Pending recognition decision for Juaneno stirs waters in Washington lobbying pool

[nosmokes]

Maybe I'm just not swift enough on the uptake, but isn't there an inherent conflict of interest in having the gubmint decide whether a group of folks with a prior claim should have precedence and sovereignty anat? Sure ends up being a sweet deal for 'K' St.
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original-indiancountrytoday

Pending recognition decision for Juaneno stirs waters in Washington lobbying pool
Posted: August 24, 2007
by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today

Part one

WASHINGTON - Despite a court case that is casting a sharp light on its alleged role in the denial of federal recognition to the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation in Connecticut, the lobbying firm of Barbour Griffith and Rogers retains a gold-plated list of grade A lobbying clients and close connections to the current presidential administration, Republican members of Congress and federal agency officials, in the estimation of many members of the Washington lobbying corps.

So when BGR registered with the Secretary of the Senate April 30 to work on ''recognition and designation'' of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians in California as a federally recognized tribe, ripples of interest spread to some of the now fairly numerous Washington-area lobbying shops that work on Indian-specific issues. The Juaneno are currently up for final consideration by the BIA and Interior Department as a federally recognized tribe; the so-called 180-day period for a decision is in its third extension. The timing of BGR's appearance at the tail end of a 25-year recognition process is sensitive enough that lobbyists at three separate firms spoke only on condition of anonymity. But for each, it raised ''many red flags,'' a phrase that appears as a quotation in a recent Bloomberg news service report on Haley Barbour's influence, activities, investments and compensations as the incumbent governor of Mississippi. Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, was a BGR founding partner. The Bloomberg reportage, while acknowledging that Barbour brought a breadth of benefits to his state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, also featured contradictory accounts of his monetary relationship with his former firm.
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complete article here