The commission failed to notify eligible Tribes of claim rights.

Evidence

Another failing of the commission was that it did not notify all eligible Tribes about their right to submit a claim and the process for submitting one. In accordance with the law, the commission was required to send out a written explanation to the “recognized heads of every Indian tribe and band or to any other identifiable group of Indians existing as ‘distinct entities.’ ” Only Tribal Nations, not individuals, were allowed to present claims to the commission, and they were initially given a five-year period in which to do so. The act provided for several types of claims to be heard, but “the vast majority of claims processed were claims for compensation related to land.” — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 157

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Procedural failures narrowing who can claim echo the ‘hidden history’ step of Brown’s architecture and the gatekeeping of eligibility in US reparations.