Regulations have been issued to govern distribution of $9.2 million for the Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Absentee Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma, the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced
today. The regulations will be published in the Federal Register on Dec. 27.
The new regulations specify procedures to followed by eligible persons in order for them to share in the distribution of judgment funds.
The settlement was made of claims in Indian Claims Commission Dockets 72 and 298 and represents additional payment of $1.4 million for lands in the Delaware Outlet in Kansas. The land was taken in the 1850's and sold under a treaty of 1854. Accumulated interest amounts to $7.8 million.
Pursuant to the Act of Congress signed by President Nixon on October 3, 1972, all persons who meet the following requirements for eligibility are entitled to share in the distribution of funds authorized
by the Act. Eligible persons are those who are citizens of the United States, living on October 3, 1972, whose name, or the name of a lineal ancestor, appears on one of the following rolls:
The Delaware Indian per capita payroll approved by the Secretary of the Interior on April 20, 1906;
The constructed base census roll as of 1940 of the Absentee Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma, approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
In order to share in the distribution of the judgment funds eligible persons must make timely applications to be put on the payment roll. However, applicants for enrollment on the roll of the Delaware Nation of Indians prepared under the Act of September 21, 1968, are not required to apply for enrollment under the 1972 Act as their application under the 1968 Act will also be considered on application under the 1972 Act. Applications from eligible persons who did not apply for enrollment under the 1968 Act must be filed with the Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Building, Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401; or the Area Director,
Bureau of Indian Affairs, P.O. Box 368, Anadarko, Oklahoma 73005. Such applications must be postmarked no later than February 28, 1973.
