Directs the Secretary of the Interior to provide grants to: (1) assist local governments in participating (including through administrative and judicial appeals) in decisions related to specified actions if they are likely to significantly affect the people represented by such governments; and (2) reimburse such governments for participation costs incurred.
Specifies among such actions ones in which: (1) an Indian group is seeking Federal recognition and is likely to assert trust status over land within the government's jurisdiction; (2) an acknowledged Indian tribe is requesting such trust status; and (3) an Indian group or tribe is claiming interest in land based on a law specifically applicable to land or natural resource transfers from, by, or on behalf of Indians.