Are only lands granted by deed with the federal government recognized
as being indian reservation land, or can donated land be incorperated
into the reservation without all of the restrictions local goverment
is currently applying to private property?

The land in question is not adjoining the reservation. It's several
miles away, but it is within the same township as the reservation.

Alpha male wrote:
Are only lands granted by deed with the federal government recognized as being indian reservation land, or can donated land be incorperated into the reservation without all of the restrictions local goverment is currently applying to private property?
The land in question is not adjoining the reservation. It's several miles away, but it is within the same township as the reservation.


You should probably need to contact the "bureau of indian affairs" for an
appropriate answer.

>You should probably need to contact the "bureau of indian affairs" for anappropriate answer.

Speaking off the top of my head, and also speaking as a non-lawyer and
non-Indian, I will say that an Indian reservation is created by treaty between
the federal government and the tribal leadership. If the federal government
agrees to the annexation of the donated land, than that land is part of the
reservation. Otherwise, the land would merely be owned by whoever it was
donated to (e.g., by the tribal government) but would not be part of the
reservation. In either case, the tribe is a sovereign entity (very much like a
state or like the USA itself) and its powers overlap with and often supercede
those of the local municipality or county.

This is a very complicated issue and you would probably want to consider hiring
a lawyer who actually knows about this sort of thing rather than relying on
idiots like me :-)




*****
Tim Horrigan <horrigan@aol.com>
*****

On 28 Nov 2004 18:50:16 GMT, horrigan@aol.com (Horrigan) wrote:
You should probably need to contact the "bureau of indian affairs" for anappropriate answer.Speaking off the top of my head, and also speaking as a non-lawyer andnon-Indian, I will say that an Indian reservation is created by treaty betweenthe federal government and the tribal leadership. If the federal governmentagrees to the annexation of the donated land, than that land is part of thereservation. Otherwise, the land would merely be owned by whoever it wasdonated to (e.g., by the tribal government) but would not be part of thereservation. In either case, the tribe is a sovereign entity (very much like astate or like the USA itself) and its powers overlap with and often supercedethose of the local municipality or county.This is a very complicated issue and you would probably want to consider hiringa lawyer who actually knows about this sort of thing rather than relying onidiots like me :-)

Thank you Horrigan and Richard for both of your responses.

The land in question is a *fifty year old family investment*. Almost
18% of this land is an easement used by neighbors to access their
homes, yet these same neighbors have publicly objected to the owner's
request to improve less than 2% of his land for his family's home.

Due to local environmental laws, it is doubtful that any building
permit will be issued to the owner. Land attorneys can only guarantee
their hourly rates. The town has told the owner to consider
purchasing another parcel of land to build on, and they also asked if
he wanted to donate his property to the town's preservation fund.

The property taxes are well over three thousand dollars a year (for
land which has been made utterly worthless due to local laws) and
since the owner is a working man of modest means, I've recommended he
donate his land to the local indian reservation. I've suggested this
would allow him to concentrate on investing into something sensible
instead of a lost cause. Even though he has (to date) invested almost
ten thousand dollars of his hard earned money on the permit process, I
believe he is beginning to appreciate the wisdom of my advice.

If anyone has better advice, I'd love to read it. :)