US agency seeks to speed up Native American land decisions
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. Interior Department officials on Tuesday moved to reverse actions taken under President Donald Trump that they said had hindered efforts by Native American tribes to establish, consolidate and govern their homelands.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued an order that allows regional officials within the Bureau of Indian Affairs to approve the transfer of private land that's not on a designated reservation into federal trust for tribes. Putting land into trust gives the federal government legal title to the property, while allowing tribes or individual Native Americans to use it for their own interests and not have to pay state and county taxes.
Interior officials in 2017 adopted a policy that said off-reservation trust land decision had to be made by the assistant secretary at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The change was opposed by the National Congress of American Indians, which said it would freeze off-reservation acquisitions and had been adopted without tribal consultation.
Haaland said in a statement that rescinding the policy will empower tribes to determine how their land is used.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-agency-seeks-speed-native-180354869.html
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