Department of the Interior

Offi ce of the Special Trustee 

for American Indians

Volume 10, Issue 2

Spring 2010

TRUST MATTERS

Table of Contents

Defractionation Tour 1

Tribal Trust Records 2

Visit AIRR 2

Willing it to Happen 3

Pay.gov 3

Over $93,500 3

Financially Healthy 4

Defractionation Tour

Forty Wills in Four Days

South Dakota lawyers and law students traveled to four reservations in 

four days in an eff ort to draft as many wills as possible for Indian trust 

landowners. Th e message was simple: If you have land, write a will.

Th e goal of 40 wills was surpassed. Th ere were 71 will preparation cases 

opened during the trip, which took place March 8-9 and 11-12, 2010. 

Law students from the University of South Dakota (USD) School of 

Law volunteered their abilities and time during spring break to travel 

among the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock 

reservations to provide estate planning services. Th e law school students, 

supervised by attorneys with the non-profi t organization Dakota Plains 

Legal Services, made it possible for low income Indian landowners to 

participate in their own estate planning. 

It was called the defractionation tour because wills, estate planning and 

gift deeds can help reduce fractionation. Fractionation occurs as land 

passes from one generation to the next and an increasing number of 

heirs or devisees acquire undivided interest in the land. Fractionation 

can make land less economically productive due to the complexity of 

land management it introduces.

Th e tour was a collaborative eff ort of Dakota Plains Legal Services, 

Equal Justice Works/AmeriCorps, Access to Justice, Inc., the University 

of South Dakota School of Law and the Offi ce of the Special Trustee for 

American Indians (OST). JR LaPlante, AmeriCorps Legal Fellow for 

Equal Justice Works, working with Access for Justice, Inc., organized the 

tour.

For more information about estate planning available to you, please 

contact your Fiduciary Trust Offi cer (FTO). Locate your FTO on the 

OST website at www.doi.gov/ost/ft o.

Albert White Hat, Rosebud Sioux, (left) informs 

USD law students about cultural differences they 

may encounter, including social structures and 

attitudes regarding death. Personnel from 

sponsoring organizations were also present. 

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Matters? Do you know organizations 

or individuals who would like a copy 

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them? Add addresses to the mailing 

list by calling the Trust Benefi ciary 

Call Center (TBCC), toll free, at 

1-888-678-6836. The TBCC hours are 

Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. 

to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. 

to noon, Mountain time.

Anyone who would prefer to receive 

issues (as PDF fi les) via email can 

email that request to 

Debby_Pafel@ost.doi.gov. 
2 TRUST MATTERS

Visit AIRR

Do you want to see what the American 

Indian Records Repository (AIRR) 

looks like? If you can’t make the trip 

to Kansas to see AIRR in person, then 

watch the video. See how Indian 

trust records are being managed and 

maintained. Check with your Fiduciary 

Trust Offi cer to view the new AIRR 

video or to plan a personal tour of 

AIRR. 

As of March 31, 2010, there were 

194,198 boxes in storage at AIRR. When 

you fi gure there are approximately 

2500 pages in an average box, that 

adds up to a lot of records. 

Available Storage Space 

for Tribal Trust Records

Th e American Indian Records Repository (AIRR) 

is a state-of-the-art storage facility. Special storage 

space has been put aside at 

AIRR for inactive Indian 

fi duciary trust records 

created by tribes/consortia 

during their management 

of trust programs under 

Self-Determination and 

Self-Governance funding 

agreements. 

Th is storage is provided 

at no cost to the tribe/

consortium, which retains 

legal custody of the records and determines access to 

them. Th e records are not treated as federal records 

for purposes of chapter 5 of Title 5 of the United States 

Code (Freedom of Information Act), unless expressly 

agreed to by the tribe/consortium.

Records in this category were fi rst stored at AIRR 

in 2008. Th ere is space for more tribes/consortia to 

take advantage of the excellent maintenance and 

preservation qualities of 

AIRR, which is located 

in limestone caves in 

Lenexa, Kansas. Th e 

facility is a cooperative 

eff ort of the Department 

of the Interior 

and the National 

Archives and Records 

Administration.

Contact your local 

Fiduciary Trust Offi cer 

(FTO) to learn more about the advantages of storing 

tribal trust records at the AIRR location. Locate your 

FTO online at www.doi.gov/ost/ft o.

entering the cave

AIRR’s front door to the offices

old ledger book

driving through the cave
VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 3

Coming soon! Pay.gov. 

Make Trust Payments Online

Soon you will be able to 

authorize a withdrawal from a 

fi nancial account or a charge 

to a credit card on the Pay.gov 

website to pay invoices for Indian 

trust leases and permits. OST will 

include an insert with invoices 

when the service becomes 

available later this year.

It’s another way the Offi ce of the 

Special Trustee for American 

Indians (OST), the Bureau of 

Indian Aff airs and the U.S. 

Department of the Treasury are 

working together to improve 

Indian trust benefi ciary services.

Creighton University 

School of Law in Omaha, 

Nebraska, funded a 

grant for law students to work 

with public service and nonprofi t organizations that provide 

legal services to disadvantaged 

populations. With a little help 

and guidance from the Offi ce of 

the Special Trustee for American 

Indians (OST), Daniel Ramirez, a 

Creighton University law student, 

submitted a proposal to the 

University’s School of Law to assist 

with writing “last wills” for Indian 

benefi ciaries in Nebraska.

OST’s Fiduciary Trust Offi cer 

Eileen McBride (Winnebago 

Field Offi ce) took the next step: 

securing Legal Aid of Nebraska 

as the sponsoring public service 

organization to supervise Daniel’s 

legal work. Legal Aid Director Dave 

Pantos and his staff interviewed 

Daniel and agreed to have him 

work with their “Indian desk staff ” 

for the summer. Daniel will work 

a minimum of 20 hours a week 

throughout the summer in service 

of Legal Aid’s Indian clients. 

Th roughout the coming summer, 

OST will join with Legal Aid 

of Nebraska to present “estate 

planning” seminars at senior citizen 

centers in Macy, Winnebago and 

Santee, Nebraska. Daniel will 

assist at these seminars with client 

interviews and will preparation for 

Indian benefi ciaries. 

Th is project is a win-win-win 

solution that benefi ts Indian 

benefi ciaries, the intern and the 

sponsoring organization. As a 

bonus, those involved with this 

venture expect to see a reduction 

in the fractionation of Indian trust 

land in Nebraska!

Willing it to Happen

Over $93,500

Th at is the total sum of money that was waiting for 22 Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders from 

one reservation who did not have current contact information on fi le with the Offi ce of the Special Trustee for 

American Indians (OST).

OST refers to such account holders as Whereabouts Unknown or WAUs. Two of these former WAUs were 

surprised to learn they had more than $66,000 and $22,000 in their respective accounts. 

Are you out of touch with your IIM account? If your contact information is not up-to-date, call the Trust 

Benefi ciary Call Center (TBCC), toll free, at 1-888-678-6836. Th e TBCC hours are Monday through Friday from 

7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, Mountain time.
4 TRUST MATTERS

Th e roads were treacherous with black ice. Heavy 

rain, and then snow, fell. Driving conditions were 

hazardous. Th ese diffi culties didn’t deter staff with the 

Offi ce of the Special Trustee for American Indians 

(OST) from visiting two high schools and two tribal 

councils in the Pacifi c Region and providing fi nancial 

skills training to students and tribal council members.

Financial skills are important to building and 

managing personal wealth and to supporting 

economic health in the community. So, OST’s 

Fiduciary Trust (FTO) Offi cer Diana Wuerth (Pacifi c 

Region), Fiduciary Trust Offi cer Jim Cordry (Rosebud 

Agency) and Accounting Technician Mark Davis 

(Northern California Agency) visited Round Valley 

High School on March 23 and Early College of the 

Redwoods on March 26 to provide this important 

training to high school students. In addition to the 

students, the FTOs also fi t in special sessions for 

members of the Yurok and Karuk tribal councils.

FTO Cordry kicked off each session with a fi nancial 

pop quiz! It launched the participants into a 

discussion of healthy fi nancial communities and the 

value of keeping residents’ dollars at work in the local 

economy. Th e training included: 

 Basic budgeting and saving

 Credit ratings

 Expenses: wants versus needs

 Investing

Th e training materials were from Building Native 

Communities: Financial Skills for Families. Th e course, 

developed by First Nations Development Institute 

(FNDI), is suitable for individuals at all levels of 

experience. It has cultural and traditional components 

designed specifi cally for Indian country. Several FTOs 

took the training last summer so they could teach 

these fundamentals in a culturally-sensitive manner. 

Do you know anyone who would benefi t from this 

special fi nancial skills training? Learn more about 

training in your area by contacting your FTO. Locate 

your FTO online at www.doi.gov/ost/ft o or call the 

Trust Benefi ciary Call Center (TBCC), toll free, 

at 1-888-678-6836. Th e TBCC hours are Monday 

through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 

from 8 a.m. to noon, Mountain time.

Financially Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

Below: FTO Cordry uses a chart to emphasize 

the Circle of Life concept.

Above: Students pay close attention as the fi nancial 

skills lessons are related to their cultural heritage.