Information available indicates that there is a greater acreage of trust or restricted Indian land under Bureau approved use today than at any time during the 10-year reporting period. 6. Discuss the extent to which key tracts which were fee status have been acquired in trust or restricted status by individual Indians, or in trust or fee status by tribes. The tribe has acquired a total of 7,856.12 acres of land from unrestricted fee status during the 10-year reporting period. A total of 928.92 acres were purchased outright from unrestricted fee owners, as key tracts. The remaining 6,927.20 acres were acquired from unrestricted fee owners by virtue of exchange of land. These acquisitions appear to have been accomplished to effect a consolidation of tribal land holdings without regard to the land necessarily being key tracts. PART III-STANDING ROCK The purpose of this part of the questionnaire is to ascertain to what extent the tribes have assumed responsibility for real-estate activities. 1. Give the position of each tribal real-estate employee, his annual salary and the nature of his work. In order that the information desired in this instance and in response to paragraph (3) of Senator Murray's letter of April 17, 1958, this office has prepared a listing (identified as table No. 3) of all tribal positions supervised by Bureau personnel and positions located with and supervised by tribal administration, along with a schedule (identified as table No. 4) which reflects information in regard to the number of positions situated within the branch of realty of this agency and salaries paid for the period of years from 1947 through 1957. Information, in the form of position descriptions (identified as table No. 5), in regard to the nature of the work performed by the tribal positions now established within the branch of reality is presented for your consideration. 2. Give the position of each agency real-estate employee whose salary, in part or in full, is paid by the tribe, the salary of such employee, the amount of such salary paid by the tribe, and the nature of his work. All Bureau real-estate employees at this agency are paid from appropriated funds. 3. Does the tribe have a regularly employed real-estate adviser or consultant to advise the council with regard to tribal real estate activities? Explain fully. The tribe does not employ anyone in the capacity mentioned. The personnel of the branch of realty of this agency rendered the services, which normally would be performed by a real estate adviser or con sultant. 4. Does the tribal organization have a real-estate committee with authority to approve tribal real-estate activities? Explain fully. No, see information furnished in response to question No. 7 below. 5. Does the tribal organization have a real-estate committee which advises the tribal council with regard to tribal real-estate activities? Explain fully. Yes, see information furnished in response to question No. 7 below. 6. To what extent has the tribe employed private consultants to study particular phases of its real-estate activities. Explain fully. If the Bureau has disapproved such employment, explain why. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on May 17, 1957, entered into a contract with Mr. W. D. Davis, 1016 Baltimore, Kansas City 5, Mo., for appraiser services. The contract, approved by the Bureau, called for an appraisal of approximately 55,000 acres of trust and restricted status Indian land embraced in a large number of separate tracts on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota, which will be required by the United States in connection with the Oahe Dam project on the Missouri River. 7. Does the tribe have, or has it had, a tribal land enterprise or similar organization? If so, discuss the history and effectiveness of such organization. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal land enterprise was approved on September 16, 1947. The purpose of this enterprise is to consolidate and improve the tenure of the reservation land base in order to eliminate obstacles to proper land use, which have grown out of the alienation of Indian lands and the breaking up of individual holdings through inheritance, for the immediate and future use and benefit of members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. These adjustments involve the purchase by the tribe of key tracts of individually owned trust or restricted lands and alienated lands, with particular emphasis on the heirship lands and the small tracts of irrigated lands which cannot be made use of by the owners by reason of the many heirs, the absence of the owners from the reservation or for other causes, and adjustments by partition, exchanges, and other land adjustments. This enterprise shall be managed by a committee of six members hereinafter referred to as the land enterprise committee of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council, chosen by such council. It shall be the duty of the committee to recommend approval or rejection of all transactions involving the acquisition of lands by the tribe whether by purchase, lease, permit, gift, exchange, or otherwise, and to recommend for or against any proposed land adjustments involving tribal lands. All actions of the committee shall be by a majority vote of the members present. Four members of such committee shall constitute a quorum. The effectiveness of the enter prise can best be judged by taking into consideration that at the time the plan of operation was approved there were 171,5951 acres of land owned by the tribe; whereas at the close of fiscal year 1957 the tribe owned a total of 213,152.78 acres of land. The effectiveness of the enterprise in carrying out their stated purpose has been hampered by the lack of funds. 8. Has the tribe or the area office been instructed to turn real-estate operations over to the Bureau? Please comment on the differences in effectiveness of Bureau and tribal operations. Real-estate operations have at all times been a Bureau responsibility at this agency. Consequently, it is not possible to make a comparison of the difference in effectiveness of Bureau and tribal operations in this regard. 1 Estimated. 30451-58-15 |