§228i Havasupai Indian Reservation

Summary

The United States will hold approximately 185,000 acres in trust for the Havasupai Tribe to help improve the tribe’s social, cultural, and economic life. The trust area is shown on a map at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., with a boundary generally one‑fourth of a mile from the Grand Canyon rim and following Havasu Creek from Yumtheska Point to Beaver Falls to Ukwalla Point. These lands become part of the Havasupai Reservation and must be managed like other trust Indian lands. The tribe may use the land for traditional and religious purposes, gathering and hunting native foods and materials, and for agriculture and grazing as the Secretary of the Interior decides is sustainable. Historic burial areas stay protected. The Secretary, working with the Tribal Council, must study and make a land‑use plan that picks areas for homes, schools, and community uses; that plan must be offered for public review, hearings, and sent at least 90 days before it starts to the Senate and House committees named in the law. No commercial timber, mining, mineral, or industrial development is allowed, though the Secretary can approve small tribal businesses that fit the plan. Nonmembers may cross the land at places set by the Secretary with the Tribal Council, and with tribal OK may use some areas for recreation or buy hunting licenses under rules set by the Secretary. The Secretary must protect the land from fire, disease, erosion, trespass, overgrazing, and pollution and may get help from the Secretary of Agriculture. Federal programs for other tribes are available to the Havasupai if they fit the law’s purposes. Current federal grazing permits in the Raintank Allotment may continue but not beyond ten years from January 3, 1975, after which use rights transfer to the tribe. The Secretary must also allow the tribe to use about 95,300 acres inside Grand Canyon National Park labeled “Havasupai Use Lands” for grazing and traditional uses under reasonable rules to protect scenery and wildlife. Finally, Congress declares that any ownership claims to lands not put in trust or covered by these provisions are extinguished.