The Department of the Interior manages over 11 million acres that it holds in trust for individual Indians. Trust income from the land and from other sources is kept in Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts. The US District Court has required the Department to account for all such monies whenever deposited. Compliance with the Court's directive involves a massive amount of work and a team of contractors, including NORC, has been assembled. Initially Interior’s plan was to reconcile every transaction, going back to 1887. In their report to the Court on January 6, 2003, Interior changed the scope of work to include an accounting for only those accounts that were open on or after October 25, 1994 and covering transactions as far backwards as 1938. Furthermore, Interior proposed to use sampling to verify the accuracy and completeness of the land-based IIM accounts.

NORC participated in the meetings with Interior officials, providing information to the Secretary on the use of sampling. NORC also prepared a planning report on the use of sampling that was included in the report to the Court. NORC, additionally, had developed an adaptive sample design and drawn the sample for one region when the Court ruled that sampling could not be used. At this time, the government, plaintiffs and Congress are planning to mediate the case in order to come to a settlement. For this effort, NORC has designed and selected a sample of approximately 6,600 transactions for reconciliation. Initial estimates have now been provided and more are underway.

For more information about the project, visit the Office of Historical Trust Administration site.