Sponsors
The bill expands tribal lands and secures treaty rights while promoting river conservation, at the cost of limiting certain economic uses (notably gaming), reducing some routine federal financial review, and potentially shifting or complicating federal park management and program implementation.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and associated indigenous communities: ~1,082.63 acres of federal land are placed into trust and added to the Tribe's Reservation, expanding tribal land base and jurisdiction.
Residents and ecosystems along the Elwha River: the specified river segment will be managed under a Wild and Scenic Rivers framework (with tailored modifications), promoting river protection and ecosystem restoration.
S'Klallam and other local indigenous tribal communities: the Act explicitly preserves existing 1855 treaty rights and provides legal certainty that those treaty rights cannot be diminished by this legislation.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe: the Act prohibits application of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on the newly placed trust lands, preventing Class II/III gaming there and limiting a potential avenue for tribal economic development.
Taxpayers and state governments: excluding the land transfer from standard valuation, appraisal, and equalization requirements reduces fiscal transparency and limits normal federal review of the transfer's financial impacts.
Local governments and rural communities that use National Park Service lands for recreation: transferring some NPS parcels into tribal trust could reduce federally managed park acreage and potentially affect federal recreation management or related revenues.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Places ~1,082.63 acres of specified federal land into trust for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, adds it to the reservation, requires survey/boundary corrections, applies Wild and Scenic Rivers management, and bars IGRA gaming on those lands.
Places about 1,082.63 acres of specified federal land into trust for the benefit of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and makes that land part of the Lower Elwha Indian Reservation. The bill directs the Department of the Interior to survey and allow minor boundary corrections, exempts the transfer from certain valuation and appraisal rules, applies Wild and Scenic Rivers management to the relevant portion of the Elwha River (with required modifications), and expressly bars treating the transferred land as "Indian lands" for purposes of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It also states that nothing in the Act affects treaty rights under the Treaty of Point No Point (1855).
Introduced March 26, 2025 by Emily Randall · Last progress December 10, 2025