The Office of the Special Trustee recently assisted the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Anadarko Agency in Oklahoma with its largest ever sale of oil-and-gas-mining leases. The sale included 1,550 tracts of allotted and tribal lands within the area of the Anadarko Agency and totaled $6.1 million.

“The size of this sale required the efforts of many people to ensure the operation ran smoothly,” said OST Fiduciary Trust Officer Mitch Stephens. “My staff at the Anadarko Agency and the OST staff at the Southern Plains Regional Office were joined by FTO Donnie Smith, Osage Agency, and FTO Stephen Coit, Pawnee Agency.”

During the sale, OST regional personnel verified bidders’ deposits and provided BIA with other support. OST will also collect lease payments and help disburse funds to tribal landowners.

BIA received additional assistance from the Bureau of Land Management, which loaned it the services of BLM auctioneers during the sale. BLM auctioneers are experienced with oil and gas leases because they auction oil and gas leases for federal lands.

The event took place at Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. BIA opened sealed bids on Dec. 2 and sold those tracts receiving more than one bid at an oral auction on Dec. 3. For additional information about the sale, please contact either Eva Asenap (405-247-6677 x526) or Debra Williams (405-247-6677 x527), realty officers at BIA’s Anadarko Agency.

If Indian trust beneficiaries have questions about this event or other trust-related assets and income, they may contact their FTOs using the interactive map on the OST Web site at http://www.ost.doi.gov/information/individual/finder.html. Or they may call OST’s Trust Beneficiary Call Center at 1-888-678-6836. The call center complements local services with trained operators that have access to various trust systems. It is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon, Mountain Time.