I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4325
To advance the self-determined management, use, and control of allotted
and fractionated trust lands by Indian people; to promote the consolida-
tion of fractionated land interests into viable economic units by the
removal of regulatory barriers; and to create and enhance the necessary
programs and processes for this purpose.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 23, 1998
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and
Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To advance the self-determined management, use, and con-
trol of allotted and fractionated trust lands by Indian
people; to promote the consolidation of fractionated land
interests into viable economic units by the removal of
regulatory barriers; and to create and enhance the nec-
essary programs and processes for this purpose.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Indian Trust Estate
Planning and Land Title Management Improvement Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that—
(1) the United States has a trust relationship
with Indian tribes and people that includes a trust
responsibility to protect, conserve, and provide for
the utilization and management of Indian lands;
(2) the Federal Government sought to assimi-
late Indian people into the mainstream and acquire
additional lands by allotting tribal lands to individ-
ual tribal members, declaring remaining lands sur-
plus, and making tribal land available for home-
steading, surplus sale, and other uses in direct viola-
tion of treaty agreements;
(3) during the period in which the United
States carried out the activities referred to in para-
graph (2), allotments were removed from trust sta-
tus by forced fee patent, sale by both Indian land-
owners and the Federal Government, probate pro-
ceedings under State inheritance law, foreclosures,
and surplus sale of treaty land;
(4) the activities referred to in paragraph (3)
resulted in more than 90,000,000 acres of Indian
homelands passing out of Indian ownership;
(5) as of the date of enactment of this Act,
some of the activities referred to in paragraph (3)
continue to be carried out by the Federal Govern-
ment;
(6) with the passing of each generation, the
number of owners increased with respect to a trust
allotment described in paragraph (3);
(7) as a result of the increase referred to in
paragraph (6), it is not uncommon to find—
(A) numerous allotments on many reserva-
tions that have multiple owners; and
(B) many Indian landowners that hold in-
terests in land on multiple reservations;
(8) Indian landowners encounter a maze of
Federal regulations;
(9) the Federal regulations, coupled with the in-
creasing growth of trust interests held in common,
make it difficult for many Indian heirs to make
practical use of the land involved; and
(10) archaic Federal Indian land policies and
overregulation have helped to perpetuate the pater-
nalistic management of Indian land during the 100-
year period preceding the date of enactment of this
Act.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
It is the policy of the United States and the purpose
of this Act to—
(1) fulfill the Federal trust responsibility to
tribes and individual Indians that exists under trea-
ties, Executive orders, court decisions, and Acts of
Congress related to—
(A) maintaining the trust status of the In-
dian lands; and
(B) managing the land for highest and
best use purposes;
(2) facilitate estate planning and real estate
transactions that provide for the beneficial use of In-
dian lands by the Indians who own those lands;
(3) support tribal communities, in the develop-
ment of—
(A) land ownership databases;
(B) fractionated land acquisition lending
and grant programs; and
(C) tribal inheritance laws which enable
the 
Indian 
landowner 
to 
consolidate
fractionated title to create viable economic units
of land; and
(4) preserve the trust status of Indian lands lo-
cated both within and outside the boundaries of a
reservation.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) ALASKA NATIVE.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘Alaska Na-
tive’’ means an individual who is an Alaskan
Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut, or any combination
thereof, who are indigenous to Alaska.
(B) CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE CHIL-
DREN OF ALASKA NATIVES.—The term includes
an individual who is regarded as an Alaska Na-
tive by the Alaska Native village or group with
respect to which—
(i) that individual claims to be a
member; and
(ii) a parent of that individual (wheth-
er living or deceased) is regarded as being,
(or if deceased having been) an Alaska Na-
tive by the Alaska Native village or group.
(C) CERTAIN
ADOPTED
INDIVIDUALS.—
The term includes any individual who meets the
definition under subparagraph (A) who is a
child of 1 or more adoptive parents who are not
Alaska Natives.
(2) INDIAN.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘Indian’’
means any individual who is a member, or a de-
scendant of a member, of a North American
tribe, band, pueblo, or other organized group of
native people who are indigenous to the con-
tinental United States, or who otherwise has a
special relationship with the United States
through a treaty, agreement, or other form of
recognition.
(B) ALASKA NATIVES.—The term includes
an Alaska Native.
(3) 
FRACTIONATION.—The 
term 
‘‘fraction-
ation’’ means, with respect to interests in land, the
dividing or breaking up of those interests into undi-
vided interests.
(4) 
FRACTIONATED
LAND
CONSOLIDATION
PLAN.—The term ‘‘fractionated land consolidation
plan’’ means a plan developed through a documented
community-based planning process and enacted by a
tribal government that—
(A) defines fractionated land consolidation
goals; and
(B) provides for a means of reducing frac-
tionation through gift deed, sale, purchase, and
exchange among owners or other Indians or
tribes.
(5) GRANTOR.—The term ‘‘grantor’’ means a
person who has control or authority over real prop-
erty (including the right to give, confer, consent,
allow, surrender, or transfer that property with or
without compensation).
(6) INDIAN
LANDOWNER.—The term ‘‘Indian
landowner’’ means an individual Indian owner of an
interest in trust or restricted land.
(7) LANDOWNERS
AGREEMENT.—The term
‘‘landowners agreement’’ means a management
agreement among landowners.
(8) LEASE COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘lease council’’
means the entity authorized to act for the land-
owners who are subject to a landowners agreement.
(9) LINEAL
DESCENDANT.—The term ‘‘lineal
descendant’’ means an individual whose descent is
by a direct line of succession in ancestry, including
an adopted child who is an Indian.
(10) 
SECRETARY.—The 
term 
‘‘Secretary’’
means the Secretary of the Interior.
(11) TRIBAL CORPORATE ENTITY.—The term
‘‘tribal corporate entity’’ means an entity that is rec-
ognized by a tribe as a tribal corporate entity.
(12) TRIBE.—The term ‘‘tribe’’—