S.Amdt. 3833

This amendment adds several divisions and titles to bill S. 2296 to focus on Indian Affairs. Its purpose is to address land rights, public health, law enforcement gaps, and historical accountability for Native American and Native Hawaiian communities.

Key additions and changes include:

• Land and Memorials: Establishing the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site for the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. It settles land disputes for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma in Illinois, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Michigan, and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota, and adds area to the Miccosukee Reserved Area.

• Public Safety and Justice: Appointing Tribal facilitators for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to address Missing or Murdered Indians and establishing a grant program for response coordination. It also requires reports on law enforcement staffing and creates a BIA law enforcement background check demonstration program.

• Health and Wellness: Authorizing public health veterinary services through the Indian Health Service to control zoonotic diseases and improving IHS scholarship and loan repayment options.

• Administration and Tourism: Creating a Realty Ombudsman to speed up mortgage processing on Indian land and authorizing grant programs for Native American tourism.

• Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025: Establishing a commission to investigate the history and effects of boarding school policies, document burial sites, and recommend federal healing and memorialization efforts. This includes:

  • Advisory Body Framework: Creating the Survivors Truth and Healing Subcommittee, the Native American Truth and Healing Advisory Committee (19 members), and the Federal and Religious Truth and Healing Advisory Committee (20 members). These bodies will collect documentation from religious and federal institutions and consult with Native Americans, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and Hawaiian organizations.
  • Administrative Rules: Setting compensation rates (General Schedule grade 7, step 1), travel reimbursements, and rules for quorums and member removal. It designates members as covered employees under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 and states the Federal Advisory Committee Act does not apply.
  • Legal Provisions: Clarifying that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act applies to boarding school cultural items. It requires federal agencies to allow reburial of repatriated items on federal land if agreed upon and allows for co-stewardship agreements for managing schools or cemeteries. The text explicitly states there is no private right of action for judicial or administrative relief.