§3711 — Title 25 Indians | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary must manage Indian agricultural lands to protect and keep them productive, using good conservation practices for planning and care. The work must raise production and the variety of crops and livestock for food, income, and jobs. Management should also protect wildlife, fish, cultural sites, and recreation, control runoff, and reduce erosion. The Secretary must help Indian farmers and ranchers with technical help, training, and business advice, support development of value-added farm industries for self-sustaining communities, and help trust or restricted landowners lease land for a reasonable annual return consistent with conservation and tribal goals. A 10-year Indian agriculture resource management and monitoring plan must be made and carried out. A tribe may write and run the plan under a self-determination contract or self-governance compact, and if it does not, the Secretary will do it with the tribe’s input. The plan must show available resources, set goals and management actions, reflect tribal values, be developed in public meetings using existing surveys and research, and be finished within 3 years of starting. Approved plans guide the Bureau and the tribe in managing the lands.

Title 25, §3711

Indians — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Consistent with the provisions of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act [25 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.], the Secretary shall provide for the management of Indian agricultural lands to achieve the following objectives:

(1)To protect, conserve, utilize, and maintain the highest productive potential on Indian agricultural lands through the application of sound conservation practices and techniques. These practices and techniques shall be applied to planning, development, inventorying, classification, and management of agricultural resources.

(2)To increase production and expand the diversity and availability of agricultural products for subsistence, income, and employment of Indians and Alaska Natives, through the development of agricultural resources on Indian lands.

(3)To manage agricultural resources consistent with integrated resource management plans in order to protect and maintain other values such as wildlife, fisheries, cultural resources, recreation and to regulate water runoff and minimize soil erosion.

(4)To enable Indian farmers and ranchers to maximize the potential benefits available to them through their land by providing technical assistance, training, and education in conservation practices, management and economics of agribusiness, sources and use of credit and marketing of agricultural products, and other applicable subject areas.

(5)To develop Indian agricultural lands and associated value-added industries of Indians and Indian tribes to promote self-sustaining communities.

(6)To assist trust and restricted Indian landowners in leasing their agricultural lands for a reasonable annual return, consistent with prudent management and conservation practices, and community goals as expressed in the tribal management plans and appropriate tribal ordinances.

(b)(1)To meet the management objectives of this section, a 10-year Indian agriculture resource management and monitoring plan shall be developed and implemented as follows:

(A)Pursuant to a self-determination contract or self-governance compact, an Indian tribe may develop or implement an Indian agriculture resource plan. Subject to the provisions of subparagraph (C), the tribe shall have broad discretion in designing and carrying out the planning process.

(B)If a tribe chooses not to contract the development or implementation of the plan, the Secretary shall develop or implement, as appropriate, the plan in close consultation with the affected tribe.

(C)Whether developed directly by the tribe or by the Secretary, the plan shall—

(i)determine available agriculture resources;

(ii)identify specific tribal agricultural resource goals and objectives;

(iii)establish management objectives for the resources;

(iv)define critical values of the Indian tribe and its members and provide identified holistic management objectives;

(v)identify actions to be taken to reach established objectives;

(vi)be developed through public meetings;

(vii)use the public meeting records, existing survey documents, reports, and other research from Federal agencies, tribal community colleges, and land grant universities; and

(viii)be completed within three years of the initiation of activity to establish the plan.

(2)Indian agriculture resource management plans developed and approved under this section shall govern the management and administration of Indian agricultural resources and Indian agricultural lands by the Bureau and the Indian tribal government.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, referred to in subsec. (a), is Pub. L. 93–638, Jan. 4, 1975, 88 Stat. 2203, which is classified principally to chapter 46 (§ 5301 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 5301 of this title and Tables.

§3711 Management of Indian Rangelands and Farmlands