the ball of the right thumb (or the left, if he has lost his right) after his name. This imprint shall be clear and distinct, showing the central whorl and striations and witnessed by two reputable persons whose addresses shall be given opposite or following their names. An Indian may sign by marking "X" before two witnesses where he is unable to attach his thumb mark for physical reasons.

$117.34 Financial status of Indians confidential.

The financial status of Indians shall be regarded as confidential and shall not be disclosed except to the owner of the account or his authorized agent, unless authorized in advance by the

pursuant to the act of June 28, 1906 (34 Stat. 539).

(c) Regional Solicitor, Tulsa means the Regional Solicitor for the Tulsa Region of the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, P.O. Box 3156, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74101.

(d) Distributee means one to whom a distribution is ordered pursuant to the regulations in this part.

(e) Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior or his authorized representative.

(f) Superintendent means the Superintendent, Osage Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pawhuska, Oklahoma 74056.

[38 FR 9163, Apr. 11, 1973, as amended at 39 FR 41707, Dec. 2, 1974. Redesignated at 47 FR 13327, Mar. 30, 1982]

§ 121.2 Purpose.

The regulations in this part govern the distribution, pursuant to the act, of judgment funds awarded to the Osage Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. All funds appropriated by the act of January 8, 1971 (84 Stat. 1981), in satisfaction of a judgment in the Indian Claims Commission against the United States in dockets numbered 105, 106, 107, and 108, together with interest thereon, are to be distributed, except the sum of $1 million and any funds that revert to the Osage Tribe and except the amount allowed for attorney fees and expenses and the cost of distribution.

$121.3 Notice of time limit and place for filing claims.

The act provides for distribution of funds to allottees and heirs of Osage Indian blood of deceased allottees.

(a) All claims for per capita shares by heirs of Osage Indian blood shall be filed with the Superintendent, Osage Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pawhuska, Okla. 74056, not later than April 27, 1974. An individual who claims as an heir of Osage Indian blood should make a timely filing of a claim which identifies, by name and allotment number, each allottee in whose share the individual claims an interest, in order that the Superintendent may notify the individual when the order of distribution for each such allottee is made. Failure to file a claim in this

from receiving notice of distribution in an instance in which he is an interested party. Failure of an heir of Osage Indian blood to file a claim will not necessarily prevent the distribution to such heir of the portion of the allottee's share due that heir if sufficient evidence to support such distribution is available to the Superintendent. However, no heir who fails to file a claim within the prescribed period (on or before April 27, 1974) shall after that period have any right to any distribution other than that ordered by the Superintendent based on evidence available to the Superintendent during that period. Unclaimed shares

of

distributees are required by statute to revert to the Osage Tribe 6 months after determination of their right to share.

(b) Distribution of a living allottee's own share will be made without the filing of a claim.

§ 121.4 Issuance of Orders of Distribution.

The Superintendent, Osage Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pawhuska, Okla. 74056, is authorized to issue the Orders of Distribution in accordance with the act and the regulations in this part. The Superintendent's decisions thereon shall be final unless a timely appeal therefrom is filed in accordance with § 121.8.

§ 121.5 Segregation of per capita shares.

The Superintendent shall segregate one per capita share for each allottee for distribution as follows:

(a) One share for distribution to each such allottee who is living on the date the Order for Distribution for that share is issued; and

(b) One share for distribution to the heir or heirs of Osage Indian blood of each allottee who is deceased on the date the Order of Distribution for that share is issued, to be divided among such heirs in such proportions as shall be computed in accordance with §121.6. § 121.6 Distribution of share of deceased allottee.

The Superintendent shall issue an Order of Distribution which, except as

otherwise provided in this §121.6, divides the share of a deceased allottee leaving heirs of Osage Indian blood in such proportions as the allottee's heirs of Osage Indian blood would have shared in the estate of the allottee if the allottee had died intestate leaving one or more individuals of Osage Indian blood as the allottee's only heirs at law under the Oklahoma law of intestate succession. In preparing such an order, the Superintendent shall accept as accurate any unambiguous determination of heirship, of an allottee or of the heir of an allottee, either made by the Secretary prior to April 18, 1912, or contained in a final order of an Oklahoma court after that date. When no such unambiguous determination is available, such order shall be based upon all other pertinent heirship evidence available to the Superintendent. When one or more of the immediate heirs of Osage Indian blood of an allottee is deceased, the heirs of Osage Indian blood of such deceased heirs shall be ascertained, successively among all remote heirs of Osage Indian blood of the allottee, in the sequence in which the deaths of the heirs occurred until the identities of all living remote heirs of Osage Indian blood, and the respective proportions of the share to which they are entitled, have been ascertained. To qualify for distribution as an heir, it must be established that the distributee and each heir of the allottee through whom the claim is traced had Osage Indian blood acquired either from an allottee or from a common ancestor of an allottee and the distributee.

§ 121.7 Notice of orders to claimants and distributees.

Notice of an Order of Distribution shall be mailed, on the date of issuance of such order, to the allottee whose share is being distributed if living, but if not living, to (a) each distributee named therein, (b) each claimant whose claim asserts entitlement to a portion of the allottee's share, and (c) each person who had not filed a claim on the date of issuance of such order but is in that order determined by the Superintendent to be ineligible to receive a portion of the allottee's share. Such notice shall be accompanied by a copy of the Order of Distribution and

194-079 D-01--13

shall contain instructions for filing an appeal in accordance with paragraphs (a) or (b) and (c) of § 121.8.

$121.8 Appeal from an Order of Distribution.

(a) An Order of Distribution of the share of an allottee living on the date the order is issued shall become final 3 days from the date thereof unless an appeal is filed by an interested party with the Superintendent before the expiration of those 3 days.

(b) An Order of Distribution of the share of an allottee who is deceased on the date the order is issued shall become final 30 days from the date thereof unless an appeal is filed by an interested party with the Superintendent before the expiration of those 30 days.

(c) Each appeal must contain a statement of the reasons that the appellant considers the Order of Distribution to be subject to error, and each appellant must, at the time of filing his appeal, mail a copy thereof to each person named as a distributee in the Order of Distribution. The Superintendent shall furnish a copy of the appeal to each other interested party to whom a copy of the Order of Distribution was mailed.

(d) The Regional Solicitor, Tulsa, is authorized to determine appeals from Orders of Distribution in accordance with the act and the regulations in this part. The Regional Solicitor's decision thereon shall be final on the date of the issuance of his decision and shall constitute the final action of the Department of the Interior in connection with such appeal.

(e) The Superintendent may, in his discretion for good cause shown, order partial distribution of any undisputed segment of any share for which an appeal is pending when such distribution will not be affected by the appeal decision on the disputed portion of the share.

[38 FR 9163, Apr. 11, 1973, as amended at 39 FR 41707, Dec. 2, 1974. Redesignated at 47 FR 13327, Mar. 30, 1982]

intendent shall either disburse to distributees the amounts distributed to them or deposit such amounts to appropriate accounts, in accordance with the following guidelines:

(a) When the amount distributed to any heir is less than $20, the amount shall be segregated in a special account for that heir until all Orders of Distribution have become final, at which time the sum of all amounts thus segregated to such account shall be disbursed or redeposited as provided in paragraphs (b), (c), (d) and (e) of this section, if such sum equals or exceeds $20. When such sum is less than $20, such sum in each of such accounts, and all unclaimed shares, and all amounts awarded to distributees which remain unclaimed for 6 months after the Order of Distribution has become final, shall, subsequent to April 27, 1974, be deposited to the account of the Osage Tribe as sums which have reverted to it.

(b) Living allottees having certificates of competency shall have their distributions disbursed directly to

them.

(c) Living allottees not having certificates of competency shall have their distributions deposited to their accounts, subject to withdrawal by them at their request.

(d) Heirs of Osage Indian blood who are at least 18 years of age and are not under guardianship shall have their distributions disbursed directly to

them.

(e) Heirs of Osage Indian blood who are under guardianship shall have their distributions deposited to their accounts, subject to disbursement to the distributees or their guardians or other persons on their behalf on such terms and conditions as the Superintendent shall consider to be in their best interests during their legal disability, after which the remaining portion shall be disbursed to such distributees.

(f) Heirs of Osage Indian blood who are under 18 years of age shall have their distributions deposited to their accounts, with the funds represented by such deposits invested at favorable rates of return for prudent investments, to be disbursed with earnings thereon only when the respective distributees for whom they are held shall attain the age of 18 years.

§ 122.1 Purpose and scope.

(a) The purpose of this part is to set forth procedures and guidelines to govern the use of authorized funds in education programs for the benefit of Osage Tribal members, along with application requirements and procedures used by those eligible persons.

(b) The Osage Tribe by act of Congress, October 27, 1972 (25 U.S.C. 883, 86 Stat. 12950, as amended by Pub. L. 98605) on October 30, 1984, provides that $1 million, together with other funds which revert to the Osage Tribe, may be advanced, expended, invested, or reinvested for the purpose of financing an education program of benefit to the Osage Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, with said program to be administered as authorized by the Secretary of the Interior.

§ 122.2 Definitions.

Act means Osage Tribe by Act of Congress, October 27, 1972 (25 U.S.C. 883, 86 Stat. 1295), as amended by Pub. L. 98605.

Allottee means a person whose name appears on the roll of Osage Tribe of Indians approved by the Secretary of the Interior on April 11, 1908, pursuant to the Act of June 28, 1906 (34 Stat. 539). Assistant Secretary means the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs.

Osage Tribal Education Committee means the committee selected to administer the provisions of this part as specified by § 122.6.

Reverted funds means the unpaid portions of the per capita distribution fund, as provided by the Act, which were not distributed because the funds were:

(1) Unclaimed within the period specified by the Act; or

(2) For an amount totaling less than $20 due an individual from one or more shares of one or more Osage allottees.

Secretary means the Secretary of the Department of the Interior or his/her authorized representative.

§ 122.3 Information collection.

(a) The information collection requirements contained in §§ 122.6 and 122.9 have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under U.S.C. 3501 et seq. and assigned clearance numbers 1076-0098 and 1076-0106, respectively. The information collected in § 122.6 is used to determine the eligibility of Osage Indian student applicants for educational assistance grants. The information collected in $122.9 provides summary review for program evaluation and program planning. Response to the information collections is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with 25 U.S.C. 883.

(b) Public reporting burden for this information collection is estimated to average 30 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing the burden, to the

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Information Collection Clearance Officer, Room 337 SIB, 18th & C Streets, NW., Washington, DC 20240; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (1076-0106), Washington DC 20503.

§ 122.4 Establishment of the Osage Tribal Education Committee.

(a) The Osage Tribe, to maintain its right of Tribal autonomy, shall, at the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, establish the Osage Tribal Education Committee (OTEC) to fulfill the responsibilities and provisions of this part as set out in § 122.6.

(b) This committee shall be composed of seven (7) members. Five (5) of the members shall be of Osage blood or descendents of Osage, and two (2) from the education staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

(1) Of the five Osage members, at least three shall be legal residents and/ or live within a 20-mile radius of one of the three Osage Indian villages. Of these, at least one member shall reside within the specified radius of the Pawhuska Indian village; at least one member shall reside within the specified radius of the Hominy Indian village; and at least one member shall reside within the specified radius of the Greyhorse Indian village.

(2) The two remaining Osage committee members will be members at large.

(a) Selection of the five (5) OTEC members shall be made by the Assistant Secretary in accordance with the following:

(1) Any adult person of Osage Indian blood who is an allottee or a descendant of an allottee is eligible to serve on the Osage Tribal Education Committee.

(2) Nominees for committee membership shall include a brief statement of interest and qualifications for serving on the committee.

(b) Nominations may be made by any Osage organization, including the Osage village communities of Greyhorse, Hominy and Pawhuska, by requesting its candidates to follow pro

cedures outlined in paragraph (a)(2) of this section.

(c) Nominations shall be delivered by registered mail to the following address: Osage Tribal Education Committee, c/o Area Education Programs Administrator, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Muskogee Area Office-Room 152, 5th & W, Okmulgee, Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401.

(d) A Nominee Selection Committee composed of OTEC members so designated by the Assistant Secretary will review all nominations. Upon completion of this process, the Nominee Selection Committee will forward its recommendations for final consideration to the Assistant Secretary.

(e) Each member shall be sworn in for a four year term. At the discretion of the Assistant Secretary, menibers may succeed themselves with a recommendation for reappointment from the Nominee Selection Committee.

(f) The Assistant Secretary may, until a vacancy is filled, appoint an individual to serve for a temporary period not to exceed 120 days.

§ 122.6 Duties of the Osage Tribal Education Committee.

(a) For the purpose of providing financial assistance to eligible Osage applicants for educational assistance, the Osage Tribal Education Committee shall maintain an office and retain all official records at the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices located at the Federal Building, Muskogee, Oklahoma.

(b) The Osage Tribal Education Committee shall be responsible for implementing an overall plan of operation consistent with the policy of Indian self-determination which incorporates a systematic sequential process whereby all student applications for financial aid are rated and ranked simultaneously to enable a fair distribution of available funds.

(1) All applicants shall be rated by a point system appropriate to applications for education assistance. After all applications are rated, the Osage Tribal Education Committee will rank the applications in a descending order for award purposes. No awards shall be made until all applications are rated against the point system.