US tax officials have sold off thousands of acres of an impoverished Indian reservation in what the tribe claims is a "shameful" and unprecedented breach of laws protecting Native Americans.
By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 6:54PM GMT 04 Dec 2009
The 7,112 acres - or 11 square miles - of Crow Creek Sioux ancestral land in central South Dakota was auctioned off on Thursday by the US Internal Revenue Service to help pay off more than $3.1 million (£1.9 million) in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest.
The land, part of the tribe's original reservation established in an 1868 treaty, was originally held by the federal government in a trust for the tribe.
However, it was later divided up between individual tribal members, some of whom sold it to non-Indians, putting it outside the tribe's legal jurisdiction.
The tribe bought it back in 1998 but claims the US Bureau of Indian Affairs failed to put the land back into trust, which would have protected it.
The bleak, flat reservation land is particularly valuable to the tribe, one of the poorest communities in the US, because it has been designated as suitable for the development of wind power.
Buffalo County, which encompasses the Crow Creek reservation, is consistently listed by the US Census Bureau as one of the poorest counties in America.
While the tribe's lawyers have launched a legal appeal, some Indians said they would be erecting teepees on the disputed land in protest.
Lawyers and academics believe it is the first instance of the IRS seizing tribal lands in this way.
"It's very disgraceful, very shameful. It's devastating to us. Our land is never for sale," said Brandon Sazue, the tribal chairman, after the auction.
The tribe claims it never paid the taxes because it had been incorrectly told by federal officials that recognised tribes were exempt from them.
While Indian tribes are not usually subject to taxes, exceptions are made for their business ventures.
Tommy Thompson, the tribal secretary, said the IRS should have negotiated with the tribe and that the tax bill could have been paid from trust money held for the tribe.
His tribe argues that the IRS sale should have had congressional approval and was also illegal because the land is held by a tribal corporation that is not legally responsible for its debts.
"Members died and were buried on the land. Indeed, the lands were considered so important to the Crow Creek Sioux tribe that the tribe went into debt to acquire the land as part of its land consolidation effort to enlarge the Crow Creek Indian Reservation," the lawsuit argues.
The IRS refused to comment on the sale while a lawsuit was pending but confirmed that the land fetched almost $2.6 million, substantially less than the $4.6 million at which it had been valued.
Lawyers say the tribe can buy back the land during a 180-day redemption period but their lawsuit against the IRS will go to trial before the deadline expires.
Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:21 pm
