The Department of the Interior today recommended the enactment of legislation that would transfer about 10,500 acres of federally owned land to the Rosebud Sioux Indian Tribe of South Dakota.
The lands to be transferred are located on the Rosebud Reservation and were acquired by the Federal Government between 1933 and 1950 for use in farming and ranching operations of the Rosebud Indian Boarding School. They are no longer needed for this purpose.
The original cost of the lands was approximately $45,000. Their present value is about $223,000. Also involved in the transfer would be improvements valued at around $2,000. These include a barn, bunkhouse, small house, granary, wellhouse and tower, garage and addition, and wellhouse and mill.
In a report on H. R. 2460, a bill providing for the transfer, the Department called attention to a $500,000 loan made to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe by the Bureau of Indian Affairs last fall for land acquisition purposes. Donation of the lands involved in the bill, the report said, “will supplement the Tribe's land acquisition program.”
Except for a few scattered tracts, the lands are in a compact block and can be readily utilized by the Tribe. In one block of about 280 acres, the Tribe already owns a 15/126 interest and the Federal Government a 111/126 interest.
