The Burns Paiute Tribe wants a little more than 29,000 acres be held in trust. Some of that land it already owns — 1,760 acres in Grant County and 6,385 acres at Jonesboro, east of Juntura, in Malheur County. The rest of the acreage is under Bureau of Land Management control. The tribe wants those 21,242 acres of grazing allotments to be transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would hold the land in trust.

The move, the tribe says, would help the tribe meet requirements of a deal it made in 2000 with Bonneville Power Administration. When it used Bonneville money to buy the acreage in Grant and Malheur counties, the Burns Paiute agreed to take certain wildlife protection measures on that property. Transferring the BLM grazing allotments to BIA control and putting the land in trust will give the tribe more control over that land, which will in turn allow the tribe to better fulfill its wildlife mitigation obligations.

The tribe, in a recent discussion with Malheur County Court, did its best to assuage concerns about the effect that transfer might have on the county and on people who aren’t members of the tribe. County commissioners asked what impact the swap might have on PILT money.