Tribal chairwoman lobbies lawmakers for return of land taken by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Some of the land as seen in a still image taken from a video provided by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KTIV) – The chairwoman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska testified before a U.S. Senate committee, on Thursday, in support of a bill that would return about 16-hundred arcres of land to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

The land is in western Woodbury and Monona Counties near the tribe’s existing reservation.

In the 1970s, tribal officials say the Army Corps of Engineers used eminent domain to seize the land for a project that never materialized.

Thursday, during a meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer urged her colleagues to support the bill, and return the land to the tribe. “Our bill would restore the Tribe’s rightful land, transferring the outstanding tracts of land back from the Army Corps,” said Sen. Deb Fischer, (R) Nebraska. “The Corps no longer objects to returning the land, but this legislation is needed to actually get it transferred to the tribe.”

At the hearing, Fischer introduced the tribe’s chairwoman, Victoria Kitcheyan, who also urged lawmakers to return their land. “Once this land is restored, we plan to keep this land and conservation and our Wildlife and Parks Department has the capacity and resources to manage this land for recreation and conservation activities,” said Chairwoman Victoria Kitcheyan, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

The bill passed on a voice vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday. It now goes to the full Senate.