Overcoming Ever-Changing Ownership, Limited Resources, and Inadequate Technology

Bureau of Indian Affairs Produces Current Land Status Maps with GIS

By Mark Zundel, Geographic Data Service Center, Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) maintains more than a quarter million land title records of Native American Indian lands covering 55 million acres held in trust by the United States. These records have historically been maintained in a legacy system called the Land Records Information System (LRIS). Land descriptions in LRIS are text fields of aliquot part, metes and bounds, and lot and block descriptions. The LRIS system has no capability to analyze or view the data geographically. By statute, the BIA is responsible for the production and maintenance of current title maps. Compliance was, however, impeded by the ever-changing ownership patterns on these trust lands, limited BIA resources, and inadequate technology. The BIA Geographic Data Service Center (GDSC) was tasked to develop a system that could quickly and automatically produce current land status maps. In response, the GDSC developed and implemented a system called the Land Title Mapper (LTM) to satisfy this need.

LTM System

LTM is a system that produces four standard land status map products: a reservation map, a township map, a tract-in-context map, and an indexed plat book with a series of township maps. LTM also produces an indexed plat book based on an individual's ownership ID number (i.e., a series of township maps with only the tracts belonging to that individual displayed). All of these map products can be customized to include various backdrop map layers (hydrography, transportation, administrative boundaries, etc.) and can display either surface or subsurface land status.

The user-friendly interface consists of a single menu. The user has the option to enter information from the keyboard, select from a pulldown list, or select graphically. The system presents the user with valid choices for input selections only. LTM has online help, a print preview, and a dialog box that assists the user with their current activity. LTM can be configured with any E-size ink-jet plotter and a color laser printer.

The LTM system runs ArcInfo on Microsoft Windows NT platforms. LTM programs make extensive use of ARC Macro Language (AML) programs, Microsoft Access, ODBC links and relates, Visual Basic, and Visual C++. ArcInfo region concepts are heavily relied upon to automate and perform analyses of land ownership. This unique use of "owner" regions resolves the difficult technical issue of many-to-many relationships between trust land parcels and the numerous owners per parcel.

Database Development

The basis of LTM is the underlying ArcInfo parcel coverages representing surface and subsurface tract ownership for each reservation. A system called PARCELIZER was developed to generate parcel polygons from the legal land descriptions in LRIS and section boundaries in the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). PARCELIZER generates digital parcel data more efficiently and accurately and much more expeditiously than through conventional manual digitizing methods. In addition it provides a methodology for long-term automated maintenance of parcel data.

The PARCELIZER system consists of a number of components that use various ArcInfo, ARCEDIT, and ARCPLOT AMLs; Visual C++; Microsoft Access; and Visual Basic programs. First, standard government lots along sections bordering the northern tier and western range of a township are created. Then, corner points from the PLSS data for all potential 0.625 acre partitions are generated. Next, topographic anomalies and inherent spatial overlaps in the LRIS data are identified. After the LRIS anomalies are resolved, the partition points, government lots, and LRIS records are used to form parcel coverages. Finally, an extensive set of quality control procedures is run.

This data is maintained by a program that synchronizes new LRIS record transactions with the current LTM coverages and then makes the minimum corresponding changes to the LTM coverages.

Conclusion

LTM is currently in use at a third of the BIA area realty offices and it has greatly benefited those operations. Stephanie Cree, a legal instruments clerk at the Billings, Land Titles, and Records Office, makes extensive use of LTM.

"We use LTM every day for our title work," says Cree, "and we get many requests for maps from reservations and other departments. Multiple map projects that used to take several weeks to produce are completed in one to two days with LTM, and the LTM maps reflect current title data."

The GDSC has created databases for more than 100 of the approximately 320 Indian land holdings in the contiguous United States. Of these, approximately 98 percent of the land descriptions within LRIS have been successfully built by the PARCELIZER. Title status maps that reflect current ownership can now be quickly and easily produced. LTM allows BIA a way to effectively maintain current land ownership maps.

For more information, contact Mark Zundel, Geographic Data Service Center (tel.: 303-231-5100, ext. 315) or visit www.gdsc.bia.gov.

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