The scoreboard: 18 recognized, 34 denied (Office of Federal Acknowledgment, 1978–c. 2021)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1978
SUMMARY19. The scoreboard: 18 recognized, 34 denied (Office of Federal Acknowledgment, 1978–c. 2021) [Connections: Who decided who's Indian, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDA 2013 BIA overview: "Since 1978, 356 groups have stated their intent to seek acknowledgment"; the Department had resolved 55 and 19 were resolved "by Congress or through other means." A 2021 Regulatory Review article citing OFA's list of decided cases: "18 tribal entities were recognized and 34 were denied recognition"; "a fully documented petition typically approaches 200,000 pages of materials"; "many petitions take decades to resolve."
PATTERNRoughly two of three decided petitions were denied, after decades and documentation on the scale of 200,000 pages
LENS (WW9)The gate is open on paper and nearly shut in practice
OPENCurrent OFA counts (after 2021) need a fresh fetch of the OFA resolved-cases list
SOURCEBIA, Brief Overview of OFA (2013); Shapiro, "Rules for Acknowledging a Broken Trust," The Regulatory Review (2021).