[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 108 (Thursday, August 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8015-S8016]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONVEYANCE OF CERTAIN LAND IN THE LAKE TAHOE BASIN MANAGEMENT UNIT

  The bill (S. 691) to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey 
certain land in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Nevada, to the 
Secretary of the Interior, in trust for the Washoe Indian Tribe of 
Nevada and California, was considered, ordered to be engrossed for a 
third reading, read the third time, and passed; as follows:

                                 S. 691

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. WASHOE TRIBE LAND CONVEYANCE.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
       (1) the ancestral homeland of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada 
     and California (referred to in this Act as the ``Tribe'') 
     included an area of approximately 5,000 square miles in and 
     around Lake Tahoe, California and Nevada, and Lake Tahoe was 
     the heart of the territory;
       (2) in 1997, Federal, State, and local governments, 
     together with many private landholders, recognized the Washoe 
     people as indigenous people of Lake Tahoe Basin

[[Page S8016]]

     through a series of meetings convened by those governments at 
     2 locations in Lake Tahoe;
       (3) the meetings were held to address protection of the 
     extraordinary natural, recreational, and ecological resources 
     in the Lake Tahoe region;
       (4) the resulting multiagency agreement includes objectives 
     that support the traditional and customary uses of National 
     Forest System land by the Tribe; and
       (5) those objectives include the provision of access by 
     members of the Tribe to the shore of Lake Tahoe in order to 
     reestablish traditional and customary cultural practices.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
       (1) to implement the joint local, State, tribal, and 
     Federal objective of returning the Tribe to Lake Tahoe; and
       (2) to ensure that members of the Tribe have the 
     opportunity to engage in traditional and customary cultural 
     practices on the shore of Lake Tahoe to meet the needs of 
     spiritual renewal, land stewardship, Washoe horticulture and 
     ethnobotany, subsistence gathering, traditional learning, and 
     reunification of tribal and family bonds.
       (c) Conveyance on Condition Subsequent.--Subject to valid 
     existing rights, the easement reserved under subsection (d), 
     and the condition stated in subsection (e), the Secretary of 
     Agriculture shall convey to the Secretary of the Interior, in 
     trust for the Tribe, for no consideration, all right, title, 
     and interest in the parcel of land comprising approximately 
     24.3 acres, located within the Lake Tahoe Basin Management 
     Unit north of Skunk Harbor, Nevada, and more particularly 
     described as Mount Diablo Meridian, T15N, R18E, section 27, 
     lot 3.
       (d) Easement.--
       (1) In general.--The conveyance under subsection (c) shall 
     be made subject to reservation to the United States of a 
     nonexclusive easement for public and administrative access 
     over Forest Development Road #15N67 to National Forest System 
     land, to be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture.
       (2) Access by individuals with disabilities.--The Secretary 
     of Agriculture shall provide a reciprocal easement to the 
     Tribe permitting vehicular access to the parcel over Forest 
     Development Road #15N67 to--
       (A) members of the Tribe for administrative and safety 
     purposes; and
       (B) members of the Tribe who, due to age, infirmity, or 
     disability, would have difficulty accessing the conveyed 
     parcel on foot.
       (e) Condition on Use of Land.--
       (1) In general.--In using the parcel conveyed under 
     subsection (c), the Tribe and members of the Tribe--
       (A) shall limit the use of the parcel to traditional and 
     customary uses and stewardship conservation for the benefit 
     of the Tribe;
       (B) shall not permit any permanent residential or 
     recreational development on, or commercial use of, the parcel 
     (including commercial development, tourist accommodations, 
     gaming, sale of timber, or mineral extraction); and
       (C) shall comply with environmental requirements that are 
     no less protective than environmental requirements that apply 
     under the Regional Plan of the Tahoe Regional Planning 
     Agency.
       (2) Termination and reversion.--If the Secretary of the 
     Interior, after notice to the Tribe and an opportunity for a 
     hearing, based on monitoring of use of the parcel by the 
     Tribe, makes a finding that the Tribe has used or permitted 
     the use of the parcel in violation of paragraph (1) and the 
     Tribe fails to take corrective or remedial action directed by 
     the Secretary of the Interior--
       (A) title to the parcel in the Secretary of the Interior, 
     in trust for the Tribe, shall terminate; and
       (B) title to the parcel shall revert to the Secretary of 
     Agriculture.

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