April 12, 2001
U.S. Urged To Adopt Land Guidelines 
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Indian leaders are urging the Bush administration to adopt new guidelines aimed at speeding up consideration of requests from tribes to acquire certain pieces of land and put them into a tax-exempt federal trust.

The regulations, approved in the final days of the Clinton administration and endorsed by the National Congress of American Indians, establish standards and timelines for placing Indian land into a trust, a process that has sometimes taken several years.

The Bush administration is reviewing the regulations, along with many others approved at the end of the Clinton administration, so they have yet to take effect. A decision on whether to keep them is expected by Monday.

Federal trust status removes land owned by tribes from tax rolls and exempts it from zoning controls and other local government regulations. Reservation land that is not in trust can be taxed by local governments.

Putting land into trust is designed to help tribes recoup some of what they lost in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when the government's allotment policy cost tribes two-thirds of their property. About 8 percent, or 9 million acres, has been reacquired.

Tribes made wealthy by gambling interests have stepped up their purchases of land on and off their reservations in recent years, leading to conflicts with local communities. Sometimes, those conflicts arise when tribes seek to place casinos on the land; in other situations, local communities resist tax-exempt commercial development they say saps their tax base.

The new land trust rules were first proposed nearly two years ago. The final version was announced on Jan. 16, days before President Clinton left office.

A particularly important part of the rules is the requirement that the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs decide on land trust applications within 120 days, said Tex Hall, chairman of Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota.

Indian leaders also like a provision establishing ``Tribal Land Acquisition Areas,'' which allow tribes with no reservations or no trust land to acquire land already in federal trust.

Tribes aren't happy with all the new rules, however

The BIA traditionally has treated land contiguous to reservations as if it were on the reservations and given preference to such applications.