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Attorney: Kim Gottschalk
Case Update
In February 1997, the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research (BAR) placed the Tribe's federal recognition petition on active review status.
After many delays, the Assistant Secretary in July of 2000, published a preliminary finding in favor of recognition. On October 18-19, 2000 a technical assistance meeting was held with the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) to outline a program of action to strengthen the petition prior to the final determination. Substantial work was done to strengthen the Tribe's petition and the final submissions were made in February 2005. In addition, Patton and Boggs, a large D.C. firm, is representing the Tribe pro bono in seeking legislative recognition. There was a hearing in October before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on S.724, a bill to recognize the Little Shell Tribe sponsored by Senators Tester and Baucus of Montana. The Committee indicated it would take action on the bill in the 1st quarter of 2009. OFA began active consideration of the Tribe's new material on August 1, 2007, and conducted a three week site visit on October 1, 2007. OFA had previously indicated it would reach a final determination on the Tribe's petition by the end of calendar 2007. This deadline was not met; the date was moved to the end of July 2008. Before that date arrived, the Assistant Secretary granted them a new deadline of January 28, 2009 and on January 15, 2009, granted yet another extension to July 27, 2009.
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