[108th Congress Public Law 67]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


[DOCID: f:publ067.108]

[[Page 879]]

                WASHOE INDIAN TRIBE TRUST LAND CONVEYANCE

[[Page 117 STAT. 880]]

Public Law 108-67
108th Congress

                                 An Act


 
  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.<<NOTE: Aug. 1, 2003 -  [H.R. 74]>>

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (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 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.

SEC. 2. CONVEYANCE ON CONDITION SUBSEQUENT.

    Subject to valid existing rights, the easement reserved under 
section 3, and the condition stated in section 4, 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

[[Page 117 STAT. 881]]

Harbor, Nevada, and more particularly described as Mount Diablo 
Meridian, T15N, R18E, section 27, lot 3.

SEC. 3. EASEMENT.

    (a) In General.--The conveyance under section 2 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.
    (b) 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--
            (1) members of the Tribe for administrative and safety 
        purposes; and
            (2) members of the Tribe who, due to age, infirmity, or 
        disability, would have difficulty accessing the conveyed parcel 
        on foot.

SEC. 4. CONDITION ON USE OF LAND.

    (a) In General.--In using the parcel conveyed under section 2, the 
Tribe and members of the Tribe--
            (1) shall limit the use of the parcel to traditional and 
        customary uses and stewardship conservation for the benefit of 
        the Tribe;
            (2) 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
            (3) 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.

    (b) 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 
subsection (a) and the Tribe fails to take corrective or remedial action 
directed by the Secretary of the Interior--
            (1) title to the parcel in the Secretary of the Interior, in 
        trust for the Tribe, shall terminate; and

[[Page 117 STAT. 882]]

            (2) title to the parcel shall revert to the Secretary of 
        Agriculture.

    Approved August 1, 2003.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--H.R. 74 (S. 490):
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HOUSE REPORTS: No. 108-185 (Comm. on Resources).
SENATE REPORTS: No. 108-91 accompanying S. 490 (Comm. on Energy and 
Natural Resources).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 149 (2003):
            July 16, considered and passed House.
            July 17, considered and passed Senate.

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