Blackfeet Descendants are a Tribal Land owning group. They are federally recognized American Indians descended from original Blackfeet Allottees. They have the right to seek Federal recognition as a band of Blackfeet Descendants of original allottees if they should choose to do so. Tribal recognition and Federal recognition are two different things. If you cannot get federal recognition through a tribe you can get it by getting recognized as a band of Blackfeet Descendants separate from the Blackfeet Tribe. Their landbase is their Allotments.
Primer on Federal Recognition And Current Issues Affecting Process
Prepared For NCAI Winter Session
February, 2001
Updated November 21, 2001
Jennifer P. Hughes, Esq.
page 3
"2.Who Cannot Petition?"
"Tribes, organized bands, pueblos, Alaska native villages, and communities which are already recognized as such and receive services from the BIA cannot be reviewed under the FAP process. Neither can associations, organizations, corporations or groups of any character that have been formed in recent times (the fact that a group that meets the mandatory criteria under the regulations has recently incorporated or formalized its existing autonomous political process does not affect the Assistant Secretary's final decision on its petition). Splinter groups, political factions or groups of any nature that separate from the main body of a currently recognized tribe cannot be acknowledged under the FAP process unless the group can establish that it has functioned throughout history until the present as an autonomous tribal entity. Groups that subject to federal legislation terminating or forbidding federal recognition as a tribe cannot be acknowledged under the FAP process. Lastly, groups that have previously petitioned and were denied cannot petition."
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