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Reservation auction fetches $2.6M

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Saturday, 05 December 2009

Reservation auction fetches $2.6M But courts will decide legality of IRS move on tribal lands Jeff Martin • This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it • December 4, 2009 About 7,100 acres of land on the Crow Creek Indian reservation was auctioned Thursday by the Internal Revenue Service, but the buyer's identity is a mystery. The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe had gone to court to try to stop the IRS from auctioning the land to settle overdue employment taxes it claims are owed by the tribe. But the auction went ahead, and the winning bid was $2,577,210, IRS spokeswoman Carrie Resch said. The buyer's identity is not yet available, she said. Although a judge allowed the unusual auction, a trial on the matter will be held within 180 days, U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange ruled. "I'm very heartbroken," said tribal council member Kitty Wells. Five bidders had registered, but only one of them bid on the land, Wells said. The winning bid was the minimum bid the IRS had set before the auction of $2,577,210, according to documents from the agency. As of August, the tribe owed the IRS about $3.1 million in back taxes, penalties and interest. Law experts have said it is a rare situation that the IRS would auction property on an Indian reservation to pay off a tax bill. Duane St. John, also on the tribal council, said people he has spoken with "are pretty mad" about the situation. St. John and others have been trying to develop wind energy on the reservation east of Pierre. They have met with several companies, including firms from Florida and Texas, about the potential for wind development to help improve economic conditions on the reservation, which is ravaged by poverty. Most of the reservation is in Buffalo County, the nation's poorest county, where the per capita income was $5,213, the Census found. The IRS auction comes about a month after President Obama met with Native Americans from South Dakota and across the nation at a summit in Washington, D.C., where Obama said federal agencies should do a better job consulting with tribes on policies affecting Indian Country. St. John said he has been an Obama supporter, and met him in Sioux Falls during the presidential campaign. "I was shaking his hand, and I said, 'Don't forget us when you get into office," St. John recalls. "He said, 'I wont forget you guys.' " http://www.argusleader.com/article/20091204/NEWS/912040304/1001/news

 

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