OPA

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk on June 24, 2010, issued a final approval to the May 11, 2010, proposed Class III Gaming Compact (Compact) between the Seminole Tribe of Florida (Tribe) and the State of Florida (State). The signing of the approval letter was conducted on his behalf by Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Del Laverdure.

“I am very pleased that the Tribe and the State were successful in reaching an agreement on the terms of a gaming compact. I want to wish the Tribe continued success in its economic endeavor,” Echo Hawk said.

“The signing of this gaming compact approval letter demonstrates Indian Affairs’ commitment to support tribal efforts to foster economic development and tribal self-sufficiency,” Laverdure said.

Seminole Tribal Chairman Mitchell Cypress executed the Compact on April 7, 2010, as directed by Tribal Council Resolution No. C-194-10, which also ratified the Compact. Florida Governor Charlie Crist executed the Compact on the same day. The Compact was then submitted to the Florida legislature, where it was approved as part of Senate Bill 622 and signed into law by Governor Crist on April 28, 2010.

Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), 25 U.S.C. § 2710(d)(8)(C), the Secretary may approve or disapprove a Compact within 45 days of its submission. If the Secretary does not approve or disapprove the Compact within 45 days, IGRA states that the Compact is considered to have been approved by the Secretary, "but only to the extent the Compact is consistent with the provisions of [IGRA]." 25 U.S.C. § 2710(d)(8)(C)(emphasis added). Under IGRA the Department must determine whether the Compact violates IGRA, any other provision of Federal law that does not relate to jurisdiction over gaming on Indian lands, or the trust obligations of the United States to Indians.

The Interior Department reviewed the Compact, along with additional documentation submitted by the parties, and determined that the Compact satisfies the requirements of IGRA. Therefore, the Department approved the Compact pursuant to IGRA.

The Interior Department, through the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, has the authority and responsibility to review and approve tribal-state gaming compacts. Congress enacted IGRA to provide a basis for gaming by federally recognized tribes “as a means of promoting tribal economic development, self-sufficiency, and strong tribal governments.”

Revenues from tribal gaming are used for specific purposes, including funding tribal government operations and programs, and providing for the general welfare of the tribe and its members. Proceeds from gaming can allow a tribe to provide greatly needed services such as health care, education and housing, thereby increasing the tribe’s self-reliance, one of IGRA’s goals.

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior Department’s trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination on behalf of the 564 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.8 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the Department of the Interior disbursed, or paid out, $12.15 billion in revenue generated from energy production on public lands and offshore areas in Fiscal Year 2012 – a $1 billion increase over the previous year, and in line with increased production taking place across the country. The revenues were distributed to state, federal, and tribal accounts, providing important funding and supporting critical reclamation, conservation and preservation projects.

“These revenues reflect significant domestic energy production under President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy and provide a vital revenue stream for federal and state governments and American Indian communities, particularly as the economy continues to gain strength,” said Salazar. “These revenues support much-needed initiatives across the Nation that create American jobs and fund power and water development in the West, critical infrastructure improvements, funding for education and land and water conservation projects.”

The increase in disbursements is attributed primarily to bonus bids received for new oil, gas and coal lease sales and continuing improvements and reform efforts in the Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue.

As part of the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, domestic oil and gas production has grown each year the President has been in office, with domestic oil production in 2011 higher than any time in nearly a decade and natural gas production at its highest level ever. Foreign oil imports now account for less than 50 percent of the oil consumed in America – the lowest level since 1995.

More than $2.1 billion of the energy revenue was disbursed to 36 states as their cumulative share of revenues collected from oil, gas and mineral production on federal lands within their borders and from U.S. offshore oil and gas tracts adjacent to their shores. Tribal governments received more than $700 million and $6.6 billion went directly to the U.S. Treasury to fund programs for the entire nation, making the Department’s mineral revenue disbursements one of the nation’s largest sources of non-tax revenue.

A complete list of states receiving revenues through Fiscal Year 2012 is available on Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue’s website at: http://www.onrr.gov/about/pdfdocs/20121206.pdf

A total of $717.5 million was disbursed through Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee for American Indians to 34 American Indian Tribes and about 30,000 individual Indian mineral owners. The FY 2012 disbursement to Native Americans is a significant increase over the $538 million disbursed to American Indian Tribes and individual Indian mineral owners during FY 2011. This increase to Native Americans is attributed to increasing oil and gas production in North Dakota, particularly in the Bakken Formation.

The Department disburses 100 percent of the revenues received for energy and mineral production activities on Indian lands directly to the Tribes and individual Indian mineral owners. Tribes then distribute the revenues among all members or apply the revenues to health care, infrastructure, education and other critical community development programs, such as senior centers, public safety projects, and youth initiatives. Many individual Indian mineral owners use these revenues as a major source of primary income to support their families.

The disbursements also fund several special use accounts in the U.S. Treasury, including FY 2012 transfers of $897 million to the Land & Water Conservation Fund, $1.6 billion to the Reclamation Fund, and $150 million to the Historic Preservation Fund.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund, established by Congress in 1964, provides grants to state, federal and local governments to acquire land, water and easements for recreation use and to protect natural treasures. Receipts deposited in the Reclamation Fund are made available by Congress through annual appropriation acts for authorized water management and efficiency programs that directly benefit 17 Western States. The Historic Preservation Fund provides matching grants to help state and tribal historic preservation offices preserve cultural and other historic resources. Since its inception in 1970, the fund has provided more than $1 billion in assistance.

All federal energy revenues are collected and disbursed by Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), which is under the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget. ONRR makes disbursements on a monthly basis from the royalties, rents and bonuses it collects from energy and mineral companies.

Created by Secretarial Order in October 2010, ONRR has moved aggressively to implement a variety of employee-driven improvements, including a Data Mining effort to detect company reporting errors in realtime. Through the end of FY 2012, the Data Mining effort collected $24 million in revenues sooner than if the errors had been detected years later through ONRR’s audits or compliance efforts. As a result, these revenues are available now for disbursement, while at the same time freeing up resources to focus on more systemic problems through ONRR’s audit, compliance and enforcement operations.

“ONRR employees work diligently to collect every dollar due from the production of energy on federal and American Indian lands,” said Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget Rhea Suh, who noted that ONRR was named by The Denver Post as one of the top places to work in the Denver Metropolitan area in 2012. “The reforms we have undertaken over the last two years are paying off – quite literally – and I could not be more proud of the work that these public servants perform day in and day out on behalf of the American taxpayer.”

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012—Four cabinet-level departments joined the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation today in signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to improve the protection of Indian sacred sites. The MOU also calls for improving tribal access to the sites. It was signed by cabinet secretaries from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy and Interior. It was also signed by the chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

"The President is insistent that these Sacred Sites be protected and preserved: treated with dignity and respect. That is also my commitment as Secretary of USDA," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "I know my fellow Secretaries share in this commitment. We understand the importance of these sites and will do our best to make sure they are protected and respected."

"American Indian service members are fighting to protect America on distant battlefields," said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. "I'm pleased this new agreement will help protect Indian sacred sites here at home."

"Protecting America's air and water and our nation's heritage is an important part of the Energy Department's commitment to Tribal Nations across the country, particularly those that are neighbors to the Department's National Laboratories, sites and facilities," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "I look forward to continuing this important work and collaborating with other federal agencies and Tribal Nations to protect Indian sacred sites throughout the United States."

"We have a special, shared responsibility to respect and foster American Indian and Alaska Native cultural and religious heritage, and today's agreement recognizes that important role," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. "Inter-agency cooperation fosters our nation-to-nation relationship with tribes, and that's certainly true when it comes to identifying and avoiding impacts to the sites that tribes hold sacred."

"Through collaboration and consultation, the signatory agencies will work to raise awareness about Indian sacred sites and the importance of maintaining their integrity. The tools to be developed under this MOU will help agencies meet their Section 106 responsibilities, "said Milford Wayne Donaldson, FAIA, ACHP chairman. "The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is very pleased to be part of this historic initiative to address the protection and preservation of Indian sacred sites."

The MOU will be in effect for five years and requires participating agencies to determine inter-agency measures to protect sacred sites. It also sets up a framework for consultation with tribes, creation of a training program for federal employees to provide educational opportunities concerning legal protections and limitations related to protection of the sites, creation of a website that includes links to federal agency responsibilities regarding sacred sites and the establishment of management practices that could include collaborative stewardship of those sites.

The MOU calls for development of guidance for management and treatment of sacred sites including creation of sample tribal-agency agreements. It sets up a public outreach plan to maintain, protect and preserve the sites, and calls for identification of impediments to federal-level protection of the sites. Additionally, the MOU provides for outreach to non-federal partners, tribal capacity-building efforts and it establishes a working group to implement the terms of the agreement.

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WASHINGTON – Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure, acting on behalf of Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk who was travelling, issued on July 2, 2010, a proposed finding not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Choctaw Nation of Florida (Petitioner #288) as an Indian tribe. The petitioner, located in Marianna, Fla., has approximately 77 members. It claims to be a group of Choctaw Indians that migrated from North Carolina to Georgia, and then Florida following the Indian removal of the 1830s. None of the evidence demonstrates the validity of this claim. The evidence shows the petitioner is an association formed in 2003 of individuals who claim but have not documented Indian ancestry. Under the federal acknowledgment regulations (25 C.F.R. Part 83), the Department may not acknowledge associations, organizations, corporations, or groups of any character formed in recent times.

The Department evaluated the group’s petition under 83.10(e) of the acknowledgment regulations, which allows for issuing a proposed finding under criterion 83.7(e) only. To meet criterion 83.7(e), the petitioner must demonstrate Indian ancestry from a historical Indian tribe or tribes that combined and functioned as a single entity. The petitioner claims its members descend from the historical Choctaw Indian tribe. The Department examined an extensive body of documentation submitted by the petitioner and obtained by Department researchers to evaluate this claim. All the evidence clearly shows the petitioner’s ancestors were not identified as Indian and do not descend from a historical Indian tribe. Instead, the evidence clearly shows they were consistently identified as non-Indians living in non-Indian communities.

The petitioner clearly does not meet criterion 83.7(e), which satisfies the requirement for issuing a proposed finding under 83.10(e). If, in the response to the proposed finding, the petitioner provides sufficient evidence that it meets criterion 83.7(e) under the reasonable likelihood standard, then the Department will undertake a review of the petition under all seven mandatory criteria. If, in the response, the petitioner does not provide sufficient evidence that it meets criterion 83.7(e) under that standard, then the Assistant Secretary will issue the final determination based upon criterion 83.7(e) only.

The Department will publish notice of this proposed finding in the Federal Register. The regulations provide that the petitioner or any party will have 180 days after the publication of the notice to submit comments to rebut or support the proposed finding before the Department issues a final determination. After the comment period, the petitioner will have an additional 60 days to respond to the comments from interested parties. Following the response period, the Department will begin work on a final determination.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior Department’s trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination on behalf of the 564 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for providing services to the tribes and their members, approximately 1.9 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives, and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, which administers the Federal acknowledgment process.

The Department will post copies of the proposed finding and Federal Register notice on the Indian Affairs website at http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/AS-IA/OFA/RecentCases/index.htm.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Michael S. Black today announced that he has named Bryan L. Bowker as Regional Director of the BIA’s Western Regional Office in Phoenix, Ariz. Bowker, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, had been serving as Project Manager of the Bureau’s San Carlos Irrigation Project in Coolidge, Ariz. The Western Regional Office oversees 13 agencies and one federal irrigation project serving 44 federally recognized tribes located within the states of Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. His appointment became effective on July 4, 2010.

“Bryan Bowker is an extremely capable federal manager who brings to his new position extensive knowledge and experience of BIA programs and Indian Country,” Black said. “I am glad that he has agreed to become a part of my regional management team.”

“Improving the BIA’s ability to deliver services to Indian Country has been an important goal in my career,” Bowker said. “I am very grateful to BIA Director Black and Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk for giving me this leadership opportunity to move Indian Affairs forward in meeting the needs of the tribes in the Western Region.”

Bowker began his federal career with the BIA’s Portland Area Office (now Northwest Regional Office) in February 1988 as a Computer Specialist, a position he held until February 1990 when he became a Computer Assistant and then, in September 1991, a Computer Specialist. While the latter, he was involved with designing, installing and implementing federal information technology and network security systems and conducting employee IT training, as well as helping to develop the BIA’s first internet site.

In June 1995 he became a Supervisory Computer Specialist in the BIA’s Phoenix Area Office (now Western Regional Office) where he served until September 1997 as manager of the Bureau’s Southwest Information Management Center. While there he led the planning and installation of the area office’s local area network that culminated in the installation of LANs at 12 BIA field locations throughout Arizona.

From September 1997 to May 1998, Bowker served as the Acting Superintendent of the BIA’s San Carlos Agency in San Carlos, Ariz., where he was responsible for the day-to-day administration of BIA programs and services for the San Carlos Apache Tribe.

In May 1998, Bowker moved to the position of Regional Administrative Officer for the Western Region, a post he held until May 2002, where he oversaw nine BIA agencies, three field stations and two Irrigation and Power projects while also serving periodically as the Acting Western Regional Director. [During that time, from May to August 2001, Bowker also served as the Acting Deputy Director for the Bureau’s Office of Information Resources Management in Reston, Va., where he was responsible for managing federal and contract employees, negotiating and administering federal IT contracts and addressing computer network security issues.]

In May 2002, Bowker was promoted to Deputy Director-Administration for the Western Region, where he remained until October 2004 when he moved to the position of Deputy Director-Indian Services, a position he held until February 2005. As the head of Indian Services for the Western Region, he oversaw the BIA’s housing, roads, tribal governance, credit, social services and 638 contracting programs. Periodically, he also would serve as the Acting Regional Director.

From February 2005 to August 2007, Bowker was named the Deputy Director-Trust Services for the Western Region, where he was responsible for the BIA’s land, water, environmental and economic development programs in the region, and served as the Regional Director’s principal advisor on trust matters. His responsibilities also included addressing high priority issues such as border security, probate reform, environmental liabilities reporting and remediation, and wildland fire emergencies.

Bowker served again as the Acting Western Regional Director from April to December 2006. In April 2006, he also was named the project manager for the San Carlos Irrigation Project. The project provides irrigation water to the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Ariz., and the non-tribal San Carlos Irrigation and Drainage District. It also provides electrical service to approximately 17,000 on- and off-reservation customers.

Bowker is a graduate of the DOI’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, Class No. 14 (May 2006). He has professional certifications in the fields of federal administration, contracting and information technology.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that, starting on December 14, 2012, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) will begin its “Don’t Shatter the Dream” campaign throughout Indian Country to prevent impaired driving during this holiday season. The campaign is being conducted by BIA and tribal law enforcement agencies through January 1, 2013.

“The ‘Don’t Shatter the Dream’ mobilization effort is a tremendous initiative that is conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law enforcement agencies working together to keep drivers and passengers safe on Indian Country roads during the holiday season,” Washburn said. “I want to thank all of BIA and tribal law enforcement for their courageous service and efforts to promote and maintain traffic safety throughout Indian Country.”

The Don’t Shatter the Dream Indian State Impaired Driving Mobilization is a joint effort by the BIA’s Office of Justice Services (OJS), the Indian Affairs Indian Highway Safety Program (IHSP) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reduce injuries and save lives.

The campaign unites the BIA with tribal law enforcement agencies across the country to reinforce the message that driving while impaired will not be tolerated. Officers will be on alert throughout this holiday season conducting checkpoints and patrols to protect those travelling on reservation roadways.

This is the eighth year that the BIA has worked with tribal law enforcement personnel to set up enhanced enforcement on federal Indian lands in an effort to reduce motor vehicle crash injuries and fatalities, especially those attributed to impaired drivers.

Getting alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers off the road takes a great effort. More than 1.4 million Americans are arrested annually for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Police arrest an average of 161 drunk drivers per hour alone.

According to the NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis in Reporting System (FARS), Native Americans are killed and injured at crash rates two to three times higher than the national average. The high rate of traffic fatalities is a concern across Indian Country. In 2009, a total of 440 Native Americans were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes across the United States. Of those, 47 percent of the fatalities occurred in alcohol-impaired driving crashes with a driver’s blood alcohol content at or above the legal limit of intoxication – equaling a total of 207 fatalities.

“One life lost or severely damaged due to an impaired driving accident is too high a cost for any family or community to have to bear,” said OJS Deputy Bureau Director Darren Cruzan. “I encourage everyone to drive and ride safely this holiday season and throughout the new year.”

The BIA Office of Justice Services is responsible for managing the Bureau’s law enforcement, detention facilities and tribal courts programs, either directly in tribal communities or by funding tribally administered programs through contract and grants.

The IHSP, a part of the OJS, is charged with meeting the traffic safety needs of the 566 federally recognized tribes. One of its goals is to decrease alcohol-related motor vehicle crash injuries and fatalities in Indian Country. Visit https://www.bia.gov/bia/ojs for more information.

NHTSA’s mission is to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement activity. For more information, visit www.nhtsa.gov.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, December 18, 2012, Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn will participate in a press conference call with reporters to discuss the next steps in implementing the land consolidation component of the historic Cobell Settlement.

Hayes and Washburn will be joined by Interior Solicitor Hilary Tompkins. The conference is expected to outline the framework for how Interior will begin the landmark effort to purchase fractional interests in American Indian trust lands from willing sellers, enabling tribal governments to use the consolidated parcels for the benefit of their communities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today praised President Obama’s signing of legislation that will strengthen tribal law enforcement on American Indian reservations. Secretary Salazar, Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes, Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk, and Interior Solicitor Hilary Tompkins joined the President at a White House signing ceremony.

“By providing greater law enforcement resources for Indian Country, this measure will help combat violence and lawlessness and ensure that more crimes are prosecuted on reservations,” Secretary Salazar said. “This legislation reflects the continuing commitment of President Obama to work closely with tribal leaders to improve safety in Indian communities and to tackle the years of neglect of law enforcement needs.”

The Secretary also commended Sen. Byron L. Dorgan for his leadership in shepherding this legislation through the Senate, and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin for her efforts in the House of Representatives. Dorgan (D-ND) is chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and sponsor of the Tribal Law and Order Act. Sandlin (D-SD) introduced the House version of the bill.

“The federal government has a distinct legal, trust and treaty obligation to provide public safety in tribal communities,” said Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk. “The Tribal Law and Order Act helps allow both the Executive Branch and the Congress to better address the public safety challenges that confront tribal communities. This Act will improve our ability here at Indian Affairs to work with Indian tribes to investigate and prosecute crime impacting tribal communities, and authorizes resources for tribes to fight crime more effectively.”

American Indians and Alaska Natives suffer violent crime at far greater rates than other Americans, according to congressional and Department of Justice statistics. Some tribes have experienced rates of violent crime twice, four times and at times more than 10 times the national average. In addition, Native American communities are faced with an increase of youth gangs engaged in the drug trade.

The Tribal Law and Order Act, which Congress passed last week, strengthens law enforcement in Indian Country by authorizing the appointment of Special Assistant US Attorneys to prosecute crimes in tribal communities in federal court; providing tribal courts tougher sentencing powers; and allowing some tribal police officers to enforce federal laws on Indian lands. The Act increases recruitment and retention efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law officers and works to prevent drug trafficking and reduce alcohol and drug addiction in tribal communities.

The law also requires federal investigators and prosecutors to maintain information on cases that occur on Indian lands that are closed or declined for prosecution in federal court and share that information with tribal justice officials. In addition, the bill requires the Secretary of Interior to establish the Indian Law Enforcement Foundation, a federally chartered corporation, to accept and administer donations to support public safety and assist the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribes in activities supporting public safety.

Secretary Salazar has been strongly focused on addressing critically neglected law enforcement needs on tribal lands. An Interior Department senior-level working group has achieved a number of successes, including implementation in 2010 of a targeted, intense community policing pilot program on four reservations that is anticipated to reduce violent crime by more than 5 percent on each of those reservations by year-end 2011.

The group also guided the development of a fully revamped recruiting process for Bureau of Indian Affairs law officers that increased by 500 percent the number of applicants for those positions, and the hiring of more than 70 new officers in the first half of 2010 – the largest hiring increase in BIA’s history.

In addition the working group oversaw the development and implementation of an expedited bridge officer training program for State-certified police officers to become BIA officers, shaving 14 weeks off deployment time; and a partnership effort with Attorney General Eric Holder to streamline Interior-Department of Justice tribal law enforcement budgets and programs to best serve tribal law enforcement needs, including full coordination on the location of detention centers on Indian lands.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today issued the following statement on the passing of United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye:

“Senator Inouye was a remarkable man who served his country at a time of its greatest peril during World War II and later as a distinguished member of Congress. His endurance of racial prejudice made him a champion of human rights and dignity – a hallmark of his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

“Under his leadership Congress renounced the federal policy of termination against American Indian and Alaska Native tribes by repealing House Concurrent Resolution 108 and approved the establishment of the National Museum of the American Indian. These are just two shining examples from a long list of his legislative accomplishments that have benefited not only the American Indian and Alaska Native people, but the entire nation.

“In Senator Inouye’s passing Indian Country lost not just a great champion, but a great friend. His wisdom, leadership and humanity will be sorely missed, and our prayers go out to his family, his staff and the people of Hawaii.”

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WASHINGTON D.C. –The Department of the Interior today announced the initial framework of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations that will purchase fractional interests in American Indian trust lands from willing sellers, enabling tribal governments to use the consolidated parcels for the benefit of their communities.

The initial implementation plan, based on consultation with tribes, outlines how Interior will carry out the land consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement, which provided a $1.9 billion fund to purchase the fractionated interests in trust or restricted land, at fair market value, within a 10 year period. These acquired interests will remain in trust or restricted status through transfer to tribes.

“Freeing up fractionated lands for the benefit of tribal nations will increase the number of acres in tribal land bases, stimulate economic development and promote tribal sovereignty and self-determination,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes. “This initial plan will guide this landmark effort, and we will continually update the plan to reflect lessons learned and tribal input. We know that success will only happen with the leadership of tribes, and we look forward to working through our nation-to nation relationship to implement the important initiative.”

As outlined in a Secretarial Order also announced today, the organizational structure for the BuyBack Program will consist of a core group in the Office of the Secretary to provide management and performance expertise under the supervision of a Program Manager. The program relies on the extensive expertise and services within Interior, primarily in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee for American Indians, to implement the operational aspects, including valuations and acquisitions.

To ensure high-level accountability, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has established an oversight board, which includes the Deputy Secretary, Solicitor, Director of the Bureau Indian Affairs and the Special Trustee for American Indians.

Fractionation of Indian lands stems primarily from the General Allotment Act of 1887 which allotted tribal lands to individual tribal members, often in 80 or 160-acre parcels. The lands have been handed down to heirs over successive generations, causing the number of shared interests in one parcel to grow exponentially. Currently, more than 92,000 tracts of land held in trust for American Indians contain 2.9 million fractional interests.

When tracts have so many co-owners, it is often difficult and impractical to obtain the required approvals to lease or otherwise use the lands. As a result, highly-fractionated tracts lie idle, unable to be used for any economical or beneficial purpose or for direct use by tribal communities for their members.

“This program is our chance to begin to solve a fractionation problem that has plagued Indian Country for decades,” said Kevin K. Washburn, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. “Tribal leadership and community participation are the cornerstones of this program, and we look forward to extensive communication and continuing consultation with Indian Country as we move forward.”

The plan will use a flexible, adaptive management approach to make continuing improvements based on tribal feedback, lessons learned, and best practices. To unlock the beneficial use of the land and facilitate economic development, the proposed acquisition strategy will prioritize the consolidation of the most highly fractioned tracts of land and will structure acquisitions to maximize the number of tracts in which the tribe gains a controlling ownership interest. To achieve this goal, the Program will target fractionated tracts that are most amenable to cost-efficient valuation techniques.

The Buy-Back Program will be structured to allow as much opportunity for tribal participation and assistance as practical, including consulting with Indian tribes to identify acquisition priorities. The program will actively report progress and communicate with tribal communities throughout the life of the initiative.

Interior has been working on land consolidation efforts since the program was authorized by the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, but could not officially implement the program until the settlement was considered final on Nov. 24, 2012 after appeals were exhausted through the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Now that the Cobell Settlement is final, we are eager to connect with American Indian individuals and tribal leaders across Indian Country about the opportunities the program has to offer,” said Interior Solicitor Hilary Tompkins. “We urge tribal leaders to participate in the consultation processes outlined in the initial implementation plan, including the upcoming consultation sessions.”

As part of the Interior’s continuing dialogue with tribal nations, Interior will host three consultation sessions early next year to discuss the Initial Implementation Plan and receive tribal feedback -- on Jan. 31 in Minneapolis, MN; on Feb. 6 in Rapid City, SD; and on Feb. 14 in Seattle, WA.

The Initial Implementation Plan reflects the comments received from tribal consultation sessions in the summer and fall of 2011 and the draft Implementation Plan released in January, 2012. The plan outlines the initial goals and priorities of the program, summarizes key parameters and operational concepts, and outlines ways in which tribes can participate in the Buy-Back Program through cooperative agreements. The Initial Implementation Plan is available for public comment for 75 days.

Interior 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. The department holds this land in more than 200,000 tracts, of which approximately 92,000 contain fractional ownership interests subject to purchase by the Buy-Back Program.

For additional information on the Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations and to view the Initial Implementation Plan, please visit www.doi.gov/buybackprogram.

For information about the individual class-action payments under the Cobell Settlement, please contact GCG, Inc. at 1-800-961-6109 or via email at Info@IndianTrust.com.

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