Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, the first national monument to preserve the landscape and honor the history and culture of Maine’s North Woods. Photo courtesy of Scot Miller.
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Before the 1960s almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) person was illegal. New York City laws against homosexual activities were particularly harsh. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGBT civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.
Vine Creek Ranch at Death Valley National Park. Steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes. Towering peaks are frosted with winter snow. Rare rainstorms bring vast fields of wildflowers. Lush oases harbor tiny fish and refuge for wildlife and humans. Despite its morbid name, a great diversity of life survives in Death Valley.
Located 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii, the National Park of American Samoa is the most remote unit of the National Park System and the U.S. National Park south of the Equator. The Park spreads across three islands, 9,500 acres of tropical rainforest, and 4,000 acres of ocean, including coral reefs. While remote, the islands of American Samoa, true to the meaning of the word Samoa (Islands of Sacred Earth), are welcoming and offer beautiful landscapes and centuries of culture and history.
Seasoned backpacker and adventurer Yang Lu earned the grand prize in the 2015 Share the Experience photo contest with this image of a sunburst captured at sunrise in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah. Yang has made the outdoors part of his daily life and finds deep connection to the land through his lens.
“My photography is not just for recreation, it is to inspire people to explore these areas." -- Yang Lu
Photo by Yang Lu (www.sharetheexperience.org).
Our mission: to honor our trust responsibilities by incorporating a beneficiary focus and participation while providing superior stewardship of trust assets.
For immediate assistance: OST Trust Beneficiary Call Center 1-888-678-6836
Many of the services to beneficiaries are provided under the direction of OST's Field Operations. If you are a beneficiary, this is a great place to start!
Check with the Trust Beneficiary Call Center to determine if there is an Individual Indian Monies (IIM) account in your name.
OST is seeking current addresses for Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders. All Whereabouts Unknown (WAU) accounts have either interests in lands and/or funds to be disbursed to rightful owners.
Established by the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-412), OST was created to improve the accountability and management of Indian funds held in trust by the federal government.
The Indian trust consists of 55 million surface acres and 57 million acres of subsurface minerals estates held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes and Alaska Natives. Over 11 million acres belong to individual Indians and nearly 44 million acres are held in trust for Indian tribes.
The Secretary of the Interior's trust principles were first issued by Secretary Babbitt in April 2000 with Secretarial Order 3215. They were eventually incorporated into the Departmental Manual.
OST manages Indian beneficiaries' financial assets and is responsible for coordinating reform efforts to improve trust asset management and beneficiary services throughout Interior. OST is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with financial management and other functions administered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and by staff located throughout Indian country.
OST's Office of Trust Records (OTR) was established in 1999 to develop and implement a program for the economical and efficient management of trust records in compliance with the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 and the Federal Records Act.
OST, along with a number of tribes and consortiums, are developing a new methodology and approach using 21st Century technology to re-engineer the annual Tribal Trust evaluation process.
