Trump could turn back clock on tribal land ownership
During President Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure, tribal sovereignty, the power by which tribes govern themselves, was a prime concern. But under the Trump administration, that may change. There are several indicators of this shift, including proposed budget cuts to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and the de-prioritization of major land initiatives.
Within the first six months of President Donald Trump’s administration, the Department of Interior has renewed its interest of energy development and tribal land privatization. That differs starkly from Obama policies, which focused on both acquiring and consolidating land for tribal nations. One of the most ambitious efforts to that end, the Land Buy-Back Program, will not continue under Trump.
The Land Buy-Back Program sought to end a process called fractionation, which continually splits land ownership among tribal descendants and makes the land difficult to use for development or agriculture. Using part of the $1.9 billion for tribes under the so-called Cobell settlement of complaints about federal mismanagement of trust funds, some 2 million acres of land were returned to tribal governments under Obama. But with the majority of that money already spent to defray fractionation, the new direction at the Interior Department will not put additional funds toward the program, according to James Cason, the associate deputy secretary for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Further worrying tribal leaders are two recent hearings held by the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, over both the Cobell settlement and another land policy, called land-to-trust, which dictates the procurement of land by the Interior Department that is then held in trust for tribes by the federal government, effectively creating a new parcel of reservation land not subject to state or local taxes or jurisdiction.
In a hearing on the Land Buy-Back Program in May, the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs questioned Cason on the efficacy of the program. Cason, who worked for the BIA under the George W. Bush administration, which fought hard against the Cobell Settlement, is now in charge of the buy-back program. Cason told the subcommittee the program was not working to reduce fractionation, and suggested the funds be distributed to fewer tribes, especially those with cheaper land in rural areas.
While that approach might lessen the federal burden from fractionation, it won’t help tribes like the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, whose land prices are high due to its proximity to Palm Springs, California. Regardless of how Congress decides to spend the remaining money for land buy-backs, the Trump administration says it will not continue funding the program, meaning tribal land will continue to fractionate generation by generation, making consolidation harder.
http://crosscut.com/2017/08/trump-polices-could-threaten-tribal-sovereignty/
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