25 CFR § 83.4 - Who cannot be acknowledged under this part?

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t25/s83.4"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "25 CFR § 83.4 - Who cannot be acknowledged under this part?"
title_number: 25
title_name: "Indians"
section_number: "83.4"
section_name: "Who cannot be acknowledged under this part?"
chapter_name: "BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR"
subchapter_number: "F"
subchapter_name: "TRIBAL GOVERNMENT"
part_number: "83"
part_name: "PROCEDURES FOR FEDERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INDIAN TRIBES"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-03-24"
last_updated: "2026-03-24"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "5 U.S.C. 301; 25 U.S.C. 2, 9, 5131; 25 U.S.C. 5130 note (Congressional Findings); and 43 U.S.C. 1457."
regulatory_source: "80 FR 37887, July 1, 2015, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "83"
---


# 83.4 Who cannot be acknowledged under this part?

The Department will not acknowledge:

(a) An association, organization, corporation, or entity of any character formed in recent times unless the entity has only changed form by recently incorporating or otherwise formalizing its existing politically autonomous community;

(b) A splinter group, political faction, community, or entity of any character that separates from the main body of a currently federally recognized Indian tribe, petitioner, or previous petitioner unless the entity can clearly demonstrate it has functioned from 1900 until the present as a politically autonomous community and meets § 83.11(f), even though some have regarded them as part of or associated in some manner with a federally recognized Indian tribe;

(c) An entity that is, or an entity whose members are, subject to congressional legislation terminating or forbidding the government-to-government relationship; or

(d) An entity that previously petitioned and was denied Federal acknowledgment under part 54 of this chapter (as it existed before March 30, 1982) or part 83 (including reconstituted, splinter, spin-off, or component groups who were once part of previously denied petitioners) unless the entity meets the conditions of §§ 83.47 through 83.49.

[80 FR 37887, July 1, 2015, as amended at 90 FR 3643, Jan. 15, 2025]