Federal government restores land to CRITs
15,000 acres north & south of interstate 10 were taken in early 20th century

PARKER -- (Aug. 3) Taken by the federal government during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson, a massive tract of land off Interstate 10 in western Arizona has been restored to the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), thanks to a measure passed by the United States Congress and signed yesterday by President Bush.

The United State Senate passed the legislation in late July, following the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed the bill in April.

The newly restored 15,000 acres are part of CRIT's ancestral homeland and were first recognized as part of the Colorado River Indian Reservation by President Abraham Lincoln and later expanded by President U.S. Grant. In 1915, the parcel was taken from the tribe by President Wilson through an executive order.

It was then that a large mining company approached the Tribe to secure a lease for a silver mining operation on what are known as the "La Paz Lands." When the Tribe refused, the company lobbied Wilson to cut the La Paz Lands from the reservation. Wilson gave in to the mining interests and issued an executive order that took the lands from the Colorado River Indian Tribes without compensation.

But nearly 100 years later and thanks to the United States Congress and the Bush administration the Colorado River Indian Reservation Boundary Correction Act has become a reality. Sponsored by Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) and actively supported by Congressmen Flake, Renzi, Hayworth and Pastor, as well as U.S. Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, the act corrects this historic injustice.

"We've been working for decades to have these lands returned to our people because we believe it is the fair and right thing for the Federal Government to do," said Tribal Chairman Daniel Eddy, Jr. "We simply wanted to see a past wrong corrected and have these lands returned to our people. We want to thank so many of our elected officials in Arizona as well as the United States Congress and the administration for turning this dream into a reality," Eddy, Jr. said.

According to the legislation two parcels totaling 840 acres of Arizona State Trust land that were created within the La Paz Lands along Interstate 10 are not included in the transfer of the lands back to the tribe. The state would continue to have ingress and egress along the interstate.

The legislation also requires the maintenance of all remaining mining claims and utility easements on the site. Gaming is prohibited.

The 15,000 acres will now join CRIT's other 270,000 acres of reservation and will now comprise its southern boundary.

CRIT and its members have conducted lengthy letter-writing campaigns over the years to the Department of the Interior in an effort to get the lands back. However, the Department of the Interior came to the decision that it did not have the power to overturn an executive order, and that Congress or the president would have to do it.

The late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater had introduced legislation in 1980 and 1981 to give the land back to the tribe, but the legislation did not pass.

When the Senate Indian Affairs Committee considered the bill in 1981, Sen. Goldwater testified, "I feel very close to this because my grandfather settled in La Paz in 1860. At that time, there was no question that it was Indian land. . . . So I feel very strongly about the Indians and their regard for this land. Just wanting land for whatever commercial value may be involved is alright. But this is ancestral land that Indians have long had a proper claim to."

The Grijalva legislation was introduced in 2003, and marked the first attempt at a legislative remedy in more than two decades. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year but the U.S. Senate adjourned before voting.

The Colorado River Indian Reservation lies along the Colorado River in western Arizona and eastern California. Tribal members are from the Navajo, Chemeheuvi, Hopi and Mohave tribes. The Tribes have a long history of robust agricultural enterprises, including alfalfa, cotton, wheat, melons, and produce.

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