Jay Daniels: Land buy-back program won't help Indian Country

The Cobell Settlement, approved on November 24, 2012, provides for a $1.9 billion Trust Land Consolidation Fund (Fund). The Settlement charges the U.S. Department of the Interior (“DOI”) with the responsibility to use the Fund within a 10-year period to acquire lands, at fair market value as defined in the Indian Land Consolidation Act (ILCA.

The overall goal of the Cobell Land Buy Back Program is to reduce the number of fractional interests through individually-owned Indian land transfers to tribes. There are approximately 150 reservations with 2.9 million purchasable fractional interests owned by more than 219,000 individuals. While the American Indian Probate Reform Act of 2004 appears to be slowing the growth of fractionation, the number of fractional interests remains high.

In pondering the ability of the Cobell Land Buy Back (“Program”) to be successful, I have found major issues leading me to believe that in the end, it will just be another federal program that doesn’t truly meet the needs of Indian country. There are three significant issues detrimental to the overall purpose of the program to consolidate highly fractionated interests by providing $1.9 billion in funds to tribes to consolidate, or acquire, individual Indian landowner’s land to tribal ownership.