Tribe Seeks to Have Lincoln Property Removed from Tax Rolls

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials are fighting the Ponca Tribe’s efforts to have property it owns in Lincoln removed from tax rolls.

The tribe has submitted a request to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs to have the property put into the federal trust. Federally recognized tribes have the ability to request land they own be designated federal land.

The property, currently used as the tribe’s economic development office, is assessed at $227,700.

In an Aug. 11 letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson and Gov. Pete Ricketts argued that the Ponca Restoration Act of 1990 prohibits the tribe from establishing a reservation and that the property should instead be designated as off-reservation land.