The federal Land Buy-Back program for tribal nations has restored about 1.5 million acres of land into trust for tribal governments since launching in 2012. That’s according to a new status report released by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The program was created to reduce what’s known as fractionation, or privately owned tracts of land in a reservation.
According to the report, each fractionated tract has an average of 31 owners. That’s part of why it can be problematic for tribal governments because actions like lease approvals require more than 50 percent consensus.
Deputy Interior secretary Mike Connor says the department has paid about $715 million to landowners to buy back their land since the program began.
"The real value that I see, particularly to Indian Country, is its giving economic return to those individual land owners who own an interest who are getting some return," said Mike Connor, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. "Whereas the tiny fractionated interests that some of them hold, it’s hard to get an economic return."
Federal officials will continue to send out purchase offers until 2022. So far they’ve focused on 42 reservations, including the Gila River Indian Community. Tribal officials there hope fractionation reduction will help them construct a local utility corridor.
In addition to releasing the status report, the Interior Department announced a two part planning initiative for carrying out the last 6 years of the program.
