Demand Timely Consideration For Unrecognized Tribal Nations By the U.S. Government

Hundreds of tribes are taking the first step of petitioning to become recognized as a sovereign tribe in the United States. They submit it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and are put on a waiting list with hundreds of other tribes waiting as well. One or two tribes become federally recognized per year and some are never recognized at all. The reason recognition is so important is because they can then receive land or other benefits such as access to the federally funded Health Service available only to recognized tribes. This is also why suspicion surrounds the slow process; it has become so painfully slow that it seems like a choice made by the government. I strongly believe that promises and treaties should be honored, especially with everything the natives' ancestors endured because of us. Denial of access to services and land they have a right to is wrong and goes very much against the standards of the NASW Code of Ethics. I would like to see the BIA be held responsible for their lack of integrity regarding the process of tribal recognition and for it to speed up to at least the rate of twenty tribes per year.