Montana Indian Reservations:

Funding of Selected Services, Taxation of Real Property

HRD-89-1BR: Published: Oct 11, 1988. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 1988.

Additional Materials:

Contact:

Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov

In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on health care, social services, education, and real property taxes on four Indian reservations in Montana to determine: (1) what the state and Indians living on reservations spent on health care, social service programs, and education; and (2) if the counties assessed real property taxes on trust lands and tribal lands located within county borders and on lands within reservation boundaries.

GAO found that: (1) Indians received county- or state-funded medical assistance unless they were eligible for Medicaid or Indian Health Service (IHS) programs; (2) IHS provided health care services in its facilities or paid for services in non-IHS facilities totalling $23 million, while Indian tribes on the four reservations spent $306,000 for health-related activities; (3) the counties or state funded social services to reservation Indians who were ineligible for other federal- and state-funded programs and did not receive Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) assistance; and (4) the state provided $86,000 in child welfare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and foster care program funds totalled $5.2 million and $203,000, respectively, BIA funded about $2.9 million in general assistance and $708,000 in child welfare assistance, and tribes provided $839,000 in general assistance. GAO also found that: (1) Indian students attended schools in districts that often overlapped reservation boundaries and served both Indian and non-Indian students; and (2) the federal government, state, counties, and school districts funded public education totalling about $60.8 million and tribes provided about $282,000 for education. In addition, GAO found that: (1) real property on reservations that either the tribes or the federal government held in trust or that tribes owned was not taxed; (2) non-Indian-owned real property and individual-Indian-owned reservation property was taxed; and (3) counties billed the Blackfeet and Flathead reservations about $2,160,000 and $6,033,800, respectively, and the Fort Belnap and Northern Cheyenne reservations about $24,600 and $8,100, respectively.

Jan 19, 2021

Jan 13, 2021

Dec 16, 2020

Dec 9, 2020

Dec 3, 2020

Nov 30, 2020

Nov 24, 2020

Nov 23, 2020

Nov 18, 2020

Looking for more? Browse all our products here