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Dozens of tribes join land buyback

Effort aims to consolidate parcels under tribal government control

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press
Published: May 17, 2016, 7:44pm

BILLINGS, Mont. — Dozens of American Indian communities on Tuesday joined an initiative to return millions of acres of reservation land to the control of tribal governments as U.S. officials warned the $1.9 billion program will run out of money before the task is completed.

A total of 63 reservations in 16 states in the West and Midwest were added to the Interior Department’s “Land Buyback Program,” bringing the total number involved to 105.

The land purchases resulted from legal settlement with American Indians led by Elouise Cobell of Montana, who said the U.S. mismanaged trust money held by the government on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Indians.

The program has paid more than $742 million to landowners since 2013. Looking ahead to its 2022 expiration date, Interior officials indicated the remaining money will be gone and they’ll need to go back to Congress to work out a solution.

The 1.5 million acres restored to tribes to date represent the “low-hanging fruit” of relatively inexpensive land, said John Dossett, general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians. Land that’s more valuable — for example, because it has timber, oil or other natural resources — could cost more and take longer to acquire, he said.

“Tribes were hoping for this $1.9 billion obviously, and it’s a very significant down payment, but it’s not going to be enough,” Dossett said.

The goal is to consolidate land that has split or “fractionated” ownership, freeing it up for economic development or other uses by tribal governments.

An 1887 law, the Dawes Act, split tribal lands into individual allotments that were inherited by multiple heirs with each passing generation.

As a result, parcels of land on some reservations are owned by dozens, hundreds or even thousands of individual Indians. That can make property all but impossible to sell or develop.

There are nearly 3 million fractional land interests owned by 245,000 people spread over 150 reservations that are eligible for the program. Many of the purchases to date comprised large parcels on Western reservations with a large land base. That includes at least 200,000 acres each on the Crow, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations of Montana and the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River reservations of South Dakota.

Land purchases for tribes

The U.S. Interior Department says it’s adding 63 American Indian reservations in 16 states to a $1.9 billion program that seeks to restore land to tribal ownership:

 Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma

 Apache Tribe, Oklahoma

 Blue Lake Rancheria, California

 Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma

 Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma

 Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma

 Colorado River Indian Tribe of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, Arizona and California

 Comanche Nation, Oklahoma

 Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon

 Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Oklahoma

 Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin

 Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians of the Fort Independence Reservation, California

 Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, California

 Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin

 Hoopa Valley Tribe, California

 Hopi Tribe, Arizona

 Kalispel Indian Community of the Kalispel Reservation, Washington

 Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan

 Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation, Kansas

 Kiowa Indian Tribe, Oklahoma

 Kootenai Tribe, Idaho                                                                                                      

 Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Wisconsin

 Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Wisconsin

 Minnesota Chippewa – Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake), Minnesota

 Minnesota Chippewa – Grand Portage Band, Minnesota

 Minnesota Chippewa – Leech Lake Band, Minnesota

 Minnesota Chippewa – Mille Lacs Band, Minnesota

 Minnesota Chippewa – White Earth Band, Minnesota

 Morongo Band of Mission Indians, California

 Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Washington

 Nisqually Indian Tribe, Washington

 Omaha Tribe, Nebraska

 Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma

 Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pala Reservation, California

 Pawnee Nation, Oklahoma

 Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pechanga Reservation, California

 Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico

 Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation, Washington

 Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Wisconsin

 Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota

 Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Rincon Reservation, California

 Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska

 Sac & Fox Nation, Oklahoma

 Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Michigan

 Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska

 Skokomish Indian Tribe, Washington

 Spirit Lake Tribe, North Dakota

 Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation, Washington

 Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin

 Suquamish Indian Tribe of the Port Madison Reservation, Washington

 Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, California

 The Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma

 The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Oklahoma

 The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma

 The Seminole Nation, Oklahoma

 Tohono O’odham Nation, Arizona

 Tulalip Tribes, Washington

 Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota

 Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah

 Ute Mountain Tribe of the Ute Mountain Reservation, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah

 Walker River Paiute Tribe of the Walker River Reservation, Nevada

 Yurok Tribe of the Yurok Reservation, California

 Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico

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