25 C.F.R. § 166.4
What terms do I need to know?
Cite as 25 C.F.R. § 166.4 (2025)
Adult
means an individual Indian who is 18 years of age or older.
Agency
means the agency or field office or any other designated office in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) having jurisdiction over trust or restricted property or money.
Agricultural product
means:
(1) Crops grown under cultivated conditions whether used for personal consumption, subsistence, or sold for commercial benefit;
(2) Domestic livestock, including cattle, sheep, goats, horses, buffalo, swine, reindeer, fowl, or other animals specifically raised and used for food or fiber or as a beast of burden;
(3) Forage, hay, fodder, food grains, crop residues and other items grown or harvested for the feeding and care of livestock, sold for commercial profit, or used for other purposes; and
(4) Other marketable or traditionally used materials authorized for removal from Indian agricultural lands.
Agricultural resource management plan
means a ten-year plan developed through the public review process specifying the tribal management goals and objectives developed for tribal agricultural and grazing resources. Plans developed and approved under AIARMA will govern the management and administration of Indian agricultural resources and Indian agricultural lands by the BIA and Indian tribal governments.
AIARMA
means American Indian Agricultural Resources Management Act of December 3, 1993 (107 Stat. 2011, 25 U.S.C. 3701
et seq.
), and amended on November 2, 1994 (108 Stat. 4572).
Allocation
means the apportionment of grazing privileges without competition to tribal members or tribal entities, including the tribal designation of permittees and the number and kind of livestock to be grazed.
Animal Unit Month (AUM)
means the amount of forage required to sustain one cow or one cow with one calf for one month.
Approving/approval
means the action taken by the BIA to approve a permit.
Assign/assignment
means an agreement between a permittee and an assignee, whereby the assignee acquires all of the permittee's rights, and assumes all of the permittee's obligations under a permit.
Assignee
means the person to whom the permit rights for use of Indian land are assigned.
BIA
means the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior and any tribe acting on behalf of the BIA under this part.
Bond
means security for the performance of certain permit obligations, as furnished by the permitee, or a guaranty of such performance as furnished by a third-party surety.
Conservation plan
means a statement of management objectives for grazing, including contract stipulations defining required uses, operations, and improvements.
Conservation practice
means a management action to protect, conserve, utilize, and maintain the sustained yield productivity of Indian agricultural land.
Day
means a calendar day.
Encumbrance
means mortgage, deed of trust or other instrument which secures a debt owed by a permittee to a lender or other holder of a leasehold mortgage on the permit interest.
Emancipated minor
means a person under 18 years of age who is married or who is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to be legally able to care for himself or herself.
Fair annual rental
means the amount of rental income that a permitted parcel of Indian land would most probably command in an open and competitive market.
Farmland
means Indian land, excluding Indian forest land, that is used for production of food, feed, fiber, forage, and seed, oil crops, or other agricultural products, and may be either dry land, irrigated land, or irrigated pasture.
Fee interest
means an interest in land that is owned in unrestricted fee status, and is thus freely alienable by the fee owner.
Fractionated tract
means a tract of Indian land owned in common by Indian landowners and/or fee owners holding undivided interests therein.
Government land
means any tract, or interest therein, in which the surface estate is owned by the United States and administered by the BIA, not including tribal land which has been reserved for administrative purposes.
Grant/granting
means the process of the BIA or the Indian landowner agreeing or consenting to a permit.
Grazing capacity
means the maximum sustainable number of livestock that may be grazed on a defined area and within a defined period, usually expressed in an Animal Unit Month (AUM).
Grazing rental payment
means the total of the grazing rental rate multiplied by the number of AUMs or acres in the permit.
Grazing rental rate
means the amount you must pay for an AUM or acre based on the fair annual rental.
I/You
means the person to whom these regulations directly apply.
Immediate family
means the spouse, brothers, sisters, lineal ancestors, lineal descendants, or members of the household of an individual Indian landowner.
Indian agricultural land
means Indian land, including farmland and rangeland, excluding Indian forest land, that is used for production of agricultural products, and Indian lands occupied by industries that support the agricultural community, regardless of whether a formal inspection and land classification has been conducted.
Indian land
means any tract in which any interest in the surface estate is owned by a tribe or individual Indian in trust or restricted status.
Indian landowner
means a tribe or individual Indian who owns an interest in Indian land in trust or restricted status.
Individually-owned Indian land
means any tract, or interest therein, in which the surface estate is owned by an individual Indian in trust or restricted status.
Interest
means, when used with respect to Indian land, an ownership right to the surface estate of Indian land that is unlimited or uncertain in duration, including a life estate.
Life estate
means an interest in Indian land which is limited in duration to the life of the permittor holding the interest, or the life of some other person.
Majority interest
means the ownership interest(s) that are greater than 50 percent of the trust or restricted ownership interest(s) in a tract of Indian land.
Minor
means an individual who is less than 18 years of age.
Mortgage
means a mortgage, deed of trust or other instrument which pledges a permittee's permit (leasehold) interest as security for a debt or other obligation owed by the permittee to a lender or other mortgagee.
Non compos mentis
means a person who has been legally determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to be of unsound mind or incapable of transacting or conducting business and managing one's own affairs.
On-and-off grazing permit
means a written agreement with a permittee for additional grazing capacity for other rangeland not covered by the permit.
Permit
means a written agreement between Indian landowners and a permittee, whereby the permittee is granted a revocable privilege to use Indian land or Government land, for a specified purpose.
Permittee
means an a person or entity who has acquired a legal right of possession to Indian land by a permit for grazing purposes under this part.
Range unit
means rangelands consolidated to form a unit of land for the management and administration of grazing under a permit. A range unit may consist of a combination of tribal, individually-owned Indian, and/or government land.
Rangeland
means Indian land, excluding Indian forest land, on which native vegetation is predominantly grasses, grass-like plants, half-shrubs or shrubs suitable for grazing or browsing use, and includes lands re-vegetated naturally or artificially to provide a forage cover that is managed as native vegetation.
Restricted land or restricted status
means land the title to which is held by an individual Indian or a tribe and which can only be alienated or encumbered by the owner with the approval of the Secretary because of limitations contained in the conveyance instrument pursuant to federal law.
Subpermit
means a written agreement, whereby the permittee grants to an individual or entity a right to possession (i.e., pasturing authorization), no greater than that held by the permittee under the permit.
Surety
means one who guarantees the performance of another.
Sustained yield
means the yield of agricultural products that a unit of land can produce continuously at a given level of use.
Trespass
means any unauthorized occupancy, use of, or action on Indian lands.
Tribal land
means the surface estate of land or any interest therein held by the United States in trust for a tribe, band, community, group or pueblo of Indians, and land that is held by a tribe, band, community, group or pueblo of Indians, subject to federal restrictions against alienation or encumbrance, and includes such land reserved for BIA administrative purposes when it is not immediately needed for such purposes. The term also includes lands held by the United States in trust for an Indian corporation chartered under section 17 of the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984; 25 U.S.C. 476).
Tribal law
means the body of non-federal law that governs lands and activities under the jurisdiction of a tribe, including ordinances or other enactments by the tribe, tribal court rulings, and tribal common law.
Trust land
means any tract, or interest therein, that the United States holds in trust status for the benefit of a tribe or individual Indian.
Undivided interest
means a fractional share in the surface estate of Indian land, where the surface estate is owned in common with other Indian landowners or fee owners.
Us/We/Our
means the BIA and any tribe acting on behalf of the BIA under 166.1 of this part.
Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP)
means the standards promulgated by the Appraisal Standards Board of the Appraisal Foundation to establish requirements and procedures for professional real property appraisal practice.
Written notice
means a written letter mailed by way of United States mail, certified return receipt requested, postage prepaid, or hand-delivered letter.
- Cross-references to the US Code
- 25:370125:476