Indian Land Tenure Foundation - Legal Reform Grant Program

The Indian Land Tenure Foundation's Legal Reform Grant Program aims to empower American Indian nations by addressing systemic barriers to land ownership and control. This initiative promotes collaboration on projects like estate planning, land policy reform, and engaging government leaders in discussions about tribal sovereignty. By focusing on legal reforms, the program seeks to rectify longstanding inequities and enhance the ability of tribes to manage their land effectively.

The Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) is a national, community-based organization serving American Indian nations and people in the recovery and control of their rightful homelands. We work to promote education, increase cultural awareness, create economic opportunity, and reform the legal and administrative systems that prevent Indian people from owning and controlling reservation lands.
Some of the most crippling systemic barriers to Indian land use and control – fractionated ownership, checkerboarding, abuse of the federal trust relationship – are due to complex and unjust regulations, court rulings and laws involving Indian land. Some of the most shortsighted, racist and damaging federal Indian policies, such as the policy of allotment, were devised in the 1800s when most people believed that Native Americans would either disappear or assimilate into American society. Many of these policies, and their devastating effects on Indian people, remain today.
Projects should be designed to advance ideas and policies granting Indian landowners and tribes greater control of their land assets. Example projects might include:
Estate planning and probate reform in tribal communitiesLand policy development or reformLandowner associationsEngaging local, state and federal government leaders in a dialogue about the tribe exercising its sovereignty over tribal landInitiatives to improve the legal landscape for owning and managing Indian land.

Eligibility

Entities eligible for funding include:Tribal, local and state governmentsNonprofit organizations with a 501(c)(3) designation, including institutions

Ineligibility

Activities that are not eligible for funding include, but are not limited to, the following:Advocacy and lobbying efforts to influence legislationEndowmentsLand purchasesBenefits, fundraisers, walk-a-thons, telethons, galas, etc.Scholarships, tuition assistance or other direct funding to individualsSpecial events, except when the event is a key strategy in a continuum of efforts to achieve community goals in the Foundation’s program areas