EUGENE (AP) - Three American Indian tribes are courting the support of environmental groups for federal legislation that would restore a slice of their former homeland.

The bill has been in the works for five years. It would transfer nearly 63,000 acres of the Siuslaw National Forest to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. That agency would hold the land in trust for the 720 members of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.

The tribes propose to manage the land with the goals of protecting cultural resources, restoring old growth forests and wildlife habitat, and generating some revenue through commercial thinning of previously logged areas. The land would remain open to the public.

In recent meetings with three environmental groups, the tribes have agreed to several changes in the bill, including:

€ Dropping a provision that would allow the tribes to exchange up to 15 percent of the land.

€ Adding language to protect trees older than 120 years and to prohibit clear-cut logging.

€ Including management standards for logging on steep and unstable slopes.

€ Creating a dispute resolution process that gives the public an opportunity to express concerns about logging plans and other projects in advance of a formal appeals process.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said he's still reviewing the changes, but hopes the tribes' progress with environmental interests will smooth the way for the bill's passage.

"We'd like to do this with them, not over them," he said of the environmental groups. "But we would like to do this for the sake of the tribes and for all the concerns in the area."

James Johnston, executive director of Cascadia Wildlands Project in Eugene, said he expects the changes will lead to his group's support. "We're real positive about the place the tribe is in currently," he said.

The tribes also have consulted with Pacific Rivers Council, a Eugene-based group involved in restoration work in the adjacent Knowles Creek Watershed near Mapleton, and The Wilderness Society.

Gaining the support of the three groups would improve the bill's chances dramatically, said Pat Amedeo, a Portland forest issues consultant working for the tribes. "We're all hopeful this would cause the bill to move fairly swiftly," Amedeo said.

The tribes in 1855 agreed to cede their territory in return for a reservation and financial compensation. But Congress never ratified the Empire Treaty, and soldiers marched tribal members up the coast to a reservation where they were held against their will for 19 years. Starvation, disease and exposure claimed more than half.

Congress terminated federal recognition of the tribes in 1954, ending what little federal aid the tribes had received. The tribal government refused to disband, and federal officials restored recognition in 1984. But Congress hasn't compensated them for loss of the land.