Estimated Oil/ Gas Payments to Get Underway to Indian
Beneficiaries
Special Computer Run to Make Estimated Payments to Individual Indians

(Albuquerque, NM) - The Department of the Interior on Friday will begin processing estimated oil and gas royalty payments totaling about $1.8 million to individual Indians.

This is in addition to general assistance, field leasing and per capita payments recently provided to Indian trust accounts since mid-January when some systems were restored to process other trust income.

The delay in issuing lease payments to individual Indians is associated with a Dec. 5, 2001, Temporary Restraining Order issued by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, which required the department to disconnect from the Internet all information technology systems that housed or provided access to individual Indian trust data.

The Office of Trust Funds Management in Albuquerque programmed a special computer run to make estimated royalty payments, which are intended to represent one month's oil and gas revenue. The estimated amount will be based on an average of the two most recent months when checks were issued.

Oil and gas royalty payments for Indian lands are collected and processed by the Minerals Management Service. The information technology systems of the Minerals Management Service are still not permitted to utilize the Internet to complete its work, therefore, the information necessary for BIA to make a distribution cannot be forwarded. In turn, the Bureau of Indian Affairs cannot forward the data to the Office of Trust Funds Management for payment. Because new oil and gas revenues are not being processed and deposited to the owners' accounts, no oil and gas leasing payments have been made since Dec. 5, 2001.

Since December, a team of computer experts and technicians, have been evaluating Interior's information technology systems, improving the protection of individual Indian trust data and taking the steps to gain the court's permission to reconnect the department's computer system to the Internet.

The Department of the Interior has trust responsibilities for American Indians, dating back to 1887, and manages, among other things, rents and royalties from grazing, mining, logging and oil drilling on Indian lands.

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