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Strategic Objective
Fulfill Fiduciary Trust
Strategic Objective
Overview
By fulfilling fiduciary trust responsibilities, the Department provides timely reposting of Indian trust ownership information to beneficiaries and ensures adherence to Indian law and litigation settlements.
Responsibility for fiduciary trust oversight of Tribal lands and assets rests on several Departmental offices and programs.
- The Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) ensures sufficient resource dedication to manage Indian fiduciary assets, reform and improve trust-related processes and performance, and provide technical and economic assistance to Tribes. Additionally, OST works with the programs described below in fulfilling fiduciary trust for Native American lands and assets.
- Probate Services ensures timely distribution of trust assets. The Cobell litigation settlement created substantial growth in customer service requests for information on estate distribution of trust assets.
- Human Services and OST collaborate in operating the BIA Service Center to settle unresolved issues or concerns related to supervised trust accounts. BIA monitors trust accounts for up-to-date information, tracks supervised accounts requiring assessments, and quantifies completed assessments. Additionally, BIA administers supervised Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts through an automated case management system that increases transparency and accountability of the assets in IIM accounts.
- The Land Title and Records Office (LTRO) improves Native American ownership information and protects and preserves trust lands and resources through accurate, timely, accountable, and efficient processing of complete title ownership and encumbrance for all Federal Indian trust and restricted lands.
- Real Estate Services conducts activities and processes transactions to protect, manage, develop, and utilize trust and restricted Federal Indian-owned lands. This includes (I) conducting cadastral surveys to designate legal land boundaries, (II) acquisition and disposal (A&D) of tribal lands, (III) leasing , permitting, and compliance for surface and sub-surface mineral and non-energy mineral development on tribal land, (IV) issuing rights-of-way on tribal lands, and (V) addressing unresolved Indian trust rights.
- The Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations was established to implement the land consolidation aspects of the Cobell Settlement Agreement. As of October, 2015, purchase offers totaling more than $1.7 billion have been sent to approximately 66,500 individual landowners with fractional interests at 19 locations. Of these offers, nearly $715 million have been accepted with almost 1.5 million equivalent acres purchased.
Progress Update
High levels of performance, between 90 and 100 percent, result from the Department reviewing, processing, and carrying out responsibilities for Native Americans trust lands and assets in a timely and accurate manner.
In FY 2015, the Department continued its strong performance in fulfilling fiduciary trust, with the exception of processing times for land-into-trust determinations. To improve future performance, the Department will work with individual regions to address staff shortages as well as inconsistencies and inaccuracies in data collection, retrieving, and processing.
