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Interior Department highlights achievements of Cobell buy-back program

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Tribal citizens participate in a listening session on the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 3, 2016. Photo by U.S. Department of the Interior

With the presidential election only a week away, the future of a major Indian land effort hangs in the balance.

Under the direction of the Obama administration, the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations has racked up some notable achievements. It's put nearly $900 million into the hands of individual Indians while restoring a significant chunk of land to tribal ownership.

But the success comes at a cost. In less than five years, the Interior Department has already spent more than half of the $1.9 billion that was set aside by the Cobell settlement for land consolidation.

"We're four years into the program and we've spent 58 percent of the fund," Deputy Secretary Michael Connor, the second-in-command at Interior, said during a conference call on Tuesday.

The settlement, which became final in November 2012, envisioned the fund would last for 10 years. But if the sales continue at the current rate, the money will run out sometime in the middle of 2019.

"We are on a pace to surpass $1 billion in sales by the end of this calendar year," Connor noted.

Indianz.Com SoundCloud: Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations Conference Call November 1, 2016

And with the Obama era coming to a close, the effort stands at a critical juncture. While offers and purchases will continue until the money runs out, decisions on extending the land consolidation fund are being left to the next occupant of the White House.

"While we have conducted a preliminary analysis, we believe that this merits further discussions with the next Congress and the next administration, in consultation with Indian Country," Connor said.

The situation underscores the importance of the November 8 presidential election. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has vowed to continue the gains of the Obama administration if she wins. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, hasn't said anything about Indian Country since launching his campaign in June 2015.

"We have to be unified and have to look at the larger picture of what we want out of this next administration, and what we want to push the next administration to be accountable to," Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community said last month as tribal leaders met for the National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Arizona.

Tribes had been expecting Connor -- who, as a descendant of Taos Pueblo, is the first indigenous person to serve as deputy secretary at Interior -- to play an important role in determining the future of the land consolidation effort. He noted that he is planning to leave office by January 20, 2017.

But the fractionation of Indian lands occurs no matter who is in charge. That's why department officials are keenly aware of the need to keep the momentum going.

"We know there are still more locations where tribes would like to participate," said Larry Roberts, a member of the Oneida Nation who is in charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the remaining months of the Obama years.

The Blackfeet Nation honored Interior Secretary Sally Jewell with the name "Far Away Woman" during a Land Buy-Back Ceremony in Montana on May 3, 2016. Photo by U.S. Department of the Interior

Both Connor and Roberts said Buy-Back staff are planning to wait until November 2018 to re-evaluate the situation. At that point, Interior could decide whether expand the program to more reservations -- currently 105 tribes are on the agenda.

The next administration might also need to approach Congress. Changes to the law that ratified the Cobell settlement might be required in order to keep the money flowing.

Funding is indeed a major issue. Up until the settlement -- which President Barack Obama announced less than 12 months after taking office -- Indian land consolidation was never seeded with more than $21 million a year.

The lack of resources led one BIA official to tell Congress that fractionation would never be fixed in anyone's lifetime.

During the conference call, Connor said "fractionation will continue to be an extremely complicated, ongoing program in the long term" as Indian landowners pass on smaller and smaller portions of their allotments to their descendants. Allotments on some reservations have thousands of owners, he said.

The $3.4 billion Cobell settlement set aside $1.9 billion for the buy-back program. Individual Indians are offered "fair market value" for their fractional interests.

Participation is entirely voluntarily and any interests that are acquired are transferred to tribal governments.

As of September 28, more than 45,000 landowners have been paid nearly $889 million for their factional interests. The equivalent of more than 1.6 million acres has been transferred to tribes as a result.

So far, the program has reached 30 of the 105 reservations on the implementation agenda. With the money due to run out in less than three years, most locations will not be reached unless the effort is somehow extended.

With additional reporting by Tara Gatewood from Phoenix, Arizona.

Interior Department Report:
2016 Status Report: Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (November 2016)