Special to La Conner Weekly News

The United States Department of the Interior on Friday approved the constitutional amendments voted on and passed in May by members of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

While the changes in the tribe’s constitution are mostly aimed to reduce the paternalistic federal oversight of the tribe’s day-to-day operations, the wording in one of the amendments – dealing with territory and jurisdiction – sparked an outcry from landowners and farmers as well as Anacortes and Skagit County government officials.

To clarify the issue and possi...