US says money for Indian land buys will come up short

MATTHEW BROWN

Associated Press

BILLINGS — An ambitious effort to restore tribal control over huge areas of privately owned land on American Indian reservations is projected to run out of money with millions of acres still unaddressed, according to a U.S. government report obtained by The Associated Press.

The Obama administration established the “land buyback program” under a $1.9 billion legal settlement that determined the government squandered billions of dollars it held in trust for tribes from royalties on oil and gas leases, grazing and other uses of Indian lands.

As part of...