Washington, DC — The National Wildlife Federation heralded the House of Representatives’ overwhelming passage of both H.R. 312, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, and H.R. 375, which reaffirms the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for Native American tribes.

”Tens of millions of acres of high value tribal lands were illegally taken from tribal hands by the U.S. Government,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO on the National Wildlife Federation. “By overwhelmingly passing these two bills, the House of Representatives unambiguously affirmed the government’s authority and responsibility to support federally recognized Indian tribes by taking lands into trust, remedying a decade-old Supreme Court decision which called into question the government’s critical role as trustee in restoring these lost homelands. Thank you to Chairman Grijalva, Representatives Cole, McCollum and Keating for leading passage of these important bills that will ensure we can continue to restore native lands to tribes, righting grievous wrongs in America’s history.”