ATMORE, AL – Stephanie Bryan, Tribal Chair and CEO of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and called on lawmakers to pass S. 1750, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Parity Act, legislation she said would clarify the status of the tribe’s trust lands and end frivolous attacks.
Senator Katie Britt, the bill’s sponsor, attended the hearing to introduce Bryan and encourage her Senate colleagues to support this legislation. During her remarks, Britt praised Bryan’s leadership in Alabama and Beyond. During her testimony, Bryan thanked Britt for her unwavering leadership on the bill and thanked Sen. Tuberville for his strong support.
The committee heard testimony on S. 1750 alongside three related bills, S. 3859, S. 4053 and H.R. 226, in a legislative hearing chaired by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, with Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI, serving as Vice Chair. Sen. Katie Britt, R-AL, introduced S. 1750 in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar, which requires tribes to prove they were “under federal jurisdiction” in 1934 before the Interior Department can place land into trust on their behalf.
“That decision placed a cloud of uncertainty over tribal trust lands, impeding investment and economic development in Indian Country, and it’s led to a lot of frivolous lawsuits challenging the status of these trust lands,” said Bryan. “The tribe has already spent more than $10 million to defend ourselves against meritless attacks on our sovereignty.”
Federal courts have sided with Poarch every time the tribe’s trust lands have been challenged, including in Alabama v. PCI Gaming Authority in 2015 and Poarch Band of Creek Indians v. Hildreth in 2016, both before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Thankfully, every court reviewing these frivolous, costly cases has upheld the status of our lands, which the Interior Department placed in trust decades ago,” said Bryan.
Bryan told the committee the tribe’s roughly 333 acres of trust land, in place since the mid-1980s, can no longer keep pace with the needs of its nearly 2,900 citizens. In 2018, when the tribe needed to expand its Boys and Girls Club, there was no buildable trust land left, forcing Poarch to spend more than $1 million filling in ponds around the community center to make room. Bryan said the tribe also needs trust land for a new nursing home to serve its aging population, something S. 1750 would help make possible.
“The tribe operates more than 40 companies that employ about 7,600 people worldwide, including more than 4,000 jobs in Alabama, and gives nearly $8 million a year to local governments, schools, healthcare systems and other philanthropic causes,” said Bryan. “S. 1750 has the support of Alabama’s full congressional delegation and of Elmore, Escambia and Montgomery counties, which surround the tribe’s reservation. I respectfully ask the committee to bring S. 1750 to a markup and advance the bill to final passage in the 119th Congress.”
