A federal program that was created in order to recover millions of acres of fractionated land, reservation land that was divided up and given to individual tribal members will leave 4 million acres unrecovered until its funding is increased by several billion dollars.
Although the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations is not due to end until 2022, a progress report says the program will grind to a halt without being extended by the Department of the Interior and Congress.
Congress established the program in 2012 as part of a lawsuit settlement where the federal government was sued because it was alleged to have mismanaged Indian trust funds. At this point it has paid $900 million used to buy 1.7 million acres that were put under tribal control. The money was used to buy land from willing sellers at fair market value.
The Interior Department has more than 100 locations in 13 states that it would like to buy back and restore to tribal control. The lands were taken under the Dawes Act of 1887, which was in force until 1934 when it was repealed by the Indian Reorganization Act. During the intervening decades tribes lost 90 million acres.
Land that has been fractionalized is hard to use productively since it is owned by multiple persons who are difficult to locate to pay rent or a royalty.
A member of the Blackfeet sued on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Individual Indian Money account holders. The case was settled in 2009 for $3.4 billion, which was put into the Cobell Land Buy-Back Fund. However, at this point the remaining money in that fund is close to running out and 4 million acres remain unpurchased.
