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Clark County filed a challenge in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. to the federal Interior Department's decision to approve the Cowlitz Tribe's land-into-trust request. The county commissioners voted earlier this month to appeal the Interior Department's decision to take land into trust as reservation land for the Cowlitz Tribe.
The county contends that the Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar did not fully understand the environmental impact and that the decision goes against the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Carieri v. Salazar. That court decision ruled that the authority of the Interior Department to take land into trust on behalf of Indian Tribes only applied to tribes under federal jurisdiction before 1934.
3 weeks ago