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Sunday, August 5, 2018

Indian Lands

I noticed that the numbers Uncle Ken shared with us list Indian lands as a separate thing.  If, by "Indian lands", they mean tribal lands or reservations, those are all owned "in trust" by the federal government.  The tribes get exclusive use of these lands, but they don't own them.  The reason I know this is that it comes up in our local news from time to time, and I have looked it up on Wiki as well.

Prior to the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1932, some reservation lands were distributed to individual Indians in an attempt to wean them away from their traditional communal lifestyles.  Much of this land was subsequently sold to non-Indians, leaving some holes in the reservation maps.  After 1932, the tribes could buy private land and turn it over to the feds "in trust", making it part of their reservation, even though it may not be contiguous.  I don't know how much of this went on in other parts of the country, but the Odawa (Ottawa) tribe of neighboring Emmet County have reportedly bought up about half the land in the county over the years.  The state and county have no jurisdiction over these tribal lands.  The tribe has their own police force, although serious crimes like murder are handled by the feds.  Most of this land is not posted or marked in any way so, when somebody calls 911, both the county and tribal police respond and sort out who has jurisdiction when they get there.  They cooperate with each other, and the non-jurisdictional force will hang around and help with traffic control or something if needed.

And what about airports?  Our local airport is county owned, but aren't all the big international airports owned by the feds?


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