Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Land Transfer Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present this bill at the request of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to transfer 80 acres of BLM land and 185 acres of fee simple land that is already owned by the Tribe into trust as part of their reservation for the purposes of housing.

Mr. Speaker, I have always insisted that any transfer of lands from fee simple ownership to Federal trust must have the approval of the local land use management agency that is responsible for this land, since it takes that land off of the tax rolls and out of the agency's jurisdiction. I am pleased to report that the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has unanimously endorsed this bill effecting the transfer.

This particular tract was approved for residential housing in the past, but the projects never materialized. This land transfer will bring a new neighborhood into the community, providing desperately needed housing to Tribal members. The Tribe already owns this land. It merely seeks the freedom afforded by Federal trust status to bring it to fruition.

The transfer of the 80 acres of Federal BLM land should also be a no- brainer. The BLM long ago abandoned this tract to neglect, and it is now densely overgrown and a serious fire hazard for the surrounding communities.

Putting this land under the active management of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians assures that good stewardship can be restored to this acreage in perpetuity.

The local government did request some restrictions on the use of the land, which the Tribal government has agreed to. The property cannot be used for gaming, nor for commerce beyond what is necessary to support the needs of the new neighborhood.

Frankly, I hope that future boards will agree to expand the permissible use of this land. In the meantime, both the Tribal government and the local government have agreed to these restrictions, and they are incorporated into this act.

Mr. Speaker, I will take just a moment to tell you about the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians because it is a remarkable tale of resilience, determination, and triumph.

The members of this Tribe are the descendants of the Miwok and Southern Maidu people who populated the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Central Valley of California for many thousands of years. Spanish colonization devastated the Native population in the 18th century, and the 19th century gold rush all but obliterated it. By 1913, the entire Native population of California had plummeted from an estimated 310,000 down to just 17,000.

In the aftermath, the few surviving members of the Miwok Tribe were allocated 160 acres as a rancheria, but the construction of Highway 50 cut the residents off from easy access and the members dispersed into the surrounding communities.

The Indian Reorganization Act breathed new life into the isolated, disbanded descendants, and the members returned and reorganized as the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the only federally recognized Tribe in El Dorado County. They have achieved remarkable success in the years that have followed.

This small Tribe, numbering an estimated 500 enrolled members, raised the private money to build an off ramp from Highway 50 to restore access to their rancheria. They used the opportunities afforded under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to construct the Red Hawk Casino. From that success, they have expanded into a hospitality and recreation center for the region, providing employment, commerce, healthcare, and all of the spinoff commercial activity that that means to the surrounding community.

The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians survived near annihilation during the Spanish colonization and gold rush eras only to become a prosperous and integral part of El Dorado County. I am honored to carry this legislation that will continue their progress and contributions to their posterity and to our community into the years ahead.

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