Land buyback program puts over 4,000 acres into tribal ownership
By DAVID REESE
Lake County Leader
Over $5 million has been spent on the Flathead Indian Reservation to purchase private land that will be placed back into tribal ownership.
The land sales of private trust land (Indians who hold land in tribal trust) are part of the federal land buy-back program that will help tribes consolidate land ownership that has been broken up into what is called fractionated interests. The purchase offers implement the land-consolidation component of the Cobell settlement. The settlement was part of a landmark court case by Indian tribes against the federal government over decades of mismanagement of lands held in trust by the federal government. The case was initiated by the late Eloise Cobell of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The buy-back program offers sellers fair market value for tribes to consolidate fractional interests. The buy-back program is voluntary.
Last fall, the Department of the Interior mailed purchase offers of $8.3 million to about 1,900 landowners on the Flathead Indian Reservation. About 25 percent of those offers were accepted, according to Emily Beyer, deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior. Over $1.4 billion has been offered to landowners in the program so far, with $445.4 million accepted in offers. The program has purchased 718,620 acres nationally. On the Flathead Indian Reservation, 4,197 acres have been purchased from fractionated interests and placed back into tribal ownership. Sales of the land on the Flathead Indian Reservation totaled $5.4 million.
The federal government on Monday announced it is offering more than $230 million to about 12,000 landowners on the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck Indian reservations in Montana.
Beyer, with the Department of the Interior, said Monday’s offers reflect “the significant feedback and requests from tribal nations that Interior has received in ongoing discussions with tribal governments and individuals since the buy-back program began.” The buy-back program is now making offers on fractionated tracts of land that have buildings or structures, including residential homes.
The buy-back program contributes a percentage of Program sales – up to $60 million – to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund, which will make financial assistance available to American Indian and Alaska Native students pursuing post-secondary and graduate education. This contribution is in addition to the amounts paid to individual sellers, so it does not reduce the amount landowners receive for their interests.
The Department of the Interior said tribal leaders and landowners have consistently communicated their frustration about the inability to sell and consolidate fractionated interests because a structure was on their tract.
Sellers have until July 18 for Fort Belknap and July 30 for Fort Peck to return accepted offers.
While improvements will not be acquired, they will be considered in determining the fair market value of the underlying tract of land. Offers on tracts with improvements will only be made if a lease is recorded in the Bureau of Indian Affairs title system or, in the case of tracts without a recorded lease, if the tribal government approves a resolution requesting that the buy-back program make offers on those tracts and indicating that the tribe will provide lease opportunities to individuals living on the land. All transfers of land into tribal trust ownership are subject to the terms of existing leases and encumbrances on the land.
Individuals who choose to sell their fractional interests receive payments directly into their individual Indian money accounts. Consolidated interests are then immediately restored to tribal trust ownership for uses benefiting the reservation community and tribal members, according to the Department of the Interior.
Offers are also currently pending at Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Umatilla Indian Reservation, and Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.
Landowners may contact the Department of the Interior’s Trust Beneficiary Call Center at 888-678-6836 to ask questions about their purchase offers.