Letter to Don Young, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs - Oversight, Transparency for Montana Tribes During Implementation of Land Buy Back Program

Letter

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for your leadership and oversight regarding the federal government's responsibility in honoring tribal trust. As you know, the landmark court settlement of Cobell v. Salazar, had its origins in my home state of Montana on Elouise Cobell's Blackfeet Reservation. The implementation of the terms of the agreement, especially the distribution of the $1.9 billion Land Consolidation Fund, also called the Land Buy Back Program, has been particularly concerning to the Blackfeet Nation as well as other tribal beneficiaries of the settlement. I respectfully request an oversight hearing to examine the implementation process and urge the U.S. Department of Interior to conduct the plan in a just and fair manner.

The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) holds about 56 million acres in trust for American Indians. More than 10 million acres are held for individual American Indians and nearly 46 million acres are held for Indian tribes. Large numbers of individual Indian allotments in more than 140 reservations are classified as highly fractionated. Highly fractionated trust land is notoriously difficult and costly for the individual Indian owners and for DOI to lease and manage, making revenue generating activities difficult to accomplish.

Resolving the fractionation problem will greatly improve manageability of these tracts of land for productive, tribally-led development to produce jobs and revenues and to meet the cultural and social needs of Indian communities. Large amounts of highly fractionated Indian lands are in mineral-rich areas like the Bakken oil formation or Powder River Basin (coal) in my state. In fact, the Crow Tribe whose reservation is blessed with 9 billion tons of coal is among one of the most fractionated reservations in the country.

Since the authorization of the Cobell Settlement passed Congress, tribes have dealt with uncertainty and delays while DOI designed the Land Buy Back program. Tribes are concerned the implementation of this important program is being designed without transparency and cooperation with those in Indian country. As the Blackfeet tribe and the several other tribes based in Montana and throughout the country have endured decades of high unemployment, I am disappointed to hear these concerns.

As a Member of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Alaska Native and Indian Affairs, I share your commitment to ensuring the federal government honors its trust with Indian tribes. A hearing examining the implementation of the Land Buy Back Program will help satisfy that commitment.

Thank you for your consideration of this request and I look forward to continuing to work with you on behalf of Indian Country.

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