For most of the past decade, a tribe the Interior Department turned down was turned down forever. That changed in 2025, and many people who follow federal recognition still don’t know it.
This explainer covers what the new re-petition process is, how it works, who is using it, and why the Feb. 14, 2030 deadline matters to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.
From “never” to “maybe”
When Interior rewrote its acknowledgment rules in 2015, it kept a flat ban. A group that had already been denied could not petition again. After court challenges and public pressure, the Department proposed lifting that ban in 2022. On Jan. 15, 2025, it finalized a rule adding a new “Re-Petition Authorization Process,” now Subpart D of 25 CFR Part 83.
The incoming administration delayed the effective date from Feb. 14 to March 21, 2025. It did not withdraw the rule. We have found no Federal Register notice rescinding or amending Subpart D since then, and the current Code of Federal Regulations still contains it.
The two ways back in
Under § 83.48, a denied group gets a second chance only if the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs finds it has “plausibly alleged” one or both of the following:
- The rules changed. Applying today’s Part 83 standards instead of the older rules used to deny the group “would, if applied on reconsideration, change the outcome of the previous, negative final determination to positive.”
- New evidence. Evidence “not previously submitted by the petitioner” would, if considered, change the outcome.
The bar is “plausibly alleged,” not “proven.” Winning permission to re-petition is not recognition. Under § 83.61, a grant only allows the group to file a new documented petition and go through the full process again. A denial of permission is final for the Department, can be challenged in federal court, and cannot be followed by another request.
The steps and the clock
A request needs a certification signed by the group’s governing body, a written narrative with citations, and supporting documents. The rule then sets out a schedule:
- OFA acknowledges receipt within 30 days and publishes notice in the Federal Register within 60 days.
- Anyone may comment for 120 days. If someone objects, the petitioner gets 60 days to respond.
- The request goes on a public register in the order it became ready. Full documented petitions generally go first, but a re-petition request that has waited more than two years gets priority over petitions filed after it.
- Once review starts, the Assistant Secretary must decide within 180 days, though that clock pauses while Interior waits on the petitioner.
The most important number is in § 83.49. A group denied before Feb. 14, 2025 must submit a complete request “no later than February 14, 2030.” Groups denied later get five years from the denial, paused while a court case is pending.
Who has used it
Three groups have publicly filed so far, according to Federal Register notices. They are the Miami Nation of Indians of the State of Indiana (August 2025), the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in Michigan (December 2025), and the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation in Connecticut (December 2025). The comment periods have closed. We found no published decision on any of the three.
No California group has appeared in the Federal Register as a re-petitioner.
What it means for Muwekma
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe was Petitioner #111. Interior issued its final determination against acknowledgment in September 2002. The decision came under the 1994 rules, which are older than today’s Part 83. That puts the Tribe within the re-petition rule’s reach and under the 2030 deadline.
Both § 83.48 paths are relevant. Interior’s 2002 decision accepted that the Tribe had “unambiguous previous Federal acknowledgement until 1927,” and denied it on what happened afterward. The current rules give previously recognized tribes a defined path under § 83.12. They must show community “at present,” and outside identification and political authority since their last federal acknowledgment or 1900, whichever is later. Whether those standards, applied to the Tribe’s record, would “change the outcome” is exactly the question the rule asks. Twenty-four years of research since 2002 may also count as new evidence.
There is also a principled case against having to ask at all. The Muwekma position, supported this year by Santa Clara’s City Council, is that a tribe the United States recognized and never lawfully terminated should be reinstated, not made to petition again. The D.C. Circuit, upholding the 2002 denial in 2013, wrote that “a once-recognized tribe can fade away.” The re-petition rule is Interior admitting that some of its own past “no” answers may have been wrong.
Congress can act at any time. The re-petition window will not stay open forever. Every Bay Area elected official who says they support the Muwekma Ohlone should know both facts, and the date: Feb. 14, 2030.
Leave a Reply