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GAO-07-23R 1 (2006-10-20)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptatxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 October 20, 2006 The Honorable Conrad Burns Chairman The Honorable Byron L. Dorgan Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations United States Senate The Honorable Charles H. Taylor Chairman The Honorable Norman D. Dicks Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives Subject: Indian Issues: BLM's Program for Issuing Individual Indian Allotments on Public Lands Is No Longer Viable Beginning in the late nineteenth century the federal government began an effort to assimilate Indians by transferring them from communal tribal existence to individual land ownership. The Act of February 8, 1887, commonly referred to as the General Allotment Act, initiated the federal government's Indian allotment policy.' The act authorized the President to allot parcels of land to individual Indians-generally in sizes of 40, 80, or 160 acres-on Indian reservations and on public lands. The act was implemented by the Department of the Interior's (Interior) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).2 Under this authority, BIA issued millions of acres of individual allotments on Indian reservations, and BLM issued thousands of acres of individual Indian allotments on public lands. However, in 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act largely reversed the federal government's Indian allotment policy and replaced it with a policy that encouraged tribal self-governance. Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act also provided the Secretary of the Interior new authority to acquire land, on and off reservations, on behalf of federally 'Act of February 8, 1887, ch. 119, 24 Stat. 388 (1887) (codified as amended at 25 U.S.C. § 331, et seq.). 2At the time of the act, BLM did not exist. Its predecessor, the General Land Office, was the entity that implemented the act from 1887 to 1946. In 1946, the General Land Office was merged with another federal agency, the U.S. Grazing Service, to form BLM within Interior. 3Act of June 18, 1934, ch. 576, 48 Stat. 984 (1934) (codified as amended at 25 U.S.C. §§ 461-479). GAO-07-23R BLM Indian Allotments

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