Rep. Tom Demmer | Facebook
Rep. Tom Demmer | Facebook
House Rep. Tom Demmer sponsored a resolution that’s helping the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation website said the tribe had been around since the 1400s.
“Over the last several years, I’ve been working with both tribal representatives and representatives of the local government at the Village of Shabbona, which is in DeKalb County in the southern end of my district, to right this historical wrong to try to call attention to a very unusual circumstance, one that we’re not accustomed to dealing with in the state of Illinois,” Demmer said. “But, one that involves both state and federal law.”
On the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation website, it said it was “illegally sold through public auction.”
Demmer introduced House Resolution 504 last year. Both Democrats and Republicans support the effort.
The resolution supports the efforts of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation to regain possession of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation after it was illegally sold by the federal government in 1849.
“The resolution urges Congress and specifically the U.S. Senate to take action on this,” Demmer said. “Congress is the only body that legally has the authority to designate lands for native nations. There’s currently a bill in the U.S. Senate, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Shab-eh-nay Band Reservation Settlement Act of 2021, that would rectify the situation.”
Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Morgan introduced a similar action in the U.S. Senate that was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs in November.
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