BIA Seal

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

Office of Federal Acknowledgment

The Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) within the Office off the Assistant Secretary- Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior (DOI) implements Part 83 of Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe. The Acknowledgment process is the Departments’ administrative process by which petitioning groups that meet the criteria are given Federal “acknowledgment” as Indian tribes and by which they become eligible to receive services provided to members of Indian tribes.

Download in PDF format

Brief Overview of OFA 74 kbs

Number of Petitioners by State as of February 15, 2007 51 kbs

Number of Letter of Intent Received as of February 15, 2007 66 ksb

25CFR Part 83 Federal Acknowledgment Process 158 kbs

Brief overview of 25CFR Part 83 Criteria 42 kbs

List of Petitioners by State as of February 15, 2007 238 kbs

Summary Status of Acknowledgment Cases 254 kbs

Recent Decisions

#11 Stielacoom Tribe of Indians, WA 318 kbs

#84a Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, CA

#84b Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, CA

Mashpee Wamponoag

Petitioner #68 St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenakis of Vermont

Download Plug-in

Some of the links on this page require a plug-in to view them. Links to the plug-ins are available below.

Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Click Here to Download Adobe Acrobat Reader


Updated 4/14/08