Interior launches electronic system for Native American property probate processing
Native Americans with inherited property claims can now manage their probate cases online after years of a paper-heavy process, the Interior Department announced Monday.
Secretary Doug Burgum previewed the change at a budget hearing in April, telling lawmakers that a deceased tribal member’s estate distribution through the Bureau of Indian Affairs was “antiquated” and moving it online would “dramatically increase our productivity.”
Burgum said in a press release that the launch of the Electronic Probate System amounts to “a historic modernization of trust services that will end unacceptable delays and bring real transparency to Indian Country.”
A single case can take about eight years to be resolved. As of April, there were about 43,000 unresolved cases that the agency needs to move through the pipeline, a 10% decrease from last year’s count of 48,000.
The new website will allow American Indians and Alaska Natives to report a death, upload supporting documents, provide family history information and track the status of their probate case through clearly defined stages, and apply “assisted tools that extract, organize, and validate information submitted through the portals.”
At the April hearing, Burgum said the department is using artificial intelligence to expedite case processing, but there is no use case for the probate system in its AI use case inventory.
More enhancements to the eNativeTrust platform will be introduced in future phases, the release said.
“During a time of grief, families should not have to wonder where a case stands or who to contact,” it said. “With fewer manual tasks, probate specialists can devote more time to assisting families, answering questions, and providing support during one of life’s most difficult moments.”
About $7.7 million would be available for BIA trust, probate and administrative functions “as needed” under the current version of the fiscal 2027 Interior-Environment appropriations bill, which has not yet been scheduled for a floor vote.
“Every family deserves a probate process that is efficient, transparent, and worthy of the trust placed in the federal government,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland said.
Lindsey Wilkinson contributed to this report.
