The U.S. Senate passed a bill authorizing Southern Arizona’s Pascua Yaqui Tribe to set its own membership criteria. The bill replaces a Congressional mandate that limited enrollment based on application deadlines and other requirements unrelated to tribal policy.
Modern federal policy allows federally recognized tribes to set their own membership criteria.
Yesterday, Pascua Yaqui Chairman Peter Yucupicio described the passage as “monumental” for the Tribe. “It’s been a goal of ours since I was a child,” he said.”
Yucupicio said the criteria for becoming a member of the tribe would not change. The Yaqui constitution will still require applicants to be U.S. citizens. The tribe expects to keep the same blood standards as well.
At the time the bill was going through the House, Yucupicio told Cronkite News, “The specific objective of the bill is for the tribe to start recognizing some of our lateral ties – those relatives who unfortunately missed those application deadlines ’cause they already had passed.”
There are more than 800 people who deserve tribal membership, according to Yucupicio. The bill makes any U.S. citizen of Pascua Yaqui blood who is enrolled by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe eligible for the federal services and benefits made available to members of federally recognized tribes.
The bill was sponsored by Paul Gosar, R-Flagstaff, and Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson. The bill will eliminate the artificial deadline in the 1978 law which recognized the tribe.
President Obama is expected to sign the bill before the end of the current legislative session.