To extend Federal recognition to the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians, and for other purposes.

February 28, 2002

Mrs. BONO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources

To extend Federal recognition to the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians Federal Recognition Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The Gabrieleno Indians, aboriginally known as the kumi-vit, live within their homelands along the drainages of the Santa Ana and San Gabriel Rivers and the San Pedro, Wilmington, and Paso Robles areas of southern California.

(2) The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians are recognized by anthropologists, historians, and genealogists, as the lineal, social, and political descendants of Native Americans contacted by Spanish and Portuguese explorers and settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries.

(3) In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Spanish Mission San Gabriel was established on Gabrieleno Indian homelands causing the loss of their land base and disruption of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians.

(4) Today's Gabrieleno Indians are direct lineal descendants of enrollees on the 1928 Indian Census and on the 1933 supplemental roll book pursuant to the Act of May 8, 1928.

(5) Gabrieleno tribal culture, manifest in life and burial rites and other social and religious practices, has been handed down generation-to-generation to the present day.

(6) The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians is an Indian Tribe which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians and does in fact receive such services.

(7) The Bureau of Indian Affairs has determined the Gabrieleno tribal blood quantum of each of the enrolled members of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians and, for this and other reasons, the members of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians receive certain Federal and State services that are afforded to them only because they are Indians.

(8) The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians of California, Inc., was incorporated as a California nonprofit corporation on May 16, 2000, for the purpose of administering the business of the Tribe.

(9) The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians of California, Inc., is eligible for certain Federal programs because of its tribal and legal status and has provided grants to it in support of tribal governance.

(10) The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians, Inc., is recognized by other federally recognized tribes in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties of California, as the governing body of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians.

(11) The Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians is desirous of securing its cultural and its social and economic future and land on which to bury the remains of ancestors and for other purposes.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

For the purposes of this Act the following definitions apply:

(1) MEMBER- The term `member' means an enrolled member of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, or an individual who has been placed on the membership roles in accordance with this Act.

(2) SECRETARY- The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of the Interior.

(3) TRIBE- The term `Tribe' means the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians.

SEC. 4. FEDERAL RECOGNITION.

Federal recognition is hereby extended to the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians. All laws and regulations of the United States of general application to Indians, or nations, tribes, or band of Indians, including the Act of June 18, 1934 (25 U.S.C. 461 et seq.) which are not inconsistent with any specific provision of this Act, shall be applicable to the Tribe and its members.

SEC. 5. FEDERAL SERVICES AND BENEFITS.

(a) IN GENERAL- The Tribe and its members shall be eligible, on and after the date of the enactment of this Act, for all future services and benefits provided by the Federal Government to federally recognized tribes without regard to the existence of a reservation for the Tribe or the location of the residence of any member on or near any Indian reservation.

(b) SERVICE AREA- For purposes of the delivery of Federal services to enrolled members of the Tribe, the Tribe's service area shall be coterminous with the Mission Area of the Southern California Agency of the Sacramento Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

SEC. 6. MEMBERSHIP.

Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Tribe shall submit to the Secretary a membership roll consisting of all individuals enrolled in the Tribe. The qualifications for inclusion on the membership roll of the Tribe shall be determined by the membership clauses in the Tribe's governing document, in consultation with the Secretary. Upon completion of the roll, the Secretary shall immediately publish notice of the roll in the Federal Register. The Tribe shall ensure that such roll is maintained and kept current.

SEC. 7. CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNING BODY.

(a) CONSTITUTION-

(1) ADOPTION- Not later than 24 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Tribe shall conduct, by secret ballot, an election to adopt a constitution and bylaws for the Tribe.

(2) INTERIM GOVERNING DOCUMENTS- Until such time as a new constitution is adopted under paragraph (1), the governing documents in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act shall be the interim governing documents for the Tribe.

(b) OFFICIALS- Not later than 6 months after the Tribe adopts a constitution and bylaws pursuant to subsection (a), the Tribe shall elect a governing body in accordance with the procedures set forth in its constitution and bylaws. Until such time as a new governing body is elected, the governing body of the Tribe shall be the governing body selected under the election procedures specified in the interim governing documents of the Tribe.

SEC. 8. LAND IN TRUST.

(a) REQUIREMENT TO TAKE LAND INTO TRUST- If, not later than 25 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Tribe transfers all right, title, and interest in and to any land identified under subsection (b) as its aboriginal homelands to the Secretary, the Secretary shall take such land into trust for the benefit of the Tribe.

(b) IDENTIFICATION OF ABORIGINAL LANDS- Not later than 10 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall identify those lands which shall be considered the aboriginal homelands of the Tribe for the purposes of subsection (a).

SEC. 9. GAMING.

Gaming regulated by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act shall not be conducted on lands taken into trust for the benefit of the Tribe pursuant to this Act.

END