After a nearly four-decade struggle for recognition from the United States government, the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation were informed by the federal Office of Federal Acknowledgement (OFA) in 2018 that they did not qualify as a nation.

The OFA denial was the latest in a long line of disappointments, beginning with the tribe's first formal application for acknowledgement in 1982. The Miwuk renewed their application last month, hoping to gain influential outside backing during the period for public comment, scheduled to close on Monday.