Landowners on reservations get government buyback offers

BILLINGS (AP) — The U.S. government has made offers worth more than $230 million combined to buy fractionated parcels of land on two Montana American Indian reservations and turn them over to tribal governments, Department of Interior officials said.

The offers involving almost 12,000 landowners on the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap reservations are part of a nationwide program that aims to buy land parcels owned by multiple individuals so they can be put to beneficial use.

Interior officials said Monday they had expanded the effort to include properties with buildings, homes and other structures,...