The U.S. Interior Department has offered a total of $8.3 million to nearly 2,100 landowners on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

The purchase offers to people with fractional land interests were announced Monday by Deputy Secretary of the Interior Mike Connor.

They are part of the Interior Department’s Land Buy-Back Program, an effort to consolidate land that has been split into fractional interests over the years.

The offers follow the recent visit by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

This mailing will kick off several weeks of additional purchase offers to landowners who own fractional land interests on the Umatilla, Coeur d’Alene, Lake Traverse (home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) and Crow reservations.  

According to a news release, the Interior Department’s Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations has successfully concluded transactions worth almost $103 million, restoring the equivalent of nearly 265,000 acres of land to tribal governments. 

Flathead Reservation landowners will have until Oct. 24 to return accepted offers.  

The Buy-Back Program implements the land consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement, which provided $1.9 billion to purchase fractional interests in trust or restricted land from willing sellers at fair market value within a 10-year period. 

There are almost 245,000 owners of nearly three million fractional interests, spanning 150 Indian reservations, who are eligible to participate in the Buy-Back Program.  

In addition to receiving fair market value for their land based on appraisals, sellers also receive a base payment of $75 per offer, regardless of the value of the land. 

Landowners can contact the Trust Beneficiary Call Center at (888) 678-6836 with questions about their purchase offers. 

People also can visit their local Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians or Bureau of Indian Affairs office.

More information is available at www.doi.gov/buybackprogram/landowners.

Participation in the Buy-Back Program is voluntary. Selling land for restoration to tribes does not impact a landowner’s eligibility to receive individual payments from the Cobell Settlement.

Those which are being handled by the Garden City Group. Inquiries regarding Settlement payments should be directed to (800) 961-6109.

Sales of land also will result in up to $60 million in contributions to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund. This contribution is in addition to the amounts paid to individual sellers, so it will not reduce the amount landowners receive. 

“The success of the Buy-Back Program is reflected in our ongoing collaborations with tribal governments and active outreach to individual owners,” Connor said. “We know that tribal leaders can best explain the value of reducing fractionated lands and the significant benefit to Indian Country, and we are committed to making sure that individuals are aware of this historic opportunity to strengthen tribal sovereignty by supporting the consolidation of Indian lands.”