# Title 15 — Education

## Chapter 15-68 — Indian Cultural Education Trust

### § 15-68-01. Trust establishment.

The Indian cultural education trust is established for the purpose of generating income to
benefit Indian culture.
### § 15-68-02. Powers and duties of board.

The board of university and school lands may accept and administer any gift, grant,
bequest, or devise of land or money, on behalf of the state, for the purposes of the Indian
cultural education trust. The board may refuse to accept any gift, grant, devise, or bequest that
is upon terms or circumstances unacceptable to the board. The board shall manage all land and
money in the trust in the same manner that it manages its other trust land and money except as
is otherwise provided in this chapter, in the donor agreement, or as may otherwise be required
to satisfy the purposes of this chapter.
The board, in its sole discretion, may divest any land or money acquired under this chapter.
The donor agreement which placed the land and money into the trust must provide to whom the
land is to be conveyed and money disbursed in the event the board decides to divest the land or
money.
### § 15-68-03. Donation.

A person proposing to donate land or money for the benefit of the trust must present to the
board an application and an executed donor agreement between the donor and tribal
government of a federally recognized Indian tribe located in North Dakota, South Dakota,
Montana, Minnesota, or Wyoming. In accepting the donor agreement, the board is not subject to
the provisions of chapter 54-40.2. The board is not responsible for determining which lands
have cultural resource significance or for any site preservation or maintenance measures
deemed necessary by the donor or the affected tribe. The donor agreement must also make any
provision deemed necessary for access to the land by Indians for educational, cultural, or
religious purposes.
### § 15-68-04. Trust management.

The board must be reimbursed from trust proceeds for all reasonable costs and expenses in
managing land and investing trust proceeds. Such reimbursements are to be placed in the state
lands maintenance fund. The net income derived from the land and money donated to the trust
must be used for trust purposes, except the donor agreement may dedicate a percentage of the
net income to trust principal.
The lands placed in the trust may be leased by the board only for grazing or haying
purposes.
The board may maintain separate accounts in the trust if a donor agreement requires.
The donor agreement must designate the tribe entitled to receive trust proceeds. The net
income from each account must be remitted annually to the designated tribe. The designated
tribe is responsible for disbursements of trust proceeds. A dispute over a tribe's use of the
disbursements must be resolved by the government of the designated tribe to which the
disbursement has been made.
### § 15-68-05. Payments in lieu of taxation.

Net income from land and money in the trust must be used in part to pay to the county
where the land is located the same amount that would have been assessed against the land for
real property taxes if the land was privately owned.
### § 15-68-06. Continuing appropriation.

There is appropriated annually the amounts necessary to pay expenses for lands donated
under this chapter and managed by the board of university and school lands, including survey
costs, surface lease refunds, weed and insect control, cleanup costs, capital improvement rent

credits, in lieu of tax payments, or expenses determined by the board as necessary to manage,
preserve, and enhance the value of the trust asset. Each payment must be made from the trust
fund account for which the land is held.
