Bureaucratic control by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a lack of self-determination have hampered Indian reservations in trying to climb out of poverty.

The Indian nations do not have secure property rights. For example, a survey of 39 large Western reservations found that only 47 percent of the acreage was owned in "fee simple" - meaning the tribes or individual owners could lease or sell it - while the BIA holds 53 percent in trust.

The BIA must approve leases, capital improvements or transfers for a tangle of trusts benefiting individuals and tribes. Allotments to tribes lead to political control of land-use decisions, while individuals are stuck with uneconomic tracts.

• The individually owned trust lands alone consist of 200,000 tracts, with more than 2 million undivided interests (ownership shares).

• In Montana, members of the Blackfoot Tribe were allotted 320 acres apiece, while the average farm in that region today is greater than 1,500 acres.

• On average, the per acre value of agricultural output is 85 to 90 percent lower on tribal trust land than on fee-simple land, and 30 to 40 percent lower on individual trust land than on fee-simple land.

The trusts make it difficult to get bank loans or attract private investment, although many tribes have vast mineral resources. For example, the Crow tribe has coal reserves valued at more than $3 million per capita, yet the assets earn an annual rate of return of 0.01 percent.

Despite a projected $6.4 billion in federal spending on Indian programs in 1996 - up $500 million from 1995 — many Indians live in poverty.

• Twenty-two percent of Indian households on reservations have incomes of less than $5,000 per year (versus the U.S. average of 6 percent), and only 8 percent have incomes greater than $35,000 (compared to an 18 percent U. S. average).

• In 1991, 31 percent of Indian households received public assistance income, and 23 percent were below the poverty line.

• Unemployment rose from 27 percent in 1969 to 40 percent in 1989.

Source: Terry L. Anderson, "Sovereignty or Poverty?" Fraser Forum, March 1996, Fraser Institute, 626 Bute Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6E 3M1, (604) 688-0221.