Virginia Republicans kill bill giving Indian tribes a role in reviewing development on ancestral lands
March 2, 2022 at 7:38 p.m. EST
RICHMOND — Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates on Wednesday blocked a bill that would have given the state’s federally recognized Indian tribes a voice in the permitting process for development projects that affect ancestral lands.
The measure had cleared the Senate on a unanimous vote of 40 to 0 and had bipartisan support in the House, but a subcommittee rejected it Wednesday and urged bringing it back next year for consideration.
Former governor Ralph Northam (D) issued an executive order last fall, shortly before leaving office, that required state agencies to notify the state’s seven federally recognized tribes when considering projects that affect their traditional lands. Advocates for the Indigenous tribes had hoped to codify the order to ensure the practice would continue.
New rule requires consultation with Virginia tribes about development
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who took office Jan. 15, has not rescinded Northam’s order but has not signaled whether he intends to follow it. A spokeswoman for Youngkin did not respond to a request for comment.
Federal law requires that sovereign Indian tribes be given a chance to comment on development permitting that affects federal tribal areas. The law that failed Wednesday was an effort to require the same practice for state government.
“We’re just … asking for the respect that all the other federally recognized tribes across the continent get. Give us a seat at the table when the negotiations get started,” Upper Mattaponi Chief Frank Adams told members of a House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources subcommittee on Wednesday.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond), would not give tribes veto power over most development projects but would require the state to give them an opportunity to comment as part of any permitting process. The one exception would be projects that involve relocating burials, in which case tribes would have to sign off on appropriate methods for relocating human remains.
The bill failed in the subcommittee on a 5 to 5 vote, with one Republican joining all four Democrats in supporting it. A similar bill in the House, sponsored by Del. Paul E. Krizek (D-Fairfax), failed before the same subcommittee in early February. Del. Lee Ware (R-Powhatan), the committee chairman, at that time questioned the impact of the bill.
“It has the potential, in my judgment, to have a very wide-ranging … effect with a variety of permitting processes with state agencies,” Ware said at the Feb. 7 hearing.
The tribes have pushed for a greater role in reviewing development projects around the state that impact their ancestral sites and, in many cases, the archaeological remnants of their cultures. Because state law does not guarantee them a review, the tribes most often find out about impacts from proposed development only after projects have advanced through the permitting process.
The proposed law “just means giving tribes a seat at table to offer concerns or information. Agencies still have full authority to move forward over the objections of the tribe,” Marion Werkheiser, a lawyer representing six of the seven tribes, told the House committee last month.
While Werkheiser said she was disappointed by Wednesday’s outcome, she noted that two other bills supported by Virginia’s native tribes are advancing through the General Assembly. One — H.B. 1136 — would set up a commission to update state code to reflect federal recognition of Virginia’s tribes. That bill cleared the House and is slated to come before the Senate by the end of the week.
Another — S.B. 31 — would make the tribes eligible for grants from the Virginia Land Conservation Fund.