Government wants to give Natives their money back

By Natasha Kaye Johnson
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — The government is trying to track down a handful of Navajos so that they can pay back over $2 million on unclaimed inheritances and tribal land allotments.

There is $68 million owed to 45,000 American Indians nationwide who have not claimed inheritances or interest from tribal land allotments. Virginia Moore, trust officer for the federal Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians, said that includes 4,325 beneficiaries who are Navajo, who have land claims that add up to $2.1 million.

“The trust has existed since the mid 30’s, so I don’t know if any of this money is that old,” said John Roach, trust officer for the office.

There are 4,000 people entitled to the inheritance. Most are enrolled at Eastern Agency, with other allotments in Fort Defiance, St. Michaels, Oljato, Aneth, Tuba City, Indian Wells, Dilkon; however, Moore said while majority of people may be enrolled at Eastern Agency or elsewhere on the Nation, they may be living somewhere else.

“A lot of the account holders are enrolled with Eastern Agency, but that doesn’t mean that they’re in Eastern Agency” said Virginia Moore, certified Indian fiduciary trust specialist. “Most of them are just not aware of their inheritance.”

Some may be living in other parts of the reservation, while some may be spread across the United States.

“Some of these are very old accounts,” said Moore. “Some of them just have the Navajo names.”

Moore said that there are also a lot of common names as well.

“There could be 1,000 John Begay’s out there,” said Moore.

Some allotted land is making money through businesses leases, and these are the primary individuals that the office is trying to reach.

What makes it more difficult, Roach said, is that Native Americans don’t necessarily marry into tribes.

“We also have a search team that office of the special trustee has employed to try to find beneficiaries as well,” said Roach. “They have concentrated the high dollar people.”

What happen are many times that a person passes on, and their children or grandchildren’s whereabouts are unknown. Another thing that happens is that people move away and don’t give a forwarding address.

“Native Americans don’t write wills just like the rest of America doesn’t write wills, but that has negative implications for land ownership (for Native Americans),” said Roach.

Of the 45,000 people in the United States that have allotted land inheritances or interest from tribal land, there are about 22,000 people who are owed more than $100.

“The rest are owed less than a $100,” said Roach. “It goes from a couple of pennies to $100,000.”
Roach said that are also people on the list that have no money waiting for them, but they have land.

“We’re the largest land base, and we’re the only regional land base right now,” said Moore.

Moore is one of two certified officers working specifically on Navajo. Moore said that they will be opening an additional office in Eastern Navajo Agency soon, since there is a high concentration of unclaimed land in the area.

The office does special outreach, like going to fairs, pow-wows, and chapter house meetings.

“We’re making a huge effort and attempt to locate these whereabouts unknowns,” the management analyst with the Office of External Affairs for OST said.

The office advises everyone to check the list.

“I would say everybody checks,” said Roach. “Basically, check the list for anybody you know.”

Please contact the Gallup office at 505-863-8328, 1-888-678-6836, or log onto www.doi.gov/ost.