be accomplished with a new Congress in 2021.

Despite extreme challenges to both in-person and mail-in voting on reservations, Native people were crucial to the 2020 elections.

President Trump signed Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act into law on Oct. 10, following last month’s passage of the two bills in the House. The bills will establish uniform law enforcement protocols and data collection standards in cases of missing and murdered Native Americans. They would also improve coordination between federal agencies and law enforcement in responding to these cases.

In a huge victory for Indian Country, both Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act passed in the House on Sept. 21. The bills, which already passed the Senate by unanimous consent in March, will help to address the rising numbers of missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. Both bills will now go to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing funding for domestic violence shelters and services. FVPSA is especially vital for Indian Country, as it is the primary source of funding for these services in tribal communities. Shelters, training and technical assistance, emergency response hotlines, and children’s services are all supported by this law.

In a landmark decision handed down on July 9, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that treaty rights designate most of eastern Oklahoma as reservation land. Because these lands were never ceded to the U.S. government, they fall under the definition of “Indian Country” under U.S. law.

On June 5, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe v. Bernhardt. The court ordered the Trump administration to reconsider a 2018 decision to take the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s land out of trust.