releases: https://gianforte.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/little-shell-recognition-bill-close-passage
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://gianforte.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/little-shell-recognition-bill-close-passage | Little Shell recognition bill close to passage | 2019-12-10 | 2019 | 2019-12 | Republican | House | MT | Greg Gianforte | G000584 | gianforte.house.gov | legacy | The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians are two steps away from federal recognition. Recognition was included in a defense appropriations bill that came out of a joint committee Monday, and now needs approval from the House and Senate and the president's signature for the tribe to be federally recognized after more than a century of effort by the Little Shell. The recognition was kept in a defense appropriations bill by the joint committee resolving differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill. The tribe has been seeking federal recognition for decades, with Montana recognizing the Little Shell as a tribe in 2001. The Department of the Interior has refused to recognize the tribe, leading to efforts in Congress to recognize the tribe. The Little Shell Tribe is headquartered in Great Falls and has more than 5,400 enrolled members across Montana and outside of the state. Last year, a bill sponsored by Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., was the first Little Shell recognition bill to pass out of the U.S. House of Representatives, but it was killed in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who blocked a vote on Little Shell recognition. A bill sponsored by Gianforte this year again passed the House, but was not taken up in the Senate. Gianforte praised the recognition's inclusion in the defense approtiations. "For too long, the Little Shell Tribe has had to wait for federal recognition, he said this morning. The efforts of Chairman Gray and the Little Shell people have put this overdue recognition closer to reality. I'm proud to have worked with Chairman Gray to clear this bill through the U.S. House in 2018 and 2019, and to get where we are today. Working together, we're nearing the finish line for this worthy cause." Recognition would allow the tribe to receive the same benefits allowed to other federally recognized tribes across the country. Native American Tribes must be recognized as sovereign nations by the federal government in order to exercise full self-governance. This nation-to-nation relationship allows tribes to access critical resources for economic development, health care and education and regulate affairs on tribal lands on terms that are socially and culturally appropriate. (Click here to view the full story) | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |