Land from Indians to be offered to others?

Regarding the Dec. 9 Gazette article titled “$1.4 billion settlement to resolve land claims by American Indians”: The Obama Administration said it would pay $1.4 billion to 300,000 American Indians who claim the U.S. government had mismanaged Indian land trusts for more than 100 years. In addition, the Obama Administration has offered $2 billion more to buy back sole ownership of all these small plots of land from the Indians. This $3.4 billion package would settle a 13-year-long lawsuit between the U.S. government and the Indians.

If the Indians accept this $3.4 billion settlement, the U.S. government will own 100,000 parcels of land totaling more the 56 million acres, mainly on Indian reservation land in the West. Some of this land sits on natural resources, i.e., oil, coal and natural gas.

This 56 million acres equals, approximately, the dry land area of the states of New York plus Ohio.

It puts an enormous amount of additional real estate under U.S. government ownership, which may come in handy. Foreign countries that hold indebtedness may need to cash in their bonds and may well refuse to take American paper money. They may demand real estate instead. China and Japan hold approximately $1.6 trillion in U.S. debt.

Ralph Bock

Cedar Rapids