The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) exists is supposed to assist Native Americans and help manage the 55 million acres of Native owned land, this land is held in trust by the federal government for it’s Native owners.

However an investigative report has unravelled an elaborate scheme whereby the BIA is helping corporations buy or lease land at pretty much zero profit to it’s Native owners.

USUncut reported:

“They attacked my Aunt like a bunch of coyotes attacking sheep in a corral,” said Navajo Roberta Tovar. “They were going, ‘Mary, Mary, just go ahead and sign it.’ ”

The BIA encouraged Mary Tom to renew the Western Union’s right to use her land for a measly $2,000 bonus. Given that the average tribal member’s average income barely tops $10,000, with unemployment rates averaging $10,000, Tom eventually signed the papers. But only after the BIA insisted upon sitting down at a private meeting with Western Union without any trusted family members being permitted to attend. Records also show that representatives from the BIA had a “pre-meeting” with Western Union before she arrived.

A report from the Interior Department discovered that in 2015, 60% of Native landowners made less than $25 from leasing and other land-related income, with some getting only a few pennies. In contrast, huge corporations such as Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, Dollar General and many more made well over $5 billion from resources extracted from Native land.

Essentially a poor population will sometimes do anything to pay the groceries or gas and the BIA seems to be taking advantage of this.

You can read more about this awful story here: http://usuncut.com/news/federal-agency-busted-elaborate-scheme-sell-native-american-land-corporations/