The Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations implements the
land consolidation
Land consolidation is a planned readjustment and rearrangement of fragmented land parcels and their ownership. It is usually applied to form larger and more rational land holdings. Land consolidation can be used to improve rural infrastructure and ...
component of the ''
Cobell v. Salazar
''Cobell v. Salazar'' (previously ''Cobell v. Kempthorne'' and ''Cobell v. Norton'' and ''Cobell v. Babbitt'') is a class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) and other Native American representatives in 1996 against two departm ...
'' Settlement, which provided $1.9 billion to purchase
fractional interests in trust or restricted land from willing sellers at fair market value. Consolidated interests are immediately restored to tribal trust ownership for uses benefiting the reservation community and tribal members.
There are approximately 243,000 owners of nearly three million fractional interests across Native Country who are eligible to participate in the Buy-Back Program. The Program has identified 105 locations where implementation will occur through mid-2021. In a Federal Register notice published in April 2017, the Program announced that new Departmental leadership is taking a fresh look at progress to date and strategies that would further maximize the consolidation of fractional interests, such as: further sharing of appraisals, focusing on land value, interest size (e.g., less than 25% ownership in a tract), and tract control; facilitating co-owner purchases; or revising the schedule of 105 locations (e.g., adding or removing locations and/or returning to locations that already received offers).
See also
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Land Back
Land Back (or #LandBack) is a campaign by Indigenous people in the United States and in Canada that seeks to re-establish Indigenous sovereignty - notably, the political and economic control of lands in what is now the United States and Canada ...
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Checkerboarding (land)
Checkerboarding refers to a situation where land ownership is intermingled between two or more owners, resulting in a checkerboard pattern. Checkerboarding is prevalent in the Western United States and Western Canada because of extensive use i ...
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Off-reservation trust land
In the United States, off-reservation trust land refers to real estate outside an Indian reservation that is held by the Interior Department for the benefit of a Native American tribe or a member of a tribe. Typical uses of off-reservation trust ...
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Diminishment Diminishment is the legal process by which the United States Congress can reduce the size of an Indian reservation.
History
In 1984, the United States Supreme Court held in '' Solem v. Bartlett'', 465 U.S. 463 (1984), that "only Congress may dimini ...
References
{{Aboriginal title in the United States
United States Department of the Interior
2010s in the United States
Aboriginal title in the United States
United States Native American case law