For tribes the Bureau of Indian Affairs has turned away, the question has always been where else to go. In 2026, the answer is increasingly the same: Congress.
Chinook: “Congress remains the most viable answer”
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Chinook Indian Nation’s case seeking restoration of federal recognition under the 1994 List Act, OPB and Underscore Native News reported. That left in place a June 2025 Ninth Circuit ruling dismissing the suit.
The Chinook story is one of the cruelest in the recognition system. The BIA recognized the nation in 2001. After the Quinault Indian Nation challenged the decision, Interior took that recognition away about 18 months later. “We are the only tribe in the history of that process that was ever recognized and then had it taken away like that,” Chairman Tony Johnson told The Oregonian.
“The courts were never going to be a fast answer,” Johnson told Underscore after the Supreme Court denial. “Congress remains the most viable answer to a short-term solution for recognition.”
On Aug. 15, a couple hundred Chinook citizens gathered at Tansy Point, near the mouth of the Columbia River, to mark 175 years since the 1851 treaty negotiations there. Those treaties were never ratified. Johnson said the tribe is “currently in the process of drafting a bill and socializing and doing the work to ensure that when the bill is introduced, everybody’s concerns are addressed, and that ultimately there’s no opposition.”
Johnson also said lawmakers have long told the Chinook they can’t move a bill until every tribe agrees. “Well, the Republican delegation in North Carolina just proved that that is not true,” he told Underscore.
Lumbee: proof it can be done
He was talking about the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. On Dec. 18, 2025, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 became law, and with it federal recognition for the Lumbee, despite what Johnson called opposition “from some of the largest and most powerful tribes in the country.” Interior added the Lumbee to the Jan. 30, 2026 list of 575 federally recognized tribes.
The recognition came with conditions. According to the Federal Register notice, Public Law 119-60, section 8803, requires “the Secretary of the Interior’s verification of the Tribe’s roll, the development of a determination of needs for services, and a general delay in the delivery of services until the third fiscal year following the date of enactment.” The tribe reported on July 7 that BIA representatives had visited Lumbee territory “as we continue moving forward with the next steps in the roll verification process.”
The Lumbee are not the first tribe recognized through a defense bill. In 2019, Congress affirmed the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana the same way, as this paper has noted.
California’s own bill: introduced and stalled
California has a recognition bill in this Congress too, and it shows the limits of the legislative route. H.R. 5820, the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe Recognition Act, was introduced Oct. 24, 2025, by Rep. Kevin Kiley of California’s 3rd District. Its only recorded action is referral to the House Natural Resources Committee the same day. It has had no hearing.
The bill would extend recognition to the Paiute people of the Mono Lake Basin, make them eligible for federal services, set Mono and Inyo counties as their service area, and require Interior to take certain Mono County land into trust. As written, the tribe would have to submit a membership roll within 18 months of enactment.
What it means for Muwekma
For the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, the legislative route has always been part of the strategy. When the Trail of Truth set out on horseback in 2024, its demand was that “the Congress and the Administration affirm the Tribe’s never-terminated federal status.”
The 2026 record offers both hope and warning. Lumbee shows that a determined congressional delegation can push recognition through over powerful tribal opposition, and that a must-pass bill like the NDAA can carry it. Chinook shows that a tribe once recognized and then stripped of that status can be left with no other door. And the Mono Lake bill shows that introduction is not the hard part. Getting a hearing is.
The Muwekma face a particular obstacle. Members of their own Bay Area delegation, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren and former Rep. Anna Eshoo, have written letters opposing local resolutions in support of the Tribe. The Lumbee win depended on a home-state delegation that pushed hard. Until a Bay Area member is willing to carry a Muwekma bill, the path that worked for the Lumbee stays closed to the Ohlone.
The Muwekma Times will track any recognition legislation introduced before the 119th Congress ends in January.
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