The Biden administration’s bid to strengthen ties between the federal government and Native Americans included a promise to speed up the process for tribes to claim land as their own.
But this push to make it easier for tribes to put land into trust has created roiling disputes between tribal nations on the West Coast over the quest by some tribes to build new casinos — ventures that would compete with existing tribal casinos.
The conflicts demonstrate how two of President Joe Biden’s major pledges to Native Americans can end up at cross-purposes. At the same time the Biden administration aims to improve “nation-to-nation” consultation on federal policies, it is also attempting to bolster economic development and sovereignty for individual tribes that sometimes have competing economic interests.
The tensions are particularly acute around tribes without reservations — those at one time stripped of their ancestral lands or recognition by the federal government.
