Indian Programs

Fractionated ownership has occurred as titles to Indian land have passed through several generations of multiple heirs. The Indian Land Consolidation Act of 1983 seeks to reduce the extent of Indian land fractionation within reservations' boundaries. Generally, an Indian's ownership of two percent or less in a tract of land transfers to the tribe upon the individual's death, provided that the interest is incapable of earning $100 or more in any of the five years following the Indian's death. On the basis of its work at 12 reservations cited as examples of extensive land ownership fractionation, GAO describes the (1) ownership of Indian land administered by the Department of the Interior, (2) Bureau of Indian Affairs' workload in maintaining ownership records, and (3) act's impact on the degree of fractionated ownership.

GAO held that: (1) tribes or individuals own in entirety over half of the 83,000 land tracts at the 12 reservations; (2) over 20 percent of the tracts are characterized by fractionated ownership, with at least one small ownership interest; (3) out of 4,752 tracts, about 40 percent of the tracts are subsurface, containing oil, gas, and mineral components, about 27 percent are surface tracts, and about 33 percent are both; (4) the BIA work load for ownership recordkeeping is substantial, since it maintains about 1.1 million records for the 12 reservations; (5) over 60 percent of the ownership records represent individuals' small ownership interests; and (6) while over 16,400 small ownership interests have been transferred to the tribes since the passage of the Indian Land Consolidation Act, the number of small interests at the 12 reservations has more than doubled, from about 305,000 to over 620,000, during the same time period.