Jodi Rave: Probate reform changes 'devastating'

"A “tsunami” is about to sweep over Indian Country and it's arriving in the form of the American Indian Probate Reform Act, said one of the country's leading land experts on Friday during a Montana State University symposium.

The “Inheriting Indian Land” symposium was organized in response to the American Indian Probate Reform Act that went into effect last June. The complex law affects tens of thousands of people and is heavily dependent on Natives making a will in order to pass their land onto heirs.

Already, the U.S. Interior Department and its Bureau of Indian Affairs have a backlog of 30,000 probates, and the backlog continues to grow despite a massive multimillion-dollar reform effort.

“It's going to have a tsunami of effects and it's going to be devastating,” said Sally Willett, an administrative law judge and landowner advocate from Phoenix, Ariz. “It's setting in motion forces that can't be controlled.”

In 1996, the probate backlog was only 3,000, said Willett, who questioned why it was costing the Interior Department hundreds of millions of dollars to “not do anything.”"

Get the Story:
Indians face land law changes (The Missoulian 4/14)

Relevant Links:
Office of Special Trustee - http://www.doi.gov/ost
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Cobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm

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