Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 5.25.16

NEWS
As Tribal Land Buy-Back Program Expands, CSKT Touts Success Tribal council to discuss plan for buy-back land this week
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
The Confederated Salish and Koote- nai Tribal Council is slated to discuss this week what to do with land acquired through the U.S. Department of the Inte- rior’s Land Buy-Back Program in 2014 and 2015.
The discussion comes on the heels of an announcement that the federal agency is expanding its buy-back program to 63 new locations across Indian Country. The expansion will extend the program through mid-2021.
The Flathead Indian Reservation was one of the rst to bene t from the program, which stemmed from Elouise Cobell’s historic lawsuit against the fed- eral government that sought to correct decades of mismanagement of tribal land. In 2014 and 2015, the federal gov- ernment purchased $10.3 million worth of land on the Flathead Reservation, according to Carolee Wenderoth, head of the CSKT Tribal Lands Department.
According to the Interior Department,
in 2012 there were more than 2.9 million fractional interests in Indian Country. Over the past century, land in Indian Country has become fractionated because the children of individual owners inherit undivided common ownership interests in the land. When those inheritors died, their children and family inherit the land and within a few generations dozens of people own a single piece of land. In one extreme instance, a single tract of land on South Dakota’s Crow Creek Reservation had more than 1,200 owners.
The division and sale of reservation land to individual tribal members was authorized under the Dawes Act of 1887.
The mismanagement of land and trust funds was at the center of Cobell’s class-action lawsuit against the federal government that was settled in 2009 for $3.4 billion; $1.4 billion of which went to the plainti s and the rest was set aside to repurchase and de-fracture land.
The program was recently expanded to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation east of the divide. On May 3, Secretary of the
Interior Sally Jewell visited Browning to announce that the federal government was prepared to spend more than $100 million on the reservation over the next few years. The Blackfeet is one of the most fraction- ated reservations in all of America.
Wenderoth said the federal govern- ment worked with the tribe to purchase land in two waves, one in late 2014 and another in mid-2015. The government made purchase o ers to more than 3,500 landowners over two years. In the end, the government purchased 6,900 equiv- alent acres of land. In some cases, the government was only able to make deals with some of the landowners, meaning the government only owns part of the land. Wenderoth said the tribe now owns 236 “true” acres of land that is spread across seven parcels of land. Some of those pieces of land are high-ticket par- cels located along Flathead Lake.
Wenderoth said deciding what to do with the tribe’s newly acquired land is tentatively on the agenda for a council meeting on May 26. Other tribes have
used the buy-back land to build housing or health clinics.
Despite spending more than $10 mil- lion to remedy the situation, Wenderoth said additional fractionated land par- cels must be addressed on the Flathead Reservation, and she is optimistic that the buy-back program will be extended. During her visit to Browning, Jewell said any future extension of the program would be based on its success.
“At the end of the 10-year period (the program is in e ect), if we can show that this has been successful it will make it a lot easier to get more money for it,” she said.
Wenderoth said another unexpected bene t of the program has been that more and more tribal members are sorting out their estates before they pass, so the land they own does not add to the problem.
“One of the most important elements of this program is that it opened up peo- ple’s eyes and encouraged people to plan their estates better,” she said. “It has been very bene cial to our reservation.”
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
Danielson Stepping Down as MWED President, CEO Kellie Danielson has served as chief of MWED, FCEDA since 2009
BY BEACON STAFF
Kellie Danielson, the president and CEO of Montana West Economic Devel- opment and the Flathead County Eco- nomic Development Authority, is step- ping down.
Danielson is resigning in Septem- ber to relocate to Arkansas, according to Rick Weaver, publisher of the Daily Inter Lake. The MWED board accepted Danielson’s resignation during its May 16 meeting.
“Kellie will be working through August, which gives us time for a proper
SPRING INTO SAVINGS
search,” Weaver, chairman of the MWED board, said in a statement. “It is the exec- utive board’s hope that a person can be hired early enough to allow the new hire to work with Kellie for a period of time. Even though Kellie is leaving us, she is returning to her home state of Arkan- sas to be closer to her family; which we all can understand. In talking to Kellie, I know this was not an easy decision. She is going to be sorely missed, not only by MWED and FCEDA but by Kalispell and throughout the Flathead.”
Development has played a large role in the entrepreneurial progress that has been made in the last two decades, along- side an adjacent organization with a sim- ilar purpose named the Flathead County Economic Development Authority.
As a not-for-pro t economic develop- ment organization, MWED has worked to stimulate a diversi ed, sustainable business base through loan and grant programs, consulting, market analyses and regional marketing campaigns.
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improvements or expand. MWED col- laborates with government units, devel- opers, business professionals, and com- munity organizations to strengthen the region’s business and lifestyle assets.
Among the organization’s most prom- inent projects, MWED has spearheaded the development of an industrial rail park in Kalispell.
The application deadline for the pres- ident/CEO position is 5 p.m., Thursday, June 2. Position details and application instructions can be found at dobusi- nessinmontana.com.
news@ atheadbeacon.com
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In recent years, MWED has dished out roughly $4.4 million through a revolving in 2009. Montana West Economic loan fund, helping local businesses make
Danielson began working at MWED
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