Shoshone-Bannock Tribal officials and DOI representatives.
By ECHO MARSHALL
Tribal Public Affairs
FORT HALL — On April 9, the Fort Hall Business Council (FHBC) met with United States Department of Interior (DOI) Representatives Wizipan Garriott, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs and Bryan Mercier, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Regional Director and staff to discuss the 600,000-acre Eastern Boundary Survey Error that resulted from a federal land survey conducted in 1873.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the current status of the matter, review maps and next steps that need to be taken to get the land back. They also discussed salmon and buffalo treaty issues.
In 2012, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (Tribes) requested the United States through the BIA and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Cadastral Survey Office to investigate and determine whether the federal land survey of 1873 was consistent with the land boundary descriptions set forth in the Executive Order of June 14, 1867, and Articles 2 and 4 of the Fort Bridger Treaty with the Eastern Band of Shoshone and Bannock Tribes. The 1867 Executive Order documents provided the Tribes’ reservation would be 1.8 million acres of land, however, the Tribes only received 1.2 million acres when the exterior boundaries of the Reservation were drawn following the 1873 survey.
In 2018, the BLM issued an investigation report detailing the history of the 1873 survey, but the FHBC found it unacceptable and requested that a historical report be completed which reflected the historical treaties of the Tribes, and the intent of the Tribal leaders in utilizing their aboriginal homelands.
On December 5, 2023, Vice Chairwoman Donna Thompson, and Council member Sammy Matsaw Jr. met with Principal Deputy Garriott, Mercier, and additional DOI staff in Washington D.C. about the boundary matter among a list of other issues. At that time, DOI officials expressed a willingness to resolve the boundary dispute, and discussions on the matter have continued.
In January, the Tribes secured funding from the BIA for a historical report to be completed on the boundary matter. Gregory Smoak, a Historian from the University of Utah has prepared a report setting out the understanding of Tribal leaders regarding the formation of the Fort Hall Reservation.
The Tribes goals are to: 1) secure a commitment from the United States to resolve the boundary matter; 2) obtain federal land from the United States that was promised and set forth in the 1867 Executive Order and confirmed in the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty; 3) secure compensation from the United States for the lands that were not provided or reserved as part of the Fort Hall Reservation despite the promises made; 4) resolution of the century old boundary issues through a settlement agreement providing for a transfer of federal lands and compensation to the Tribes; and (5) federal legislation approving the settlement.
“We’ve been working for quite a while now with our staff and attorneys on developing maps identifying the federal lands we are requesting to be transferred back to the Tribes or co-managed, it’s a significant acreage,” stated FHBC Sgt. At Arms Gaylen Edmo. Edmo expressed that he wanted it to be very clear what our next steps needed to be to effectively make progress on this issue.
Principal Deputy Garriott said that he was reading the Fort Bridger Treaty and the section that caught his eye was that the President may at any time order a survey of these reservations and with those surveys congress shall provide and protect the rights of the Indian settlers. “It’s written right there in the treaty, he said”. “In the Secretary’s Order of Co-Stewardship, there is a line that states and return land to the Tribes and that is something that the Administration has not done a lot of work on yet. It’s something that is there in the records, it’s a Secretarial Order, so it’s our job to figure out how to do that.”
Mercier explained that once the historical report is submitted the DOI will review and recommend that the survey was in fact incorrect and that it needs to be fixed, and finalize what amount of land the Biden administration will agree to transfer. We can then start the process of reaching out to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency where the U.S. Forest Service is located. Mercier explained that legislation is going to take years. The short-term goal is getting the Administration’s position on this before January 2025.
Although the entire process of transferring lands back to the Tribes can be lengthy, there are things we can start doing now beginning with co-stewardship with the local federal agency of those lands, which includes helping to manage the lands and offering direction on the uses of those lands. Co-stewardship reminds the local constituency that the Tribes are the original habitants with the principle knowledge and to be inclusive to the diversity of resources needed to be effective.
“The lands we have identified are near and dear to our hearts, and it is not just in Idaho because our Treaty was prior to the states,” said Chairman Lee Juan Tyler. “We have to ask where our Trustees are at and protect these lands. Every species of our ecosystem, including our food chain need to be protected. Not everyone sees this significance of it, but that’s how the Natives see it,” he said.