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History

Established by the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-412), the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) was created to improve the accountability and management of Indian funds held in trust by the federal government.  As trustee, the Department of the Interior has the primary fiduciary responsibility to manage both Tribal trust funds and Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts.

Currently, OST maintains approximately 1,400 accounts for 315 Tribal entities with assets exceeding $2.5 billion, and over 285,000 IIM accounts with assets of approximately $480 million. Annually, more than $800 million passes through the Tribal trust funds system, and over $300 million passes through IIM accounts. This income is generated from the sale or rental of Indian-owned land and natural resources such as timber, and royalties from oil and natural gas exploration and production. Funds also are derived from interest earned on invested funds, as well as awards or settlements of tribal claims.

The mission of the OST is to provide oversight, reform and coordination of the policies, procedures, systems and practices used by various agencies to manage Indian trust assets. This mission is integrally related to the Department of the Interior's goal of meeting its responsibilities to American Indians.

The goals of the OST include:

1. to protect and preserve Indian trust assets and collect and accurately account for income due beneficiaries;
2. to obtain agreement with all Tribal and individual Indian account holders on the balances in their trust accounts in a manner that is fair to both the Indian community and the general public, does not impair or impede reform efforts, and does not result in reductions in Indian programs; and
3. to provide timely and responsive customer services to account holders.