The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 included a relending program to help clear titles for and by heirs’ as property owners (having pre-emptive legal ownership rights to include the right to possession) while listing alternative routes for heirs’ to qualify for U.S.D.A. programs. It was an alternate route but only intended to pacify impacted farmers. The 2018 Farm Act is a remediation effort to address substantial racism and received funding during the Biden Administration in the initial stages of implementation. However, the U.S.D.A. is still developing milestones and implementation guidelines to account for and measure the success of the money spent. The intermediary relending plan (of the approved lender) must comply with Title 7 Part 769, Subpart B. The eligibility criteria for the ultimate recipient (§769.157 (b) (3) should also need to include an education program that provides knowledge on how to legally update and enforce ownership interests for the benefit of the ultimate loan recipient and the intermediary lender. The 2018 Farm Act places the actual burden on the heirs and loan recipients to update the land titles and to correct when applicable illegal dispossession. This correction may require litigation. Therefore, the lender must independently determine the validity of a potential recipient’s application but the lender should not assist the potential recipient in the process of becoming eligible or program compliant to qualify (because wearing both hats may appear as a conflict of interest). As consultants who have actual knowledge in this area (or are doing it), we represent the interests of the heirs. Helen Nowlin’s strategy and techniques can assist the lender under the following categories that will improve success and meet intended objectives as required by law (to clear title and establish/re-establish legal ownership) under 7 CFR § 769.157 (b) (3), (4), (6), (10), (11) and (13).

 

Specifically, Tribal Consultancy in Environment & Law, L.L.C. proposes to have identified for the U.S.D.A. and its upper management for purposes of its implementation of the heirs’ relending program best practices in the following areas: eligibility criteria for the ultimate recipient through our unique education in the form of a guide or consulting services; assisting to meet authorized loan purposes (of the program as already discussed); enhance loan underwriting methods and criteria (through education of the lenders in this unique area of updating heirship land), or as a paid closing agent our consultants will work with intended loan beneficiaries of the relending program. The process for addressing environmental issues on a property to be purchased, if purchasing is applicable or we will recommend “best practices”. This education will offer a proposed process that is subject to an NDA. We have the experience that will aid in reviewing loan requests and assist the intermediary lender in a novel area of redress and remedy to these gross injustices. We propose to monitor progress to land ownership and title after a loan is distributed and monitor progress in implementing our legal strategy and techniques shared with the loan recipient as either their coach or hired by them to implement the strategies and proven techniques. Our strategies and proven techniques are in fact applicable in any state because their root is based on fundamentals of contract, trust, and probate laws that are surprisingly consistent in every state.

 

Heirs that inherit the land by intestacy inherit the land as tenants in common (equal shares and each heir can sell their individual interests). A sale of legal interests by one or more heirs often historically resulted in a partitionment action by a non-heir. Whether the sale or partitionment was legal and therefore still enforceable depends on a unique analysis that Helen Nowlin has determined is universally necessary to evaluate and make a sound lending decision. Unfortunately, updating the title isn’t as easy as it sounds and very few legal practitioners and/or consultants know how to update titles since interest in redress and remedy from the perspective is recent. Most legal practitioners work for the other side.

Only within the last 15 years or so have tribes pursued #landback and have met various forms of success by pursuing mostly from a re-purchase perspective. Yet, there is no justification to buy back what legally still belongs to the tribe and/or tribal member. It amounts to rewarding the same system that allowed the theft. https://tinyurl.com/yc7e3zcr

 

For a potential applicant to take on debt for the stated purpose of the 2018 Farm Act when the title is still legally intact is a form of fraud against the relending program and is but another example of the unjust benefit. The money set aside begins to look more like a rotating fund (“a soft fund”) akin to paying for something like land titles when the titles are still legally intact and simply need to be recognized. It is true that one person’s debt is another’s an asset. For debt to be valid it must be enforceable and if earmarked, funds must be used to achieve the stated purpose of those funds. This isn’t about closing property loopholes such as the misuse of partitionment actions that historically and disproportionally impacted poor and disadvantaged families. It turns out that fraudulent use of the property loopholes to dispossess the legal owner (without consent) results in a null and void judicial action. The Indian land remains legally intact if there were violations of federal legal protections, for example. A state proceeding may have resulted in the heirs being illegally dispossessed while their legal land title and interest remain intact. In some cases, if the legal heir(s) were ignored in a state proceeding, their legal title and interest remain intact anyway. It all means the title need only be updated or corrected in the public records. Helen Nowlin devised a unique legal process to update and correct titles. This process can be implemented by the loan recipient with coaching and time to go over the educational process. If there is any deviation in state law then our consultants and assistants can help you determine how and in what way to tweak our legal process to fit your situation. Call for an initial consultation if this describes your situation or are curious if your heirship/allotment land is still legally yours!