Thursday, June 2, 2022
3:00p.m. — 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Please register in advance

Monday, June 6, 2022
2:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Please register in advance

The Department of the Interior (Department) is taking this opportunity to consult on whether it should reconsider its prior decision to ban re-petitioning under 25 CFR part 83 (Part 83) — the regulations establishing the process and criteria for how the Department administratively
acknowledges Indian Tribes.

Since 1994, the Part 83 regulations have included an express ban on re-petitioning. In a 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the Department proposed giving previously denied petitioners an opportunity to re-petition, subject to several conditions. However, in a 2015 Final
Rule revising Part 83, the Department ultimately decided to retain the ban.

In 2020, in litigation initiated by two previously denied petitioners, two federal district courts in Chinook Indian Nation v. Bernhardt and Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians v. Bernhardt held that the Department’s stated reasons for retaining the ban, as articulated in the
2015 Final Rule, were arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Both courts remanded the ban to tie Department for further consideration. The Department now proposes continuing the previous ban on re-petitioning under Part 83 and seeks Tribal leader
input on this matter.

The Department will conduct two virtual consultation sessions listed below and will accept oral and written comments. The Department will also host a listening session for present, former, and prospective petitioners. Please register in advance for any consultation session you plan on attending.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please note that these Tribal consultations will be closed to the press and the public to protect confidential information that may be, discussed during the sessions.