Federal law from 1993 set two conditions for future enrollment in the Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina: applicants had to be lineal descendants of someone on the tribe's final base membership roll and had to have maintained political relations with the tribe. This bill removes both of those conditions from federal law, giving the Catawba Indian Nation greater flexibility to set its own membership criteria going forward. No other terms of the original 1993 land-claims settlement are affected.
Congressional Summary
This bill revises tribal membership requirements for the Catawba Indian Nation (a tribe in South Carolina).The Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina Land Claims Settlement Act of 1993 explicitly restricted the tribe’s future membership to lineal descendants of people on the final base membership roll who maintained continuous political relations with the tribe. This bill removes these membership criteria and allows the tribe to determine its membership. (The tribe uses three base membership rolls and anyone who wants to be enrolled must prove lineal descent from someone listed on one of these base membership rolls.)
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-02-12
- Date Added
- 2026-06-08
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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