Bill to Allow Public Land and Mineral Rights Transfers Between Federal Government and State, Tribes

BISMARCK – U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and John Hoeven (R-ND) and Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) reintroduced the North Dakota Belief Lands Completion Act. The invoice would authorize North Dakota to relinquish its lands and minerals on Tribal Reservations to the U.S. Division of the Inside (DOI) in alternate for these within the state that are federally-owned.

North Dakota holds greater than 130,000 acres of minerals and over 31,000 floor acres inside Tribal Reservations, although they’re largely unavailable for growth. On the identical time, present legal guidelines don’t adequately accommodate land and mineral exchanges between the state and the federal authorities.

“Fragmented land possession and mineral rights in North Dakota have hampered our state’s useful resource growth for much too lengthy,” stated Senator Cramer. “Permitting the state to alternate land and minerals with the Division of the Inside and tribes is a commonsense answer to learn all events concerned.”

“Our laws will empower North Dakota to raised make the most of its mineral rights and develop the power assets inside the state, producing income for training and different necessary priorities,” stated Senator Hoeven. “As a part of these equal-value exchanges, tribes will be capable of regain the fragmented lands and minerals situated inside their reservations.”

“The comingling of federal, state, and tribal lands has lengthy prevented North Dakota’s assets from being absolutely utilized,” stated Congressman Armstrong. “Our invoice offers the state of North Dakota and tribes extra management over lands inside their jurisdiction. It will scale back the quantity of duplicative laws and profit folks throughout our state.”

Click on right here for invoice textual content and right here for a one-pager.

Background:

Particularly, the North Dakota Belief Lands Completion Act would:

• Permit equal worth transactions between North Dakota and DOI to alternate land and mineral rights
• Allow North Dakota’s entry to lands and minerals it was promised upon statehood to fund training and different public functions
• Present tribes better possession over the lands inside their reservation boundaries

Valuations performed beneath this laws could be decided by Uniform Appraisal Requirements for Federal Land Acquisitions and the Uniform Requirements for Skilled Appraisal Observe. Legitimate present rights might be revered in these transactions and there might be no affect on any Indian treaty rights.