During the mid-year conference of the National Congress of A merican Indians (NCAI) in Reno. Nevada\, the Department of the Interior wil l be hosting sessions on two topics to obtain your and other tribal leaders ' input. We hope that you will be able to join senior officials from the De partment of the Interior (Department) and me to discuss contract support co sts funding practices and regulations governing decisions to acquire land i n trust. While we were unable to provide a full 30-days advance notice of t hese sessions. we have purposefully scheduled the consultation sessions to accommodate the schedules of tribal leaders who will attend the NCAl confer ence.
\n\;At the Patchak Patch session\, we will discuss potenti al revisions to a section of the regulations addressing decisions by the Se cretary to approve or deny applications to acquire land in trust.
\nY
ou may be familiar with the U\,S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Palchak eas
el\, finding that the Quiet Title Act did not preclude a neighbor of the tr
ibe's land from challenging the Department's \;decision to take the lan
d into trust. The revisions to the regulations would address this decision
by ensuring that the Department acquires title in trust status as promptly
as possible following \;our decision to acquire land into trust. The re
visions would also establish notice requirements to ensure that the statute
of limitations begins running for all potential challengers as soon as pos
sible. These and other provisions are also intended to strengthen the case
for requiring parties who oppose a Bureau of Indian Affairs land acquisitio
n decision to exhaust administrative remedies and prevent such parties from
challenging the trust acquisition decision if they fail to exhaust adminis
trative remedies in a timely manner. Together\, these revisions should add
more certainty to trust acquisitions\, allowing tribes to put their newly a
cquired trust land to productive
\nuse as soon as possible.