Mobile, AL – A federal judge has dismissed the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians' lawsuit that sought to force federal recognition for the tribe based in southwest Alabama.
Chief U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade ruled that the tribe waited too long to file its lawsuit. Tribal lawyers had argued that a six-year window for filing suit had not run out because the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs had not made it clear until May 2005 that the tribe had no more recourse.
But the judge on Thursday pointed to a Nov. 26, 1999, letter stating that the secretary of the Department of the Interior had rejected any further consideration of the tribe's claim.
The ruling leaves the Poarch Creeks near Atmore as the only federally recognized tribe in Alabama.
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