DOI Cannot Take Land Into Trust From Deceased Person, Federal Judge Affirms

Mealey's (September 29, 2016, 8:46 AM EDT) -- TULSA, Okla. — The Department of the Interior (DOI) properly refused a son’s request to take into trust his father’s inherited land allotment from 1904 following the father’s death because, as the Board of Indian Appeals correctly found, the agency’s trust acquisition rules do not authorize it to accept fee title to land in trust for a deceased person or his estate, an Oklahoma federal judge held Sept. 27 (Darrell Chissoe v. Sally Jewell, No. 15-cv-0166, N.D. Okla.; 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132239)....