program for BIA and 

OST. 

RECORDS SCHEDULE

A comprehensive records 

schedule is the heart of 

any records management 

program. Records schedules provide mandatory 

instructions for what to 

do with records (and nonrecord materials) when 

Inside this issue: 

CSS Pilot Update 2 

Risk Management 

Handbook Published 

3 

Changes in the D.C. 

Office 

2 

Records Management 

Program 

3 

New Newsletter Title 4 

Training Locations 4 

The Indian Affairs 

Records Management (IARM) program has now been fully 

operational for one year. 

This program is responsible for devising a Department-wide Indian trust 

records management plan 

and for implementing a 

uniform and comprehensive records management 

Coming soon, to a 

location near 

you, trust management training! 

OST is sponsoring an 

exciting opportunity for 

Departmental and 

Tribal personnel to participate in specialized 

training courses on Indian trust management 

issues. 

Starting in late January 

2001, this unique training opportunity will be 

available to all trust 

management employees. 

This training 

program is one 

of the efforts 

underway to 

implement and 

sustain widescale reforms of 

the Indian trust 

asset management system. 

Many DOI 

bureaus and 

offices are responsible 

for the proper management of the approximately 56 million acres 

of land held in trust, 

and the revenue generated from the use of this 

land, on behalf of some 

315 Indian tribes and 

over 260,000 Individual 

Indians. 

The responsibilities for 

the various trust management functions cross 

bureau and office 

boundaries and are 

also performed by 

compacting and 

contracting Tribes. This 

training will ensure that 

the Department and 

Tribal personnel who 

manage these important 

assets do so in a coordinated and consistent 

fashion. The utmost care 

in the management of 

these assets is required 

to provide high quality 

services to the Indian 

trust beneficiaries. 

Trust reform training 

courses will include 

discussions on the different trust management 

functions, as well as the 

common issues and 

themes among the 

bureaus, offices 

and Tribes 

managing these 

assets. The 

courses will focus 

on the entire trust 

management 

process including 

the (continued on 

inside front cover)

Trust Matters 

Trust Reform Training Debuts 

Special points of interest: 

• THE NEWSLETTER HAS A NEW 

NAME. “TRUST MATTERS” WON 

THE MOST ENTRIES IN THE 

NAME OUR NEWSLETTER CONTEST. 

• THE FOURTH QUARTERLY 

REPORT TO THE COURT WAS 

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 1, 2000. 

READ IT ON OUR WEB SITE: 

WWW.OST.DOI.GOV 

• TRUST TRAINING HAS BEGUN. 

SIGN UP FOR CLASSES ON OUR 

WEB SITE: WWW.OST.DOI.GOV. 

SEE BACK COVER FOR THE 

TRAINING LOCATIONS. 

Department of 

the Interior—

Office of the 

Special Trustee 

for American 

Indians 

January, 2001 

Volume 1, Issue 3 

Indian Affairs Records 

Management– One Year Later 

Three of the Trust Trainers. From left: Dr. Joel Orona, 

Rebecca Stone, and Carleton Palmer. 

no longer needed for current Government business. 

They also ensure that important records are organized and maintained in 

such a way as to be easily 

retrieved and identifiable 

as evidence of the program 

activities (especially in the 

event of an audit, a FOIA 

request, or discovery for a 

lawsuit); and help preserve 

(continued on page 3).
Customer StrataStation, or CSS, is the electronic 

system that allows OST TFAS users in the field to 

enter a number of account transaction functions 

directly into electronic worktickets. A successful CSS user 

pilot was conducted and now this capability will be 

expanded to other OTFM offices. 

Providing CSS capability to TFAS users outside of the Albuquerque OTFM headquarters streamlines the data entry 

process, resulting in fewer errors and increased efficiency. 

Verifying the underlying documentation, however, through 

faxes or images, will continue to be necessary to substantiate disbursements and other account actions. 

The CSS system allows streamlined cash processing so that 

the person who receives a transaction request also creates it. 

It greatly simplifies the batching and balancing process, and 

provides an electronic audit of cash processing activity 

which allows transactions to be reviewed easily. 

On May 1, 2000, the CSS pilot began in eight field locations 

including the Cherokee Nation, Flathead, Wyandotte, Turtle 

Mountain, Olympic Peninsula, Blackfeet, Great Lakes and 

Juneau offices. The pilot was a success from both a user and 

management perspective and, as a result, CSS will be rolled 

out for use in the remaining regions and agencies between 

now and April 2001. A schedule for CSS training in Albuquerque, Phoenix, Portland, Shawnee and Minneapolis has 

been developed and is available from OTFM. 

 Successful CSS Pilot —Expanding to More Locations and Users

(continued from front) management of 

the trust lands, the investment and 

disbursement of trust funds, probate 

administration, and the importance of 

keeping proper records. 

Consistent with the Department’s 

overall fiduciary responsibility, trust 

training will be available to all DOI 

employees who perform trust-related 

functions, as well as to all compacting 

and contracting Tribal employees who 

manage trust assets. 

The first training course to be offered 

is a specialized course that will 

provide students with the foundations 

upon which the Indian trust management process functions. This course, 

called “Trust Foundations” will 

explain, through discussions and 

activities, the relationships between 

the many Departmental bureaus and 

offices that have different, yet interrelating, responsibilities in the management of trust assets on behalf of the 

Indian beneficiaries. These interrelationships will be emphasized to enable 

employees to begin thinking of the 

trust process as an organic whole, 

rather than as several distinct parts. 

The Trust Foundations course also 

will include a discussion about what a 

trust is, the responsibilities of a trustee, Secretarial Order Number 3215 

(defining the Principles for the 

Discharge of the Secretary’s Trust 

Responsibilities), the various bureau 

and office trust responsibilities, and 

how the performance of an individual’s 

job can impact the overall trust management process. Additional components of the course will include team 

building and communication skills. 

Additional trust training courses will 

be offered in the near term and will 

include topics such as Probate, Customer Service, and Stress/Time Management. These courses will allow 

employees from the various bureaus, 

offices and compacting and contracting 

Tribes to take part in additional learning opportunities that will improve 

services to all trust beneficiaries. 

Announcing . . . Trust Training! 

(cont’d. from cover) 

Page 2 Trust Matters 

How do I sign up for training? 

Go to the Trust Training tab on the 

OST web page (www.ost.doi.gov) and 

follow these easy steps: 

1. Enter your Internet email address (firstname_lastname@ios.doi.

gov), not your Lotus Notes email 

address. 

2. Enter 1234 as the password 

prompt (students can change their 

password and other information by 

going to the Personal Data area on 

the system). 

3. Scroll to the Schedule of Classes. 

4. Press Search. 

5. Look for the date and location for 

the Trust Foundations 1 course that 

is closest to your duty station and, 

with the approval of your supervisor, enroll. 

6. The cost for training and travel 

will be funded by OST. 

Problems? Call our training contractor staff at 1-866-426-5101. 

Changes in the D.C. 

OST Office 

The new year has brought some 

changes 

to the 

Washington, 

D.C. OST office. Jim Douglas recently 

joined the Office as the 

Chief of Staff. 

Having 

already spent 

20 years at Interior working in a number of different offices, Jim is looking 

forward to using his considerable 

management experience and skills to 

ensure that OST is meeting its trust 

reform objectives. Jim will provide a 

focal point for management and 

administrative issues in the Office 

and will assist the Special Trustee 

with initiatives and special projects. 

In December, Tom Thompson, Principal Deputy Special Trustee, relocated 

from the DC office to open an OST 

office in Phoenix, Arizona. In Phoenix, Tom continues his responsibilities 

overseeing both the OTFM and Office 

of Trust Records activities. This 

move allows Tom to be closer to many 

of the OST employees and offices with 

whom he will collaborate. 

Jim Douglas, OST’s Chief of Staff 

See a list of training locations on the 

back cover of this newsletter. Sign up 

for the location nearest to you. 
On November 30, 2000, the 

Office of Trust Risk Management published the Risk 

Management Handbook for Indian 

Trust Operations. 

The Risk Management Handbook 

gives managers within the Department an understanding of effective 

internal controls and how they should 

be applied to the trust asset management programs within their bureaus 

and offices. 

Each bureau and agency with trust 

responsibility within the Department 

must establish and maintain internal 

controls to ensure the protection of 

Indian trust assets. This handbook 

offers guidance on how each bureau 

and agency can fulfill its obligation to 

safeguard these American Indian trust 

assets from waste, theft, fraud, misuse 

and other risks. The handbook also 

highlights the accountability necessary for the proper discharge of the 

Department’s trust responsibilities. 

This handbook can be used as a guide 

to assess risk and establish appropriate internal controls within DOI 

bureaus and offices. It is a resource 

each bureau and office can utilize to 

assess its own internal control procedures and to define the training 

requirements necessary for understanding risk assessment and the 

internal control process. 

The handbook can help DOI trust employees make better decisions regarding the safeguarding of Indian Trust 

Assets. Call the Office of Trust Risk 

Management at (505) 248-5660 for a 

copy. 

(continued from front) those records 

that are valuable for historical or 

research purposes. IARM recently 

implemented a number of General 

Records Schedules (GRS) issued by the 

Archivist of the United States into the 

BIA and OST records schedules. The 

GRS provides mandatory disposition 

instructions for common temporary 

administrative records relating to civilian personnel, fiscal accounting, procurement, communications, printing, 

and other common functions. As a 

result, a number of administrative 

records that were previously “frozen” 

from destruction may now be properly 

disposed of. In addition, IARM is 

aggressively working to review, revise, 

and implement new records schedules. 

The initial focus is on BIA and OST 

trust-related records, but records 

schedules for all BIA programs will be 

reviewed, updated, and submitted for 

approval. 

CLEANUP

IARM has visited some 60 BIA regional 

and agency offices to assess records 

backlogs and identify records that can 

be transferred to Federal Records 

Centers (FRCs) or other appropriate 

storage, or can be properly disposed of. 

IARM is also assessing storage requirements for active records. A major emphasis has been placed on cleaning up 

inactive records that are stored in offsite storage facilities. Many records 

stored in the offices are inactive records 

that can, and should, be sent to a FRC. 

IARM has purchased lateral or space 

saver filing systems for some BIA locations. However, until inactive records 

are properly disposed of—transferred 

to a FRC or destroyed—IARM cannot 

accurately determine storage requirements for records that are needed to 

conduct daily work. 

Records Management Program 

(cont’d. from front cover) 

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 3 

PAMPHLETS 

Creating a uniform and comprehensive 

records management program requires 

promoting the program through education and awareness. Currently there 

are only a few products available advising of program requirements, responsibilities, practices, or procedures. In 

order to establish a practice where 

records management becomes a daily 

function, BIA, OST, and Tribal employees must be educated, made aware of, 

and provided technical materials on the 

creation, handling, maintenance, and 

disposition of recorded information. 

IARM has developed innovative training for appropriate presentation to all 

staff levels—management as well as 

administrative staff. The training 

curricula include formal classroom 

training, awareness briefings, and technical materials associated with 

records management policies, procedures, practices, and general information on a variety of media. To date, 

over 1,200 employees have attended 

records training. 

In addition, IARM has contracted with 

a commercial advertising firm to design 

technical pamphlets that will be used, 

in addition to classroom training, as 

aids to meet the requirements of the 

Secretary’s High Level Implementation 

Plan. The pamphlets will inform BIA 

and OST personnel, as well as contractors and clients, of records management program requirements, benefits, 

and responsibilities; internal record 

keeping practices; technical tips on 

preparing records for transfer to a FRC; 

and other practices associated with the 

records management program. 

Pamphlets have been developed to date 

on “Personal Papers,” “Managing EMail,” and the “Indian Affairs Records 

Management Program.” Future pamphlets will include information on how 

to retire records to the FRCs, do’s and 

don’ts of imaging, and what every employee needs to know about records. 

Risk Management 

Handbook Published

Remember: 

Account balances and other account information may only be 

disclosed to the individual account holder who is the subject of 

the information, or to someone 

the account holder authorizes can 

have access to this information. 

Divulging this information to anyone else is strictly prohibited, as 

the information is protected by 

the Privacy Act. 

Michelle Tenorio inventories records at the 

Yakama agency. 

Students from the Eastern Oklahoma Region attend a 

Records Briefing. 
Congratulations LeRon, and thanks to 

everyone for your participation and 

votes! 

“Trust Matters” is New Newsletter Title 

The new name of the OST Quarterly Newsletter was determined 

after readers voted for their favorite 

newsletter name nominee: Trust Matters. 

The contest to suggest a name for the 

newsletter generated several witty and 

thoughtful responses and the OST 

newsletter required the assistance of 

our readers to select a winning entry. 

After narrowing the list of potential 

titles from many excellent suggestions 

to the five finalists, “Trust Matters” 

secured the most votes to be the permanent Newsletter title. This title was 

suggested by LeRon Bielak, who works 

for the DOI Policy, Personnel and Planning office in Washington, DC. 

Department of the Interior, OST 

18th and C Street, NW 

Room 5140 

Washington, DC 20240 

Phone: 202-208-4866 

Fax: 202-208-7545 

Web Site: www.ost.doi.gov 

Department of the Interior—

Office of the Special Trustee for 

American Indians 

To contact the OST newsletter staff, 

write, fax or email us at: 

Department of the Interior 

Office of the Special Trustee 

18th and C Street, NW, Suite 5140 

Washington, DC 20240 

Attention: Newsletter 

***** 

Fax: (202) 208-7545 

***** 

Email: webmaster@ost.doi.gov 

Where can I take 

trust training courses? 

Trust Training classes begin January 29 in: 

• Shawnee, OK, 

• Albuquerque, NM, and 

• Phoenix, AZ. 

In February, classes will also be offered in: 

• Denver, CO and 

• Sacramento, CA. 

In March classes will also occur in: 

• Aberdeen, SD, 

• Seattle WA, 

• Bloomington, MN and 

• Washington, DC. 

Go to the OST “Trust 

Training” tab on our website for additional class 

and scheduling information. 

Please sign up for the class 

closest to your office 

location. Training will 

occur at all of these sites 

on a weekly basis for your 

convenience.