Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indian Land Trust

Floor Speech

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2388) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to take certain Federal lands located in El Dorado County, California, into trust for the benefit of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, and for other purposes, as amended.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians occupies a Federal reservation in the Sierra foothills in El Dorado County, California. They lost much of their land when Highway 50 was constructed through the reservation several decades ago. They were left with enough land to eventually build a successful casino, but have very little additional space for tribal housing.

Adjacent to their reservation is a 40-acre abandoned and landlocked property. I say ``abandoned'' because it was never developed, and it is presently dangerously overgrown with scrub brush that is just waiting to become a wildfire, which could rapidly spread either to the existing reservation or to an adjacent residential neighborhood.

As it turns out, this abandoned parcel is owned by the Bureau of Land Management. The Bureau of Land Management didn't even know that it owned the property when the Miwok first approached it about this matter. In fact, I am told the BLM actually had to be convinced that it does, indeed, own the land that it has obviously never managed.

The Miwok would like to acquire this parcel for the reservation, making up some of the land they lost due to the construction of Highway 50. It would be used for tribal housing, and the bill specifically forbids its use for gambling, a condition that the Shingle Springs Band has agreed to.

The parcel is untended, overgrown, and unused, and this land transfer would put it to productive use for reservation housing, use fully compatible with adjacent land usage. Indeed, by doing so, the tribe will be removing a major risk for both the reservation and the nearby community. Access would be through the existing reservation to avoid any impact on the existing neighborhood, and the tribe is committed to working with the nearby homeowners association to assure that it doesn't affect the rural nature of the community.

The property is on unincorporated county land, and the County Board of Supervisors, which is the land use planning agency with jurisdiction over this land, fully supports the transfer.

The administration supports my bill. I urge adoption of the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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