PROCESS? Obama Administration Doesn't NEED PROCESS in Tejon Matter

In a preview of how the Obama administration will treat illegal immigrants, allowing many to stay here without going through the process that millions of legal immigrants go through, Barack Obama's Interior Department will allow Larry Echohawk's scheme for the Tejon Indian Tribe to Stand.    

The U.S. Department of Interior will uphold a decision to add a Central California Native American tribe to a list of federally recognized tribes despite a critical assessment of the move by a government watchdog.

Federal recognition has given the Tejon Indian Tribe the right to a reservation where it can pursue a casino.

The department said in a statement that the Tejon did not appear on the list of federally recognized tribes solely due to an administrative error. It said the 2011 decision to reaffirm the tribe near Bakersfield corrected that error and will be upheld.

The department's Office of Inspector General criticized the decision in a report released on Tuesday, saying it found no discernible process that was followed in recognizing the tribe.


Read Larry Echohawk’s Legacy Tarnishing

Former Indian Affairs Secretary Larry Echo Hawk's Legacy Tarnishing??

Apparently, Larry didn't need no stinkin due process to select TEJON TRIBE for Recognition...

The Office of Inspector General investigated former Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs (AS-IA) Larry Echo Hawk’s decision to “reaffirm” the Tejon Indian Tribe of California in December 2011 without going through the acknowledgment process set forth in 25 C.F.R., Part 83, “Procedures for Establishing That an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.”

We found that the Tejon Tribe, along with several other American Indian groups, submitted petitions requesting reaffirmation by the AS-IA. These petitions were outside the Part 83 acknowledgment process, which is the official process for recognizing Indian groups as tribes and is administered by the AS-IA’s Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA). We could not find any discernible process Echo Hawk and his staff might have used to select the Tejon Tribe for recognition above the other groups.

We also found that Echo Hawk and his staff did not consult with OFA or with Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) leadership before deciding to reaffirm the Tejon Tribe. Because OFA was not consulted, other American Indian groups with historical, genealogical, and ancestral claims to the original Tejon Indians were left out of the process. In addition, not involving BIA leadership caused budgeting and operational difficulties for BIA, which in turn slowed down the process for providing Federal services to the Tejon Tribe. The AS-IA also denied subsequent requests by BIA for additional FY 2013 funding, which was needed to provide these services for the newly recognized Tribe.

Read the report HERE

Read about MORE of Larry Echo Hawk's process on San Pascual.