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Week Ending April 15, 2005
HR 794 to correct the south boundary of the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona and for other purposes.
BRIEF
The Colorado Indian Reservation was created in 1865 along the Colorado River and the reservation was expanded by President Grant in 1874. The next year surveyor Chandler Robbins clarified the southern boundary including 16,000 additional acres. The next year President Grant made the Robbins survey valid by Executive Order.
The land was encroached upon by miners and cattlemen in the early 1900s and in 1915 President Wilson produced an Executive Order that removed the additional 16,000 acres from the original survey.
It turns out that President Wilson’s conclusions were wrong and now, 90 years later the 16,000 acres are returned to the reservation, and are held in trust by the US government for the Colorado River Indian tribes. The public can continue to utilize the land for recreation. Gambling casinos, however, will not be allowed on the land.
Sponsor: Representative Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ-7th)
Vote: Passed House by voice vote (April 12, 2005)
Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost.
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MORE INFORMATION
(a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the `Colorado River Indian Reservation Boundary Correction Act'.
(b) Findings- Congress finds the following:
(1) The Act of March 3, 1865, created the Colorado River Indian Reservation (hereinafter `Reservation') along the Colorado River in Arizona and California for the `Indians of said river and its tributaries'.
(2) In 1873 and 1874, President Grant issued Executive Orders to expand the Reservation southward and to secure its southern boundary at a clearly recognizable geographic location in order to forestall non-Indian encroachment and conflicts with the Indians of the Reservation.
(3) In 1875, Mr. Chandler Robbins surveyed the Reservation (hereinafter `the Robbins Survey') and delineated its new southern boundary, which included approximately 16,000 additional acres (hereinafter `the La Paz lands'), as part of the Reservation.
(4) On May 15, 1876, President Grant issued an Executive Order that established the Reservation's boundaries as those delineated by the Robbins Survey.
(5) In 1907, as a result of increasingly frequent trespasses by miners and cattle and at the request of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the General Land Office of the United States provided for a resurvey of the southern and southeastern areas of the Reservation.
(6) In 1914, the General Land Office accepted and approved a resurvey of the Reservation conducted by Mr. Guy Harrington in 1912 (hereinafter the `Harrington Resurvey') which confirmed the boundaries that were delineated by the Robbins Survey and established by Executive Order in 1876.
(7) On November 19, 1915, the Secretary of the Interior reversed the decision of the General Land Office to accept the Harrington Resurvey, and upon his recommendation on November 22, 1915, President Wilson issued Executive Order No. 2273 `. . . to correct the error in location said southern boundary line . . .'--and thus effectively excluded the La Paz lands from the Reservation.
(8) Historical evidence compiled by the Department of the Interior supports the conclusion that the reason given by the Secretary in recommending that the President issue the 1915 Executive Order--`to correct an error in locating the southern boundary'--was itself in error and that the La Paz lands should not have been excluded from the Reservation.
(9) The La Paz lands continue to hold cultural and historical significance, as well as economic development potential, for the Colorado River Indian tribes, who have consistently sought to have such lands restored to their Reservation.
(c) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are:
(1) To correct the south boundary of the Reservation by reestablishing such boundary as it was delineated by the Robbins Survey and affirmed by the Harrington Resurvey.
(2) To restore the La Paz lands to the Reservation, subject to valid existing rights under Federal law and to provide for continued reasonable public access for recreational purposes.
(3) To provide for the Secretary of the Interior to review and ensure that the corrected Reservation boundary is resurveyed and marked in conformance with the public system of surveys extended over such lands.
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