Sponsors (2)
The bill transfers land into trust and explicitly preserves tribal treaty rights and river protections—boosting tribal control and environmental safeguards—while limiting federal valuation oversight and barring gaming on the new trust lands, which reduces some revenue and public park acreage/options.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe: approximately 1,082.63 acres are taken into trust for the Tribe, expanding tribal landholdings and local control over those resources.
Members of the S'Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes: treaty-guaranteed rights (e.g., fishing, hunting, land use) are explicitly preserved, reducing legal uncertainty and helping maintain cultural and local economic practices tied to those rights.
Tribal and local communities: the portion of the Elwha River transferred with the land is placed under Wild and Scenic Rivers Act management (with modifications), providing stronger protections for river values within the trust area.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe: the transferred land is explicitly excluded from being treated as 'Indian lands' under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, preventing Class II/III gaming development on that land and limiting a potential revenue source.
State and local governments and taxpayers: the transferred land is excluded from federal valuation/appraisal/equalization rules, which may reduce transparency and complicate tax or compensation calculations.
Local residents and visitors: moving certain National Park Service parcels into trust reduces federal park acreage and could affect public access or recreational uses on those parcels.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 29, 2025 by Maria E. Cantwell · Last progress April 29, 2025
Transfers about 1,082.63 acres of federal land to be held in trust for the benefit of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and adds that land to the Lower Elwha Indian Reservation. The bill requires a land survey and allows minor map or boundary corrections, applies Wild and Scenic Rivers Act management to the relevant portion of the Elwha River (with necessary modifications), excludes the transferred parcels from certain federal valuation/appraisal/equalization rules, and expressly bars treating the land as "Indian lands" under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Act also states that it does not change or weaken treaty rights guaranteed by the 1855 Treaty of Point No Point for the S'Klallams Indians.