Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia Federal Recognition Act

HR 5327 would grant federal recognition to the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, making the tribe eligible for federal services and benefits. The bill defines the tribe's service area as specific Virginia counties (Nottoway, Southampton, Sussex, Surry, Isle of Wight, Franklin, and Dinwiddie), specifies membership based on the tribe's most recent membership rolls, and allows the Secretary of the Interior to take certain lands held in fee by the tribe into trust. It clarifies that the tribe cannot conduct gaming activities, preserves existing hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, and water rights, and does not affect the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act. The legislation does not create a new reservation but addresses how lands already held by the tribe might be formally recognized.