| Between 1820 and 1934, it was national
policy to break up reservations and parcel out allotments
of 80-160 acres to individual Indian owners. Many of
these lands were rich in timber, minerals, water and
fertile soil. Today, 11 million acres of land are held in
trust for over 387,000 beneficiaries via the Individual
Indian Monies (IIM) system. More than $300 million
annually from agricultural and oil leases, mining and
water rights, rights-of-way and timber sales is collected
by the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) for distribution to owners. Locating them has
become more difficult as the Native American population
has become more mobile. BIA has lost track of at least
47,000 account holders. On e reason - more than 123,000 accounts lack
Social Security numbers.
Even many
of those who are not listed among the missing don't
receive regular statements, and therefore have been unable to
verify whether their holdings and payments are correct.
The current trust balance is around $450 million, but
several billion dollars more have been lost over the
years due to undervalued and/or uncollected lease
payments, missing records (the majority of BIA's leases
are stored in places with "no retrieval
capacity," like abandoned salt mines) and destroyed
checks.
In
addition to IIM are some 2000 Tribal Trust Accounts,
which includes per capita annual payments, compensation
for rights-of-way and court settlements, which total $2.3
billion. As with IIM, however, waste, fraud and abuse are
rampant. An audit revealed at least $2.4 billion is
missing or otherwise unaccounted for over just the
20-year period from 1973 to 1992, making an accurate
reconciliation of accounts virtually impossible.
For
additional information and claims assistance go to:
Indian
Trust Fund Search
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